Emerson's Fury : L.B. Pavlov (15 page)

Cross and I had talked about prom. He did not want to go to his school prom but had agreed to take me to mine. I loved dances, and Cross had become close with all of my friends. We even set up his best friend, John, with Abigail on my track team. We would all go in a big group. C. J. was going with his longtime girlfriend, Isabella; Mila was going with Michael; and Paisley was going with Trent. Cross hadn’t officially asked me, and I couldn’t wait to see how he did it. He was a romantic boyfriend, and he had a way of making me feel special. I continually teased him about how he needed to ask officially before we could make plans. The truth was, I didn’t care how he asked me. I was thrilled finally to be going to a dance with someone I loved. I more than loved him. Cross Tarantino was unequivocally the absolute love of my life.

I couldn’t believe that we were going to be going to the state meet soon. I would be running the eight hundred meters, sixteen hundred meters, and thirty-two hundred meters at state. I couldn’t fathom that my high school career was coming to an end. The Indiana University track coach had come out to see me run, and I would be signing my letter of intent as soon as the season ended.
Cross would be attending Notre Dame, and so we would be approximately four hours away from each other. We would meet at home a lot and make every effort to see one another as often as possible. For the time being, I was relishing the time that I had with Cross. We had planned to spend our summer together before we went away to school.

We had talked about having a graduation party, but we had both decided that we would rather just have a small dinner at my house with my parents, brothers, and his grandparents. I preferred it small, and being with Cross and my family was a perfect way to celebrate my graduation.

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I wanted to ask Emerson to the prom, and I was trying to find a special way to do it. It was her senior prom, and so it needed to be memorable. I didn’t like when people asked in a showy way, but I wanted it to be special at the same time. I tried to think of what Emerson would want, and I knew that would entail being romantic. She was a romantic at heart, and she was definitely old school when it came to being courted. I did not want to disappoint her.

Thursday night I had made up an excuse for why I could not hang out. Daniel and Finn were taking Emerson to dinner, and Charlotte had made up a story about having a meeting at the bakery. She was helping me set up Emerson’s bedroom. I had come up with an idea, but it would take some time to prepare. Emerson was not happy that I wouldn’t be coming out to her house the next evening, and it was difficult to lie to her.

Charlotte called me as soon as they had pulled out of the driveway, and I hid on my motorcycle right up the street. I waited a few minutes and then drove to the Hollingsworths’ house. Charlotte and I went through everything that I had brought, and we got to work right away. I made a heart out of red rose petals right in the entranceway of their house. Then loose rose petals marked a path into Emerson’s bedroom. On her bed, I made another huge heart out of pink rose petals. We covered her ceiling in twinkle lights, and I was thankful to have Charlotte to help me attach all the strands of white lights to the ceiling. I had cut a big moon out of Styrofoam, and we hung that in the corner of her room. We then hung up a big sign I had painted that read “I would go to the moon,
you see…if you would go to prom with me!” We turned off all the lights, and the room looked amazing. I hung a light bulb from the ceiling right behind the moon to illuminate it.

I pulled out my sports coat, and threw it on over my T-shirt. I had one more bouquet of pink roses to give to Emerson when she walked in. Charlotte had sent a text to Daniel to let him know we were finished. Charlotte gushed over how good it looked and assured me that Emerson would be delighted.

We heard the car pull in the driveway, and Charlotte ran out of the bedroom to go wait in the living room. I heard the front door open, and I heard Emerson scream, which made everyone laugh.

“I knew he was up to something!” she shouted.

“How do you know this isn’t for me?” Finn said, and his laugh echoed down the hallway.

“Don’t you dare step on those rose petals, Finn Thomas Hollingsworth,” Emerson said firmly.

I could hear her coming down the hall with Finn on her heels, laughing all the way.

“Dude, how many roses did you have to buy for this?” Finn shouted, assuming I was listening. I just laughed quietly to myself.

Emerson walked in the room, and I was standing under the moon holding two dozen long-stemmed roses. She gasped, and I actually think I heard Finn gasp too when he saw all the lights. Emerson started jumping up and down with excitement. I saw Daniel and Charlotte standing behind her, and Charlotte was filming Emerson the entire way.

“Ohhhhhhh, I would go to the moon for you too!” she exclaimed, and everyone started laughing. She was absolutely giddy. I was enjoying watching her reaction. She grabbed the flowers and set them on her dresser, and then she jumped into my arms. She started kissing me multiple times on the cheek, and Finn couldn’t stop laughing.

“You killed it, dude. I gotta give it to you,” Finn said, checking out the room, and then he turned and shouted, “That’s because I taught him the golden rule! Go big or go home, baby!”

We were all laughing now, and Emerson hit him with a pillow from her bed. She hugged me tightly again and told me that this was the most romantic idea she had ever seen. Daniel and Charlotte thanked me for making it so special for their daughter, and they left the room. Finn had no intention of leaving until Emerson kicked him out of her room.

She turned to me, and she blushed. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Then just say yes,” I said, pulling her close to me.

“Of course I say yes!
Yes!
I just love it. And I love you,” she said, looking up at me and then kissing me passionately.

I suddenly felt very aware that we were in her bedroom, and she must have felt it at the same time. The Hollingsworths were wonderful, but they were strict about me being in her room. Decorating it was fine, but I was sure making out in her room would be crossing a line.

She started laughing and said, “We should probably get out of my bedroom.”

I agreed and led her down the hallway. We sat in the living room, and she asked me all sorts of questions about setting up her room. She loved it. She ran down the hall to take a bunch of pictures, and she sent them to Paisley and Mila, who immediately responded with excitement. C. J. texted me shortly after because Emerson had apparently sent a picture of the room to C. J. too. I would definitely say that night was a success.

Emerson walked me to the door, and I gave her a gentle kiss on the lips. We made plans to meet the next day after her track practice. We would have dinner together and get our homework done. It was tough to do homework with Emerson. I was easily distracted when I was with her. Our homework usually dragged on for hours because we were just drawn to each other. Staying focused was no longer possible when I was with her.

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I couldn’t believe that I had just finished the state meet for track. I had won all three of my events and set the state record in the mile, running four minutes and thirty-nine seconds. I had tied my previous times in the eight hundred meter and the thirty-two hundred meter. It was a sad day because it was the last time that I would run for St. Viator’s but a happy day because my life was just beginning. My mom cried after my last race, because that was her last time in the stadium that she had run so many races in herself when she was my age. My dad was very proud of me, and Finn and Indy were actually teary-eyed as I stood on the podium to accept my medals. I smiled at Finn because a public display of emotion was very unlike him. Indy was pretty tenderhearted like my
mom, so it didn’t surprise me to see him glossy-eyed at my awards ceremony. He was a proud big brother, and I loved it. But the most emotional one in the crowd was Cross. He stood off to the side watching me accept my medals, and he was taking pictures and cheering loudly for me. The look in his eyes could have dropped me to my knees right up on the podium. He was so proud of me, and the adoring way that he looked at me made me feel weak in the knees.

I couldn’t stop thinking about Cross standing in my room that he had filled with twinkle lights. He looked incredible, standing there in his fitted jeans, T-shirt, and sports jacket. I had never seen him in a jacket, and it looked superb on him. I was excited for prom the weekend coming up, and graduation was the following weekend. The school year was ending quickly, and my emotions were on a rollercoaster ride.

My dad was growing more and more paranoid since the release of Blane DiAmico. He had increased our security again and was texting or calling Finn and me whenever we weren’t home. I felt bad that he had such anxiety over this guy. I didn’t really think about it, and I highly doubted that he would bother us.

However, my mom and dad were thoroughly enjoying their time together since Dad wasn’t playing football. My parents were like newly in love teenagers when they were together. I loved to watch the way that they looked at each other, and I was happy to have two parents who loved each other the way that my parents did.

Cross and I were disappointed that we wouldn’t be able to attend one another’s graduations because they were on the same evening. But we would meet up right after for a celebration with our families. I was looking forward to spending every minute together that summer before we would both leave for college.

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c h a p t e r    t w e l v e

Mila, Paisley, and I spent all day Saturday getting ready for prom together. They had both slept over Friday night, and we stayed up looking at fashion magazines, watching movies, and eating way too much junk food. It was the last dance that we would all attend together, and we wanted as many memories as possible. Cross and I had texted all night because that was the first night in weeks that we hadn’t spent together. I couldn’t wait to see him and daydreamed about what he would look like in a dark, black suit.

I loved my prom dress. It was a satin white dress, strapless and fitted to the waist, and it had a gorgeous, full, princess-style skirt on the bottom. My heels were sky-high, which would certainly make kissing Cross even easier. My mom kept coming in my room to check on us. She took tons of pictures and kept Finn from pulling any pranks.

I had decided to wear my hair in a loose, low, side bun. Paisley had spent hours putting loose waves in my hair, and then we pulled it to the side and formed a loose knot. I loved it. I wore the diamond earrings that my parents had given me for my sixteenth birthday.

Paisley and Mila looked absolutely glamorous, and we had so much fun getting ready together. I was going to miss them so much the next year. Paisley
would be going to school in Chicago, and Mila was going out to California for school. We would visit one another as often as possible.

My mom called down the hall to let us know that everyone was starting to arrive. I wanted to quickly clean up my bathroom, so I told Paisley and Mila to go out and greet everyone and I would be right out. I threw everything in the drawer, dabbed on a little-light pink lipstick, took one final look at myself, and walked out to the living room. When my eyes met his, I saw his jaw drop. We held each other’s gaze for a long moment, and then Cross walked toward me.

“You look…unbelievable,” he said softly, kissing me gently on the cheek.

Cross was in a jet-black fitted suit. He had a crisp, white dress shirt on underneath and a black tie with some light pink stripes running through it. I grasped his hand, and I loved the way his strong hand wrapped around my fingers.

“You look so handsome,” I said, and I leaned in to kiss him softly on the lips.

I had missed him so much, and we had only been apart for one day. I briefly felt my stomach turn at the thought of being separated from him after the summer, but I pushed the thought away. That night was special, and I wanted to enjoy the time that we had together.

We took pictures for what seemed like forever, and I didn’t mind one bit this time. He wrapped his arms around me, and we clasped hands, and posed for hundreds of pictures.

I realized that it was the first time that I had ever been to a dance with someone that I actually wanted to be with, and I was having a blast. It was so different this time because I was in love, and I was enjoying every minute. Mila, Paisley, and I danced a ton, with and without our dates. When the guys wanted to take a break, the three of us continued dancing together. Cross and I slow danced, and just the way that he held me felt intimate in every way.

The night was a whirlwind, and I didn’t want it to come to an end. My parents had extended my curfew so that we could all go out after the dance, and there were several after-parties. Cross and I were inseparable, and we both didn’t want the night to end. We had such a great time dancing, laughing, and hanging out with our friends. John was having a great time too, and he and Abigail had really seemed to hit it off. C. J. was telling Cross funny stories about me as a kid, and Isabella and I were just admiring our handsome dates as they talked.

“Dude, you should have seen Emerson when she was like seven years old. We were all afraid to ding-dong-ditch this one house in the neighborhood. Even
Indy refused to ring the bell. This house was so creepy, dude. Remember, Em? We were so freaked out,” C. J. said, stopping to see if I remembered.

“Of course I remember, it was the Aneri family home, but they rarely came out of the house. It was always dark and creepy. We were all afraid of that house,” I said, reliving that time in my life.

“Well, none of us would ring the bell. This kid, Randall, called Indy a chicken because he refused to do it. Emerson flew off the handle,” C. J. continued, laughing. “She told the kid that Indy wasn’t doing it because she had already told him that she wanted to do it. Emerson made the whole thing up because she was mad at the kid for saying that to Indy, but then the kid stared at her and told her that we were all waiting for her to do it. Indy told her not to. But Em, she’s so fearless, dude. She just turned and marched up to that doorstep. Of course, Indy and I were right behind her because we didn’t want her to go alone. She rang that doorbell, and I think that was when I first realized that she was a faster runner than all of us,” he said, laughing some more. “You rang that doorbell like a warrior!” C. J. shouted, laughing even harder.