by Sophie Davis
The blood that rushed to my face was so hot that I broke out in a light sweat. Mom and I had never had the birds and the bees talk, and I really hoped that we weren’t about to now.
“It won’t happen again,” I promised her, turning to hang the dress in my closet before she saw my bright red cheeks.
“Have you eaten? I brought sandwiches from Hal’s.” Hal’s was a sandwich and salad shop next to the courthouse.
“Sounds good. I’ll be down in a minute.”
I waited until I heard Mom’s heels on the stairs again. Then I put on the dress, the silk soft and cool against my skin. The emerald fabric highlighted the green flecks in my eyes and made my auburn hair appear more red than brown. I twirled in front of the full-length mirror behind my door, unable to stop grinning like an idiot.
When I came to a standstill, the image in the mirror made my heart leap to my throat and every inch of my skin prickle. The gorgeous gown that I’d pulled from the dress bag had been replaced by a tattered, soot-streaked green rag. Jagged holes dotted the skirt, each one ringed with black. The bodice was ripped, most of the crystals hanging by threads. My eyes were red-rimmed and a crown of gray ash sat on top of my hair.
I gasped and tentatively reached out to touch the girl in the mirror. The palm that met mine was bright red with angry white blisters. I squeezed my eyes shut and took several deep breaths.
Smoke, fire, death, Devon, flashed through my mind.
Tears leaked from beneath my closed lids, making almost inaudible thudding noises as they fell to the carpet. I counted to ten before working up enough nerve to open my eyes again. To my relief, the image staring reflected was me as I looked right now. But I couldn’t get the previous one out of my mind. Even worse, I realized it was not the first time I’d seen myself in the damaged version of the gown. Or the first time I’d seen myself in the undamaged version. I’d dreamt about both.
I nearly tore the zipper in my haste to shed the dress. Once it was nothing more than a pool of green silk puddled beneath my feet, I kicked it towards the open closet. I was scared to touch it, like the fabric might bite me. Wearing nothing more than my underwear and dream catcher, I climbed under the covers and hugged myself until I fell asleep.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Saturday morning. Prom. I woke with a churning stomach and a pounding head. Over the past forty-eight hours I’d drafted no less than ten separate texts to Kaydon explaining that I’d changed my mind about attending prom. But I always chickened out before hitting send. I’d shared my concerns with Devon, who attributed my nerves to what may or may not happen at the after-party. Basically, she thought I was worried that Kaydon expected me to sleep with him since that was what people did after prom. That prospect hadn’t crossed my mind until she suggested it.
As a special treat, Mom made last-minute appointments for Devon, Elizabeth, Mandy, and me at a salon on Main Street. When Elizabeth picked me up, Devon and Mandy were already in the car. They were all talking excitedly, passing around pictures they’d torn from magazines to give to the hairdressers. I hated that I couldn’t muster any enthusiasm. No matter how hard I tried, the nagging sensation of impending doom wouldn’t go away.
The Waverunner was as upscale as it got in Westwood, and they served us sparkling cider while we had our hair teased, sprayed, twisted, and curled into submission. Mandy smiled through the entire ordeal, so much so I wondered if her cheeks hurt. Elizabeth gushed about Cooper and how he’d taken a picture of her dress to the flower shop to make sure the corsage he ordered matched her dress perfectly. I sat back in the chair and listened to my friends as they made bets on who would win prom king and queen. Devon pretended like her chances of being queen were low, even though all four of us knew she had it in the bag.
“I’m going to run down to the tailor and pick up my dress,” Devon said.
Having considerably shorter hair than Elizabeth and me, the hairdresser had managed to weave baby’s breath through Devon’s spiral curls in the time it took my hairdresser just to pile mine into a ponytail – the curling process had yet to begin.
“If you wait like ten more minutes, I’ll come,” Mandy volunteered. The upside-down French braid that Mandy had chosen was complete; all that was left for her hairdresser to do was curl and spray the ends.
Devon waved her hand dismissively. “That’s okay. If I go now, I can be back by the time all three of you are finished. We need to get back to Eel’s ASAP so we can get started on our makeup.”
“We have time,” I spoke up. “Wait for one of us to go with you.” I didn’t like the idea of Devon being alone. Maybe I was being paranoid, but something told me that I needed to stay close to her today.
“I’m a big girl, Eel,” Devon laughed. “I don’t need a chaperone.” With that she was gone before I could voice a second protest.
“Is she okay? She seems a little down,” Mandy said once Devon was gone.
“Totally. Devon’s happy going stag,” I replied.
“I feel badly for her. She’s going to be queen, and it looks sort of bad that she doesn’t have a date,” Elizabeth interjected.
“Don’t let her hear you say that,” I warned. Devon would hate the idea of anyone pitying her. “Besides, if she wanted a date, she would have one.”
Forty-five minutes later, my hair was piled into a loose bun with a handful of strategically placed curls framing my face. Claire, the same woman who cut and styled my mother’s hair, had used copious bobby pins with tiny white roses on the ends to hold my hair in place. She’d also used the entire can of Aquanet, ensuring that I’d have to shampoo my hair at least three times the following day before it had any hope of moving again. There was probably a hole in the ozone larger than that giant ball of yarn in Minnesota hovering over the salon.
“What’s taking Dev so long?” Elizabeth asked, checking the time on her cell phone. We’d just finished paying our respective bills. She made a face when she realized how much time had passed since Devon left for the tailor. “Maybe her dress isn’t ready?”
“I’ll call her.” Just when I finally fished my cell from my purse, the bells over the front door jingled and Devon walked in. The smile on her lips rivaled the Cheshire cat’s and her big blue eyes twinkled.
“There you are,” I said, relieved. We were running short on time now – the boys were supposed to be at my house no later than four so we could take pictures before the limo arrived at five. “Dress turn out okay?”
“Better than okay. It turned out amazing.” Devon’s tone had this dreamlike quality to it, which was completely out of character for my best friend. Elizabeth and I exchanged glances.
“What took so long then?” Elizabeth asked.
Devon’s expression turned coy. She shrugged nonchalantly. “I didn’t realize I’d been gone that long. Guess time really does fly when you’re having a good time.”
I looked from Elizabeth to Mandy, seeking confirmation that they too thought Devon was acting strangely. Both girls appeared just as confused as I felt.
“Right, because the tailor is the happening place to be today,” I said sardonically.
The sarcasm was wasted on Devon.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Endora Lee.” Devon gave me an exaggerated eye roll. “Bryson was the good time, not the tailor.”
“Who’s Bryson?” I asked slowly. There was something seriously off about Devon. Her behavior was so out of character that I wondered if she’d hit her head. And had she really just called me by my full first name? She never used my full first name.
“Bryson Daniels. He’s friends with Abby Reynolds and Kilbi Arnold. You’ve met him.” Abby and Kilbi were juniors and both girls were on the lacrosse team, but I wasn’t familiar with any of their friends outside of the other girls on the team. “Anyway, I ran into him on the way back from the tailor and we got to talking. One thing led to another and I invited him to be my date tonight.”
Devon squealed when she said the last part. Actually squealed
. I hadn’t seen her so excited since the salesgirl at Victoria’s Secret told her she’d graduated from an A-cup to a B-cup.
“Oh my god! That is so awesome!” Now Elizabeth was squealing excitedly too. “This is so great. Is he coming to dinner with us?”
Devon’s face fell. “No. He has to watch his little brother until his parents get home from the Orioles game. He’s meeting up with us at the country club.”
“Well, we can’t wait to check him out,” Mandy said.
Speak for yourself, I thought. Something about this situation put my teeth on edge. Between Devon’s giddiness, and the half-dazed, half-lovestruck expression she wore, my guard was up. Apparently I was the only one, though. Neither Elizabeth nor Mandy seemed concerned. In fact, both girls were grilling Devon about Bryson Daniels. What did he look like? How old was he? Did she think he’d have time to buy her a corsage?
Relax; be happy for her, I ordered myself. Clearly Devon was happy, and as her best friend, I should be supportive.
“I’m very excited for you,” I told Devon, linking my arm through hers and mustering a smile for her benefit. “But if we don’t get back to my house soon, we are all going to be going to prom sans makeup. And considering we just paid a small fortune to have our hair done, we’d look pretty silly with extravagant ’dos and bare faces.”
Devon threw her head back and laughed.
“You’re right. We don’t want to disappoint our dates!” She said it without a hint of sarcasm and now actually looked like she was worried that Bryson might be disappointed if she were less than perfect. My smile faltered and my insides squirmed. Whoever this Bryson Daniels was, I disliked him already.
****
“Okay, now just the girls,” Mrs. Holloway said.
My living room was standing-room only. In addition to Elizabeth, Mandy, Devon, me, and our dates – minus the Bryson Daniels character – Cooper’s friend, Jared Cato, and Anna Beth Walters, the JV lacrosse captain, were arranged in front of the fire place posing for one picture after another. Since Anna Beth was only a sophomore and didn’t know many seniors besides Jared, I’d suggested they share our limo.
The other four girls and I lined up with Elizabeth in the middle since she was the tallest, the rest of us filling in around her. Next, Mrs. Holloway arranged the four boys according to height. We took serious pictures, silly pictures, pictures of each individual couple, pictures of Devon and me, Elizabeth and me, Mandy and me, Anna Beth and me, Devon and Elizabeth, Devon and Mandy, and so on and so forth until my jaw muscles ached from all of the smiling.
I’d been worried about my mother being rude to Kaydon after catching him in my room the other night. Thankfully, she was on her best behavior and only asked him a handful of perfunctory questions instead of interrogating him as I’d feared she would.
“You are absolutely beautiful, Endora,” Mom told me as she hugged me goodbye. “Have fun tonight, and please call on your way to the sports complex.”
The school-sanctioned after-party was being held at the indoor sports complex on the outskirts of Westwood. My friends and I weren’t actually going to that party – we were going to Elizabeth’s – but Mom was paranoid about me becoming a statistic, and had only agreed to let me stay out if I agreed to go to the adequately chaperoned, school-sponsored after-party.
“I will,” I promised her. At least, I would call on the way to Elizabeth’s.
“Kaydon, it was nice to see you again.” She offered Kaydon her hand and he shook it, managing to meet her eyes for the first time all evening.
While he’d found my embarrassment the other night funny, his cheeks had turned red every time my mother looked at him tonight. Apparently, he wasn’t accustomed to being caught in his girlfriend’s bedroom by her mother. I found this endearing and was secretly relieved that it wasn’t a common occurrence for him. In some ways I knew him better than anyone else in my life. But I knew nothing about his dating history; with all of the bizarre stuff surrounding us, the topic had never come up. I was willing to bet he had a lot more experience than I did, though.
“You too, Mrs. Andrews,” he responded.
After hugging each of the Holloways, the Byrds, and Helen, we finally piled into the white limo and were off to dinner at the Rustic Tavern.
The limo came stocked with sodas, bottled water, assorted juices, and bags of pretzels and chips. Of course, Cooper and Jared each had a flask tucked inside their jackets, and Elizabeth had nabbed several bottles of champagne from her mother’s mini-bar.
“Let’s get this party started!” Cooper declared, uncorking a bottle of Dom.
The cork shot across the limo, narrowly missing Mandy and Matthew, who were cuddled on one of the bench seats. Cooper poured the overpriced bubbly into plastic cups and passed one to each of us.
“To the best night of our lives!” Elizabeth declared, raising her glass in toast.
“To my gorgeous date,” Kaydon said in a low voice, tapping his cup against mine.
I blushed at his compliment. “To my incredibly dapper-looking date,” I said.
During dinner I kept my attention focused on Devon. She’d been extremely quiet, both at my house and in the limo. The lavender gown she wore had thin spaghetti straps, and she kept fiddling with them nervously. Every five minutes she dug a silver compact from her evening bag and checked her makeup, frequently reapplying lip gloss. When I suggested that she relax, she nearly bit my head off.
“I don’t want to disappoint Bryson,” she snapped after I told her she looked amazing and that fact hadn’t changed since the last time she checked.
“Who is Bryson?” Kaydon whispered.
“This guy she met on Main Street. She was so enamored with him that she asked him to be her date tonight.”
“You don’t know him?”
I shook my head. “Nope. She says he’s friends with some of the junior girls from the team, but I’ve never met him.”
Kaydon studied Devon with newfound interest. He squinted his eyes in concentration as if looking for something not immediately apparent, his expression pensive. When he noticed me watching him, he offered me a lopsided grin.
“You’re worried about her aren’t you?”
“That obvious?”
“Devon can take care of herself, Endora.” Kaydon’s voice was low, gentle. “You’re a good friend to worry, though.” He ran his forefinger over the back of my hand, sending a pleasant tingling sensation crawling up my arm and warming my entire body.
“Would you two lovebirds please stop whispering sweet nothings to each other?” Cooper teased. “Kaydon, dude, you’re making me look bad. First you get Eel a bigger corsage than I got Liz and now you spend dinner staring into her eyes. I can’t compete, man.”
Elizabeth leaned over and kissed Cooper’s clean-shaven cheek. “There’s no competition, Coop. You already got me.”
All the champagne, combined with Elizabeth’s love of romance, made her particularly over-the-top this evening. Ordinarily this was something Devon and I teased her about. But when I tried to catch Devon’s eye to share a grin, she wouldn’t look at me. Instead she was staring at Elizabeth and, if I didn’t know better, I would have said that her blue eyes flamed green with envy.
A receiving line that included Principal Beam, Mrs. Randolf (our class advisor), Vice Principal Lovejoy, and several members of the PTA, greeted us at the entrance to Turf Valley Country Club. I hadn’t partaken in any more libations since the first glass of champagne, but Elizabeth and Cooper had long since crossed the line that separated sobriety and inebriation. Elizabeth teetered on her heels, and Cooper giggled every time she stumbled on the hem of her dress. Kaydon artfully steered the two of them around the adults while the rest of us distracted them.
The ballroom was gorgeous, decorated with blue and white balloons and streamers. A large dance floor was in the center of the room, surrounded by round tables covered in pressed linens and centerpieces with floating blue and white tea lights. Carving station
s staffed by waiters in white tuxedo jackets lined one wall. And bartenders mixing non-alcoholic beverages were situated along the other.
“Should we grab a table?” Mandy asked.
She and Matthew, who had barely spoken to anyone besides each other all evening, were holding hands and standing so close together they sort of resembled conjoined twins. Mandy wore an expression of complete adoration, which was mirrored on Matthew’s face. I’d never seen my friend so comfortable or happy. I liked it.
“Sounds good,” I agreed.
We found a table near the dance floor and set our stuff down on the chairs. After Jared shed his jacket and Anna Beth ditched her shawl, they joined the throng of students gyrating to the music the DJ was playing. Cooper and Elizabeth followed suit, both relying on the other to stand up straight.
“Care to dance?” Kaydon asked, giving me a mock bow.
I giggled stupidly and wrinkled my nose. “I’m not very coordinated.”
Kaydon pulled out a chair for me to sit. “Don’t be modest, Endora. I’ve seen you play lacrosse; you’re incredibly coordinated.”
I shrugged. Truthfully, I wasn’t a horrible dancer, but I was still worried about Devon. The nagging sensation that there was something wrong with my best friend wouldn’t go away. I glanced across the table to where she sat, checking her phone.
“Why don’t you grab us something to drink? Then I promise we can dance.” I grinned up at him, but he wasn’t fooled.
He leaned down and kissed my cheek, his lips administering a tiny shock that made me shiver. “She’s fine,” he whispered in my ear. “I’ll go get drinks, but then I’m holding you to that promise about dancing.”
I waited until Kaydon was out of earshot.
“When is Bryson going to be here?” I called to Devon across the table.
She looked up from her phone and beamed. The sound of her date’s name caused her entire face to light up and that dreamy expression to cloud her eyes. She opened her mouth as if to respond, but the display on her cell drew her attention once again. Her smile widened.
