The Duet

by R.S. Grey

  3. Cammie couldn’t keep a sex secret to save her life.

  “So do you think Jason and Logan will have a fight over you during the senior prom?” she asked, while Paulo finished my make-up, because yes, he could also do make-up. I’d found a big, burly, tattooed fairy Godmother.

  Before that moment, Paulo hadn’t realized there was anything going on between Jason and I outside of our music, but now he definitely did. Thanks to Cammie.

  “Like maybe Logan will pull you out onto the floor for a slow dance and Jason will be overcome with jealousy. They’ll fight over you and everyone at prom will stop to watch. Then they’ll tell Jason that he’s retroactively expelled and can’t graduate until he repeats senior year as a twenty-eight year old.”

  Paulo gasped in feigned horror.

  “Are you guys almost done writing cheesy 90s sitcom scenarios?” I asked, glaring at Cammie over my shoulder in the mirror.

  She reached forward and gripped my shoulder. “Brookie, no matter what you do— Use a condom. You don’t want to become a teen mother.”

  Her and Paulo completely lost it after that and I was left finishing up my own damn make-up after I’d kicked them out of my room. I looked at myself in the mirror and tried to get Cammie out of my head. (I also thought that I shouldn’t have been so hasty to kick Paulo out. Only one of my eyes was finished and I couldn’t do my own make-up for shit.)

  With a sigh, I went to work, reminding myself that the night was about the two high schoolers that Jason and I were escorting: Logan, and another senior named Jessie.

  When the school had heard about Jason’s offer to accompany a girl to the senior prom, they’d held a creative writing contest. Quite a few senior girls had written in and Jason had picked Jessie’s story out of all of them. He hadn’t let me read it, but I had a feeling he’d made a good choice. So it was all set. A limo would arrive in thirty minutes and then we’d go pick up Logan and Jessie to head to the dance.

  I hadn’t spoken with or even looked at Jason since our bathroom romp. So when I stepped down the stairs, holding up the bottom of my dress so I wouldn’t trip, I was not at all prepared to see him standing at the very bottom in a tailored black tuxedo.

  I inhaled a sharp breath and paused. For the first time since I’d met him, his chin and neck were completely clean and smooth. His hair was slicked back and my breath was coming in painful, short spurts. That strong chin was usually hidden behind stubble. Those eyes were usually hidden behind disheveled hair. Yet there he was, looking like the most beautiful man I’d ever seen, and he wasn’t even my date.

  Jason held his hand out for me to take once I’d gathered my wits enough to step down to him.

  “You guys have fun and don’t worry about curfew!” Cammie yelled.

  I glared over my shoulder and she shrugged. “Last one, I swear.”

  I blew her a kiss and a wink before Jason whisked us out to the limo.

  “Your sister is a lot like you,” Jason said as he held the limo door open for me so I could slide in. The interior was dimly lit and there were a few sodas chilling in an ice bucket below the far window. Although there was plenty of space for the two of us, Jason slid in next to me so that his thigh pressed against mine. The driver closed the door for us, and soon we were pulling away from the ranch on the uneven gravel drive.

  “Is she?” I asked. He wasn’t the first person to tell me that Cammie and I were alike, but I loved knowing why people thought that. Everyone had a different reason: our personality, our looks, our mannerisms.

  “Yeah, I mean she looks like you a little bit. But she’s got a lightness about her. It’s surprising to find that in people who’ve dealt with loss like the two of you have.”

  His words completely took me by surprise. Sure, Jason knew about me losing my parents, but the fact that he’d given it a second thought shook my emotions awake. The emotions I was trying to shove back down.

  “She’s always been my anchor and I hope I’ve been that for her as well. She can make me laugh like no one else.” I could feel his dark gaze concentrated on me, so I continued. “Not at first, of course. We had to work to get our humor back after everything that happened. But I remember the first time we laughed. The first time we told ourselves it was okay to be happy again.”

  He reached out for my hand and held it between his palms, but he didn’t offer any words. For a moment, I stared at the physical connection, completely shocked at his silent support. We sat like that until the limo pulled up outside of Logan’s house. It was a small redbrick home with a wrought-iron star positioned over the garage and a Ford truck parked in the driveway.

  I’d barely knocked on the door before it opened, and there was Logan, beaming ear to ear. He was wearing a tuxedo that hung off his shoulders and gaped around his waist, but he looked so handsome with gelled hair and a nervous smile. In that moment I knew I was doing the right thing by going to prom with him, even if it wasn’t exactly my idea of a fun night.

  “Your carriage awaits,” I joked.

  He glanced at the limo over my shoulder and then nodded quickly. “My parents want to take a few photos if that’s okay,” he explained with a shrug as his confident smile started to wane. I knew that there would be a few photos taken of the event, but my goal in going to the prom with Logan wasn’t for a publicity stunt. I didn’t want the photos to end up in a magazine. Still, I found myself smiling and stepping into his house.

  A few minutes later, after Logan’s little sister had asked me to literally sign every item in her room, we headed outside to slide into the limousine. Jason was on his phone when we slid back in, and to my dismay, he’d moved over to the side bench so that Logan and I could sit by one another. As much as I wanted to protest, Logan deserved to have my attention for the night. Well, I could at least sit by him. Actually pulling my attention away from Jason in a tuxedo just wasn’t feasible.

  I forced my gaze out the window as the limousine pulled out of Logan’s neighborhood and crossed the main road in Big Timber, toward a rougher looking area of town. When we pulled off onto a dirt road, a sign hung loose from its chains overhead. It read: “Big Timber RV Park”. Jessie’s home was at the farthest end of the park, surrounded by trees, with a small garden in the front yard. She was already sitting outside on the wooden stairs in front of her door, waiting for us with a big smile on her face. Her dark hair was pulled up into a simple up-do with a gemstone-covered barrette securing it all in place. I recognized her dress from the shop in town, a light purple poofy thing, but she looked like a princess in it, and as Jason exited the limousine, she looked like she was looking up at her prince. There was no one to take pictures of Jessie and Jason, so before they turned to climb back into the limousine, I hopped out with my iPhone and posed them next to the garden with the trees in the background.

  She was a quiet girl, obviously shy around Jason and I, but when we returned to the limousine and I told her that I liked her dress, her apprehensiveness started to fade.

  “Thanks! It took forever to pick the perfect one,” she said, looking down at the material and smoothing it out between her palms.

  “You look great,” Jason said, with a small smile.

  You would have thought he’d just told her she won a small island off the coast of Jamaica. Her eyes widened and she visibly stiffened. Jason met my gaze and I smiled to let him know he’d done the right thing.

  …

  The senior prom was held in the cafeteria of their high school. I didn’t know how the room was normally set-up, but the prom committee had done a good job with decorations. Save for that quintessential school smell, I’d have thought we were in a fancy ballroom in downtown LA. Multi-colored lights flashed overhead and there were balloons and streamers everywhere. A young DJ was up on stage with a laptop set-up on a black table. His music pounded through speakers set up around the room.

  To the left of the stage there was a line forming to have professional photos taken with a blue backdrop. Couples stood benea
th a white plastic arch with fake ivy twined throughout. The set-up might have been cheesy, but their smiles were real and you could feel the romance and excitement in the air.

  I tried to ignore the lingering stares around us. Even in the dim lighting, Jason and I stood out like sore thumbs. We had Hank with us as well as an additional security guard that Hank had brought with him. The pair of them stood at least a foot over the rest of the crowd, and combined they probably out-weighed an elephant. Very discreet.

  “What should we do first?” I asked, turning to our small group.

  “Let’s go check out the food,” Logan said, just as Jessie spoke up.

  “Can we go say hi to my friends?” she asked Jason with a timid voice.

  Jason and I exchanged a wary glance. We’d have to split up. Before I could think to protest, Logan headed toward the food table, tugging me along with him. Jessie moved toward the other side of the dance floor and Jason had to think fast to keep up with her.

  I shouldn’t have felt a pang of sadness, I mean we were still in the same building, and we’d see each other later. But knowing that our time was so limited, that in two weeks our arrangement would end, made me sad that we’d be separated all night by a sea of teenagers.

  After the food table, Logan dragged me over to where a group of boys were standing in a circle to the side of the dance floor. Before that night I didn’t think it was possible to discuss video games for that long without an end in sight. I don’t care about the merits of a good cosplay outfit. I just wanted to bash my head into the concrete pillar beside me.

  I didn’t want to leave Logan, so I held out, trying to keep up with the conversation while also trying not to fall asleep from how bored I was. Every few minutes a student would come up to ask me for a photo or an autograph. Normally the constant interruptions would have been annoying, but I welcomed them. You want a photo? Great. Let’s take fifteen.

  But then I spotted Jason out on the dance floor. Jessie was wearing a giant smile as he did a poor rendition of the “sprinkler”. I couldn’t help but laugh. The other girls on the dance floor would try to position themselves behind Jason so it looked like he was dancing with them. Their friends would snap a photo and they’d all giggle, looking down at the iPhone screen. It was funny to watch and I knew I’d have done the same thing when I was their age.

  A few of them were bold enough to ask him to dance, but he never accepted, instead he stayed true to his date with Jessie. He showered her with attention, doing his best to display a stream of various dance moves. (Some of which were truly terrible. I made a mental note to ask him why his dance moves were not on par with his bedroom moves.)

  A little while later, I got the brilliant idea to excuse myself to go to the bathroom. I figured I could take my time; maybe walk around the perimeter of the dance just to have something to do. I wanted to be a nice date to Logan, but it was clear that he was a teenage boy, and girls, even a celebrity crush, couldn’t hold his attention like a good ol’ video game discussion could.

  I watched Jason on the dance floor as I walked through the dance. He glanced up just before I turned the corner to the bathroom and his eyes locked on mine. I smiled and waved, and he flashed a playful smile. I would have lingered there longer, but another group of girls walked up to ask Jason for a picture. The man clearly had his hands full.

  Hank pointed me in the direction of the bathroom and I took my time once I was inside, listening to the conversations taking place around me. They were exactly what you’d expect from a deliciously trashy MTV show.

  Girl A: “Shithead Tommy hasn’t asked me to dance all night. Why did he even bother asking me to come if he wasn’t going to pay attention to me?”

  Girl B: “Yeah well, at least Tommy said you were hot. I bought a new push-up bra and Lucas hasn’t even noticed. He’s been up at the DJ booth, requesting dumb songs.”

  Girl A: “Our dates suck.”

  Girl B: “I know. We should have just stayed home and watched a movie.”

  Girl A: “Whatever. I think Jason Monroe is still here. Sally said she was going to try to kiss him.”

  Girl B: “Like he would kiss a high school girl. Sally’s a prude anyway.”

  Girl A: “Do you think I should stuff more toilet paper down my bra? I feel like my boobs have gotten smaller since I got here.”

  Girl B: “No. God. Tommy will notice. You already have enough toilet paper in there to deflect a bullet.”

  Girl A: “Whatever, your boobs are like giant water balloons. Why would I take advice from you?”

  I couldn’t hear the rest of their conversation because I had to flush my toilet, and once they knew someone else was in the bathroom with them, the pair of them scurried out like wild banshees. I stepped out of the stall and washed my hands, inspecting my make-up in the terrible lighting that exists in high school bathrooms. Dear God, no wonder teenage girls are insecure. I think I could see every one of my pores.

  After stalling for another ten minutes, I finally pushed the bathroom door open, knowing Logan was probably wondering where I’d gone. But before I could head back into the dance, I saw Jason standing in the hall with Hank and the other security guard. Once he saw me approaching, he stepped forward with a devilish smile.

  “I was about to send in someone to check if you were okay.”

  I laughed. “I needed a break from your cousin. I couldn’t listen to him talk about Grand Theft Auto for one more second.”

  Jason laughed and shook his head. “Yeah, I should have warned you about that.”

  He stepped closer and held his hand out for me to take. I stared down at it, thoroughly confused. Then I glanced down the hallway to find it completely deserted. Weren’t there teenagers ready to snap a photo as soon as they saw us holding hands? That photo would have been worth quite a lot if they sold it to the right person.

  “The coast is clear,” Jason said. “C’mon, let’s take a walk really quick. I talked Hank into letting us have some alone time.”

  The idea of alone time piqued my interest. In the last 24 hours Cammie had kept me completely occupied. Before I could offer a response, Jason wrapped his hand around mine and tugged me around a corner. Most of the overhead lights were off in the side hallway, but the few left on illuminated the expansive space. Lockers flanked the walls on both sides, but every few feet they cut off to allow for a classroom door. Jason tried the handle of each door we passed, until one, in the center of the hallway was finally unlocked. He grinned back at me as he pushed it opened and then pulled me inside.

  I think I’d had a fantasy just like this in high school, except it involved a young English teacher who read Shakespeare aloud to our class.

  That memory was pushed aside as Jason flipped a switch, illuminating half of the science lab, and leaving the rest of it in the shadows. Black tables were spaced around the room, set up with sinks and outlets to conduct experiments.

  “What a seductive location,” I joked, twining my fingers with his.

  He smirked. “I really have a thing for Bunsen burners.”

  “What are we doing here?” I asked, turning to look back out through the small window on the door. I expected to see sneaky high schoolers, vying for a spot in front of the window, but the hallway was completely empty. No one other than Hank and the other security guard even knew we’d left the dance.

  Jason turned to me and cupped my face between his hands, stealing my thoughts.

  “We’re not doing anything,” he replied before pressing a kiss to my lips. I tilted my head, trying to find something to center myself around. There was only Jason, so I gripped his suit jacket and held on for dear life. His tongue slipped past my lips and I used the lapels of his tuxedo to pull him closer.

  I couldn’t believe we were doing this in a school.

  In a classroom.

  “Jason,” I breathed, trying to grab a hold of our lust even for a moment. But it was impossible. Jason pushed me back against the chalkboard and started tugging my d
ress up around my hips. Oh holy hell, I was about to have sex against a chalkboard. Some teacher had written a scientific term on this board 24 hours earlier, and now I was getting boned against it. Hopefully I wouldn’t walk out of the room with E=MC2 printed across the back of my black dress.

  “We’re going to get in trouble,” I warned as I worked at his tuxedo pants. They were impossible to take off, with hidden buttons and trapped doors. Or at least it felt like it to me.

  “Now Ms. Heart, it’s time for you to serve your detention,” Jason said, unable to get the words out without smirking.

  “Oh God, so gross. We are not roleplaying,” I groaned.

  Jason dipped his head to kiss my chin and then he slipped the spaghetti strap of my gown down off my shoulder. I shivered in response to the cool fabric sliding across my skin. Or maybe it was the way Jason was touching me. His hands were everywhere, they moved beneath my dress so that my head fell back against the chalkboard. The pads of his fingers slid up my inner thighs, making my stomach quiver. They inched higher and higher until his fingers found their mark and spun my world on its axis.

  I could smell the chalk and the pencil shavings in the air. The weird stench of an old science experiment was impossible to ignore, but then Jason’s pants were gone and his head was in the crook of my neck so that the only thing I could smell was his spiced cologne and body wash, mingling together as he pressed inside of me. It was the first time we hadn’t used a condom and I couldn’t fathom how excruciatingly beautiful it would feel to have him inside of me like that.

  “Brook,” he whispered as he paused and pulled back to look into my eyes.

  I wanted to turn his face away or close my eyes, anything to prevent him from seeing what I’d been constantly trying to hide for the last two weeks. Just let me pretend like this is nothing.

  I could lie to myself. That part was easy. It was lying to him that I knew I wouldn’t get away with.

  He pulled away slowly, drawing his hips back, and then sinking back into me again, maintaining the eye contact that was tearing me apart. He kept up that maddeningly slow pace, stealing my heart and gripping it in his hands. Couldn’t he see it all? It was there plain as day. Everything I felt was splashed across my face like a blinking neon sign.