I laughed. “Ah, thank you! But you don’t have to say that! Beauty is in the eye of the beholder! I’m sure your date is bellissima!”
“Someone’s been reading ahead in the text book!” Chad kidded me. “Come on – Michael’s right. Let’s go outside and practice. It’s too nice out to be in here!”
So we went outside and found a nice sunny spot and spread our textbooks out in the grass. We put some good work in on the dialogues and I tried to encourage Chad not to be so self-conscious about rolling his r’s.
“I feel silly, though!” he protested. “I feel like that woman with the fruit on her head who always says cha-cha-cha!”
“Who?” I gave him a look. “I don’t know if you mean Carmen Miranda or Charo!”
We were both laughing when Cheryl appeared in front of us with a face like thunder.
“Oh this is cozy!” she said angrily as she plopped down on the grass with us.
She flipped the cover of my textbook closed and shoved it out of her way.
“What’s going on? Are you working on the newspaper?” she asked and I could see she was having a hard time holding back the daggers that were nearly bursting out of her eyes at both of us.
“Catherine’s helping me with Italian,” Chad explained. “She seems to have a knack for it. My pronunciation is terrible.”
“It’s not that bad, actually,” I said. “Most of the class was far worse than you!”
“Yeah, well the whole class was far worse than you!” he countered.
“Is it really important? I thought you were just taking this class for fun because you wanted to travel?” Cheryl pouted.
“True,” Chad conceded. “But it’ll still affect my grade point average even though it’s an elective.”
She turned her nose up insolently.
“Well, I don’t know why you’re so worried about your grade point average when you’re planning on traveling after this year anyway,” she said sulkily.
“Because I still want to go to college the year after that. And I want to go to the best college I possibly can.” Chad’s patience was wearing thin. “Is there a particular reason you’re so concerned about my interest in doing well in this class?” he asked her.
“No,” she answered sullenly. “It just seems like you’re laughing and having a good time and not really doing work, though.”
She glared at me then and I knew there was going to be trouble later.
“You know what? I’m starving. I’m going to go get something to eat. I’ll see you guys later,” I tried to sound diplomatic as I gathered my books and stood up to leave.
“That’s a great idea. I’ll join you,” Chad shocked me by saying.
What? Why had he thwarted my escape plan?
“Cheryl, do you want to come, too?” I asked her.
She was looking up at Chad in disbelief like she was a wounded puppy.
“Um, yeah, I’ll come,” she said after a few seconds.
The three of us walked towards the dining hall together in stony silence. When we finally arrived after what felt like the longest walk in the world, I was relieved to see Trevor commandeering a table where a bunch of other guys were hanging out and eating.
Oh thank goodness, I thought, he’ll never sit with us with all his guy friends there.
“Chad!” Trevor called out to summon him over.
“Ah, excuse me. I’ll see you girls tomorrow,” Chad bid us adieu as he peeled off to sit with them.
As soon as he was out of earshot, Cheryl laid into me.
“What were you doing? You looked like you were having a cozy little picnic date with the guy I’m in love with!” she seethed through clenched teeth.
“Cheryl – he asked me to help him with his Italian homework. We were working on it in the newspaper office, but then the other editor came in to work and we decided to go somewhere else so that we wouldn’t be bothering him. And we went outside. Because the weather is beautiful. That’s all. You saw we had our textbooks open. It wasn’t like a date.”
It really wasn’t, and I didn’t know how on earth I was going to convince her.
“Christ, if I’d have known he was going to take an introductory level class that I could have taken too…” she shook her head as she dropped her bag down on a chair. “But really? Does he really need that much help? I kind of doubt it. It’s the second week of school – it’s not like there’s a mid-term coming up that you have to study for,” she grilled me.
“He asked me. What was I supposed to say?” I floundered.
I had no interest in Chad. I was in love with an apparition who I couldn’t talk about to anyone, lest they think I was some kind of nut job.
But then I got an idea.
“Cheryl,” I began.
She was striding purposefully over to the food service area and I was struggling to keep up to her.
“Do you not remember me telling you before? That time you did my make up; I’m kind of madly in love with someone from back home.” I felt ridiculous saying it. But then I added the one true part: “I honestly have no interest in Chad.”
She gave me a steely look.
“I’m trying really hard not to think of him. He doesn’t like me back. It’s rather a pathetic situation, actually. And since my family moved away there’s like, no chance I’ll ever see him again anyway. I feel like a loser, but I can’t stop…pining for him. It’s embarrassing. I know I’ve hardly mentioned it, because it didn’t seem like it was worth mentioning. But I’m telling you now because I want you to know, for real, that I have no interest whatsoever in Chad.”
Her face seemed to soften ever so slightly towards me and she bit her lip.
“Well,” she said, “Maybe it’s high time we find someone here for you to like. You’re pretty. We could make that a little project – finding you a boyfriend.”
Had she not heard what I had just told her?
“No, the point is, I’m not interested in liking someone. I’m already in love with somebody else.”
Now that was actually one hundred per cent true.
“But sweetie,” she cooed to me, “You’re never gonna see him again. We should find you someone to help take your mind off of him.”
I shrugged.
I rather suspected that she wanted to fix me up with someone to keep me away from Chad. But I couldn’t really argue with her when everything I was telling her was a lie anyway. I had become quite the liar since I had started attending Brandenhurst and becoming friends with Cheryl. I had never noticed this trait in myself before and I didn’t like that I was developing it now. I always felt like if you had to lie about something then that was a good indicator that you shouldn’t be doing it. But I wasn’t doing anything I shouldn’t be, was I? The lies were all intended to spare Cheryl’s feelings. I had never had a friend before who had so many complicated feelings that were like trip wires set out for me all the time. Lying was the only way to avoid them.
With that fire put out for the time being, we took our trays and headed back to the table. Now it was all about tomorrow night’s dance.
“What are you going to wear?” Cheryl asked me. “I can lend you something if you want. You need to look hot.”
“What do people usually wear? A dress? Jeans?” I queried her.
“Well I’m wearing a dress. With stiletto heels. I think most of the girls will be in dresses. You definitely can’t wear jeans,” she advised me.
“Alright,” I said. “I think I have something.”
“What?” she asked me skeptically. “You have to look hot.”
Yes, you said that already.
“I have something. It’ll be a surprise.” I winked at her.
“Okay, so Trevor got us a bottle of vodka. Do you like it better with cranberry or orange juice?” she asked.
I had absolutely no idea, having never drunk vodka before. But I said cranberry anyway, because really how much difference could it possibly make?
“Good – that’s
my preference, too. I’ll take care of getting us some soda water and some cranberry juice then. Now,” she leaned in to me, “We have to figure out a way to get me and Chad together alone. Since you and him are such good friends now, maybe you can help me,” she sniffed.
“Okay,” I said, unsure of what she could possibly have in mind.
“It has to be after the party and at the dance. Or wait, no. Maybe I could somehow get him away from the rest of the group between the party and the dance.”
The wheels in her brain were spinning.
“I don’t know if you can plan something like this. I mean, you have no idea how the night is going to play out. How on earth are you going to get him to go off with you by himself?”
“That’s where you come in!” she beamed at me.
“What do you mean?” I asked, knowing I wasn’t going to like the answer.
“Well he’s more likely to go off alone with you. So you could make up some excuse to get him away from everybody and then I could take over.”
I did not like that idea one bit. It involved lying to Chad. No – not just lying to him, but tricking him into doing something he knew that I knew that he wouldn’t want to do. There was no way I could do that to him after he’d been so decent to me.
“Aw, no way, Cheryl. Please keep me out of it. I’m terrible at that kind of stuff. He’ll see right through me and know something’s up. I’ll feel like an idiot,” I said and waited for her reaction.
“You say that as if we’re tricking him into following us into the woods so that we can murder him! I want to talk to him and see if we can get back on track…why do you act like I’m trying to get you to help me do something bad to him?” she accused.
“I just don’t think it will work. And we’ll both end up looking stupid. He’ll know right away what we’re up to. Why can’t you just talk to him at the dance?” I reasoned.
She thought about it for a moment. “I can talk to him at the dance. But it’s not talking that I’m mostly interested in.”
“Well, okay then. Talk to him yourself honestly at the dance and if it goes well then you can sneak out of there with him. I don’t think he’ll appreciate me luring him away from the group to talk to you. He’ll know what we’re up to, and it’ll piss him off, and then you talking to him isn’t likely to go well,” I suggested.
“Oh. Good point.”
She was finally seeing sense.
“But you have to be my wing-girl,” she said as she pointed her fork at me.
“Huh?” I was genuinely confused.
“You have to watch him and if other girls come up to talk to him, you have to butt in and take his attention away from them. Keep him occupied for me,” she explained.
“Why? Where will you be?” I asked.
“Oh, I don’t know. In case I go to the bathroom, in case other guys ask me to dance and I want to flirt with them and make Chad jealous. But between the two of us we can’t take our eyes off of him,” she said as she stabbed her fork into her salad for emphasis.
“Sure. That doesn’t sound like a problem,” I acquiesced
“Great! I can’t wait! This is going to be a lot of fun!” she trilled.
I had my doubts, but I tried to match her enthusiasm with my smile.
CHAPTER 17
I came back to the dorm after classes on the day of the dance wanting nothing more than to have a nice long nap in my bed. I couldn’t for two reasons: I had too much to do to get ready, and Margie was there.
“Are you going to the big daaaaaanncce tonight?” she mocked me good naturedly.
“Yes I am! Is your boyfriend picking you up?” I answered.
“Yep! He’s probably nearly here. I’m just waiting for him to text that he’s downstairs. I don’t know how you spend all weekend locked up in this place. It drives me nuts – the best thing about weekends is getting the hell out of here.” She made a face and flopped back on her bed.
“Well, I’ve still been here less than a month, so I don’t find it too bad just yet. Give me another year!” I grimaced as it suddenly occurred to me that this was not a temporary situation and that I would in fact probably be back here next year.
Margie clocked my face.
“You alright?” she asked concerned.
“Yeah,” I sighed, “I just had a little pang of homesickness. Haven’t had one of those in a little while now!”
“Aw, it’s ‘cause you’ve been busy with classes and everything. You haven’t had time to think about it,” she said.
“Yeah, I have been preoccupied. That’s for sure,” I said thinking of all the events over the past two weeks.
“How has it been? Are you finding it okay here?” she asked. “Because I know I take off and do my own thing all the time, but if you ever wanna hang out, you know you’re welcome,” she offered.
“That’s really nice of you. I’m sure I’ll take you up on that one of these days!” I smiled at her kindness.
Just then, her phone beeped and she popped up off of her bed and grabbed her bag in one quick, smooth motion.
“That’ll be my guy! And that’ll be me outta here!”
“Have a great weekend!” I said as she pulled on her jacket and made her way to the door.
“You too. Have fun at the dance. And don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!” she teased as she made a crazy face at me and practically leapt out the door.
I walked over to my closet and pulled out the sundress that my mother had bought for me on that first day and laid it out on my bed. It was very pretty, I thought. It was light cotton and the color of a poppy with tiny blue flowers printed on it. It had little elasticized cap sleeves and an elasticized scoop neckline with an empire waist that emphasized my bust line. The skirt flared out to my knees and I decided that I would wear it with a pair of wedge sandals to make me look very tall and long-legged. It was by no means a glitzy dress in the style of something I expected Lisa and Cheryl to be wearing, but there was something Greek-goddessy about it that I loved. It was soft and feminine and the color suited me perfectly. I hoped that by now Lisa would have forgotten seeing it in the shop window in town.
I tip-toed down the hall to the shower room, keeping my fingers crossed all the way that I wouldn’t run into Cheryl or Lisa. I had a long, hot steamy shower in which I shampooed and conditioned my hair and shaved my legs. And then I just stood around under the hot water in the steam and relaxed. Nobody else came in to use the showers while I was there: it was heavenly.
Once back in my room, I moisturized myself all over so that my skin would look fresh and dewy. And then, still in my robe with a towel wrapped around my wet head, I began to apply pearly red toe nail polish. It was the perfect shade to go with my dress. I laid back on my bed and flipped through a book while I gave my toes time to dry.
Then on to the most time consuming event of the preparation: my hair. I dug out my hot rollers and got them plugged in while I stood upside down with the hairdryer. Just to dry it would take a good thirty minutes, then I’d have to roll it and set it….this was the reason I usually just wore it straight or shoved it all back into a ponytail. But I wanted to look really pretty tonight, so when it was finally dry I took a great deal of time and extra care twisting my hair around the rollers.
I decided to keep my face as dewy and natural looking as possible, so I applied only the slightest hint of tinted moisturizer as a base. I used a chocolate brown pencil on my upper lids only, really smudging and blending it to look as soft as possible, and then I finished off my eyes with a few thick coats of mascara. I applied a neutral colored lip gloss that made my lips just a shade darker than their natural color and voila! I did look dewy and fresh without looking like I was wearing a lot of make up! Now I just had to hope that my curls would take nicely.
I slipped my dress over my head with the curlers still intact and then began to unroll them. I had a mass of long, loose dark chestnut ringlets cascading over my shoulders! It was really beautiful and I wished tha
t it didn’t take so much time and effort and that I could just wake up in the morning with hair that looked like this. I was styling the waves with my fingers to break them up a little without pulling the curl out when a voice from behind me nearly made me jump out of my skin.
“You are beautiful,” Stefano said in a soft low voice. “You are absolute perfection.”
“Stefano!” I cried as I whirled around! “Oh god, I feel like it’s been ages since we’ve been together!”
I moved to embrace him, but he stopped me.
“Let me look at you a bit longer,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen such beauty in my life.”
He sighed longingly as he fixed me in his translucent green eyes and I wanted to melt.
“Thank you,” I flushed with pleasure as I smiled quietly at him.
“Ah! And there it is! The blush that drives into my very heart and kills me every time! I die to see that blush!” he said un-ironically. “And now you smile at me as enigmatically as the Mona Lisa herself. Catherine, Catherine, Catherine….” He buried his face in his hands.
“Can I please hug you now?” I kept smiling.
“Anything your heart desires, my love,” he said as he embraced me in the way that only he could. “Anything for you.”
“I’ve missed you! It seems like ages since we’ve seen each other! I’m so busy with school and people and I feel like I’m never alone anymore!” The words spilled from me.
“I know, I know. But I’ve kept you with me, just as I know you keep me with you,” he breathed as he brushed his lips against my ear.
“And I’ve been dying to hear more about Caterina. And I need you to help me with my Italian homework! And I’ve just missed you! I didn’t realize how much until right now!” I cried softly into him.
“Shhhhhhh,” he soothed me. “Don’t go mussing your beautiful hair and crinkling your face up in distress.”
“I have to go this dance now tonight,” I said, “but tomorrow I’m staying in all day no matter what and we’re spending the day together. And the next day,” I stated with no room for argument.
“I would like that very much,” his emerald eyes were heavy lidded and he breathed deeply as if he might be trying to inhale my scent. “As for this evening – I don’t know how I dare let you out of this room. You will be the most exquisite girl there and much sought after by the boys.”
Haunted Page 19