Practically Ever After

by Isabel Bandeira

  Chapter 11

  “The idea is ridiculously over-the-top, but your sister actually pulled it off,” I said, grabbing Phoebe by the shoulders and turning her around so I could see the back of her incredibly elaborate medieval-ish prom gown. The fabric shimmered in my room’s light, shifting from gold to purple and back again as it moved, and it fit her perfectly. I’d already done her hair in a loose curly bun and the whole effect made her look like she’d stepped out of a fairy tale.

  “Yes, and she made me promise to take a lot of pictures or she’d strangle me with the corset laces.” Phoebe looked up from trying to tug up the dress’ neckline, saw herself in the full-length mirror on the back of my closet door, and froze. “It’s perfect. Just like Maeve’s gown in Gilded,” she said in an awed whisper, like this was the first time she’d ever seen the dress. She caught my confused look in the mirror and added, still whispering, “Trixie didn’t let me see the finished dress on. She covered all our mirrors while she checked the fit so it would be a surprise.” She swayed back and forth, making happy Phoebe noises and I dove into my closet to keep from laughing.

  Em came over, blindingly bright in her short yellow dress, and held out one of Phoebe’s long, chiffon sleeves like it was a banner.

  “This gives me an idea. What do you think of me and Kris getting jobs at the Renaissance Faire next summer?” Before I could even say anything, she added, “I’m an actress, he’s a fencer. It would be so perfectly romantic.”

  “May I remind you,” I said, pointing the heel of one of my Lebuttons at her, “that even if you could convince Kris to do it—and I seriously doubt you can—the faire means spending all day outside in the woods? And that you’re not the one-with-nature type?”

  “Please. I’ll be wearing a corset-bodice-thing. There’s no way they’d hide this behind any trees.” She gestured dramatically at herself and ended the gesture in a pose that showed off the rhinestones running down her one shoulder strap to a rhinestone sun at her waist.

  “Bring plenty of sunscreen and bug spray, then,” I said, as dryly as I could.

  Em pursed her lips, held up a finger and turned, shuffling through her backpack before coming back over with the tape measure from her latest run in Mary Poppins. “I forgot to put this back in the prop room after we cleaned up.” She pulled me away from my shoes and made me straighten up. “Hold still, let me measure you.” With Phoebe’s silent laughter egging her on, she made a huge show out of measuring my height and then looking at the measurement. “Just as I thought. Grace Correa, perfectly practical in every way.”

  I turned my nose up at her and shook my head. “There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being practical.”

  “Being impractical is more fun. Like these.” She took my simple silver heels from my hands and pulled a pair of rhinestone-covered Lebuttons out of my closet. “These are a lot more fun.”

  I took the heels from her and held them up against my silver column gown, studying how they looked together in the mirror. Considering how simple my gown was—strapless and draping a little at the waist—the shoes could work without looking over-the-top. Especially if I switched to a plain silver clutch instead of the beaded one I’d been planning on using. “Done. Am I impractical enough for you now?”

  “Getting closer,” Phoebe teased, squeezing next to me so all three of us were reflected in the mirror.

  “This is as wild as it gets. Take it or leave it.” My smile grew so wide it almost hurt. It was too bad mom got more worked up about Alec changing in here with us than my own girlfriend, though she banned both of them. It felt incomplete with one of our quartet missing. “I can’t believe this is the last time we get to dress up for something like this.”

  “Until the wedding,” Phoebe said, fixing one of her loose curls nonchalantly while the two of us just stared at her. “Trixie? To Petur? This August? Right after I get back from my trip? The one you’re invited to??”

  I fake-held my hand to my chest. “Never just say ‘the wedding,’ Fee. Never. Because you nearly gave me a heart attack.”

  She stepped over to my dresser and started moving things from her purse to the little shot-silk clutch her sister had made to match her dress. “It’s not my fault you can’t remember things.”

  I took away the e-reader she was trying to stuff into her clutch and threw it onto my bed. “No books at the prom.” Phoebe rolled her eyes at me, but I ignored it and went back to fixing the soft Rita Hayworth-like wave I’d styled into my blonde hair.

  Em swiped some gloss onto her lips. “Remind me again—did your sister go to the prom with him?”

  “No, that guy dumped her freshman year right at Thanksgiving. She met Petur when she was out skating on River Rink with a bunch of friends on winter break, remember?” Phoebe dropped onto the bed close to the e-reader and pretended to study her nails. “That’s why she always goes skating New Year’s Eve with him.”

  I grabbed the e-reader again and dropped it into my nightstand drawer, giving her a “don’t even think about it” look.

  “Oh yeah, Turkey Dump Guy.” Em waved her hand dismissively. “Trixie rebounded like a pro from him, too. The way her and Petur got together is just disgustingly cute. What’s up with your family?”

  “Good readers breed good love stories?”

  I blinked at the two of them, trying to decipher their conversation. When Phoebe and Em talked with each other, following their high-speed conversations was like trying to chase a starship through a wormhole. “Wait. Go back. What’s a turkey dump?”

  “You know,” Em said, giving her rhinestone headband one last adjustment so it sat perfectly in her short, dark curls, “when you come back for Thanksgiving break freshman year of college and your significant other dumps you.”

  “The death knell for long distance relationships that can’t make it,” Phoebe said dramatically. “Which is what happened to Trixie but won’t happen to any of us,” she added quickly. “I hope.”

  An icy feeling ran down my back and I had to keep myself from shivering. I hated the cloud that had descended on the room at that moment.

  “C’mon. If we don’t head down now, we won’t have enough time for pictures before our dates get here. And I don’t want to be the reason for your death by corset,” I said pointedly to Phoebe.

  “Good point.” Phoebe slipped on a pair of flat sandals and grabbed my hand, pulling me along with her out the door. She must have sensed or seen something in my face because she squeezed my hand and said, “You look so pretty. Leia’s going to love it.”

  I didn’t say anything, just squeezed back.

  “Just one more picture.” Em’s mom reached out to fluff Phoebe’s skirt before stepping back to stand by my mom and Phoebe’s mom. Practically in unison, they all held up their phones.

  Alec stopped trying to balance on the arm of the living room settee and started sliding into my lap. “Hey,” I pushed at his leg, “you’re cutting off my circulation.”

  He slid even further down until he was half-sitting on my lap. “And you just touched my butt, which could be considered sexual harassment.” He swatted at my hands with a fake offended look.

  “Grace and Alec, can you two sit still for half a minute so we have at least one nice picture?” My mom asked, lowering her phone just enough to frown at both of us. My house had been picked to be the prom prep and picture house because I had my own bathroom and every hairstyling implement known to man, but it also came with this chair, which had to chronicle every milestone in my life.

  “I’m sorry Mrs. Correa, but my tux is too slippery for this chair.” He tried to get up and, when that didn’t work, threw an arm around my shoulders and tried to look casual.

  I inched closer to Em and he fell a little more, squishing us all into the small seat. “Ow. Okay, Mom, this isn’t going to work. Can we have a second to reset?”

  Mom waved impatiently at us and the moms got into a huddle—probably trying to come up with other ridiculous poses—and we un
tangled ourselves from the seat. “Aren’t you glad you came early for pictures, Alec?” Em asked with an evil grin as she helped pull him off me and up to standing.

  “So happy. You’re going to make me regret going alone. I could have been doing the awkward five or six pictures with one of the girls from the science club right now.”

  Em bumped him with her shoulder. “Yeah, but then you’d have to dance.”

  Alec looked a little nauseated at the thought. “Good point.”

  “Ohmygosh, do you remember Poppy and that waltz thing you two did?” Em’s expression lit up and she added, “I would pay to find a video of the two of you at fifth grade graduation.”

  Alec cringed. “Don’t remind me.” He looked over at us and added, “Poppy is why I don’t dance.”

  I traded a grin with Phoebe. Em and Alec were like siblings and their banter was always fun to watch, especially if they started bringing up stuff from their shared childhood.

  “It’s not so bad when it’s with someone you like. If you want, I can work some magic—” Em wiggled her fingers in what I guessed was supposed to be an imitation of a fairy godmother.

  Alec held up a hand to stop her. “No, I’m not going to let you set me up with anyone. Ever.”

  “Fine. Just don’t drool all over our table whenever Laura passes, okay? It’s embarrassing.”

  “Shut up.”

  There was a long honk in our driveway and we all jumped up to run to the windows. Even though Mom had wanted us to rent a limo, I talked everyone into just sharing two cars. Some of my friends had tighter budgets than me, and I wanted them to have fun, not stress. Em peeked through my curtains and jumped back when I opened them all the way, poking nervously at her short curls. For someone who acted so confident, it was fun to see her get flustered.

  While we watched Leia and the boys make their way up our walkway, I glanced over at Mom, who was clicking away on her phone. “I still don’t understand why you didn’t let Leia get changed here.”

  “While I’ve been rather accepting of your choice to be… nontraditional, at least let me have something traditional. I didn’t pay that much for a prom gown not to see your date walk up to the door and see you in it for the first time.”

  I was lucky. When I first came out, my parents were almost unsettlingly okay about it—Dad just ignored the whole situation, murmuring something about how I was too young to date and that school was my job. Mom, on the other hand, was probably still convinced it was ‘just a phase,’ I’d get over it all, marry some trust fund manager, and have a ‘normal’ life with two-point-five kids and a dog. That was always a possibility, if the trust fund manager had two X chromosomes, but that was not the way Mom wanted it. Still, hearing something like that made my heart swell a million sizes and I threw my arms around Mom, giving her an impromptu hug.

  “Thanks for thinking of everything.”

  Mom’s dark eyes looked a little watery, but she tried to hide it with a smile. “You girls, and Alec, of course, grew up so fast. Now, go upstairs so we get a real entrance picture.”

  “You’re kidding, right?”

  “I did not pay that much for a prom gown…” she purposely trailed off, her smile widening.

  “How about a compromise? We only go halfway up the stairs so we can pretend we were on our way down when the door opens?” Phoebe asked, and even from where I was standing, I could see how she was giving her mom a pleading look.

  “Fine, go!” Phoebe’s mom shooed us towards the stairs and Em’s mom tried to artfully arrange us while Alec dropped onto the little bench in the foyer to play a game on his phone. Phoebe couldn’t stop laughing at the faces Em was making behind her mother’s back.

  And then Mom opened the front door.

  I couldn’t even register what she was saying when Leia walked in, dressed in a mock-turtleneck, sleeveless white gown that looked like a sleek take on Princess Leia’s A New Hope dress, down to the belt and the white over-the-knee boots that showed through a thigh-high slit in her long skirt. I had to focus on the stairs to keep from tripping in my heels. It was like the first time I saw her, except she was a million times prettier.

  “Grace, your girlfriend wins the hotness award from the geek judge,” Alec said, looking up for only a second before going back to his phone. I pretended to ignore him as I walked the mom-paparazzi gauntlet to stand by her.

  Leia’s gaze moved slowly up my body, from the toes of my bling-y heels and up my curves, and I had to work so hard not to blush. “Wow,” she mouthed at me when she finally met my eyes.

  While the others were hamming it up for the cameras, Dev picking Phoebe off of the last step and twirling her around before putting her down, Kris and Em arguing whether she should pin the corsage to her dress or wear it on her wrist, we just stood there, goofy half-smiles on our faces.

  “Good reaction,” Mom said, peeking from behind her phone again and giving us a thumbs up. “I videoed everything for Dad.”

  “Thanks,” I said, awkwardly leaning on Leia for support as soon as I was shaken back into the moment and realized we had an audience. “So, we should go now before we’re late.”

  “We need some outside pictures by the hydrangea bushes before you leave,” Em’s mom suggested. “You kids have plenty of time to get there.”

  I looked up at the grandfather clock and bit the inside of my cheek to keep from saying anything. There went our pre-prom stop at Marranos. I forced a nod and a bright smile, wrapping my arm around Leia’s shoulders. “Sure. Hydrangeas it is.”

  Chapter 12

  Cassie looked like she was floating as she slow danced with Christian Washington, trying her best to lay her head on his shoulder without dislodging her massive silver foil tiara. They passed our table in their spiral around the dance floor and she gave us a little wave before going back into her prom dreamworld. On the other side of the dance floor, Jake and his date were doing crazy twirls and lifts that fit with the attention-seeking backflip he’d made when they crowned him prom king.

  “I seriously would never have predicted that,” Dev said, taking a sip of punch and gesturing to Cassie and Christian. “It’s like something straight out of one of Phoebe’s books.”

  Phoebe looked up from her phone, where I could bet she was reading a book, and said, “The nerdier-than-all-of-us-combined nerd and the cheerleader who broke up with her football star boyfriend? I like that trope.” She put her phone down and pointed at it with a tortured look on her face. “Now, you know what I can’t stand? Insta-love.”

  Dev and I shared a knowing glance and kept our mouths shut, but Leia bit. “Insta-what?”

  “Insta-love. You know, when two characters meet and fall into ‘we’re meant to be together forever and oh my gosh I can’t live without you’ love,” Phoebe said, hamming it up by putting the back of her hand against her forehead in a faux swoon. “And usually it’s the bad boy and the quiet, mousy, bookish girl.”

  “What, you didn’t instantly love me?” Dev asked, nudging her in the side.

  Phoebe laughed and nudged him back. “Right. The second you walked into middle school orientation, talking about how you’d gotten a chance to see Spring Awakening and almost giving Ms. Lintz a heart attack because you started singing that one song, I knew we were meant to be. And if you’d started dancing, I definitely would have thrown myself at you on the spot.” He’d organized yet another flash mob right before the crowning, this time to a nineties music compilation, and looked like he was still recovering. Phoebe, who had refused to get involved until he dragged her in for the last half-song, kept reaching over to fix his sweaty hair. “I mean, really. I get love at first sight and all of that, but I think you still need to work together for it to become real. Real love, the kind that lasts, takes work. Movies and books with relationships that go from zero to eighty just aren’t realistic.”

  Alec picked up her phone and pursed his lips as he checked out her screen. “Wild guess here, but I bet this vampire/elf thing you’r
e reading has this insta-love.”

  She snatched back her phone, slipping it into her clutch. “Maybe.”

  I really couldn’t help myself. Some of the stuff she read was ridiculous, but this took the cake. “Vampire/elf? Really?”

  “Elves are immune to vampires and they’re natural enemies, so… yeah.” Phoebe mumbled, suddenly more interested in the trim on her sleeve than the rest of us.

  “In what fantasy canon?” Alec challenged, but was interrupted by Kris and Em sliding into their seats, back from their shift hanging out with some of the other student council guys.

  “You know, I could have helped any of you with a campaign to get prom queen,” Kris said. He looked down at Em, who pressed her lips together and shook her head. “For someone who really likes being the center of attention, I don’t get why you wouldn’t want to be prom queen.”

  He really didn’t get it. Em wasn’t the type to get involved in what amounted to popularity contests, no matter how much she loved the stage. I answered for her. “Yeah… none of us are into that. But it was nice cheering for Cassie.” Leia squeezed my hand under the table. Two points for my skill in saying just the right thing to make everyone happy and for being nice to Kris.

  We didn’t have to like our friends’ significant others, we just had to tolerate them. For the longest time, Phoebe didn’t like Leia much for some reason I never figured out. But since we were package deals, we made it work.

  “As long as you’re into the post-prom party, I’m okay with that,” Kris said, flashing us a brilliant smile. “I’m counting on you guys to keep things fun.”

  I looked over at Leia and said, “Maybe, but we’ll be bowing out early. Leia has something at her school tomorrow morning.”