“NO!” I laugh. “No barfing on me allowed, period!”
“Don’t worry,” Noah assures me. “As your date, I view it as my duty to fight off all barfers.”
“My knight in a mismatched tux.” I sigh, batting my eyelashes in exaggerated swooniness.
“Your grandpa seemed extremely perturbed by my lack of matching pants,” Noah says.
“Grandpa Marty’s okay. He just doesn’t get the whole Faux Prom concept.”
Over Noah’s shoulder I spot a new couple joining the party. My heart leaps as I see them outlined in shadow—it looks like her, but I can’t be sure until they step out of the house into the light.
I pull back from Noah’s arms. “Rosa’s here! I can’t believe she came!”
“I can,” he says.
“You knew?” I ask.
He smiles, sphinxlike. “I might have had some inkling.”
I throw my arms around his neck and kiss his cheek. I spin away to run across the lawn to Rosa, but he grabs my hand and pulls me back. I twirl into him and find myself staring into his eyes. “Hey,” he says softly.
“Hey,” I reply. Then Noah lowers his head, closing the distance between our “Heys.” His lips are warm and urgent against mine, his arms a circle around me, pulling me closer. My fingers tangle in his hair, and flutters take off in my chest. Right now, in this moment, all I feel is wonder.
When he pulls back, he smiles and says, “Go on,” because he knows. I grin and take off across the lawn, almost knocking Rosa over with the force of my bear hug.
“I’m so glad you’re here!” I practically shout.
“When I imagined going to prom, you were always part of it,” Rosa says. “We went to the actual prom and took pictures, but I knew that real ‘real prom’ was here.”
“Prom is where your friends are,” I say.
“Exactly,” Rosa agrees. “I made a playlist. Eddy did, too.”
She goes over to Omar and hands him a thumb drive.
Then, grabbing Eddy’s hand, she meets Noah and me and we’re all together dancing when Omar starts playing Queen’s “You’re My Best Friend.”
Everyone ends up dancing together, spinning and singing at the top of their lungs.
The fairy lights hanging around the patio twinkle along with the stars that surround the moon shining down on us from the indigo sky.
This is a perfect moment.
And better yet—no one throws up on me to ruin it.
I’ve got this moment of pure joy for the hard days ahead.
My mom has two more rounds of chemo to get through. We still have to see how the cancer responds. The probability is good that it will, but you never know. My dad’s future as CEO of New Territories Bank Corp is up in the air.
I still have to take the SAT next weekend. In the fall I’ll be applying to college.
But tonight I’m here with my friends and one very adorable boy, and there is music, and for these few hours, in this time and place, all is right in my world.
I’ll take it.
Someone else can post pictures on Instagram or Facebook or wherever to capture the memories tonight.
I’m too busy making them.
A writer spends a lot of time creating alone, but the book that comes out with her name on the spine couldn’t happen without the assistance of others.
First, I have to thank my amazing editor, Jody Corbett, who shepherded a grieving and emotionally fragile yours truly through the writing of this book. Somehow, she knew exactly when to push and when to allow me a day or two to be weepy. I consider myself truly blessed to work with her.
I’m grateful to work with a rock-star agent, Jennifer Laughran, who helps keep me sane in a business that is often far from it.
I’m so happy to be part of the Scholastic family, where I get to work with fun, funny, and incredibly talented people like Rebekah Wallin, Nina Goffi, Saraciea Fennell, David Levithan, Tracy van Straaten, Lizette Serrano, Emily Heddleson, Antonio Gonzalez, Michelle Campbell, Johnny Yotnakparian, Nikki Mutch, Robin Bailey Hoffman, Anna Swenson, Ann Marie Wong, and so many others who care deeply about literacy and getting quality books into the hands of young people.
Writing can be a lonely, crazy-making business, and it helps to have friends who understand. I’ve met writers who give me advice, support, and necessary perspective with love and humor at Kindling Words, Swinger of Birches, and in the Sisterhood of the Brass Necklace. Huge smooches and hugs to you all.
Felicia Korengel and Carol Burney Lewis are brave, honest warriors who shared the nitty-gritty of their fight with breast cancer. Thank you for helping me get the details right. Any mistakes are mine.
Thanks go to Ted Gilman, Education Specialist and Senior Naturalist at Audubon Greenwich for helping to refresh my memory as to what flora and bird life would be present during a walk in the woods in April when I was on a tight deadline in October.
Ageless and ever-hip Robert Mizaki and Paola Muggia kept me au courant with the Bowery Ballroom bathroom paper towel situation. Details matter, people! I’ve been to my fair share of concerts in New York City, but they have me beat despite having lived there far less time.
I’m immensely grateful to Daniel A. Schwartz, Esq., of Shipman and Goodwin for answering an employment law question while on a cross-country flight, and his colleague, Ross H. Garber, Esq., for referring me. Not everyone will give hypothetical legal advice to a fictional character at the drop of a hat when an author is on a tight deadline, but these gentlemen definitely came through!
I am thankful for family and friends, near and far, who showered my family with love and wrote to us with memories of our parents. It brought courage and comfort, and gave me the strength to keep writing through grief, as Mom would have wanted.
Most of all, I’m grateful for my family. I miss my parents every single day but am so incredibly fortunate to have had their love and guidance. I’ve weathered their loss with my siblings, John and Anne Darer, and together we’re making it through.
I am thankful every day for my incredible children, Josh and Amie, who make me laugh, inspire me, and fill me with pride.
And finally, thanks to my love, Hank Eskin, who keeps me grounded, helps find my logic flaws in probability charts and in life, and who convinced me to believe in Happily Ever After again.
Sarah Darer Littman is the critically acclaimed author of Backlash; Want to Go Private?; Life, After; Purge; and Confessions of a Closet Catholic, winner of the Sydney Taylor Book Award. When she’s not writing novels, Sarah is an award-winning columnist for the online site CT News Junkie. She teaches creative writing as an adjunct professor in the MFA program at Western Connecticut State University and with Writopia Lab. Sarah lives in Connecticut. You can visit her online at www.sarahdarerlittman.com.
Also by Sarah Darer Littman
Backlash
Want to Go Private?
Life, After
Purge
Copyright © 2016 by Sarah Darer Littman
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First edition, October 2016
Cover design by Nina Goffi
Cover image © Emma Kim/Media Bakery
e-ISBN 978-0-545-90440-7
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