Present Perfect (13 page)

I was laying on the bed in Emily’s room while she rummaged through her closest for the perfect party dress for me. Thankfully, my sister was a pretty girl who went to a lot of dances and was similar in size to me. I was still shorter and a little curvier than Emily, but the difference wasn’t as noticeable now like when we were younger. I couldn’t have cared less about what I wore tonight. I heard her mumbling something while still in the closet. She stuck her head out when I didn’t respond.

“Amanda, did you hear me?” she asked.

“Huh?”

“How do you feel about yellow?”

“As long as it doesn’t have feathers glued to it, yellow is fine, Emily.” My voice was flat.

She looked at me for a second and then started laughing. “Right, I had forgotten about Tweety. That was hilarious. We knew exactly where you were. All we had to do was follow the trail of feathers.” I looked up glaring at her. “Too soon? Sorry. Okay, go take a shower, shampoo your hair, and shave everywhere.”

I glanced at the clock on her nightstand. “I have two and a half hours before I have to be there,” I whined.

“I know. You need to hurry up. We don’t have a lot of time.” She tugged my arms, pulled me to my feet, and pushed me out the door.

I did exactly what Emily told me to do even if it didn’t make sense to me. My brain was so numb I didn’t have the capacity to make any decisions right now. Noah was the only thought that played repeatedly in my head. I showered, shampooed, shaved, and returned to my sister’s room.

The dress she picked out was hanging on the closet door. It was the one she wore the first time she ran for homecoming queen. She won, of course. The dress was a pale yellow strapless taffeta. The bodice fit me perfectly, hugging me in all the right places, giving me a curve or two. The skirt hit me right at the knee and was full and flowing with three dimensional flowers sporadically placed close to the hem. She had matched it with a pair of silver strappy sandals with almost 3 inch heels. I wasn’t sure about the heels, but like everything else, I didn’t care.

Emily had me put the dress on first before tackling hair and makeup. I was sitting at her vanity covered in a huge towel so nothing would get on the dress. There was an awful lot to do for a dance I didn’t even want to attend.

“I think your hair would look awesome pinned up. Oh, and you can wear my diamond teardrop earrings that Mom and Dad gave me for my sweet sixteen,” Emily said enthusiastically.

“Whatever you want to do is fine.” My voice was monotone.

“For someone going to her first big dance, you don’t seem very excited.” I just shrugged my shoulders. “So what time is Noah picking you up?”

My chest tightened. I never told her who I was going with. I just told her I was going to the dance. “Noah’s not picking me up.”

“Why not?” she asked, eyeing me in the mirror while she brushed out my hair.

“Because I’m not going with him.” She stopped brushing for a few seconds, a look of confusion crossed her face.

“Oh, sorry. I just assumed…”

“Well, you know what that does,” I said.

“Why aren’t you going with him?”

“Because I didn’t ask him.”

“Are we going to keep doing this or are you going to explain why you’re not going to your first dance with Noah?”

“I just didn’t ask him. Besides, he’s not really happy with me right now.” I shifted my gaze down to my lap, breaking it from Emily’s. I was afraid if I said anymore I would start crying.

She stopped what she was doing and leaned against the vanity in front of me. “You want to tell me what happened?”

I couldn’t speak. I was on the verge of breaking down now. If I opened my mouth to say one little word, I wouldn’t be able to hold it together. I just shook my head. With the tips of her fingers, Emily tilted my head up to look at her. Tears were already swimming in my eyes.

“Talk to me, Manda. What happened?”

“I don’t know what to tell you. I just know that he hasn’t talked to me in three days. He doesn’t answer his phone and he ignores me at school.” I wiped a tear from my face. It was a good thing she hadn’t done my makeup yet.

“There has to be a reason. That doesn’t sound like Noah. You can tell me. I won’t say anything.”

I debated whether or not to open up to her. It wasn’t that we weren’t close, because we were, it was just embarrassing to admit the problem was me. I was a loser and a screw up. I had screwed up my friendship with Noah.

“Things are changing and I…um don’t know what to do.” My voice cracked and a few tears spilled.

A slight smile played across Emily’s face. “It’s hard when your best friend becomes a very cute boy, isn’t it?” I didn’t respond. She could see in my eyes that she was spot on. “Is there a girl that Noah likes?” I nodded. “Do you like her?”

“No, I don’t. She’s not good enough for him.” I looked away from her. I wasn’t exactly lying. It was just Emily didn’t realize the girl we were talking about was me.

“Is that why he’s mad?”

“Yeah,” I whispered.

“Sweetie, I know it’s hard and it doesn’t feel right now like things will work out, but they will. You and Noah have something extremely special, you always have. Nothing will ever come between the two of you for any length of time.”

“Thanks.”

“Let’s finish making you the hottest girl at the dance tonight.” She hugged me and got right back to work.

The minute we pulled into the parking lot, I felt like I was going to be sick. I was nervous about everything, the way I looked, socializing with Vincent, seeing Noah and Beth together, and just plain seeing Noah. I constantly tugged on the taffeta flowers that were stitched to my skirt during the ride over here. The cherry on top of my nerve sundae was the fact that I was sitting in the back of my parent’s car. I wanted Emily to drive me here and pick me up, but my parents insisted. They said that since I was meeting Vincent here instead of him picking me up at our house, they wanted to come and see us together and take pictures. I agreed, after all it was my first dance. This whole dance thing was already a nightmare and I hadn’t even gotten out of the car.

Dad parked and escorted me and Mom to the gym where the dance was being held. As we got closer, I saw a barrage of flashing lights as Vincent’s parents took picture, after picture, after picture. He really wasn’t a bad looking guy. Some would even say he was cute, in a nerdy sort of way. He had on a dark sports jacket, khaki pants, and a light blue button down shirt with a paisley bow tie. Not exactly GQ material, but it worked for him.

Vincent saw me walking towards him. I smiled as I saw his mouth drop open and his eyes blink a few times, like he was amazed at what he saw. I knew I probably wasn’t, but I felt pretty for the first time in my life. Emily had done a fantastic job for what she had to work with, which wasn’t much. Vincent and I stood there suffering as both sets of parents took what felt like a million pictures of us. Finally, we said our goodbyes to them and headed inside.

With every step I took towards the entrance, my stomach flip-flopped. The entrance to the gym actually looked nice, with an archway decorated with white roses and tiny white lights.

When we first entered, it was difficult to see anything before my eyes had time to adjust to the dim lighting. White columns were placed at each corner of the basketball court, strung with the same tiny white lights. Balloons in the school colors of white and navy blue had been tied everywhere. The DJ was setup at the farthest wall and a table with punch and snacks was set against the wall opposite of him.

I scanned the crowd looking for Noah and Beth. Neither one of them knew I was going to be there tonight. I wasn’t sure I wanted them to see me. A ton of people were already here, so getting lost in the crowd would be easy. I just wanted a quick look at the two of them, anyway.

Vincent and I took a spot up against the wall behind a crowd of girls and boys who were too scared to ask each other to dance. My gaze went from the entrance to scanning the crowd and back again.

“Do you want to dance?” Vincent asked nervously.

“Do
you
want to dance?”

“Well, we are at a dance.”

“Vinnie, let’s not let the rules of society dictate our actions. I thought you were an independent thinker, man. That’s the main reason I asked you to come tonight.” He simply shrugged and leaned back against the wall.

I had been standing and scanning for at least 40 minutes and still no sign of Noah and Beth.

“I’m going to get some punch. Do you want any?” Vincent sounded blasé.

“What? Oh, no thanks. I’m good.”

As Vincent walked away, he passed in front of me, blocking my view for a split second. When he moved I saw them. Noah and Beth had just walked in. I don’t know if it was the altitude of the heels I was wearing, but when I saw Noah, my knees became weak and I got dizzy. I had to lean against the wall so I wouldn’t fall.

Noah looked amazing. While most of the guys wore either a sport coat and khaki pants or just pants and a button down shirt, he had on a suit. It was black and paired with a light grey shirt and darker grey tie. Even in the dim light, his light blue eyes looked even brighter against the monochromatic colors of his suit. With the combination of those eyes, that dark brown hair, and dark suit, he exuded a smoldering sexiness.

As he and Beth walked further in, they were greeted by a few other couples. The girls ended up huddled together and the guys stood off to the side. I couldn’t keep my eyes off of Noah. I was so focused on him that I was startled when Vincent walked up.

“Amanda…um…Sarah Grice just asked me to dance. I told her I needed to check with you first.”

“Are you dumping me half way through our date?” I’m not going to lie, but I was a bit surprised at Vincent.

“No. I wouldn’t do that. Listen, I know why you asked me to the dance. I heard you and Beth talking the other day at lunch.” I felt bad that I was kind of using him. “It’s okay. I’m glad I came with you instead of a real girl.” My eyebrows furrowed as I huffed at him. “You know what I mean. Besides, everyone at school knows how you and Noah are.”

“How are we?”

“I don’t know. You guys seem like you’re something.”

“We’re best friends. We grew up together. That’s it.”

He began fidgeting with the bottom of his jacket. “Look, this conversation is making me uncomfortable. I don’t want Sarah to ask another guy to dance, so is it okay if I go now?”

“Yes.”

“Thanks Amanda. You’re a real pal.” He patted my shoulder, turned, and disappeared into the crowd.

I directed my attention back to Noah and Beth, who were still in the same position, standing away from each other. Things were good. I was hidden and Beth and Noah were not dancing. The night was running pretty smooth and then I heard her.

“Hello Amanda. What on earth are you doing here?”

“Hello Brittani. It’s a school function. I can’t attend a school function?”

“You know you were supposed to bring a date.”

“I brought a date.”

“Who?” she snapped.

“Vincent Chamberlin.”

She craned her neck over the crowd. “Yeah, where is he?”

I hesitated for a few seconds before saying, “He’s dancing with Sarah Grice right now.”

“Oh my god! You’re pathetic! You can’t even keep a nerd like him interested.” I narrowed my eyes at her.

Out the corner of my eye I saw her remove something from her purse and palmed it so I couldn’t see what it was. She raised her hand to her mouth and tilted her head back. She was drinking from a flask.

“You want some?” She held it up offering me a swig.

“You are just a walking afterschool special, aren’t you?” I shook my head at her. “You better watch out. If you get caught, you’ll be expelled.”

She followed my gaze over to where Noah was standing. “He’s perfect. You’re never going to have him.” I didn’t respond. I hoped she would just slither away. “I feel a little sorry for you. You’ll never know what it feels like to be pressed up against him, to have his lips and hands all over your body. He especially likes these.” She pointed to her massive chest region. “He can’t seem to keep his hands off of them and my ass mesmerizes…”