by Erin Downing
Emily hoped everyone at Northwestern was as nice and dopey as the guy in the car next to them. They had a big challenge ahead of them, and if they had bitchy students to deal with, it would make their mission that much more complicated. As the limo pulled away from the light, Sid and Max both squeezed out of the sunroof to join them. All four friends lifted their arms and waved at the pedestrians walking past. Emily grinned—though it wasn’t her romantic prom fantasy, this version of prom night certainly came close to perfect.
The limo pulled into a circular drive that was packed with other limos and dress- and tux-clad teens. Emily, Sid, Charlie, and Max all slid back into the limo’s interior. Sid watched people through the limo’s darkened windows, while Charlie adjusted his tie. Checking his watch, Max announced, “Five minutes until my shift. Are we ready?”
Emily twisted her hair into a low knot, which she secured with a few pins. “Come here,” Charlie gestured, holding his glass of bubbly loosely in his hand.
“What’s wrong?” Emily patted her head nervously. “Is my hair a disaster?”
“Sheesh, chill. It looks great.” Charlie pulled a tiny blossom from a small vase in the wall of the limo. He pinned it into Emily’s hair, just behind her left ear. “Now it’s perfect.”
Emily smiled at her cousin. “Thank you. I don’t know why I’m so nervous. I guess since there are only two proms left, the chance of finding Ethan tonight is that much higher.” She adjusted her dress, fiddling with a wrinkle that had formed over her thigh.
“That’s why we need to get in there.” Charlie poked his head out the roof of the limo, then popped back down again. “You ready, Em?”
“We’re on.” Emily’s stomach made a nervous little flip. “Let’s move.”
The driver opened the door of the limo for them. Max jumped out, followed by a surly-looking Sid. Charlie quickly directed the driver to wait until they returned to the dock later that night. Then he held his hand out for his cousin. “Take my arm,” he instructed.
Emily did as she was told, and they followed Max and Sid toward the dock. The other prom attendees were boarding the enormous tour yacht via a ramp that led onto the fore deck. There were tables piled high with appetizers and mocktails, none of which had yet been touched. Most of the prom crowd was still mingling on the dock, comparing outfits and preparty stories.
Max stopped at a small gift shop that sold souvenirs and tickets for the Queen Mary and other dinner boats. The gift shop was also the office and home base for the boats’ employees—Max stepped inside the shop to punch in for his shift. When he returned to the dock, he handed Sid, Emily, and Charlie each a white chef’s smock to put on over their formal wear. “Everyone ready to work?” Max winked.
The other three followed Max past the prom revelers and moved farther down the dock toward the aft deck. Max greeted a few of the Queen Mary waiters who were standing near a second ramp that was being used to load catering gear into the boat’s galley. Other tux-clad employees bustled past the foursome, who had stopped a few feet short of the ramp.
Max glanced at the other employees, all of whom were too uninterested and/or busy to notice the newcomers. No one seemed to care that Charlie, Emily, and Sid were wearing formal wear under their smocks—as long as they were helping, it seemed they were invisible.
On Max’s cue, Emily grabbed a steaming platter of dumplings off a rolling cart on the dock. Charlie followed suit, turning up his nose at his permanently stained uniform and groaning under the weight of the hot plate he was carrying. Sid lifted a small crate of freshly washed plates off the dock.
They stepped one at a time onto the long, wobbly ramp and paraded into the boat’s galley. Inside the galley, Emily set down her dumplings and pulled off her uniform to reveal her dress again. She straightened the perma-wrinkle over her thigh, slid out the galley door, up a few short stairs, and onto the expansive yacht’s deck. Charlie and Sid were steps behind her. Max waved to them from down in the galley, then returned to work.
Their plan had worked. They were in.
Moving to the front of the boat, Emily, Charlie, and Sid slipped into the crowd easily. There were several groups of people gathered near the buffet table, and many more parading onto the boat. Charlie scanned the crowd. “I don’t see anyone who fits your description of Mr. Yummy.”
“Me either.” Emily twisted her hair nervously. “But I do see a lot of flasks out and in use. Max was right about this prom—there will be a lot of drunk people on this boat tonight.”
Sid nodded to a guy on the other side of the deck. “That guy’s already down for the count.” Emily looked in the direction Sid had gestured. There was a tall, out-of-shape guy sitting on one of the benches, resting his forehead on his knees.
“It’s only eight!” Emily giggled. “Looks like he’s not gettin’ lucky tonight.” The drunk guy’s date was standing at his side, one hand clutched around her cell phone, the other patting one of his shoulders. She looked pissed and embarrassed.
The three friends chatted and strolled around the main deck while the rest of Northwestern’s students piled on board. Soon the boat pulled away from the dock and set sail into the inky black night. The Queen Mary was crowded and loud, and Emily was starting to feel a little seasick and smushed. She wanted to escape but was stuck in the middle of Lake Windham.
While appetizers were passed, Emily weaved her way through the main deck alone but didn’t see Ethan anywhere. Many people had moved into the well-lit and festive covered area on the main deck, where dinner was being served. A few lone couples stood on the outer deck, giggling and kissing in the moonlight. Charlie and Sid had followed a few of Charlie’s new friends into the dining room, where Emily could see them laughing through the windows.
The appetizers had been cleared from the front deck and the tables had been folded up for storage. The front of the boat was now decorated with tiny, glowing lights that blew gently in the breeze.
Emily breathed in the clean, cool night air. She held on to the railing circling the deck and strolled back toward the rear of the boat. A circular staircase led her upward to a smaller, unpopulated deck overlooking the main level of the boat.
“Hey, you.” Max’s voice cut through the stillness of the night, surprising Emily.
She turned, seeing her best friend perched on an overturned plastic crate in one corner of the back deck, looking out over the lake. He was surrounded by dirty appetizer dishes piled high with food. “Hey,” she replied.
“No Ethan, huh?”
“Seems that way.” She moved toward Max’s dish outpost, leaning back on a railing. “Charlie and Sid are having a good time.”
“You’re not?”
“Not really,” she said, blowing her long bangs out of her eyes. “Can I help?” Emily offered.
Max held a dirty plate out to her. “Scrape, then stack.” Emily nodded and pushed the food off one of the dirty plates into a big garbage bin propped up next to the railing. “You don’t need to help though.”
“I know.” She grabbed another plate, carefully keeping it away from her borrowed dress, “This is really disgusting.”
“No kidding. You’ll notice I’m on my own out here.” Max grimaced and scraped. “New guy.”
“The job suits you,” Emily teased.
“This is making me appreciate the college career ahead of me. I don’t think I’m cut out for dish duty the rest of my life.” He paused and looked up at Emily. “But I’m going to miss this.”
Emily turned to him. Her stomach knotted like it had at the Ridley Prep post-prom the weekend before. “Me too.” She set her now-empty plate in the plastic dishwasher tray Max was stacking plates in. “These last few weeks have been really fun. I’m going to miss you guys. You especially … and Wisconsin is really far from New York.”
“Nine hundred eighty-four miles to Appleton from Manhattan.” Max cocked his head to the side and smirked. “MapQuest. I’m preparing for my Emily withdrawal. I thought you were dying to g
et out of here. Haven’t you been counting the days?”
“Yeah,” Emily admitted. “But I sort of forget that when I leave here, I’m also leaving you and Charlie and Sid. And painful as it is to admit it, I think I’m going to miss my little sister a tiny bit.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Max said seriously. “I bought you a clock that has her voice recorded on it. Every hour, on the hour, Abby will announce: ‘It’s one o’clock! Do you miss me, Emily? It’s two o’clock, do you want a snack, Emily?’”
Emily laughed. “I assume you’re kidding, but I wouldn’t put something like that past you. Man, Max, I’m gonna be a mess without you next year. Who’s going to keep me up to date on the news of the weird?”
“I think you’ll find plenty of bizarre stuff in Manhattan. I’m going to seem normal comparatively. Besides, Charlie is what, like an hour away?”
“Is Yale that close to New York?” Emily shuddered. “I didn’t really think about that. That’s a little too close for comfort.”
Max laughed. “You’d probably be lonely way out there by yourself. But if anyone can handle New York, it’s you.”
“Yeah,” Emily agreed. “I’ll be all right.”
“Oh, hey,” Max interrupted, grinning in the moonlight. “I sold my prom crashers story!”
Emily grinned back. “Really? Max, that’s fantastic. To Buzz?”
“Yep. It’s going online Sunday. I’m in edits now. I have to write up the rest of the proms before I turn in my final draft. They definitely want me to use the stuff from tonight and tomorrow night—our last prom—before I finish up. But you’re going to be famous. As ‘Emmy,’ though, not Emily. They made me change names.”
“I would hope. I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about this. It really is going to be hard next year. I see you every day now, and still I feel like I’m missing things.”
Max laughed. “I just found out yesterday.”
“So? This is just a sneak peek of what next year’s going to be like. Do you promise to IM with me every day?”
“Maybe,” he teased. When Emily threatened to drop a plate of discarded food in his lap, he laughed. “Yeah, yeah, I promise!”
“Good.” Emily set down her plate and leaned against the railing, looking out into the dark lake. After a few minutes of silence she murmured, “It’s really pretty here. I sometimes forget.”
Max nodded. “It’s not bad.” He scraped silently, studying Emily in the dim spotlight illuminating the back deck of the boat. After a few moments, he asked quietly, “Why aren’t you having fun tonight?”
She turned, sighing. “This whole prom thing is starting to really get to me.” She tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear when the wind blew it loose. “I know it’s just a dance, but I guess I always thought prom would really be something for me, you know? Romance and flowers and, well, the whole thing… I thought I had maybe found that when I met Ethan a few weeks ago. But now things are starting to feel a little …” She broke off.
“Hopeless?” Max offered, not-so-helpfully.
“Yeah.” Emily winced. “Thanks.”
“I don’t think it’s hopeless. And I don’t think it’s unreasonable that you’re looking for all that. You wouldn’t be Emily if you just went to prom the way everyone else goes to prom. This prom crashing thing—that’s how the Emily Bronson I know and love would want to do prom. It makes it an adventure. It seems to me that you have gotten your prom thing out of your system. Would you give up all this”—he gestured around at the boat—“for just a regular, ordinary prom? Would a good date with pretty white teeth really fulfill your every fantasy?” Max was gesturing wildly by the end of his little speech, and inadvertently flung a fork off the edge of the boat. “Oops.”
Emily laughed and leaned forward to give Max a hug. He reached up from his seat on the crate, his arms stretching around her waist. The hug was clumsy, but warm and comfortable. Max’s arms wrapped around Emily’s waist and he pulled her in close. When he did, she felt the same suspicious spark in her chest and pulled back—this was getting ridiculous. She shivered in the cool breeze, rubbing her arms to keep them warm.
Max stood up from his crate and moved closer to Emily. “Are you cold?” he asked, concerned.
“I’m fine.” But she wasn’t fine. She wasn’t sure if it was the slow prom song playing in the background or the lake setting (though scraping food remains wasn’t particularly romantic) or her companion himself, but Emily was once again feeling an awkward electricity around Max.
“You’re not fine,” Max said. “You’re cold. Come here.” He moved forward, bundling her in his arms. Emily relaxed into his shoulder, only slightly aware of Max’s dirty uniform. She tucked her arms in against his chest and her ear brushed his.
Her whole body was tensed up with the delicious feeling of what might happen. She leaned back and met Max’s eyes in the moonlight, and they both smiled. Emily was surprised to discover how natural—and yet totally new—their connection felt. Max pulled her back in toward him, tipping his face toward hers.
Just then Emily heard Charlie’s yell from the lower deck. She pulled out of Max’s arms and leaned over the railing to look for her cousin. Charlie spotted her and yelled again. “Em! We have to go. Now!”
“Now?” Emily asked, a smile tugging the corners of her lips. “We’re on a boat, Charlie.” Max leaned over the railing next to her and waved at Charlie and Sid.
“Hey, Max,” Charlie said, grinning mischievously.
A loud, booming grunt came from the front deck of the boat, then a guy yelled, “Where is that dude? I’m gonna kill him!”
“Trust him,” Sid announced in a loud whisper. “We need to get out of here. Em, are you in or out?”
Without thinking, Max quickly unhinged one of the lifeboats hanging next to him and lowered it to the water. “Go,” he told Emily. “Take the spiral staircase down. There’s a ladder just there.” He pointed over the rail at a white wooden ladder hanging from the lower deck into the water. “There are oars in the boat. I’ll explain to the captain somehow—luckily it’s one of the college guys driving the boat tonight, so he should be cool about it.”
Emily was confused. So confused. What had just almost happened? She didn’t think she was imagining it—but had she and Max maybe just almost kissed? It was so unexpected and strange and thrilling, all at once.
Charlie was gesturing wildly from the lower deck and had begun to climb down the ladder and into the lifeboat bobbing gently in the water below. Sid was already in. Emily could see lights from the lake-shore just a few hundred yards away. She knew if they got into the lifeboat, they would be on dry land in just a few minutes if they rowed hard—though the rowing would, of course, be up to her and Sid. Surely Charlie’s little getaway plan didn’t allow for any exertion on his part.
The spiral staircase was wet, and Emily felt her shoes slip. She pulled them off and crossed the deck to the ladder. In less than thirty seconds, all three were safely aboard the lifeboat and Max had untied the ropes from the Queen Mary. They were free.
Laughing maniacally, Charlie leaned back into the bench in the lifeboat. Emily pulled the oars out and dipped them in the water. Sid was hunched over laughing in the front of the boat. “What did you do?”
Charlie was too hysterical to talk and just pointed. An almost naked guy was standing on the front deck of the boat, staring after them, waving his fist in the air and swearing.
Emily’s eyes widened. But it wasn’t because of Charlie or the naked guy or the fact that they were stuck in a lifeboat in the middle of Lake Windham.
She was staring at the deck of the boat, where a crowd of Northwestern students had gathered to watch their lifeboat drift away and chuckle at their naked classmate. There, in the middle of the crowd, yummy as a slice of Max’s mom’s cake, stood Ethan, just as gorgeous as Emily remembered him.
“Emily?” Ethan had seen her, too. He was shouting over the noise of the crowd to be heard.
Emily nodded. Lifting an oar, she shouted, “Hi, Ethan,” as waves carried the lifeboat away and the yacht blurred into twinkling lights in the distance.
Eleven
Emily yawned and slurped a mouthful of milky coffee. It had been twelve hours since they’d left Northwestern’s prom on a lifeboat, and she’d slept four of them. Now she was slumped behind the counter at the Leaf Lounge, downing coffee and waiting for the first morning regulars to arrive.
She, Charlie, and Sid had gotten to shore quickly the night before. They had tied the lifeboat to a post on the dock and climbed into their waiting limo. Emily still couldn’t understand the full story of what had happened that made them have to abandon ship so quickly—Charlie started gagging on his laughter every time he tried to tell the story, and Sid just kept shaking her head and saying Charlie needed to tell it.
But Charlie had spluttered out enough for Emily to know that the big naked guy had, for some unidentifiable reason, removed his tux to puke up his preprom drinks in the ship’s toilet, at which point Charlie had apparently led a little gang of other drunk people to grab the guy’s clothes from outside the bathroom door as a fun prank.
Charlie had stowed them in one of the ship’s life jacket containers, and the guy had emerged from the bathroom in boxers, socks, and a raging prehangover. He had sobered up slightly during his pukefest, and was embarrassed and angry about his missing clothes. Charlie’s laughter hadn’t helped to calm him down.
Apparently a bunch of the guy’s friends had threatened to throw Charlie overboard as payback, which is when he had yelled to Emily, interrupting her and Max’s almost moment.
She felt her thoughts once again drifting back to the strangely electric hug from the night before. She pushed them to the side of her mind, recognizing that years of friendship don’t change overnight. She would never risk losing Max as a friend to pursue any feelings that might be there. Things would be so awkward between them if she were wrong and she said something to Max—he would think she’d gone crazy.