Ella's Twisted Senior Year (17 page)

This probably makes me a bad person, but last night I kind of eavesdropped on Ella’s conversation with April. Toby and I had gotten together to shoot hoops after school since Ella was spending the afternoon with April. When I got home and showered, I forgot to see if she was still here before I walked up to the rec room door. It was cracked open just an inch so my intentions were good. I was going to knock and see if Ella wanted to watch TV. But then I overheard them talking and yeah, I should have left.

But I didn’t.

That’s how I heard Ella reveal to her best friend that she’s torn because although she wants that beautiful pink dress more than anything (even more than new baking supplies, she’d said) she didn’t want to spend the money.

April told her all the reasons to buy the dress but Ella said it was pointless to waste so much money on something she’d only use once. Then they’d started taking about prom and how Ella feels like she doesn’t even want to go if she’ll spend the whole time worried about money.

So yeah, I had done a bad thing by listening to her private conversation, but now I have an idea. I text Toby the plan so that he knows to go along with the lie after school.

The next day is pretty chill as far as days go. There are a lot of T-shirt sales but Kennedy still isn’t in school, so I haven’t had to face her wrath yet. Of course, Ella and I hope she’s learned her lesson and will just freaking stop already.

After school, I take Ella’s hand and begin my made up story.

“Yeah so bad news.” I heave a sigh and give her this disappointed look.

She’s wearing one of my WCHS football shirts over a pair of black leggings and I’d thought it was the sexiest thing ever until she looks up at me with those trusting eyes and that beautiful smile.

“What kind of bad news? You don’t have fire coming out of your ears so I’m guessing it’s not about you-know-who.”

I chuckle. “Nope, but Coach is making us run some extra practice as punishment so I have to head back to the school after we drop you off.”

“Oh.” Her features relax. “Well that’s not a big deal.”

Toby joins us as we walk out into the parking lot. “Poe, you ready for those extra drills?” he says, sounding exactly as if he had rehearsed our lie fifty times before saying it. “Man, it’s gonna suck.”

“Tell me about it,” I mutter.

Ella points toward the school behind us. “Toby, you don’t have to take me home. I can just wait around until you’re done.”

“No can do,” he says. “I wouldn’t cause that kind of suffering on my best friend’s girl.”

“Yeah, we have no idea how long it’ll take,” I say. “Toby doesn’t mind.”

“I don’t mind,” he says with a smile.

She doesn’t look like she agrees with the extra trip, but I don’t think she suspects me of being a liar.

We drop her off at my house and I’m surprised to see both Ella’s mom and her dad talking in the driveway. Those two are never off work at the same time.

After executing the perfect lie for my perfect girlfriend, Toby drives me to the Galleria.

“So tell me again what you’re doing, Poe?”

“I’m buying her the dress she wants to surprise her.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Toby scowls when a Taylor Swift song starts playing on the radio and changes the station. “Aren’t girls like hella picky about that stuff?”

“Ella’s not. She knows the dress she wants so I’m getting it for her.”

Toby shakes his head like he can’t believe how weird I am right now. “Well aren’t you just the extra romantic guy.”

I find Dress Fantasy and feel even more awkward than I’d imagined I would when I walk into the frilly store. There are dresses and mannequins everywhere and mannequins wearing dresses, and even real women wearing them, too. Because it’s so close to prom, a ton of teenage girls are in here picking out dresses. To say that Toby and I stand out would be an understatement.

All of the store clerks ignore us as we walk around, probably assuming we’ve been dragged here by one of the girls. I’m able to find the dress in the store and after showing Ella’s picture to the clerk, she guesses what size dress she’ll need. I’m feeling like the greatest guy in the world when we leave the mall. So what if I look like a weirdo carrying a big ass garment bag.

I already have a prom-worthy tux, thanks to my mom getting me one when there was a sale at Men’s Warehouse. Toby and I make another stop and split the cost of a limo to surprise the girls. I’m pretty sure they’re thinking we’ll be driving our own trucks.

I’ve never cared much for prom or all of the crap that goes into it, but now that I’ve got Ella’s dream dress in my arms, all of the other stuff starts falling into place and for the first time in my life, I am getting excited for the night. Ella will feel like a princess and I’ll get to be the man on her arm. Not too shabby.

*

Ella makes a gagging sound as we climb into Toby’s truck on Monday morning. “God, Toby what do you do in here to make it smell so awful?”

Toby’s ten-year-old Mazda has never been a poster car for cleanliness, but even I have to admit that this morning the usual locker room stench seems a little more rancid.

He rolls down the windows as he pulls out of my driveway. “Accidentally left some Chinese food back there overnight. Not a good idea.”

“Oh gag,” Ella says. She holds her backpack tightly in her lap and looks around the floor of the backseat.

“Don’t worry, it’s gone,” Toby says with a laugh. He turns down the radio. “So how are the shirt sales?”

I turn around and share a look with Ella. She grins. “They’re insane. We’ve sold more of our crazy ex-girlfriend shirt than any other shirt in my store. I guess people really like donating to animals.”

“Or they really hate Kennedy,” Ella says with a snort.

This past weekend was a blast. Ella and I hung out at home mostly and we even cooked dinner for the family on Sunday night. My life with Ella is low key and fun and I love it this way. No more being dragged to lame-ass parties with a girl who wants to flirt with other guys and call me out when she thinks I’ve been looking at another girl. Life with Ella is fun. It means something.

Although the last forty-eight hours were also hell because I’d kept quiet about the whole dress thing. Toby thinks I should tell her sooner rather than later so she doesn’t go buy it herself, especially since prom is this coming Saturday, only five days away.

Although I agree with him, I could never find the right time to bring it up this weekend. Okay, maybe I’m just a chicken. Part of me is really afraid she’ll think I’m weird or maybe even get mad at me for buying the dress instead of letting her get it. But I really hope she thinks it’s romantic. I don’t exactly have a lot of experience in the romance department and I’m trying the best I can here.

Just thinking about it makes me reach back and grab her hand. All last week while we got rides with Toby, I’d offered to let her sit in the front while I’d sit in the back, but she always says she doesn’t mind. That’s romantic, right? I think so.

“Damn,” Toby says as he drives into the school parking lot. “Maybe your girl should take over the T-shirt business. She sells them better than you do.”

“I hope not,” I say, giving her a wink. “I’m counting on this job to be my career one day.”

Something weird happens when we walk into the school. Usually Mondays are sluggish. Students file through the hallways like zombies, running on too little sleep from the weekend. Today, the hallways seem to light up as I walk by. I’m high fived, whooped to, and given smirky half-smiles as if I share a secret with every other person who looks at me.

“Are you noticing this?” I whisper to Ella.

She nods and chews on her bottom lip. “It’s because of the shirts.”

“It has to be,” I say, noticing the same thing she is. A sea of navy blue crazy ex-girlfriend recipe shirts. They’re everywhere.

An Asian guy I’ve never spoken to waves at me as I walk by. He points to his shirt. “You’re a badass, man,” he says.

“Thanks,” I say back, glancing at Ella.

“Well I do know one thing,” Ella says.

“What’s that?”

A flash of something conspiratorial crosses her face. “I think it’s safe to say you won this war.”

Something happens on the walk to second period. A chill courses through the air, lightning zaps across the sky and the all of the happiness is taken away forever. Okay, maybe it’s not that dramatic.

But I can feel it in the air: Kennedy is back in school today.

Maybe it’s the way people are looking at me, like they’re worried for my safety, or maybe it’s all that bad karma finally coming to get me for the dog joke I typed online. Whatever the case, I slip into second period and slide into my desk, suddenly dying for the day to be over. For the whole school year to be over. I don’t exactly know how I know, but I do—Kennedy is back in school and she’s more than pissed.

A girl walks into our class halfway through third period, handing a pink slip of paper to Mr. Martin. He gives a cursory glance at it and then calls my name.

I look up, hands shaking. This is it. “You’re wanted in the office,” Mr. Martin says, handing me the note. “Might want to back up your things in case it takes a while.”

I nod and try to swallow the lump in my throat. I can feel the entire class’ eyes on me as I sling my backpack over my shoulder and walk into the safe aloneness of the hallways. When I get to the office, I see Ethan sitting in a chair, staring boredly at his shoes.

He looks up when I walk in. I see the same pink note in his hand as well. I sink into a chair next to him. “Guess we’re in trouble?” I ask.

He shrugs. “We didn’t do anything at school. How much trouble could we be in?”

I wish I had his confidence. When Principal Reynolds calls us into his office a few minutes later, I’m practically causing an earthquake with how much my hands are shaking. I’ve never been in trouble before.

I smell her cloud of witch perfume before I see her and know that she’s sitting in Mr. Reynolds’ office, too. Good. We’re all in trouble.

“Have a seat,” Mr. Reynolds says. He gestures to two empty chairs across from his desk. Kennedy sits in the third one. A brief pause happens where Ethan and I have a standoff, both not wanting to sit by her. Finally, he caves.

Mr. Reynolds takes a seat behind his desk and laces his fingers together over his protruding gut. “It has come to my attention that the three of you have been participating in bullying.”

Kennedy gasps. She doesn’t look like someone who was sick all last week, but I guess no one was supposed to believe that lie anyhow. “The
two of them
have been bullying
me
!”

Mr. Reynolds holds up a hand. “Don’t act innocent, Ms. Price. I know very well what’s been happening on social media.”

Ethan clears his throat. “Then you’ll know
very well
that Kennedy has been bullying not only Ella but me as well, and it was completely unprovoked. All I did was break up with her,
kindly
I might add, and she went on a rampage.”

Mr. Reynolds’ eyes soften and he almost looks like he agrees with us. But then deep lines form in his forehead. “Mr. Poe, do you run the online webstore called Poe’s Tees?”

Ethan swallows. “What I do outside of school doesn’t matter here.”

“It does when your webstore is bullying another student.”

Kennedy crosses her arms, looking absolutely thrilled right now. I roll my eyes. “Sir, nothing on Ethan’s shop is bullying anyone. It’s all satire and humor and a few sketches of cute animals.”

Ethan jumps in. “Exactly. If you could please show me exactly which item I sell online that says someone’s name on it directly, then I’ll be happy to agree with you. But I’m not bullying anyone.”

Mr. Reynolds chuckles. “I wish that were the case. My job would be easier. As it is, the term bullying is used to define all kinds of inappropriate actions and in the case of your store, I think we all know who exactly you are targeting with a specific T-shirt. It’s a shirt I’ve seen quite a lot in the hallways.”

“That shirt could mean anything,” I say.

Kennedy’s neck snaps around to face me. “Shut up, freak. Don’t act all innocent.”

Mr. Reynolds holds up a hand to stop her. “I have full faith that we could ask any student in this school and they would all tell you that your “ex-girlfriend” shirt is aimed at Kennedy. However, she is also not blameless as evidenced by her online social media posts.” He leans forward, pressing his thumbs together on top of the desk. “This behavior from all three of you will cease immediately.”

My heart speeds up as fear trickles in. He’s announcing our punishment now and I’ve never been punished by the school. Will we get detention? A call to our parents? Ugh.

Mr. Reynolds looks to each of us for a moment. “You all will do a Saturday of community service on May fifteenth.”

“But that’s—” Kennedy says, rocking back in her chair. Her knuckles are whine on the armrests.

“The night of the prom, yes I know,” Mr. Reynolds says. “The three of you have lost your prom privileges.”

A cold stab of regret hits me, even as Kennedy goes off on a rant, bitching and cursing at our principal about how unfair all of this is. Ethan looks over at me, his eyes sad as well. Even though I made all those jokes about not really caring about prom, now that I officially can’t go, I regret every single one of them.

“Is that all?” I ask over the roar of Kennedy’s complaining.

Mr. Reynolds nods. “That is all. If I hear of any more bullying coming from either one of you, you’ll be expelled and you’ll be barred from graduating and forced to attend summer school. Let this be the last time I see any of you in here, do you understand?”

“Yes sir,” Ethan says quickly.

I nod and Kennedy jumps out of her chair, glaring down the principal as if he were one of her loyal freshman minions and not the boss of the whole school. “You’ll be hearing from my lawyer about this.”

Then she stalks out of the office, letting the door slam behind her.

“You mind if we stay in here a minute until she’s gone?” Ethan asks. Mr. Reynolds nods.

Ethan walks me back to my class. We don’t talk the whole time, but that’s because there’s nothing really to say. I feel like apologizing but I’m not sure what for. For being me, I guess. If I hadn’t been tossed into his life by a tornado, he’d probably still be dating Kennedy and still be in the running for prom king. I’d still have my house, my baking supplies, and my future that didn’t involve Ethan.

My breath hitches and tears flood into my eyes at the very thought of life without him. Ethan stops walking and turns to me. “What’s wrong?”

I shake my head. “Nothing. We’re almost at my class,” I say, pointing to the next door on the left.

“No, I’m not leaving you yet.” Ethan takes my cheeks in his hands and those dark mysterious eyes pour into mine. “You’re crying. Talk to me.”

“I’m not—it’s not what you think,” I say, reaching up to wipe away the treacherous tear. “I mean, I’m not upset about missing prom, even though I am. I was just thinking how easier your life would be if I had just never been in it.”

Ethan’s jaw twitches and he brings me to his chest. I can’t wrap my arms around him because of his backpack, but I let my head rest against the warm familiarity of him.

“Don’t think like that,” he says, pulling back to look at me. “Prom or not, I like this outcome way better than the one where we’re not friends anymore.”

I blink away tears and try to smile. “Yeah?”

He nods. “Yeah.” He clears his throat and runs his tongue across his bottom lip.

“What is it?” I ask suspiciously. “You look like you’re hiding something from me.”

He shakes his head and takes both of my hands in his. “Not hiding . . . just, trying to think of how to say it.”

I’m not sure if I should be nervous or scared or excited, so my body morphs into a mixture of the three. “Say what?”

Ethan’s eyes crinkle. “Well . . . you know that dress you wanted?”

“Uh yeah,” I say, now having completely no idea where he’s going with this. “It’s a good thing I didn’t buy it now.”

“Yeah it is, because, well.” He hesitates, running a hand through his hair. “This isn’t exactly the perfect moment I was going for but I feel like I should tell you now.”

“Yeah, you should because I’m going crazy from the anticipation.” I narrow my eyes at him.

The bell rings, signaling the end of second period. Doors fly open and students rush out and soon we’re surrounded by the chaos of high school. Ethan holds on to my arms, keeping us near the lockers and angling his body to shield us from an onslaught of arms and legs and backpacks.

“Okay so, about the dress,” he says again. “I bought it for you.”

My eyes widen. “You did?”

He nods eagerly, like he’s even more excited about the stupid dress than I was. “It’s beautiful and you loved it so I wanted to get it for you.”

Gratitude and happiness swell up inside me and I throw my arms around his neck, pulling him into a hug. “That was really sweet. Ethan. But now we can’t go to prom.”

He shrugs. “So what? If we can’t go to prom, we’ll just find somewhere else for you to wear it.”