My Stupid Girl (30 page)

Lucy’s curlers had turned into a shiny mass
of wavy hair, swept back in a fancy-looking ponytail, cascades of brown curls
flowing down her back. A back that was, to my shock, completely bare. Her
curved shoulder blades and her long arms were like artwork. When she heard me
approach, she turned around.

I think my teeth fell out, right onto the
floor. I could hear them clattering. I would have to eventually get those, but
I wasn’t going to move. 

A black dress wrapped Lucy’s torso, all the
way up to a see-through turtleneck around her neck. The skin-tight fabric
hugged her body all the way down to her lower thighs. The only part that didn’t
highlight Lucy’s amazing curves was a bunched-up flounce thing in the back,
like a dancer’s dress from the 1920s. Her black heels weren’t very high, but
they laced up her leg to the middle of her calf, like ballet shoes. The outfit
was a perfectly beautiful match to my unconventional tux. But that wasn’t all.

Her face looked unreal, like it was
airbrushed out of a magazine. She was wearing foundation so her usually red jawbones
were the same color as the rest of her face. Her lips were a darker color than
usual, to match the 20s vibe of her dress. They were sort of reddish-maroon,
and her lips were so big they would have overwhelmed her face if they didn’t
match so well with the rest of her outfit. The color made her eyes pop, even
more than usual, which I hadn’t thought was possible. I felt a hand go up under
my chin and pop it closed. 

I whipped my head around to see who it was
who had done that, since Lucy hadn’t moved, but that was like tearing my face
apart because my eyes stayed on Lucy. She laughed and walked over to hug me,
allowing my eyes a brief rest. Her father had come into the kitchen, without me
noticing, and caught me ogling his daughter. Luckily, for me, the doorbell rang
before he could speak. Answering it gave Mr. Peterson something to do, but not
without putting his hand meaningfully on my back as he passed by me.

“David! Look at your face!” She put her arm
up again and touched it, her hands on both of my cheeks. She tried to push the
hair out of the way of my right eye. I let her move my hair aside and, for a
second, felt brave. Without meaning to, I put my face down and looked to the
ground. 

I grabbed and kissed the hand that
attempted to cross the boundaries of hair I had set. 

“You look beautiful,” I said in her ear. “I
would kiss you but it would make it look like we were making out in here.” 

She pressed her lips together and smiled at
me.

“I know, I have so much makeup on.”

“I like it,” I said truthfully. She
grimaced a little, but looked pleased at the compliment.

“The gang’s all here.” Mr. Peterson called
from the front of the house. We made our way down the hall.

Jennika and Johnny were standing inside the
front door, talking with Lucy’s father, both looking completely at ease.
Jennika was stunning, of course; she made Johnny look good.   

“Come on, girl, the limo is here.” Jennika
admonished Lucy as soon as we came around the corner. I saw she already had her
flower pinned to her dress. Johnny was such a traitor. I looked down at my own
flower that sat waiting next to the door, inside a clear box the florist had
given me. I noticed Jennika’s was pinned on the right part of the strap on her
dress. Johnny hadn’t had to touch much to get it on her. I, on the other hand,
didn’t know how I was going to manage the sleeveless and the lacy turtleneck
thing, especially with Lucy’s parents watching. 

“Umm….” I waved my arms around in my
trademark panic move.

Mr. Peterson was staring right at me and I
swear I saw his shoulders shaking a bit, silently laughing. Lucy’s mom came
running around the corner with a camera in her hand, demanding that we all
stand next to each other for pictures. I figured she’d be better to the dress
than I would, and handed her the box. My attempt to save myself ended up being
pretty embarrassing, though. Even though neither of the girls said anything,
Johnny coughed “wuss!” into his hand about six times.  

The limo was nice. Six long leather seats
stretched through the back. The sunroof was open so we could poke our heads out
of it if we wanted. I thought the whole thing was silly but the girls seemed to
be enjoying themselves so the money Johnny and I split to make it happen seemed
well worth it. I hoped we weren’t the only ones who had gotten a limo; I didn’t
want everyone to be staring at us.

I looked over at Lucy, who was animatedly
talking with Jennika and I realized that I was absolutely going to be stared at
the whole night.

Our limo drove down a long road in the
middle of other cars, and I was happy to see other limos as well.

“Dude, look at our girlfriends!” Johnny
hissed into my ear, rubbing his hands together like a cartoon villain. 

“I know, right? They are really stupid to
be with us right now.”

Johnny laughed and looked like he agreed
one hundred percent but wasn’t about to let them know what we had figured out. 

“We’re going to have to, like, dance with
them.” He was still smiling but I could hear the alarm in his voice.

“I’m guessing so.” 

For the rest of our time in the limo, he
was quiet, staring intently at the floor. It was like watching a hardened
soldier going into battle. He was getting mentally prepared.

Our driver parked behind a row of limos and
came over to open the door for us. We stepped out and were met with the sight
of a big beautiful barn that was completely lit up with Christmas lights. The
barn was the size of a very large house, and tall, like there were three stories
inside. It was the deep red of a classic barn and had a big star on the top
where one of those wind-roosters would normally go. 

Lucy grabbed my hand and led me up the
walkway lit with paper-bag lanterns. Each one had tiny scrolls and patterns cut
out of them, so they threw lighted shapes at our feet.

My girlfriend looked amazing. Her gorgeous
head of curls was held up high, and her hand was firm in mine. As I walked next
to her, seeing the way people looked at her in accustomed admiration, I noticed
that almost all of them were then moving their attention to me. They seemed to
look at me with the same kind of admiration, almost like I fit with this
insanely beautiful girl. The feeling it gave me was like something inside my
chest detonated, like a smile was inside of me rushing to the surface.

I was physically unable to contain it.  

The inside of the old barn was even more
majestic than the outside. Big white balls hung from every spare inch of the
ceiling, all of them at different lengths, glowing with soft light. Every few
feet there were a couple of metal star lanterns that dropped lower than the
white globes, cut with the same patterns as the mini-paper lanterns outside.
The tables were all covered with ivory tablecloths, a centerpiece of wild flowers
in the middle, and tons of tiny tea lights sprinkled around them.

There were a ton of people packed into the
barn, all dancing and laughing. I rubbed my hand on Lucy’s soft shoulder and
kissed it gently.

“That feels so weird without your
piercings.” She rubbed the spot I had just kissed.  “In a bad way?” 

“No, not bad at all, just different. I’m
not used to it.” 

“Well, don’t get to used to it, they are
going right back on when I get home.” I kissed her shoulder again. This time
she just put her forehead against mine and breathed an inviting giggle. 

A slow song started playing. It was a song
I actually knew and was fond of. Lucy grabbed my hand and hauled me out to the
dance floor. 

“You’re not going to let me warm up to the
room or something?” I protested.

“Oh shush, let’s have fun.” Lucy turned her
body around and leaned into me. Her arm snaked around my back and we locked
together, arms tight against our bodies. We swayed with the music.

Over the top of Lucy’s head I saw Johnny
being swept across the floor. He looked terrified. “Swaying” was not Johnny’s
strong point; anything musical was out of his realm of comprehension. He
stepped his foot up every time they swayed together. A three-year old doing the
potty dance had the same kind of movements. Jennika was trying to get him to
just move his body back and forth. 

I held Lucy tighter against me and breathed
in deeply, enjoying having her next to me. We moved well together. Plus, a
great song was playing, one I had gotten a lot of slack for when I would turn
it up in the car. Even though no one ever changed it. 

I bent my lips close to Lucy’s ear and sang
the next line. She stopped moving and looked up at me, her eyes big and
shocked. 

“What?” I asked, not knowing what I had
done.

“You can sing?” Her bottom chin stuck out
defiantly.

“I don’t know?” I’d just wanted to say that
line to her, and it was to music, so I guess I sang it. 

“Sing more.” She stuck her body against me
again, hoping to go back to swaying and singing before I got too uncomfortable. 

This stupid girl just couldn’t enjoy a
moment without acting like everything needed a reaction or a show. She shook me
a little, trying to get me to start up again. Wanting to avoid
shaken-gothboy-syndrome, I complied and sang another line to her, aware of my
voice this time. That probably made my voice sound less impressive. The song
ended, me humming to her.

As we came to a stop, her eyes locked on
mine the way they did when she was intent on something. The song ended and I
was allowed to go over to the food table, were Johnny and Jennika were already
standing. Jennika was looking like she had given up on trying to make Johnny
and dancing work. The food looked good, long rows of different kinds of rolls
and fruit, cheeses and crackers. I looked down the table and saw Isaiah
standing in front of the punch bowl, smelling it from the ladle. He scrunched
up his nose and poured some into a little plastic cup. Behind him, looking
nervous was Michelle. 

“Hey,” I said, putting my hands up in
greeting. Both Isaiah and Michelle looked up and saw us standing a few feet
away. They both walked over, not holding hands or anything, but together.
Michelle looked so different I hardly recognized her. 

“What’s up, pretty people?” Isaiah said. He
winked flirtatiously at Lucy. “Lookin’ good, Luce.” She laughed and looked
around like she wanted something to throw at him. 

“Michelle, you look so pretty!” Johnny’s
voice rang with disbelief. He must not have been thinking. Jennika turned her
head around slowly to look at him, staring at Michelle, and sneered. After a
second, he noticed and had the decency to look ashamed of himself.  

“I’m just saying I’m not used to seeing her
dressed up.” He shrugged but kept a repentant look on his face. 

“Seriously though, Mich, who knew you had
boobs?” Isaiah chortled. 

Michelle squinted her eyes so furiously at
him I was surprised Isaiah’s head didn’t explode.

“You look really nice, Michelle.” I figured
I was safe with that. Neither she nor Lucy could have too much of a problem
with it.

She did look nice, too. I couldn’t believe
it. Her regular black attire was replaced with a deep red dress, tight and
long. Normally stringy dark brown hair was smooth and silky and swept off her
face. She still wore a lot of makeup, but tonight it was toned down. The soft
lights in the barn complimented the subtle makeup colors. Just like with Lucy,
I was surprised at just how beautiful Michelle was when she was trying to be.

My attempt was apparently too little too
late. Michelle just rolled her eyes at all of us and stormed off to the
bathroom. Black army boots, shoelaces untied, appeared from under her dress. 

“Ahh, she’s great,” Isaiah said, smiling
after our friend. Unlike the rest of us, who had put serious effort into our
appearances, Isaiah looked no different from the way he always looked. The only
real difference was his shirt had a picture of a tuxedo on it. His shorts had
once been pants, but he had cut off the bottom ten inches, so his calves peeked
out. 

A rap song blared to life and everyone but
us ran to the dance floor. It was a song I recognized, very popular, and the
beat was thick with rhythm. 

“So, did you guys know that David could
sing?” Lucy asked my friends, accusation in her voice.

“Oh yeah, he’s fruity like that. Wait until
you see him dance.” Isaiah waved a “been there done that” hand in Lucy’s
direction. I took a bite of the baby carrot I was holding and pretended to
stare at all the decorations, the dancers, even the one or two chaperones
wandering around the outskirts. 

“What?” Lucy sounded amazed. It was
beginning to bug me that she was so shocked whenever she found out I was good
at something. Did I make that bad of an impression?

“I want to see,” Jennika said, excitedly.

“Yeah man, pop, lock, and drop it!” Isaiah
stuffed another cookie in his mouth. I looked at them, they all had expectant
gleams in their eyes. I could hear the beat in the song that was playing and
waited for the “bap” on the third round.

I popped my shoulders at them. 

“Whaaat!” Jennika shouted, running over to
my side. “Do this, do this.” She put her hand above her chest and bumped her
chest, like there was a string on her hand she was jerking it forward with the
beat. I copied her and the girls screamed again. 

“Ok, do this one.” She stomped down with
her right foot and brought her left hand down with it, in a fist. She bounced
back up and did the same on the other side. I tried it once, but I lost the
beat; she showed me again and I got it. 

“Dang, boy. You got some moves. Where did
you learn to dance?” 

“I guess I just feel it, I don’t
know." I winked at Lucy, whose mouth was gaping wide. 

“Who is this?” I heard the fakest voice on
earth behind me. I jumped back and almost toppled over the refreshment table
when I saw that it was Rachel and Evelyn. They both wore their own looks of
shock when they saw me.