“Well, Luce that’s partly true, but I saw you with Sam tonight and you guys are good together.”
“I guess…”
The girls sat in silence for a moment. Finally, Lucy took a deep breath and asked, “Do you know why they started hating each other?”
Mandy, no stranger to the opposite sex, nodded and answered, “In not so many words. I mean, Jerm hasn’t come out plainly to say it was a ‘she,’ but that’s the only thing it could be. They’re so much alike, they should be best friends, not enemies.”
“Your powers of observation will continue to amaze me.”
“Thank you, Ms. Karate.”
“You know what?” Lucy dusted herself off and stood up.
“What’s that?”
“I’m going to go ahead and enjoy our Homecoming. I'll completely understand if you'd rather stay here and wait for your boyfriend. But I think I'd have a much better time if you came with me.”
Mandy thought a moment and answered, “You know what?”
“What’s that?”
“I’ll go, but only if you promise me I can crash South’s Homecoming next week.”
“Why would you want to that?”
“The way I figure it, we kind of are only getting half a night here…”
“Okay,” Lucy tentatively agreed, “But what if Sam doesn’t want to take me anymore?”
“He will.”
“Promise?”
“Yes! Lucy, you worry too much. Couples fight – it happens.”
Knowing Mandy had much more relationship experience than she did, Lucy swallowed and said, “I certainly hope you’re right. So, do you want to go in and try and find Jerm to tell him we're leaving?”
Mandy shook her head and answered, “Actually, I just saw Jerm’s parents pull up. I’d rather not be there to see his mom treat my boyfriend like he’s a five year old. I’ll send him a text and bring him some soup or something tomorrow.”
“Understandable.”
“But what about you? Don't you want to tell Sam we’re leaving?”
“No. Until he's ready to tell me what the hell was going on earlier tonight, I have nothing to say to him.”
“Probably best then, in that mood.”
Lucy tapped her heeled feet on the pavement and said, “Well, as our only ride has abandoned us, I guess all we need now is a Fairy Godmother.”
“Lucy? Mandy? Is that you?”
The pair jumped, then turned around and were surprised to see Katie. Katie King was a driver for a local transportation company and a regular at the pizza place the past summer. The woman had befriended Mandy and Lucy during some of the long slow afternoons at the restaurant and drove just about everything out there. Mandy and Lucy had seen her pull up in anything from a Lincoln town car to a huge motorcoach. Their friend was tiny, so it was funny to see her behind the wheel of so many huge vehicles. Tonight wasn’t different; Katie was walking over from a Hummer stretch limo.
“Hey Katie, how’s it going?” Mandy asked.
“Good. Great to see both of you in something other than flour and red gingham,” the driver commented, referring to their old uniforms.
Lucy asked the obvious question, “What are you doing here? Did someone in your limo get hurt? Are you okay?”
Katie rolled her eyes and answered, “High schoolers. No offense gals, but some kids don’t know how to handle themselves.”
Mandy smiled and said, “Well, you can include our dates in that mess.”
“Is that so?”
Lucy, starting to see the random humor in her night so far, said, “Mine is bleeding from the mouth, and hers can only see out of one eye.”
Katie looked strangely at the pair, so, with the bizarre idea that just popped into her head, Lucy rushed ahead, “Anyway, how long do you have to stay here?”
“I don’t know, at least a few more hours. They booked the limo for at least a five hour minimum.”
Mandy looked at Lucy, who smiled. The bass drummer asked, “Can you give us a lift over to the school? It’s not that far.”
Katie considered for a moment, then walked back towards the giant vehicle and called out, “For my favorite pizza girls – anything!”
Twenty minutes later, Mandy and Lucy pulled up to Forrest Hills high school. Although it wasn’t the entrance she originally planned on, the bass drummer wasn’t going to complain. En route, they had already called ahead to warn Gina of their arrival. The majorette, social butterfly that she was, had gathered many of their friends from the marching band to greet the pair. Hopping out of the eighteen person limo, among the pictures, Lucy and Mandy found Jonathan and Gina in the crowd. Jonathan, gallant gentleman that he was, took the Guard member on one arm and his date on the other and escorted them inside. Letting them walk ahead, Lucy decided to blend in with the crowd and let them go. As the extended limo pulled away, the bass drummer sat down tiredly outside the gym, wondering how smart it was to even attend the dance.
“Hey.”
Lucy looked up and was very surprised to see Nevada standing in front of her. He wasn’t wearing anything special, but somehow managed to make her heart beat faster in his black leather motorcycle jacket, white t-shirt, and dark jeans. Lucy glanced cautiously around to see if he was alone. He was.
“Can I have a seat?”
Not able to trust her voice, she nodded and the cymbal player sat down next to her. Finally, Lucy blurted out, “Why are you here?”
Affecting a sarcastic tone, he replied, “After my original date ended things with me, I decided I needed something to put on my college application.”
Lucy was surprised at his response. Although she had avoided the topic, she had assumed her would be here with a date. Furthermore, responsibility wasn’t exactly Nevada’s middle name. Curious, she asked, “And how would you do that exactly?”
Nevada unclipped his nametag and passed it to Lucy, who read it aloud, “Nevada Petersen: Photography Assistant.”
“That would be me.”
Handing the flimsy nametag back, she commented, “So go ahead.”
“Go ahead and what?”
“Go ahead and do what you came over here to do.”
“And what would that be?”
“I don’t know, ‘I told you so.’ ‘Where is your date?’ ‘Why are you here by yourself?’”
Nevada was quiet a minute, then he said, “You know, I heard what happened tonight, and it kind of seems like punishment enough.”
“You’re right.” Lucy got up and started pacing as she continued, “What was I thinking? It looked so simple on paper. Buy a dress. Go out to eat. Dance and have a good time.”
“Well, you definitely got the ‘buy dress’ part right,” Nevada was grinning and looking appreciatively at said dress. The heat in his eyes was definitely pushing all thoughts of Sam out of Lucy’s head. He continued, “Plus, I told you a long time ago. I wanted to see what you looked like dressed up. Consider it a matter of curiosity.”
“Now that you’ve seen me, I guess you’re free to go then. Mystery solved.”
“I guess so,” Nevada said and got up.
Lucy ran her pashmina through her hands and announced, “I’m going to try and find a ride home.”
“Not before you dance you’re not.”
“Is that so?”
“Orders from the Photography Assistant himself. That dress is required to see the inside of a high school gym.”
Neglecting to listen to her screaming conscience, Lucy answered, “I guess I can’t argue with authority, can I?”
* * *
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: LAST DANCE
Lucy tried to ignore her intensely guilty feelings as she followed Nevada into the school. Deep down, she knew somehow this situation would somehow get back to Sam and no matter what he did; dancing with Nevada wasn’t really a good way of patching up things between them.
Still, if he had really wanted to be here tonight, wouldn’t he have at least tried to follow me? How about
a call? Or a text message?
Speaking of, have you even bothered to check your phone? Maybe he has tried to contact you.
Lucy was about to reach into her purse for her phone when she felt Nevada’s hand slip around her own.
You need to stop this! Turn around and walk away from the ginger.
Lucy tried to convince herself she hadn’t technically done anything that could count as cheating as she allowed Nevada to lead her out onto the dance floor.
Sam was pacing frantically around the hospital. His mouth had been cleaned up (no stitches, one big warning), but while he had been in the ER, he hadn’t been allowed to use his cell phone and even worse, the doctors had called his parents, who had arrived as he walked out of the ER.
“Samuel Benton Powell!”
With those words, Sam knew there wasn’t a chance of him going anywhere near Forrest Hills high school that evening. His mom had bellowed loud enough so the entire waiting room could hear. Sam was attempting to move his family outside and thus avoid further major public humiliation when a woman walked towards them and said forcefully, “You must be the punk who blinded my son!”
To put it mildly, Sam’s mom, Beth, didn’t take too kindly towards strangers who walked up and started accusing her son of assault. Crossing her arms, she asked, “And just who the hell are you?”
At that moment, Jerm walked out into the waiting area. Like Sam, he still had his suit on – a bit rumpled and bloody – only Jerm’s outfit was completed by a black eye patch placed jauntily over his left eye. As soon as both sets of parents saw Jerm, chaos ensued. Beth and Jerm’s mom, Julie, started yelling at each other, with their husbands desperately trying to hold them back. The young men glared at each other, then looked at their parents, silently agreeing on a momentary truce, and snuck outside while their mothers raged on.
“Look, Jerm…”
Touching his eye patch, Jerm commented, “You should feel bad.”
“You earned it.”
“What the hell are you talking about?! What do you mean I earned it?! If anything, you earned it.” Sam was frustrated with the entire evening, and had no trouble letting anger from two summers ago boil over, “First of all, do I need to remind you that you took the first swing? Was that your plan the entire time? Make nice in front of your Line, and then take a shot at me?”
Jerm replied bitterly, “My girlfriend asked me to do this. She thought maybe we could patch things up. I see you obviously haven’t matured in two years. I wonder what Lucy sees in you.”
“Keep Lucy out of this,” Sam growled, “And what are you talking about ‘matured’? Lauren told me what you said about me that summer. If anyone’s immature here – it’s you.”
Jerm looked at Sam quizzically. Sam scoffed, “You’re going to tell me you don’t remember calling me a ‘prick percussionist who didn’t deserve first chair’?”
“Dude, I didn’t say that.” Jerm tapped his foot impatiently and asked, “Did she really tell you that?”
“Yes.”
“And you believed her?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“When she dumped me, she told me you had been making moves on her for weeks.”
“So not true, dude.”
With that, Sam sat down heavily on the curb and remarked, “We got played.”
Jerm joined his former roommate and said, “Yeah, we did.”
While his eye had been attended to, Jerm considered what had really been behind his punch. Certainly, some of it had come from the unspent anger of two summers ago, but there was another emotion entirely. To Sam, he asked quietly, “What if she was on your Line? What if she had dumped one of your boys? What would you have done?”
“Look, I’m not going to sit here and defend Lucy’s actions. She made her choices, and for the most part, I understand why. Given how you benched her…”
“She disrespected the hell out me!”
“Again, Lucy chose to keep our relationship a secret, precisely for the reaction you continue to have. What should she have done?”
While Jerm grumbled something unintelligible, Sam said, “Look, I see your point, but don’t you think Nevada is capable of taking care of himself? Why did you come after Lucy to get to me? Isn’t this his fight and not yours?”
“You might be right.”
With the former friends sitting in the disaster of Homecoming, Jerm started laughing hysterically. Sam eyed the snare drummer and asked, “What in the hell are you laughing at?!”
“I have no idea why I’m mentioning this, maybe it’s because we’re at a hospital, but do you remember Armstrong and the hot dog?”
Sam’s memory was instantly jogged and he found himself joining in Jerm’s laughter, whooping alongside his former roommate. Sam’s sides were hurting when he said, “He never saw it coming.”
Jerm commented, “So, maybe our girlfriends were right.”
“How’s that?”
“I overheard them talking. I think tonight was really just a lesson for us to get over ourselves already.”
“I just hope Lucy still wants to be my girlfriend.”
“What did you do?”
“For some reason I just couldn’t bring myself to admit I was just as much to blame about our fight earlier as you were. She left before I really got to tell her anything.”
“Well, dude, you still have a chance to change things.”
Sam’s eyes darted over to his car, which was still parked in the lot and he asked, “Will you cover for me?”
Just then both sets of parents came barging out of the hospital. Jerm nodded and answered, “It’s the least I can do.”
Sam took off to his car, determined to find Lucy and set the record straight.
Lucy’s guilty conscience seemed to drift further and further away as she danced one song after another with Nevada’s strong arms around her – this was more like the night she had been dreaming of. Lucy leaned into Nevada and breathed in his spicy aftershave. He usually worked the five o’clock shadow thing pretty well, but it was nice to have him clean-shaven this evening.
Earth to Lucy? If things go too much further, you’re going to wreck any future you might have with Sam.
Gazing into Nevada’s hazel eyes, Lucy thought, maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing.
You have to at least hear Sam out. What if this is all a big misunderstanding?
What if it’s not?
Just do the right thing.
“Nevada?”
“Yup?”
“I think it’s time for me to leave.”
Nevada considered her comment, but kept his arms around her waist, “I tell you what.”
“What’s that?”
“I’ll take you home, but not before we get our pictures taken. You look too good in that dress not to have it documented.”
“Sounds great.”
Lucy followed Nevada to the gym where the cheesy backdrops were set up. Lucy and Nevada joked with the photographer as they had their official Homecoming portrait taken.
“You guys sure make a cute couple,” said the photographer as he was giving them their paperwork.
“But…” Lucy interjected.
“Now, Lucy, it’s a nice compliment.”
“I’m sure he says it to everyone.”
Nevada, who had been around the photographer all evening, had heard that particular comment a few times, “But with us, I think he really means it.”
A few minutes later, they were in Nevada’s old Volvo station wagon and on the way to Lucy’s house. Lucy realized the last time they had been in the car, well, it had been an entirely different situation. She also recognized it was also the first time in the evening they had been completely alone. Thus far, Nevada had acted like a perfect, if flirtatious, gentleman. However, Lucy sensed a familiar tension between them. She had been trying desperately to ignore it all evening, but there were too many emotions conspiring against her. She was, after all, just a teenage girl in a dress. All sh
e could do now was hope to hold out until she was out of the car. As the landscape passed by, the pair sat awkwardly listening to the radio, not saying anything. Lucy was still feeling guilty, mad, and confused. As Nevada pulled into Lucy’s driveway, her phone beeped. They both knew who it was. Lucy was desperate to check the message, but knew how unbelievably rude that would be to Nevada.
“Aren’t you going to check that?”
“No,” said Lucy quietly and she turned off the phone.
They continued to sit in the car. Nevada was obviously upset. Having had time to get over Lucy, her arrival – alone – at the dance was an unexpected and forced a number of unresolved feelings to the surface. The cymbal player had to convince himself he was just glad to be Lucy’s friend for the evening, but her dress and general behavior were giving him some very “un-friendly” thoughts.
As Nevada waged a war with himself, Lucy decided it was probably best if she just went inside. Maybe something bad had happened to Sam. Maybe something serious had happened to Jerm. Without saying anything, she leaned over to kiss Nevada on the cheek, but at the last minute he turned his head and met her lips with a kiss of his own.
Sam drove frantically towards Lucy’s house. When he pulled on her street he slowed down, spying a car in her driveway. He squinted his eyes and saw a recognizable redheaded male figure and a very recognizable female figure embrace each other. Sam briefly considering confronting the pair, but arrived at the decision that he had already had enough fighting for the evening. He quickly turned his car around and sped off in the other direction.
This doesn’t feel right!
For once, I agree with you.
Then stop what you’re doing!
Lucy awkwardly broke the kiss. Nevada’s hazel eyes flashed and the junior said awkwardly, “I’m sorry. I can’t do this. I thought I could, but it’s not right.”
“Fine, if that’s what you really want.”
At that moment, Lucy had no idea what she wanted. Walking up the slate sidewalk to her front door, she wished for a time machine to go back and warn herself. Not six hours ago, she had been posing for pictures with Sam, and here she was walking in after kissing Nevada. Sighing, she slid the corsage off her arm and looked around her room. Was it only hours ago she was in here getting ready for her big night with Sam?
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