All the Way

by Megan Stine

  Since my dress was deep red with black and silver beads, Roderick had suggested putting a sparkly silver hair clip on one side of my head. Fabulous was too lame a word for how it looked, if I do say so myself.

  “Everyone’s staring at us,” Emily whispered, trying not to move her lips.

  “That’s the point,” I said, tossing my hair over my bare shoulders, which were, by the way, glistening with opalescent skin cream.

  Emily looked unbelievably gorgeous, too. I’d added a crazy, raggedy tulle flounce to the bottom of her calf-length black dress, changing the hemline and making it asymmetrical. Plus the Roderick hair thing looked even more spectacular on her, if that’s possible, because until now, she’d never been seen with her hair wavy. Ever.

  The transformation was like one of those TV makeover shows. I swear I heard several people gasp.

  The headwaiter showed us to a table in the back, which was excellent. It meant we had to walk through the whole restaurant. Slowly. Letting them all take it in.

  I could feel Joey’s eyes on me, saw his head turn as we passed his table. He and Molly were seated in the prime spot that was always reserved for the Prom King and Queen. (Yeah, they got the votes.)

  Since we were late, we just ordered appetizers. Who wants to pig out on a big dinner right before you start dancing your brains out anyway? Still, most of the people left Nicko’s before we did, which was also just what I’d planned. I wanted to make another entrance at the prom . . . build up a little suspense . . . get people talking about us, and thinking about us . . . so when we arrived, Joey would be in the mood to hear what I had to say.

  “Are you going to tell me what your secret plot is or not?” Emily asked, eating her crab cakes as I nibbled my coconut shrimp.

  “Okay,” I said, grinning. I’d been planning my revenge for days, working out all the details and even driving around Norton, scoping out the best place to make it happen. I couldn’t keep it in any longer.

  Quickly, I spelled out the whole, devious plan.

  Emily’s face lit up when I told her, and I thought she was going to jump out of her dress. “That’s genius!” she said. “Do you think you can pull it off?”

  “I don’t know,” I said, feeling nervous for the first time all day. “Let’s eat so we can get out of here and find out.”

  When we got to the prom, I deliberately parked my car under one of the big bright streetlights in the school parking lot. Then we fixed our hair in the car mirrors, adjusted our boobs so they looked perfect and perky in our dresses, and headed for the door to the gymnasium.

  Yeah, I know. Prom in a school gym? How tacky.

  But Norton did it right—they spent the big bucks on hiring a company to transform the space into a fabulous themed event. This year’s theme was the circus, and it was nothing less than thrilling. There were clowns walking all through the crowd, handing out miniature cotton candy treats, and jugglers circulating, juggling five or six lighted globes that looked like they were on fire (but probably weren’t). Every inch of wall space had been completely draped in red and white striped fabric, and there were cute trained dogs doing handstands—or should I say pawstands—on the stage near the DJ.

  But the best was overhead—a female trapeze artist in a skin-colored, sequined leotard, swinging across the ceiling by her knees, occasionally dipping down just low enough to brush the tops of our heads with her hands.

  “Awesome!” Emily giggled, taking in the spectacle.

  “This rocks!” I said, feeling happier and more psyched than I had since I left Woodward Baines.

  The prom was so cool, I almost didn’t want to go through with my plan. But on the other hand, my plan was so cool, how could I not?

  “He’s checking you out already,” Emily said, nodding toward a crowd of Molly/Joey groupies with Molly and Joey at the center.

  “Okay, just go tell him I want to talk to him alone,” I said.

  “Me?” For a minute, her old shyness came back, and she looked panicked.

  “It’ll be fine,” I said. “Don’t you see how Ryan and Will are checking you out? They want you to come over there.”

  “Okay.”

  “Tell him to meet me behind the refreshment stand in the hall,” I said, naming a spot that I’d noticed on the way in because it was out of the way and kind of dark.

  She nodded and marched over to Joey, who had already drifted away from Molly so he could stare at me. I shot him a sexy smile, then turned abruptly and wove my way through the crowd toward the hallway.

  No matter how much I’d thought this through and planned it, right now it seemed almost dangerous and crazy. My heart was pounding. But that was partly because I was so pumped.

  Get ready, girl, I told myself. You’re either going to make a huge fool of yourself, or you’re going to get sweet revenge and set the record straight, once and for all.

  I slipped into an alcove behind the refreshment table and waited for what seemed like ten minutes. My heart started to sink. What if he wasn’t coming?

  But he showed up a few minutes later.

  “Hi,” I purred, coming on all hot and heavy already.

  “What’s up?” he asked, looking down at my cleavage with a grin.

  “I just thought we should get together tonight,” I said in the hottest, sexiest voice I could muster. I reached up and played with his tux shirt studs. “I mean, last time didn’t exactly work out the way you wanted—so I thought maybe I could make it up to you.”

  “Oh, yeah?” He grinned but looked over his shoulder a moment later to see if anyone was watching us.

  I leaned up on my toes—even in heels, I was still way shorter than he was—and whispered in his ear, “I’m so in the mood.” I put a tiny bit of my tongue in his ear. “The way I feel, I’m ready to do things no other girl’s ever done with you before.”

  “Ummm,” he moaned, putting an arm around my waist and pulling me toward him. “Oh, yeah.”

  But just then, a chaperone passed behind Joey and coughed loudly to let us know we were being watched.

  “You want to get out of here?” I whispered. “Molly wouldn’t even have to know we were gone. We could make it quick-like, in my car in the parking lot. It’s the silver Honda Civic.”

  “Now?” He was breathing heavily and checking over his shoulder every two seconds.

  “Yeah. Except I don’t want people to see us leaving together,” I said. “Go back inside so she won’t be suspicious, and then slip away in about five minutes. Don’t tell anyone where you’re going.”

  “Okay.” He looked like he was ready to drool.

  Oh my God, I thought. I’m really doing this. My heart was pounding so hard, I wondered if he could see it. My dress was definitely low-cut enough.

  I hurried out to my car and waited for him, standing under the bright light I had deliberately parked near. Joey must have been supercareful, because it took him more than ten minutes to slip away from Molly, but he finally showed up. I slouched against the car in a sexy pose, so he’d have something to look at while he walked toward me.

  Guys are totally ruled by the visual.

  “You look so hot,” he said, pressing himself up against me and kissing me.

  “You do, too,” I said, making it sound like I really wanted him badly. Then I glanced up at the bright streetlight overhead. “But that sucks. And I saw two chaperones roaming through the parking lot a few minutes ago. Get in—I know a secluded place we can go. It won’t take long.”

  “Whatever you say,” Joey said, clearly buying the whole package I was selling.

  He climbed into the passenger seat, but before I started the engine, I turned to him with my palm out. “Cell phone,” I demanded. “Hand it over so I can turn it off. We don’t want to be interrupted when we’re having this much fun.”

  He laughed and reached into his tux for his cell. “I knew I wasn’t wrong about you,” he said.

  Chapter 22

  The great thing about Ohio is that
there are lots of dark, deserted roads with basically nothing on them for miles. I’d already picked out the perfect spot for my plan—a dirt road about three or four miles from town with nothing on either side but farmland. No houses, no gas stations, no telephones. No one to call for help.

  Hee hee hee.

  I flipped on the radio and turned it up kind of loud.

  “So where are we going?” he asked, reaching over and putting a hand on my thigh. High up on my thigh. I almost flinched, but I forced myself to hold still.

  “You’ll see,” I said in a teasing, sexy voice. “Someplace where no one’s going to care what we do.”

  “Oh, yeah.”

  He’d already started drinking because I could smell beer on his breath, and his voice had that slow, boozy sound to it, like he wanted me so badly.

  He reached over and put his right hand farther up on my leg, even closer to my crotch.

  “Just wait,” I said, playfully pushing him away. “It’ll pretty much kill the fun if I crash this car before we get there.”

  I turned down a county road and drove for about a mile, then made a left, drove another mile, then made a right. I’d picked out a route that was as confusing as possible, so he wouldn’t know where we were.

  When we were about another mile down the third road, I hit the brakes.

  “Whoa. Did you feel that?” I said, coasting to a stop.

  “Feel what?”

  “That bump. I think I hit something, or blew a tire. It felt like my back left tire went flat. Shit.”

  I stopped the car and looked at him helplessly.

  Of course that last part wasn’t necessary, because Joey was all testosterone, all the time. And all you’ve got to do to get a manly man moving is tell him there’s a manly man problem to solve. He was all over it.

  “Hang on, I’ll check it out.” He jumped out of the car, all macho and ready to show me how studly he was.

  I gave him just a few seconds to walk around to the back left side of my car. Just far enough away from the open door.

  Then I clicked the door locks with one hand. With the other, I reached over and slammed the passenger side door shut. Hard.

  Before he knew what was happening, I stepped on the gas and peeled out of there, spitting dust with my tires and leaving him stranded, all alone, in the dark.

  Of course his cell phone was still on my dashboard, where I’d put it.

  Ha!

  Poor Joey—he wasn’t going to be calling anyone to come pick him up now!

  No, he’d be walking home or back to the prom, if he had the nerve to show his face there at all. It would probably take him hours to get back, too—assuming he didn’t get lost on the way.

  Or eaten by coyotes. (Not that there are coyotes in rural Ohio, but a girl can always dream.)

  I especially loved the poetic justice of it all, making him walk home in the dark, after he’d made me walk all the way home from the lake!

  I was so buzzed, I bounced and danced in my seat all the way back to town. I flipped to an oldies station, and they were playing “Hard Hearted Woman.”

  Double ha!

  When I walked back into the prom, Ariel and Emily came rushing up to me.

  “What happened?” Ariel demanded. “Becca and Jacob saw you driving off with Joey! I mean, seriously! Where did you go? Emily won’t tell me anything!”

  Emily and I exchanged triumphant smiles. She could tell from the look on my face—and the fact that I came back alone—that I’d been successful.

  “Everyone’s talking about you!” Ariel reported. “Molly is so furious! I mean, what happened? Where’s Joey? What did you do?”

  I glanced around and realized that Molly and Isabel had seen me come in, and they were edging closer to us, trying to hear.

  “I did what any self-respecting girl would do if she had a chance with that lying bastard Joey Perrone,” I said loudly. “I dumped him.”

  Chapter 23

  “Tell me everything!” Ariel squealed, catching on fast that this was going to be juicy.

  “Well . . .” I launched into the story, loving how it seemed like everyone at the whole prom was glancing over and watching me. Even people on the dance floor were checking me out, and the roaming clowns were trying to eavesdrop on our conversation. I guess the word had spread fast. “I told Joey I’d have sex with him so he’d get in my car. And then I drove him out to some deserted road and left him there.”

  “Oh my God! You didn’t!” Ariel squealed, calling tons of attention to us, which was fine with me. “But, I mean, wasn’t that dangerous?”

  “Supposedly,” I said. “But not really. He’s a jerk, but he’s not a rapist.”

  “But how? How did you get him to go with you?” Ariel’s voice was still high, and loud.

  I didn’t answer. I just gave her a look, and gestured to what I was wearing. “Are you kidding?”

  “Okay. Right. But I mean, what did you tell him?”

  Gina had spotted us and rushed over to hear the story, so I had to start all over at the beginning. They clearly wanted every juicy detail . . . about how I put my tongue in his ear and said I’d do things no other girl had ever done . . . and then let him put his hand on my thigh so he’d really fall for the trap . . . and how I got his cell phone away from him . . . and then made him think I had a flat tire so he’d leap out of the car, all manly, trying to help.

  “And then I roared off, letting him eat my dust. Not exactly what he’d had in mind,” I joked.

  “Aaaaah! That’s unbelievable!” Gina screamed.

  “Serves him right for spreading lies about me,” I said. “As if I would ever have sex with that scumbag. Ha!” I said it loud enough for at least half of Molly’s friends, who were pretending to need to go to the restroom so they could walk past me, to hear.

  “You are my idol! You’re the goddess of revenge,” Ariel said admiringly. “I should have called you years ago when Bobby Smerle broke my heart in seventh grade.”

  “It was pretty great,” I said, laughing. “The only thing that could possibly make it better was to have seen the look on his face. If only I had a camera crew following him right now, so I could see him trudging down a dirt road in his stupid, shiny, rented, patent-leather shoes.”

  “You rock!” Gina said, shaking her head at me in awe.

  “And it looks like it might rain,” I added gleefully. “I think I heard thunder as I was coming back. Keep your fingers crossed.”

  By now, the word was already starting to spread through the prom, although people had only heard bits and pieces, so they were getting it all wrong. I heard someone say I had hired a camera crew to shoot Joey’s stupid shoes. Someone else said I’d had such wild sex with him, it gave my car a flat tire.

  “I’ve got to tell Samantha,” Ariel said, turning to go spread the word and set the record straight.

  “Me, too,” Gina said, hurrying off to tell a bunch of people she knew.

  Emily leaned forward and gave me a hug, being careful not to mess up her hair or smudge my makeup. “You totally rock,” she said. “I can’t wait to see what Molly does when she finds out her Prom King isn’t coming back.”

  I giggled. “Yeah. Well, serves her right. She was part of the reason everyone believed Joey’s blog. I mean, she had to be in on that Hot Box Club picture Deanna sent. So screw her.”

  “Let’s dance!” Emily said, pulling me out to the dance floor.

  I threw my head back and shook my hair, just to sort of shake Joey Perrone out of my life, once and for all. Then I headed toward the dance floor, but before I got there, one of the clowns tapped me on the shoulder and handed me a bouquet of flowers. Beautiful tiny pink roses with white freesia and baby’s breath. Real ones.

  “Wow—cool!” I said. “What’s this for?”

  But clowns don’t speak—not the ones in circus costumes, anyway.

  He just mimed that someone loved me, touching his heart and acting out the idea of love with an exagger
ated smile. Then he pointed through the crowd to someone standing all alone on the far side of the dance floor.

  It was David. As soon as our eyes met, he walked toward me.

  “I’ll catch up in a minute,” I told Emily, who looked slightly lost until some cute guy grabbed her and asked her to dance.

  “Hi,” David said.

  “Are these from you?” I looked at the bouquet in my hands.

  He nodded. “I was too late to get you a corsage,” he said. “So I brought these instead.”

  “Awwww. That was so sweet!”

  Even though he wasn’t really my date, I loved it.

  “I heard what you did to Joey,” he said with a smile.

  “What exactly did you hear?” I asked. “Because a lot of wrong stories are going around.”

  “I heard you drove him out onto some county road and dumped him there,” David said, grinning like he wished he’d been in on it.

  “Yeah. I did.”

  “Everyone’s talking about it,” David went on. “And you know I mean everyone if it finally got around to me.”

  I laughed, loving how he was making fun of himself for being a social nobody.

  “Yeah. I had some baggage with him.” I debated whether to tell David the whole sad story, and decided to give him the short version. “You know, I never slept with Joey, and I never spent the night in Cleveland with Tyler. None of that stuff was true. It was all just a bunch of lies Joey spread about me to make Molly jealous.”

  “Oh.” He said it like he felt stupid for not figuring that out earlier, and he didn’t know whether to apologize again.

  “Look, it’s okay. How would you know?” I said.

  “No, I should have known.” He was almost blushing. “I’m sorry. I should have known that wasn’t you.”

  “Well, anyway, I certainly don’t ‘expect’ anything from you tonight, so you can relax, okay?” I punched him lightly in the stomach, teasing him but not mocking him or anything.