Happenstance 2 (Happenstance #2)(22)
Author: Jamie McGuire

“They can bring whatever they’ve got. The joke’s on them,” I said, opening the window when the first car slowed to a stop in front of the shop.

Frankie watched me, shaking her head in awe. “You’re so close to graduation. So close to being free.”

I turned to fill a cup with soft serve and dumped in bananas and caramel, holding the cup up to the mixer. “I am not Easter anymore. I won’t hide.”

“You want to go with him.”

Her words hit me with such force, I crouched to my knees, barely holding the cup on the counter.

“Is she all right?” the woman on the other side of the window said.

Frankie rushed over to me, kneeling down.

“I’m a high school senior who wants to go to prom. I’ve got one chance to see what that feels like. Screw ’em. Screw him. Screw ’em all.”

“Attagirl,” Frankie said, holding her palm to my back. “To hell with ’em. And if he does anything to embarrass you, even so much as acts like a fool, God help him. Because your parents and me will nail him to the wall.”

I stood, holding the cup in both hands. “You won’t have to worry about that. I am writing my own story. And in my story, I get a happy ending. No matter what happens, they can’t touch me.”

I pulled my cell phone from the front pouch of my apron and texted Julianne.

Do you have plans tomorrow?

No. Did you have something in mind?

I’ve been asked to prom. Kind of.

Yay! Who?

Weston.

Are you sure?

Not really. But I’m going.

Okay, then. We’ll discuss this turn of events later. But you’re going to need a dress.

Tuesday after school, Julianne met me at Frocks & Fashions downtown. I just sort of stood around while she looked at the dresses. She would show me one, and I’d shake my head.

After several noes, she approached me. “What’s your favorite color?” she asked.

“All of them.”

“That’s convenient.” She chuckled.

“What about this one?” she said, holding up a sea-green dress with a full skirt and a bunched bodice. I shook my head again.

“What do you dislike about it?”

“The big skirt. The color. The fact that it’s strapless.”

She nodded. “Got it.”

A few minutes later, she held up another dress, her eyes animated. “Look at this one!” She took a closer look at the tag. “It’s your size!”

It was blush pink, the long skirt soft and flowing to the floor, with a thick, gathered empire waistline that sat below a transparent bodice. The see-through fabric went over both shoulders, and hundreds of small silver rhinestones grouped together to cover the breast area and then broke apart as they traveled up to the neckline.

Julianne turned it around. The back was see-through like Alder’s dress, but the rhinestones lined the outer edges instead of grouping at the bottom.

“Do you hate it?”

I shook my head. “No, it’s kind of pretty, actually.”

“Yeah?” she said. “Why don’t you try it on?”

“I don’t know. I feel like I’d be wasting your money if I don’t go.”

“Phooey. Come on,” she said, pulling open the curtain to one of the dressing areas.

I took the dress from her hands and went inside, closing the curtain behind me. I pulled the dress from the plastic and stepped into it, pulling it up and slipping my arms through the holes.

“I found the perfect shoes!” Julianne said.

I tried zipping it up, but couldn’t maneuver my hands far enough up my back. “I think I need help with the zipper.”

“Can I come in?” she asked.

I pulled back the curtain, and she gasped. “Gracious,” she said quietly, lowering the shoes in her hands.

I looked down. “It’s nice.”

She took me by the hand and cupped my shoulders, facing me toward the three-paneled mirror. She zipped the back up the rest of the way and handed me the shoes.

“This is not nice,” she said. “This is spectacular.”

I caught Weston watching me dozens of times the rest of the week, always seeming like he was on the edge of saying something, but he never did. The green eyes that I used to long to connect with became a source of conflict, as I hoped to see them and dreaded seeing them at the same time. Finally, on Friday morning before class, he met me at my locker.

“It’s my last game tonight. You said you’d go.”

“We’ve both said a lot of things.”

He winced, and then he forced a nervous smile. “What…what does that mean? Are you really not going to go to prom after I told my dad about Dallas? It was a big deal. He yelled. Then he talked for hours about how much I’d grown up. After he accepted it, of course. I was scared outta my mind. But I did it.”

I kept my eyes on the back wall of my locker.

“I enrolled online for Dallas yesterday.”

I still didn’t speak.

“Please come to my game. I’ll make you a deal. Double or nothing. If we don’t win tonight, you don’t have to go to prom with me.”

I looked up at him. “Why? Is it really so important to you that you carry this out for Alder?”

His brows pulled together, and he shook his head. “Nothing is more important to me than you. I don’t know how to say I’m sorry. I would do anything to take back agreeing to Alder’s plan. I wanted to go with you. I wanted to spend time with you. The rest could have been avoided.”

“You want,” I glared up at him. “It never stops being about what you want, does it?”

“I guess so. I don’t want regrets. I want to hold the girl I love in my arms during the last dance. I want her watching my last baseball game. I want those last memories of high school, but I want them with you. But that’s all I want. I swear it.”

I shut my locker.

“Come to the game. If we lose, I’ll take back my tux and cancel your wrist corsage.”

“You ordered me a wrist corsage?” I said, dubious.

“And a white limo,” he said, his eyes hopeful.

I took my biology book and left Weston standing at my locker alone. As I walked to class, something close to nausea set in while I choked back the debilitating mix of emotions swirling inside me.

Chapter 10

THE TONE BUZZED ONCE AND THEN AGAIN. My hand felt sweaty against the cell phone in my hand as the BMW made its way to the baseball field.