Perfectly Flawed (30 page)

I curl Harley’s light brown hair, letting the
curls fall around her face, framing her heart shaped face
beautifully. She does her own makeup, going for a natural look
rather than her dark, black, gothic/emo look she wears daily. It
works much better with the dress she’s wearing. She leaves in her
lip ring, adding an edge to the sophisticated look.

My friend looks beautiful.

I curl my own hair, after washing it, and pin
it up, letting a few curls escape and fall around my face. I use
minimal makeup, not entirely sure what to do. But I do wear my
mother’s floral cuff, aside from the silver, it sort of works with
the dress. Even if it didn’t match at all, I’d still wear it—my
mother bought it for her junior year Homecoming dance, it seemed
perfect for this occasion.

An hour passes and Harley and I are dressed
and ready. Zephyr walks through the front door wearing a black suit
with a black tie. He kind of reminds me of a secret service agent,
he only needs an earpiece and dark sunglasses. He holds out two
boxes, both holding a colorful corsage.

“When did you get these?” I ask as he slips a
red rose on Harley’s wrist. It matches her dress nicely and her
smile grows wider as she looks at it on her wrist.

“I had a little time to spare,” he tells me,
slipping a pink lily on my wrist.
He remembered my favorite
flower
. My cheeks heat in a flush as the thought floats through
my mind. I feel giddy. “I know it doesn’t match—”

“I don’t care,” I blurt. “I like it, Zeph,” I
tell him, smiling widely. I feel happy—happier than I’d have been
if I were still going to this thing with Ryder.

We pile—gracefully, I might add—into Harley’s
little car. I take the passenger seat and Zephyr crawls into the
back. The drive to the school is a little nerve racking. I’m
nervous. Harley pulls the car into the lot, taking a spot near the
front of the building, and we sit in the car, mentally preparing
for whatever’s going on inside.

I’m picturing madness. Complete and utter
madness. A little chaos as well.

“You two ready for this?” I ask, nerves
taking over my body. My hands start shaking, a sign I’m scared, and
I clasp them together, lacing the fingers in my lap.

I really don’t want to run into Ryder. He’s
the
last
person that I want to see. Actually, he doesn’t
even rank on the list. I’m not sure what I’d do if I did see
him.

Probably maim him. That’s a possibility.

“I have two dates for a school dance,” Zephyr
calls from the back seat. “Oh yeah, let’s do this!”

He’s oddly excited about this. It makes me
laugh, something I need right now. I pull down the visor, using the
mirror to check my makeup, but catching Zephyr’s eyes. I silently
thank Zephyr for being… well, Zephyr.

“Let’s go,” Harley demands. Being bossy works
for her.

We make our way through the line—Harley and I
shivering like leaves on a windy day—showing our student ID cards
to one of the people at the front table. I think it’s someone’s
parent.

“Three, please.” The teacher next to the
parent, I think she teaches Algebra I, hands Zephyr the red
tickets. Zephyr holds them out, saying, “Here are your tickets,
ladies.” We take them and lace our arms with his, letting him lead
the way through the double doors. “I feel like James Bond, right
now,” he whispers to me.

I giggle.

Zephyr smiles.

As a trio, we walk into the school, amid
familiar faces. Some nod to us, because of their good friend,
Zephyr, others just look at us with shock and awe. They’re
surprised. Why? I didn’t know it was so surprising, so shocking,
for us to be at a school function together. Or maybe it’s just
because I’m here.

I bet that’s it.

I notice Kennie standing among a scantily
clad group of girls, Duke on her arm. He continuously steals
glances at her when she’s not paying attention. There’s love and
admiration in his eyes. Kennie, of course, doesn’t notice. Her
full-length blue gown glints in the fluorescent light. She left her
long hair falling down her back so it could hide the dark birthmark
on her back. She hates it. She thinks it looks like a hatching egg,
only instead of a bird, she thinks it looks like Cthulhu is
emerging from her skin.

I have weird friends.

Her eyes glance over, spotting us standing
near the door. Shock is clear on her face as she leaves her group
and walks toward us.

“Joey! Harley! You both look wonderful”—she
shakes her head—“beautiful,” Kennie compliments as she walks up to
us, tugging her boyfriend. A look of relief fill his face, he’s
happy that they’re leaving their previous company. “Don’t they look
great, Duke?” she presses.

“Yeah, great,” Duke answers. His eyes trail
back to Kennie, not even giving us a look. It’s cute, really, how
much he appreciates her. Briefly, he acknowledges Zephyr with a,
“Hey, man,” but his attention falls back to Kennie.

“It’s good to see that you both have worked
out your differences.” Kennie smiles widely as she stares at my arm
locked with Zephyr’s. “And you look good, Zephyr.”

“I’m one lucky guy,” Zephyr tells them,
lightly pulling on my arm. His gesture pulls me closer to him, his
cologne filling every one of my senses.

“I’ll say,” Duke replies, smiling to me, then
to Harley, before settling his eyes on his girlfriend of the past
year and a half.

Behind me, I hear someone call Zephyr’s name.
I look over my shoulder, as does everyone else, and watch Avery
walk up, circling us until he’s standing next to Duke. They do
their usual weird handshake. “I didn’t think you’d show up,” he
says.

Slowly, his eyes move from me to Zephyr—a
smile slowly breaking on his face—to Harley. I swear I see him
blush right there. And it isn’t hard to miss.

Hmmm…

I never thought I’d see Avery O’Reilly in a
suit and tie. He doesn’t look so bad. He actually cleans up pretty
nicely.

Damn
.

Zephyr glances to me. “It was a last minute
decision,” he tells Avery. “All Harley’s idea.” Avery looks to
Harley and smiles. Yep, he’s definitely blushing. “You didn’t bring
a date?” he questions.

“No, dude, I decided to just come alone,”
Avery tells us. “Maybe hang with Jackson if I can pry him off, I’m
mean
away
, from Ksenia.”

They share a laugh. “Good luck with that,
man,” Zephyr tells him. “You could just hang around with us all
night.” He turns to me, sympathy on his face. “You don’t have a
problem with that, do you?”

“How could I have a problem with Avery?” I
ask, replaying our conversation from last night.

“You look very nice, Joey,” Avery tells
me.

“Thank you,” I reply. “You, too.”

I’m waiting for him to ask, to mention my
original plans with Ryder, but he ignores them.
Thank God!
I
don’t think I can tell him—I know I can’t tell him, or anyone—but
I’m just wondering if he’ll mention our conversation from last
night.

His blue eyes shyly turn toward Harley, who’s
busy looking around the large group of people surrounding us, and I
know that the previous night is the farthest thing from Avery’s
mind. His eyes light up the moment he looks at Harley. “You,
Harley, look simply breathtaking.”

Harley turns bright red with a blush. I’ve
never seen her so much as embarrassed before, and here Avery has
turned her cheeks the same color as his hair.

Where has he been the past three years?

Kennie and I exchange looks, noticing
something here, something that could blossom into something
beautiful for our friend.

“So what happened to Ryder?” Kennie finally
asks.

I was waiting for that.

Leave it to Kennie to ask the hard questions.
Or, at least to ask the questions that I don’t want to answer.

That catches everyone’s attention, and I
think ears around us perk up. Everyone saw the spectacle he created
at lunch a few weeks back, they all expected me to be here with
Ryder. They want to know why I’m not here with him. But can’t they
ask
him
that question?

Is he not here?

“I don’t really want to talk about it,” I
tell her, avoiding the topic of him all together.

Kennie shrugs, ready to move on to the next
subject. Thank her for that, really. But something brings us back
to Ryder.

“That could be what happened to him.” Harley,
who’s moved to stand by Avery, points behind me. I turn and see
Ryder and Alexia walking in through the doors. They both attract
the attention. Ryder by his—God forgive me for these next
words—
good looks
and Alexia for her dress, if you could even
call that
thing
a dress. I’m surprised she got through the
doors, her hot pink monstrosity that I remember Jamie picking up in
the store, would be better qualified as a shirt. Or belt.

“That was fast,” I mumble, not bothered by
it. “Whatever!” I announce with enthusiasm when all eyes turn to
me, some expecting me to be upset, some not knowing what to expect
at all. “Let’s have fun.”

That
surprises them.

I grab Zephyr’s arm and pull him into the
dark, decorated gym. It’s not too bad. Each corner is dedicated to
a season. My favorite is the first corner I see at the far end of
the gym—it’s the winter section. It’s completely white; the fake
trees stuck to the walls are white and covered in the
paper-confetti fake snow.

“Wow,” I sputter.

“This is surprising,” Zephyr says under his
breath.

Not wasting any more time of school approved
fun, I pull him on to the dance floor, forcing him to dance with
me. Harley and Avery are behind me, Kennie and Duke behind Zephyr.
This is exactly how I pictured a school dance to be: fun with my
friends. Definitely better than any of the parties I’ve been
to.

Zephyr takes my hand and spins me, twirling
me so fast that I collide into him, laughing loudly, enjoying the
feel of his arms clasped around me.

That makes me feel awkward.

At the start of the next song, we girls ditch
the guys, and Kennie, Harley, and I are dancing with each other.
Well, not really
dancing
, more like bouncing around like
small children on a sugar fix. When we came in, we had to ditch our
shoes down in the cafeteria so no one would ruin the polished gym
floors, that made jumping and bouncing easier.

A slow song starts and Duke immediately
steals Kennie back, swaying her to the center of the spacious room.
I look over to Zephyr and Avery and they’re talking with Jackson,
Harley is laughing at something Ksenia just said, and I take a
moment to sneak to the bathroom to splash some water on my heated
cheeks.

While I’m staring into the mirror, trying to
fix the line beneath my right eye, Alexia walks in with her clutch
clicking repeatedly in her hand. I only brought my school ID, my
keys, and phone, all of which are tucked inside Zephyr’s right
pocket. She walks to the mirror, removes her mascara, pops her
mouth wide open, and starts applying it to her eyes.

We’re alone in the bathroom.

Her heavily lined eyes glance to me in the
large mirror. “This
must
be awkward for you,” Alexia starts
before she blinks her eyes quickly.

“Why?” I ask. I’m not in the mood for this
with her; I’m actually having a good time—a great time.

“Ryder and me,” she replies,
matter-of-factly. “It’d be weird for
me
if
I
were in
your
shoes.” Alexia still hasn’t directly looked at me.

But you’re not in my shoes, bitch.

If only I were brave enough to
actually
say that.

But I don’t. I bite my tongue like a good
little girl despite how much it pisses me off.

“Whatever you say, Alexia,” I grumble,
backing away from the mirror and heading toward the sinks on the
other side of the room. I need to wash my hands. “I don’t care what
you do, Alexia, or what
he
does.”

No truer words have ever been spoken.

She follows me across the room. “You’re here
with Zephyr, huh?” she asks, sounding… different. Alexia sounds
curious, and that weirds me out. Now my body is on full alert for
anything dangerous.

Alexia doesn’t
just
talk to me.

She walks to the nearest sink and sets her
clutch, which is silver and matches the heels she was wearing
earlier, by the mirror. Quickly, she turns the faucet, turning on
the water. The sound filling the silence between us. But she
doesn’t do anything with it. She just lets it run.

Weird.

“Zephyr
and
Harley,” I tell her. Her
eyes lift up to mine. There’s something in her stare, something
intense and un-Alexia. I just can’t identify it. “I’m having fun
with my friends. That’s all that matters for me.”

She opens her mouth to say something but
she’s cut off before any word can leave her lips.

“What’s taking you so long?” Harley asks as
she walks into the bathroom. She spots Alexia and immediately comes
to my defense. “What are
you
saying to her?” she demands of
the other girl, her hands finding her hips.

“Nothing, Harley.” I look over to Alexia; she
just looks away and turns off the water. Whatever I saw earlier is
gone. She’s just Alexia now. Prim, perfect, bitchy Alexia. “Let’s
just head back out there.”

I pause before following Harley through the
door. I pause long enough for Alexia to say what she needed to
say—it looked like it could’ve been important to her, and I
would
give her the chance to say it despite my better
judgment—but she just snapped her clutch closed and focused on her
face and makeup.

Ignoring the random moment in the bathroom,
we spend the rest of the time dancing and making fun of each
other’s dance moves—mostly everyone else making fun of me and my
two left feet—I feel like a disgrace to my mother’s dancing memory,
but what can I do? I even have a conversation with Ksenia Ivanov,
which doesn’t normally happen. She’s a lot nicer than I thought,
though the strain in my neck from looking up at her is too much to
handle. Ksenia’s nearly six-foot-two, a star forward on the
basketball team.