Prince Charming (15 page)

“No, I don’t.” I shifted my backpack from one shoulder to the other as I thought about all the things I could do instead of going to prom, like study for the upcoming AP tests, go see a movie, or play Candy Crush. Yeah. I could find plenty of things to do. I didn’t need some idiotic dance to fill up my time.

Allison knocked me on the arm with her free hand. “Come on, it’s not like getting dressed up and going to the dance is the worst thing you could do on a Saturday night.

“Why? So I can see her—with someone else?”

Allison stopped walking, and regarded me. “Wow. You really do care about Laine, don’t you? It’s not a rumor.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m sure you heard plenty.”

“Well, of course I did.” She hesitated. “Everyone has, I mean. People like to speculate.”

“You mean they like to talk.”

“Whatever, Geoff.” She gave me a half-smile. “It’s kinda cute that you like her so much. Very sweet.”

I nodded in Josh’s direction. “Who would have ever thought Allison was a softie?”

“Of course she is.” He threw his arm around her. “And you have to go. You have to. It won’t be the same if you don’t.”

“Maybe.” I shrugged. “I thought maybe I might stay home and work on my
World of Warcraft
score.”

Everyone laughed, except me. Once the words escaped me mouth, I heard how pathetic I sounded. Jesus Christ. I needed to get over Laine Phillips and accept the fact that she and I would never be together. The sooner I did that, the sooner life would get back to normal, and I could go back to dreaming about the day I would leave Robert “Suburban Hell” Hill.

And that’s when my life would start for real

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F
RIDAY, MAY 3RD

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N
ATHAN HAD A weird look on his face when I walked up to my locker before first period. He stared at me with the same intensity someone would give a beloved science project. I knew him well enough to know just what he was thinking.

“I told you guys. I’m not going to prom.” I dropped my book bag on the floor and opened up my locker. My whole academic life stared at me from its insides: thick binders, science texts, planners, and well-worn notebooks, waiting for me to cart them off to another meaningless class. It made me want to roll my eyes, slam the door shut, and walk out of school.

“Come on. You have to go.”

“Why does everyone keep saying that?”

“You know Laine’s going to win Prom Queen.” Nathan leaned up against the locker beside mine, crossed his arms, and studied me. “Huge night for her. Don’t you want to see that?”

Sure I did. No doubt. Even if she had rejected me, I still wanted to see her get every award and accolade she deserved. Laine was a beautiful person, inside and out. Of course I wanted to see her win Prom Queen. Prom would be one of the greatest nights of high school for her, even though it would also be a horrible night of hell for me.

“Whatever,” I said. “It doesn’t matter at all.”

“What doesn’t matter?”

Laine’s voice, which came from somewhere behind me, made me jump. When I turned around she stood there, smiling at me with that infectious, model-esque grin of hers. She looked perfect in pair of dark jeans, simple white T-shirt and scarf. Not that she ever looked less than.

“Hey, Geoff,” she said, adding a half-smile once she said my name. Nathan gave me a knowing look, and signaled that he’d see me later before disappearing down the hallway.

“Laine. Hey. Good to see you.” I cleared my throat. “So. Are you, um . . . are you excited about prom?”

She raised her eyebrow. “Should I be?”

“Oh, whatever. You know you’re going to win this. I mean, everyone loves you . . . Prom Queen is in the bag,” I stuttered. Jesus Christ. I was sounding like some kind of idiot. I might as well just drool over her and then start masturbating. Fuck me.

No, fuck everything.

“Nothing in life is guaranteed, Geoff,” she said skeptically.

“You’re just saying that.”

“No, I’m not.” She pouted. “I mean it. I’m not betting on anything.”

If I’d been in the wrong mood, her constant chipper nature and sunny-side personality would have really gotten underneath my skin. As it was, though, I tolerated it. Scratch that. Maybe I even liked it a little. It certainly kept me interested.

“You’ll win,” I told her. “You always do.”

She rocked back and forth on her heels. “So, um. Are you going to prom?”

“Probably not.”

“That’s a shame.” She glanced down at the floor, and I wondered if she was embarrassed. “I was kinda hoping you would. Just so . . . well . . .” She broke off her sentence, and her eyes widened as something over my shoulder caught her eye. I turned and saw Evan halfway down the hallway. He slammed shut a locker with one hand and started walking toward us, his big body parting the cliques of other students gathered together in the hallway. Evan didn’t look at any of them. He just kept his eyes on the two of us.

“Shit,” Laine said. “I should . . . anyway . . . um . . .” She backed away from me, her head still turned. The natural rosiness of her cheeks faded away and the skin around her eyes tightened. Whatever was wrong with her, it had to be pretty bad, because I had never seen that kind of tense body language from her before. Frantic to figure out what to do, my attention flicked back and forth between her and Evan. As he got closer, I saw more of his expression. A scowl danced across his face, and he lumbered down the hallway like a disgusted Paul Bunyan.

“I gotta go, Geoff,” Laine said, but just as the words came out of her mouth, Evan made a sharp turn into one of the classrooms about twenty feet away from us. He stared at us as he did it, a deep, menacing frown projecting his annoyance, until he disappeared behind the classroom door.

Laine exhaled, and the large heave of her chest startled me. “Wait, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I guess. I don’t know, maybe.” Some of the color in her face returned. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?”

She laughed, but it sounded forced. “I’ll probably pay for this later.”

“Pay for what?”

“Oh, nothing. It’s nothing.” She pulled back her shoulders, and shook her head. “Just forget I said that.”

“Why would you want me to forget it?”

“Geoff, it’s nothing.” The way she said my name told me to stop asking questions. “Just—I just hope you’ll come to prom. That’s all I wanted to say.”

“Really?” I still couldn’t let go of the way I’d just seen Evan look at her. Like he owned her. Like he expected something from her. Like he expected something from me.

“I mean it, Geoff. I wish you would come.” She grinned at me, and some of the old Laine had returned. “Come on. If nothing else, well, it’s prom. The last school dance we’ll ever go to.”

“Well, I don’t know—”

“Just think about it.” She smiled at me, not only with her mouth, but with her eyes. Goddamn it, why did she have to be so darn cute?

The bell rang, saving me. I didn’t have to make a decision about prom right then.

I
n the end, Josh convinced me. More than that, he bought my ticket to prom. After school he stopped at the at the booth the Prom Committee set up next to the auditorium, but I didn’t think anything of it because I knew he had a date with Allison. When he whirled around with a conspiratorial grin on his face, though, I knew.

That loyal bastard.

“Prom is on,” he said, as he walked up to where I waited for him next to the stairs. “Get ready for a night you will never forget.”

“You mean, a night
you
will never forget,” I said, making my way down the first few steps and hoping that I read my friend’s expression wrong. “Your night with Allison.”

“No way.” He waved a stack of tickets in my face. “I’ve got three tickets here. Me. Allison. And you.”

“Come on. You know I’m not going. I already told you and Allison.”

“Yeah, you are. You’re coming.” He handed a ticket over to me, but I didn’t take it. It disgusted me. It might as well have been covered in mucus. “You don’t even have to pay me back, Geoff.”

We stood outside the building now, and all around us students rushed to get in their cars and head home, or to practice. Electricity hung in the air, too, through hushed chatters, girls shooting their prom dates shy glances, and conversations that focused on flowers, dress colors, and tuxedo sizes. This wasn’t just any weekend. This was the start of prom weekend. The best weekend in all of our shared high school experiences.

Or so they all said.

“Everyone’s going,” Josh said, after a couple of seconds of just staring at me like I had a disease. “Everyone.”

“Well, not me.” I thought about Blake and Bruce. They had dates, of course, two sophomore cheerleaders that hung around their lockers laughing too loud, and who seemed to like the twins for their status on the state championship football team. In fact, I suspected those girls just spent time with my stepbrothers so they could get to the dance themselves. Underclassmen girls were always pulling shit like that. It was something of a status symbol to date a guy two years older, and even more of a triumph to show up at prom.

Not that Blake and Bruce cared if those chicks wanted to use them. They seemed to like having two younger girls follow them around, as if they were Greek gods. Every night at dinner this week they’d been talking about prom, and all week I had wanted to be sick at dinner. Those fuckers always got everything they wanted.
Everything.

“Come on man, school dances are overrated,” I said, trying to sound like I didn’t care and wondering why no one would accept this answer from me. I didn’t want to go. No big deal. Why couldn’t anyone understand that?

“Whatever, Geoff. If you don’t go, Evan wins.”

I squinted at my best friend. “What makes you say that?”

“He gets the girl, for sure. He spends the whole night with her, and you won’t even see ‘er. You’ll just be home alone, like some sack, while everyone else in our class has the time of their lives and gets laid.”

“Like you and Allison, right?”

“Yeah, like me and Allison.” He turned a little bit defensive as he shoved the ticket into my hand. “At least I’m going to get a shot at it. Besides, plenty of people go to prom alone.”’

“No they don’t.”

“There won’t be another prom, Geoff.”

I chuckled. “Now you sound like my mother.” She’d been trying to get me to go to the dance, too. She worried I’d miss out, and regret it forever. I kept telling her that only idiots worried about stuff like that, but she didn’t believe me for even half a second.

He had a point.

Plus, I had a tuxedo already. I got it for Mom’s wedding to David, and it still fit. I even had two ties, and one of them might work.

“Okay,” I said, still somewhat reluctant. This dance could go either way. “I’ll go, but not because I want to. Just for you, Josh.”

He laughed and gave me one of those knowing looks. Something told me that he wanted me there for his own entertainment. Oh well. I was going to the biggest dance of the year by myself. What the fuck could go wrong?

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S
ATURDAY, MAY 4TH

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“Y
OU LOOK REALLY nice,” Mom said from the top of the stairs. “My baby, all grown up. So handsome.”

“Thanks.” I adjusted my tuxedo and wrinkled my nose as I looked at myself in the mirror. Wearing the tuxedo reminded me too much of the day my mom married David—a day I wanted to forget.

“The jacket fits better now than it used to,” she said. “Must be all those workouts you’ve been doing up here.”

I laughed, and smoothed the jacket.

“You’re not wearing all black either.”

“So you did notice?”

“Of course I noticed. I’m your mother. And I think it’s wonderful that you decided to go to prom, and not miss it.” Mom had a gleam in her eye, like this whole moment made her sentimental, or even a little bit sad. Since Dad died, I’d seen that look on her face a few too many times, and I hated it so much.

“Are Blake and Bruce still here?” I turned my attention to the pile of clothes on my bed. My car keys were in there, somewhere, along with my solo ticket to the prom. At least I knew Mark, Josh, Allison and Nathan would be there. Dread welled up inside me, despite the fact that I kept telling myself Prom couldn’t be too bad, even if I didn’t have Laine as my date.

“The twins just left.” She nodded at my bed. “Mind if I sit down?”

“Sure.”

Even after she sat, she kept her body rigid, as if she had something on her mind and she didn’t know how to begin talking about it. Her eyes followed me as I shook out my tuxedo jacket and put my car keys in my pants pocket.

“I still can’t believe you are so old now. Senior Prom. And graduation around the corner.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah. Can’t wait for that.”

She watched me adjust my tie two more times. “Geoff, do you like the life we have now?”

I frowned, but didn’t look up as the thought crossed my mind that this might be a trick question. Better to be as diplomatic as possible. “It’s great. You seem happy.”

“That’s not what I meant. I’m not talking about myself. I mean, for you. Do you like our life?” She broke off and took a deep breath. “Of course, I probably don’t have to ask that. I know you hate David.”