Just Like Heaven

by Clarissa Carlyle

  #####

  The following week of school went by in a grey haze. Demi and Hayley still weren’t talking. They had reached a stalemate as neither felt obliged to apologize or make contact and so now they just weren’t communicating at all. It made that final week seem unbearably lonely. Demi walked the halls, her head down, wishing the days away so that she could graduate and be free of Collinswood, of Hayley and more importantly, of Arthur.

  She didn’t see him at all that week, but then she avoided all the places where he went. She would skip final period just so that she could catch the bus early to avoid people. And the plan had worked well, as Friday came around and at 2.00pm, Demi was on the bus, heading home.

  The school had been buzzing about the prom, girls excitedly discussing their dresses, the corridors already adorned with decorations. Demi tried to ignore it all but felt herself glancing wistfully at the banners, glancing furtively in to the gym as the stars were put up for the Never-ending Night theme. The idea was to make the last night of high school last forever, which to Demi, sounded like a cruel form of torture.

  Arthur had continued to text, always professing about how he’d be taking Demi to prom come Friday. Demi just deleted them as soon as they came in. She considered showing them to Hayley but knew it would just be met with more cruel words and wicked taunts.

  So Demi went home from school early on the Friday. She sat at her kitchen table, did her homework, and then ate dinner with her father. After, she cleaned away the plates before going up to her bedroom. It was now half past six. Most girls would be excitedly getting ready for prom, putting on their prettiest dress, desperate for a memorable night.

  A digital rendition of The Cure’s Just Like Heaven suddenly sung out as Demi’s Sidekick sprung to life. Inwardly groaning, she anticipated that it would be Arthur and so was surprised to see Hayley’s name accompanied by a cheesy picture of them both flashing to signal the incoming call. Demi considered not answering, but at the last moment answered, still caring for her friend in spite of how spiteful she’d been.

  “Demi, hi, I’m glad you answered,” Hayley said quietly, sounding sheepish.

  “I almost didn’t.”

  “I don’t blame you, I feel horrible. We are best friends and we are supposed to stick together.”

  “I’m not the one who made us come unstuck.”

  “I know, I know, it’s all me. But listen, I’m sorry. Like really sorry. I don’t know what came over me; I guess I just felt a bit jealous that you were hanging out with Arthur Cooper.”

  “I was only his tutor.”

  “But still.”

  There was an awkward silence between the two friends who usually couldn’t find enough time in the day to swap all their gossip and stories.

  “So, look, tonight is Senior Prom and I know we said we wouldn’t go, but we totally should, for old time’s sake.”

  “No, thank you.”

  “Oh, Demi, come on! It’s our last chance to go to Prom!”

  “Really, no.”

  “But we’d have so much fun!”

  Demi frowned as she sat down on her bed, her Sidekick held to her ear. Hayley had never been a fan of Prom, she called it the “charade of the deluded” and now she was desperate to go? And with Demi too?

  “Why are you so keen to go to Prom?”

  “What do you mean?” Hayley’s bright tone faltered slightly.

  “I mean, you hate Prom. We both do. So why do you want to go?”

  “Just as it’s our last one!”

  “No really, why do you want to go?”

  Hayley inhaled deeply before delivering the missing piece of information;

  “I’ve got a date.”

  “Oh, so why do you need me?”

  “Aren’t you going to ask who it is?”

  “I don’t care.”

  “It’s Chip Matthews.”

  “I don’t care.”

  “Demi, please. There is so much expectation to do it on Prom night. I need you there to keep me balanced, stop me doing anything stupid.” Hayley whined.

  “I refuse to be your chaperone! I hope you have sex and get knocked up and have Chip’s love child and never leave Collinswood! Hayley, you are a shit friend!” Demi threw the Sidekick away from her, shaking. She couldn’t wait for high school to end, she hated everything about it.

  Downstairs the doorbell rang but Demi failed to hear it, too lost to her current rage about Hayley.

  “Demi!” her father yelled up the stairs.

  “What?”

  “You’ve got a visitor!”

  Fuelled by anger, Demi stomped down the stairs, not really sure what or who she was expecting to see and there in her kitchen stood Arthur Cooper, dressed in a tuxedo, a white lily corsage in his hand. He looked white as a sheet and appeared to be trembling with nerves.

  “I promised to take you to prom, remember?” he said nervously, glancing at her father who raised his hands and excused himself from the kitchen, glad to be away from the drama. He remembered all too well the angst of being a teenager and had no desire to relive it through his own daughter.

  “I’m not going,” Demi told him defiantly.

  “Fine, we’ll stay here. Maybe watch a movie, have some take out.”

  “What, with you in a tux?” she scoffed.

  “Please, Demi let me make this up to you.”

  “I don’t want to go.”

  “But why-” before Arthur could finish his line of questioning Demi snapped and delivered the true, devastating reason for her reluctance to attend.

  “Because my Mom isn’t here!”

  “Oh,” Arthur felt so stupid, yet again.

  “Prom is a rite of passage, a time when your Mom takes pictures of you and tells you how beautiful you are,” Demi didn’t notice she was crying as she spoke. Arthur came and held her in his arms.

  “You are so beautiful,” he told her. “And your Mom wouldn’t want you to miss out on moments like prom because she isn’t here, she’d want you to live every moment.” Demi found that she was sobbing into Arthur’s tuxedo jacket, the pain and anguish of the past week, of the past ten years, flooding out of her.

  “If you don’t want to go, then fine, I respect that. But going would give me a chance to redeem myself and show everyone that we are together. That you belong with me.”

  Demi didn’t want to go, at all, but looking up in to Arthur’s eyes she yearned to dance with him beneath the artificial stars in the gymnasium.

  “Let me go and change,” she said hurriedly.

  ####

  Forty minutes later, Demi Mitchell arrived at her senior prom on the arm of Arthur Cooper, the captain of the football team. And people didn’t stare in disbelief; they looked on with mild interest, too caught up in their own dramas and dilemmas to really care. High school was officially over, the social hierarchy from within it now redundant. The only person whose eye’s nearly popped out of their head was Hayley. She stared, dumbstruck, her eyes watering slightly and Demi just raised her chin and turned the other way.

  “You look stunning,” Arthur whispered to her, pulling her close, his hand wrapping around her waist.

  “You don’t look so bad yourself,” Demi whispered back.

  They danced together on the dance floor, their bodies pressed together and Demi felt herself becoming flush with desire. Arthur caressed her back and kissed her neck leaving her feeling euphoric.

  “Why don’t we get out of here?” he suggested to her seductively and Demi nodded enthusiastically.

  Mothers not only waved their daughters off on prom night, they also warned them about how to behave come the end of the evening. How to say goodnight like a lady, and how not to let a guy take things too far. But Demi had no mother to see her off, to offer her advice and warnings. And so when Arthur led her back to his car and drove them to a motel, she felt it was all some wonderful fairy tale. Little did she know that the magic of prom night never lasts…

  Starry Eyed />
  “In all honesty son, I didn’t expect to see you standing here,” Conrad Cooper noted his voice flat and cold as always. Arthur felt his cheeks flush slightly at the insult but tried to remain composed. Feeling self-conscious beneath his father’s scrutiny he began fiddling with his gown.

  “I mean, you’ve never had good grades and yet here you are, graduating with the rest of your class!” it was just like his old man to be mean, even at such an important occasion.

  “Arthur, we are very proud of you,” his mother said carefully, not wanting to upset either of the men in her life, but her allegiance was always primarily to her husband and always would be.

  “Thanks Mom,” Arthur didn’t bother to thank his father as he knew the sentiment wasn’t a shared one.

  “I just wish Jared could have been here,” Arthur sighed sadly, feeling a pang in his heart when he considered that his young brother might never make it to his own graduation.

  It was a miracle that Arthur had managed to graduate. He had been failing nearly all his classes. Yes, Demi’s influence had been a positive one and for those last few fateful days of high school. While everyone else was winding down for the summer he pushed himself harder than he ever has before, but he doubted it had been enough. His father had probably used his connections to ensure his son graduate rather than cast shame on the family name. The connections were limited, but Conrad Cooper was immensely popular in Collinswood, mainly because he gave free coffee to those in favor, a small gesture which seemed to garner him a lot of weight, especially on the school board at least.

  “He’s having a bad day,” Arthur’s Mom said, her voice equally sad. She then looked away in to the distance, fretting about the other son she’d been forced to leave in the care of her sister, hoping he would be alright for the few hours she was away. But he had seemed so weak that morning, and pale.

  “I’d best go call Lynne and check up on him,” she told her husband and eldest son, excusing herself.

  “She’s just worried,” Conrad said, shifting awkwardly now he was left alone with Arthur.

  “Well, I appreciate you both coming,” Arthur told him honestly.

  “Yes, well of course.” Conrad leaned in and patted Arthur on the back in a friendly gesture, while around them other father’s embraced their sons, tears pricking their eyes as they welled up with pride.

  ####

  “I feel stupid,” Demi moaned as she tried to balance the square hat on her head, the gown already itching against her bare legs.

  “Demi, stop fiddling!” her Dad ordered as he tried to take yet another picture.

  “Jeeze, Dad, enough! How many pictures do you need of me in this stuff?”

  “I need a wall full because I’m so proud!”

  “You’re a dork!” Demi teased, smiling fondly at her Dad. They were both making extra effort to be nice to one another to ensure that the shadow which was her mother’s absence didn’t darken the day. But at any occasion like this, her death was felt more acutely than ever.

  “Where’s Hayley? Don’t you girls want a picture together?”

  “Oh, we’re not,” Demi felt embarrassed to be explaining to her father how they weren’t friends at the moment as it felt trivial and childish against the enormity of graduating. “We’re not really talking right now.”

  “Oh, I see,” her Dad looked saddened by the news but tried not to let it show. “Is it because of that boy you’ve been hanging around with a lot?”

  “In part. And his name’s Arthur.”

  “Arthur, yes, so you keep telling me,” her Dad smiled thinly, worried by how much time his daughter was spending with a handsome young man, knowing too well the true intent of all young men.

  “You could try and look less annoyed,” Demi protested but noticed that her Dad was now looking just beyond her. She turned and saw Hayley approaching, her blonde hair shining against the dark emerald of their graduation gowns.

  “Don’t you look smart,” she said coyly.

  “Thanks,” Demi replied, her voice deadpan.

  “Look, Dem, I know you are mad at me, and you’ve every right to be. But we’ve been best friends since forever and this is our graduation! We at least need a picture together!”

  Demi regarded Hayley with sad eyes. For so long it had been the two of them against the world. They would write songs together, camp out in the yard, bake cakes, and eat raw cookie dough. They had grown up together, but in the past few months boys had entered the equation and almost ruined everything. Demi couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to the two innocent little girls who would sit and braid each other’s hair while chatting about ponies and swearing earnestly to be bestest best friends forever and ever.

  “Yeah, we need a picture,” Demi smiled, not wanting the two girls from her memory to be gone forever. She motioned for Hayley to come and stand with her, which she did gladly and the two of them faced the camera while Demi’s Dad happily clicked away.

  “So,” Hayley turned to face Demi after the camera ceased flashing, “you and Arthur Cooper, huh?”

  “Yeah.”

  “It’s big news.”

  “Its old news.”

  “Still, I think its big news.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Demi, I’m pleased for you, really I am. And I’ve missed you.”

  “I’ve missed you too,” Demi felt herself thawing in the presence of the person whom she’d always told her deepest, darkest secrets to, the person who knew her inside and out. The two girls embraced as Demi’s Dad quickly took yet another picture.

  “So you guys are like seriously dating?” Hayley asked, unable to ignore her curiosity.

  “Yeah, we are.” Demi smiled shyly.

  “And what about in the fall? Where is he going to college?”

  “Oh,” Demi felt her smile fall from her face. “I don’t know, we’d not talked about it.”

  ####

  Arthur was relieved to remove his cap and gown once all the formalities were over. In the back of his father’s car he stretched out, exhausted from having spent so many hours either posing or sitting and listening to someone talk.

  “So that’s graduation done,” Conrad Cooper said from the front seat.

  “Uh huh,” Arthur wasn’t paying attention to his father as he flipped over his phone to see a deluge of messages inviting him to various graduation parties. He’d go to some of them but first he needed to check in with Demi and see if she wanted to go too. Normally it was just the two of them, but this was a special day and they should really spend it with friends.

  “Have you given college much thought?” Conrad queried his son.

  “What?” Arthur answered absently.

  “College?” Conrad replied flatly.

  “I don’t know.”

  “See, I knew you’d be indecisive and leave it too late to make a decision.”

  “Dad…” Arthur braced himself for a berating but his father raised a hand from the steering wheel to silence him, their eyes locking in the rear view mirror; a lion and his tamer – the teenager and his father.

  “I knew you’d leave it too late to make a decision so I sorted it for you. An old friend of mine owed me a huge favor, so I called it on your behalf. He’s a lecturer, at Duke.”

  “Duke?” snapping his phone shut, Arthur was now giving his full attention to the conversation.

  “Duke, it’s a good school and I think you’d do really well there. Obviously you’d need to maintain decent grades given your poor record academically.” Conrad explained.

  “You applied to a school on my behalf?” Arthur said, outraged.

  “I told you not to bring this up now,” his mother said sadly, her face pinched.

  “You knew about this?” Arthur turned his fury on her and she recoiled at the sudden hostility.

  “Arthur, your father was just doing what he saw best for you!” she defended.

  “Someone needs to look out for your future!” Conrad shouted, feeling a
gitated. “You should be grateful you have one and stop neglecting it!”

  This made them all grow quiet as they knew he was referring to Jared. Guilt swept over Arthur and he let his head fall in to his hands.