“So, it sounds like you’re in the clear,” Finn said to me.
“Thanks to you,” Patrick piped in, correctly assuming that I wouldn’t.
“Everyone really is looking at you now.” Finn gestured to all other students that were filtering out of the school. An awful lot of them were looking my way and whispering. It was a very weird feeling. “How are you coping with your new found celebrity? I know you don’t like it when people stare.”
“Not people, just you,” I corrected him, but I added a smile so I wouldn’t seem so bitchy.
“I see.” Finn smiled crookedly at me, delighting me endlessly.
“Hey, did you know about the dance tomorrow night?” Patrick tried to ask Finn casually, but I could see pre-calculation all over it. “Me and Wendy are going. You totally should to. It’ll be a lot of fun.”
“Maybe I’ll check it out.” Finn was talking to Patrick, but his eyes flitted over to me for a second, gauging my reaction. Naturally, I tried to be completely emotionless about the whole thing. “I should get going. Do you need a ride or anything, Wendy?”
“Uh, no, my brother’s here,” I stumbled. His offer startled me, and I’m pretty sure that’s actually the main reason he asked me. He just liked catching me off guard.
“Alright,” Finn nodded. “I will see you both tomorrow.”
As soon as Finn had gotten into his car and I was certain he couldn’t hear us, I turned to Patrick, looking at him oddly. “So what’s the deal with you inviting him to the dance? Do you swing both ways or something?”
“Maybe. Or maybe I don’t swing any way.” Patrick winked at me and started walking away. “I’ll leave you with that to ponder over.”
“I don’t know what that means!” I called after him as he made his way towards his car.
“See you tomorrow, Wendy!” Patrick waved at me and kept on walking.
5
Tegan had a fat lip in school the next day, but she didn’t say a word to me. I was starting to think that when she snarled “you’re dead” at me, it may have been an empty threat. School was pretty uneventful, which was kind of nice.
After school, as we were walking out, Finn assured me that he’d be seeing me at the dance, and I was suddenly very excited about it. Patrick reminded me that he’d pick me up at seven, and I gave him my address so that would actually be possible. Then all I had left to do was pick out a dress, do something with my hair, and oh, yeah, tell Matt.
I waited until we got home for the simple reason that Maggie lives there too. I knew she would go bananas with happiness over the dance, so I figured that she could work as a good balance to Matt, who would most likely recommend instating a chastity belt. Once in the door, I kicked off my shoes and tossed aside my bag. I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge, and Matt started going through the mail that Maggie had left on the kitchen island.
“Hey, is Maggie around?” I asked, twisting the bottle top on and off repeatedly.
“Yeah, she’s upstairs,” Matt replied absently. “Why?”
“Oh. I just… I had something to tell you,” I said unsurely, then took a long drink of my water.
“Yeah?” Matt turned to look back at me, worry tightening his voice.
“What?”
“It’s good news,” I insisted and took a deep breath. Matt turned around completely, leaning his back against the island and crossing his arms over his chest. He was suspicious of anything I considered good news. “There’s this dance tonight at school, and it’s fully chaperoned. And, well, Patrick’s going to pick me up at seven. And Finn is going to meet us there.”
“Patrick?” Matt raised an eyebrow and his voice got harder. “That goofy guy that’s supposed to be ‘just a friend?’” He did angry air quotes, which would’ve made me laugh if I wasn’t feeling defensive.
“He is just a friend! We’re going with Finn too! We’re all friends!” I left out the part that while Patrick and I were definitely just friends, I wasn’t so sure about exactly what was going with me and Finn.
“But just Patrick is picking you up? Not Finn?” Matt said gruffly. “You know, even if there is another boy involved, that doesn’t help your case. Going somewhere with one handsy, teenage boy is bad enough, let alone throwing another one in the mix.”
“It’s just a dance!” I said. “A school sanctioned function! And I’m just doing what you told me! I’m making friends! They just happen to boys! It’s really not that big of a deal!”
“I’ve never met these boys, and I only just started hearing about them a few days ago.” Matt shook his head. “No, this sounds like a bad idea. I mean, why am I just hearing about this dance now?”
“Because Patrick just asked me today,” I lied. As a rule, I didn’t lie to Matt about anything important. But this wasn’t all that important, and it was mostly a white lie anyway.
“He asked you? That’s not what you said. You said you were going as friends.”
“Yeah, we are. But he asked me. I didn’t just spontaneously decide I was going with him,” I shrugged. Matt was making me question what I thought I knew. We were just friends, weren’t we? I mean, Patrick was pretty obviously trying to set me up with Finn, and it just might work if I stopped fighting him on it so much.
“So how does Finn work into this equation?” Matt didn’t believe anything I was saying, which I didn’t think was very fair considering how little I lied to him.
“Patrick asked him too. And I can’t drive, unlike Finn, so Patrick offered to pick me up.” I crossed my arms and looked at him evenly. “So there.
That’s everything.”
“I still don’t know,” Matt shook his head.
“You know what? Let’s ask Maggie and see what she thinks,” I suggested and started walking out of the kitchen to find her. Maggie would think this was the greatest idea ever, and we both knew it.
“Her opinion doesn’t count!” Matt insisted, grudgingly following me.
“We’ll see about that!” I retorted. “Maggie! Mags! Where are you?”
Telling Maggie about the dance may have been the worst idea I’ve ever had, and my life is made up almost entirely of bad ideas. I discovered her upstairs, painting the bathroom a pale yellow. As soon as I told her, she clapped her hands together, tossed her paint brush in the sink, and embraced me so tightly, she probably cracked a rib. Matt started to voice his complaints, but Maggie shut him down. To keep him from getting in her way, she commanded him to finish the bathroom before the paint dried. He complied only because he knew that there was no stopping Maggie anymore, and at least this way he wouldn’t have to witness anything.
Maggie knew better than my mother to try and force me into things I didn’t like. I wasn’t a Barbie, and I made it impossible for treat her to treat me like one. She just sat on the bed and watched me as I rummaged through my closet, offering suggestions and comments on everything. This included an endless stream of questions on both Patrick and Finn, and Matt would grunt or scoff every now and then at my answers, so I knew he was listening.
Once I had decided on a simple blue dress that Maggie insisted looked amazing on me, I let her do my hair. I only agreed to it because honestly, I couldn’t really do it myself. My hair refused to listen to anything I tried to do it, and while it wasn’t exactly obedient for Maggie, she had a few tricks up her sleeve that outwitted it. She left some of it down, so the curls would frame my face, and pulled the rest of it back. When Matt saw me, he looked really pissed off and a little awed, so I knew that I must look pretty awesome.
I stood in front of the door, standing on my tip-toes to look out the half-moon window at the top. It was getting close to seven, and I couldn’t believe how anxious I was feeling. If Finn hadn’t promised he’d see me at the dance, I knew I wouldn’t feel this way at all. I liked Patrick, but he never made my stomach freak out the way Finn did. Just thinking of him made my heart speed up, and I hated the way it felt. And secretly loved it too.
“When is this boy gett
ing here?” Matt grumbled. He stood about a foot behind me, hovering even more than he usually did. Yellow paint stained his hands and hair, but he didn’t seem to notice. He just crossed his arms and glowered at the door, as if he was expecting a burglar to break in at any moment.
“I don’t know. Soon.” I fidgeted with my thumb ring again and adjusted my necklace, making sure it was centered.
“Are you sure he’s even coming?’ Matt asked hopefully.
“Matt, leave her alone,” Maggie commanded. “And back off. Give her some room to breathe.” She was using an amazing amount of restraint by staying back. Perched on the arm of a living room chair, she had on a flannel shirt splattered with paint and a bandana wrapped around her hair to protect it.
I was actually a little surprised that she hadn’t bothered to get changed to meet Patrick, but then again we had kind of run out of time.
“I am backed off,” Matt muttered but took a few steps back in Maggie’s direction.
“You’re gonna have a lot of fun tonight,” Maggie promised for the hundredth time. I must’ve looked nervous, which didn’t help the situation any.
When I heard the sound of a car, I stretched up on my toes again to peer out the window. Patrick had parked in front of the house in a beat up Honda, and my heart skipped a beat. He had actually picked me up. We were going to the dance. And Finn would be there. I swallowed hard and tried to remind myself that none of this was a big deal at all. I couldn’t believe what a freak I was being.
“He’s here,” I said and took a step back from the door, so it wouldn’t look so much like I had been waiting around like a total loser.
“He is?” Matt panicked and rushed to the door, so he could get a look at him through the window. “That’s his car? That’s a death trap! There’s no way you’re going in that!”
“Matt! Knock it off!” Maggie ordered him.
“Maggie, you haven’t seen this car!” Matt insisted but moved back so there was actually room for me to open the door. Maggie gave him a severe look, and he sighed his resignation.
I practically opened the door before Patrick even knocked. He looked a little startled by my speed at answering the door but quickly grinned broadly at us. I could feel Matt behind me, doing everything but growling at Patrick, and I tried to smile apologetically at him.
“Hey, Wendy,” Patrick said easily and gave me a quick look over. “You look really nice.”
He was a bit surprised, but I think it was because he hadn’t expected me to dress up so much. If it had just been the two of us, without any possibility of Finn, I wouldn’t have, but I didn’t want him to know that so I just kept smiling. Patrick had just put on a white tee shirt with dark wash jeans, but he looked pretty good.
“You look good too,” I nodded. Matt was still seething behind me, so I opened the door farther so I could introduce them and then I could get out of there. “Um, Patrick, this is my older brother, Matt, and that’s my aunt, Maggie.”
Patrick didn’t look the least bit intimidated Matt, who shook his hand much more forcefully than necessary. Maggie got up off the couch and hurried over to say hello.
“It’s nice to meet you,” Maggie gushed, shaking his hand.
“Likewise,” Patrick assured her.
“They’re painters,” I said when I saw him looking over their paint covered clothing. “Well, I guess we should get going.”
“Have her back by ten,” Matt demanded, staring harshly at Patrick.
“Midnight,” Maggie said over him.
“The dance doesn’t go til midnight,” Matt snapped incredulously.
“I know.” Maggie kept smiling and started ushering me out the door.
“Have fun guys!”
“Midnight at the very latest!” Matt amended as I shut the door behind me.
“Sorry,” I smiled sheepishly at Patrick. “Insanity runs pretty heavily in my family.”
“Good to know,” Patrick grinned as we walked to his car.
My only experience with dances was what I had seen on TV, but it really wasn’t that far off. The theme appeared to be “Crepe Paper in the Gymnasium,” and they had mastered it perfectly. The school colors were white and navy blue, so white and navy blue streamers covered everything, along with matching balloons. For romantic lighting, they had strung everything with white Christmas lights. A table to the side was covered in refreshments, and the band playing on the makeshift stage under the basketball hoop wasn’t that bad. Their set list appeared to only include songs from the films of John Hughes, and we came in the middle of a “Weird Science” cover that was quite a bit more electronic than I remember it being. When the song ended, they announced their name as “Shermer, Illinois.”
The biggest difference between real life and what films had taught me is that nobody was actually dancing. A group of girls stood directly in front of the stage, swooning at the foxy lead singer, but otherwise, the floor was mostly empty. The refreshment table had a small crowd, and people were scattered all over the bleachers.
“The cool kids come later,” Patrick explained when he noticed me looking around.
“So we’re not the cool kids?” I asked.
“Nope. We’re the punctual kids,” Patrick quipped.
Like a gentleman, he got me a cup of punch, and then we went over to the bleachers to sit. We sat on the first row because I had stupidly worn a pair of strappy heels that I didn’t trust myself to make it to the top in. As soon as we sat down, I kicked them off anyway, because for the most part, I hate shoes. We people watched and spent a lot of time mocking the other people that had bothered to show up on time.
As the night wore on, I found myself getting increasingly nervous. Finn still wasn’t here. Patrick hadn’t asked me to dance either, and other kids were actually starting to. The band had moved onto some kind of Tears For Fears medley about the time Tegan arrived, and she was arguably the coolest kid in school. She had used a gallon of concealer and lipstick to try to fix her lip, but she still looked like hell. I couldn’t revel in this, though, because I was starting to think that Finn had stood us up.
“Okay, so maybe this isn’t as much fun as I promised it would be.”
Patrick misread the look on my face for disappointment with him and the dance itself, so I forced a smile and shook my head.
“No, no, it’s fun,” I insisted. I was about to suggest dancing, hoping that would lighten my mood, but then Finn finally pushed through the gymnasium doors.
Wearing a slim-fitting black dress shirt and dark jeans, he looked good.
He had the sleeves rolled up and an extra button undone on his shirt, and I wondered why I had never realized how attractive he looked before. I’m sure I had a goofy smile plastered on my face, so I erased it as quickly as I could and tried to look bored.
“Well look who decided to grace us with his presence,” Patrick joked happily when Finn walked over to us. Patrick had leaned back on the bleachers, spreading his arms out behind so one of them was kind of behind me, but not around me at all.
“I had stuff with work,” Finn explained vaguely and sat down next to Patrick. He glanced over at me but didn’t say anything about how I looked.
Already, he looked annoyed and he’d just gotten here. This wasn’t exactly how I had hoped things would go.
“Work? I didn’t know you worked,” Patrick commented.
“Family business,” Finn sighed. Eager to change the subject, he looked over at us. “Have you guys been dancing?”
“Nope,” Patrick grinned. “Dancing is for suckers.”
“Is that why you came to a dance?” Finn asked pointedly. Patrick laughed, and Finn looked down at my bare feet. “You didn’t wear the right shoes for dancing. You didn’t even wear the right shoes for walking.”
“I don’t like shoes,” I told him defensively. My dress only came to above my knees, but I tried to pull it down, as if I could get it to cover my bare feet, which had suddenly become a source of embarrassment.
&
nbsp; Finn gave me a look I couldn’t read at all, then went back to staring at the people dancing out in front of us. By now, the floor was almost entirely covered. Kids still dotted the bleachers, but they were mostly the headgear kids and the ones with dandruff. We were among the geeks and freaks of the school, and ordinarily I didn’t care. In fact, I didn’t even really care now. But I was sitting on the sidelines feeling foolish for not wearing shoes.
“So this is what you’re doing? Watching other people dance?” Finn asked.
“Sometimes,” Patrick admitted with a shrug. “But right now, I’m gonna go get some punch.” He stood up and glanced back at us. I was still playing with the hem of my dress and Finn appeared to be glaring at the dance floor.
“You kids don’t have too much fun while I’m gone.”
“Yeah, that’s gonna be hard,” I sighed. Patrick laughed as he walked away. The refreshments were on the side other of the gym, and I lost sight of him through the crowd dancing.
Finn leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, and I moved so I was sitting up straighter. I thought we had been getting along, that we were growing into something nice and comfortable, but there was this awful awkward feeling hanging in between us. My dress was strapless, and I rubbed at my bare arms, feeling naked and uncomfortable.
“You cold?” Finn glanced over at me, and I shook my head. “I think its cold in here.”
“It’s a little chilly,” I admitted. “But nothing I can’t handle.”
“Yeah, you can handle anything,” Finn replied dryly.
Patrick still hadn’t returned with his punch, and I was starting to think he never would. It had probably been part of his plan, but it was failing horribly. Finn would barely look at me, which is a complete 180 from his constant creepy staring. Somehow, I found this worse. I don’t know why he had even come to the dance if he hated it so much, and I was about to ask him that when he turned to look at me.
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