Andi and Keesh go in to two separate waxing rooms. When they come out, Andi’s eyes are wet but my other friend waves me out of my seat with a smile on her face like she didn’t just have her facial hair torn from its follicles.
“You guys like great. No red at all,” Steph tells them as she takes the walk to hell.
“They’re awesome here. Whatever they used, it felt like heaven. Smelled good too.” Keesh is still smiling.
“Great. There’ll be no evidence of torture in our pictures.”
“Shut up, Meggie. And get your ass in the room,” Keesh scolds me.
I look over at my little friend who gives me a sympathetic look.
When we’re done being plucked like Anne Hathaway in the princess movie, we move on to our next station. Mani pedis. Thank you. There’s something amazing about the moisturizing massage at the end of a pedicure that leaves me feeling soothed and hurt at the same time. I love it. Especially in this salon where the latest love songs sing in my ears and we sip on champagne glasses full of apple cider that fizzes, tickling my nose.
“Dude, this is the life,” Andi says, relaxing against the throw pillows that surround us as four women work on our toes.
Our nails are finished, having been taken care of by two other women. A whole team of estheticians has taken a turn at each one of us. It kind of makes me feel like a spoiled brat that we can do all this. But hey, it’s our last year. And we sure as hell have never done anything like this before.
“Yeah, but I’m starting to think we should’ve saved this for prom. How can we top all this?” Steph says. She must be thinking the same thing.
“Just enjoy it, girls,” one of the ladies says, never taking her eyes off Keesh’s toes.
“She’s right,” I say. “To the queen.” I raise my glass into the air, then reach over to clink it with my friends’.
By the time we leave the salon, the day of pampering was just that. A whole day. A total of six hours of poking, pulling, clipping, and tearing. And let’s not forget lungs full of inhaled hair spray.
We look good though. Damn good.
“Every year, you just look more and more beautiful, honey,” my dad says. “You’ve become such a stunning young woman. Where did my baby go? The one with the chubby cheeks and little pot belly?”
“Wow, Dad. That started off so good and went downhill fast.”
He hangs an arm over my shoulder, and brings me in for a squeeze and a kiss to my temple. “It wasn’t an insult. I loved you just as much then as I do now. I just wish you still looked like my little girl. I’m not ready to be the old man of a high school senior. I think you should go back to kinder. Or at least fourth grade.”
I rest my head against his chest. “Sorry. I’m all grown up. There’s no turning back. But I’m still your little girl.”
“Thanks, honey.” He steps away from me and holds up his camera.
“That was beautiful,” Mom says, wiping a tear from her eye. “I just love you guys.”
My dad shakes his head with a chuckle. “Oh stop. Just get over here and take a picture with your daughter.” He counts to three and a flash goes off. “Only now, you look more like sisters.”
My mom wiggles her brows. “Ooo, I’ll take it.” She saunters over to my dad with puckered lips and slides her hands around his waist.
“Gross.”
“Hey, Meg.” Dad turns away from my mother. Whew. “I forgot something.”
When he turns back around, I notice he’s holding a clear plastic corsage box in his hands. He opens it and removes the flowers—bright pink Gerbera daisies. My favorite.
“Thank you, Dad.”
“Don’t thank me. I wish I could take credit for this, but it was Alex. He ordered it and paid for it. He called and asked me if I could pick it up and give it to you.”
I inhale a deep breath and sigh. From miles and miles away, he still takes my breath away.
My mom’s eating this up. “How sweet!”
“The guy’s a stud.” My dad laughs. “I would’ve never thought of something like this.” He stretches out the elastic and circles it around my wrist. “There. You’re ready now.”
When my dad is finished taking pictures, I ask my mom to take a few with my phone. In one in particular, I’m holding my corsage to my lips as if I’m kissing the petals. The bright flowers are so pretty against the black shimmer of my sexy dress—a one shouldered mini. I send that one to Alex along with a quick thank you. I also tell him I’ll be sure to express my appreciation when I see him. A winky emoticon punctuates the end of the message. I’m sure he’ll get the hint.
Chapter 11
Multicolored lights fly across the room in all different directions when we enter the dance. The DJ is already flowing and the dance floor is packed. It doesn’t take long to notice that the hot colors this year are yellow and red. It looks like a sea of eggs and ketchup out there.
On the bright side, I’ll be able to find my girls easily. Steph and Keesh are both wearing pink tight floor length gowns. Andi is wearing a bright turquoise mini party dress. It’s super short and super puffy with never-ending layers of tulle and chiffon. As if her dress doesn’t stand out enough, her hair does even more. But I love it. The matching turquoise streaks in her hair are classic Andi. I wouldn’t expect anything less. Travis is adorable in a tie of the same shade. They’re perfect together.
“Okay, ladies. Ready for some non-stop dancing?” I shout. After three years of formal dances, we’ve finally figured it out, ditching our purses in the car and filling the guys’ pockets with lip gloss and money. No need to be tied down to a table when the guys can carry our junk.
“Let’s do this,” Keesh says, grabbing Josh’s hand and pulling him toward the crowd.
“Yeah, we only have three hours so let’s make it count.” Steph smiles up at Dom. He follows her with a hand on her lower back.
“Well, if some people didn’t spend all day getting ready, we would’ve been on time,” he says.
“I hear ya,” Eric agrees. “And how many pictures did we really need to take? They look the same every year.”
“You got that right, bro.” Now it’s Travis’s turn to complain.
“Dude, let’s just dance without them while they bitch and moan.”
“Sounds perfect!” Andi and I join our friends with some hip shaking and booty bumping while the rest of the guys slowly follow us.
We’re having a blast goofing around with each other. I don’t think it can get any better, but it does. When Dominic clears a lane of dancers and dives to the floor, I almost die of laughter. He does the worm with perfect form over and over as we all cheer him on. Josh itches to get in on the excitement so he raises his hands and stares at the ground like he’s going to try it, but his teammates talk him out of it. Poor guy can’t have fun without anyone trying to stop him from hurting his precious arm. I can tell he’s disappointed so I get my other girl date and we freak him in a sexy lady sandwich like there’s no tomorrow.
Eric slides in behind me wanting a piece of the action so I turn around and get funky with him. To others it may look a little flirty, but to our group it’s all in fun. Even the couples join us in the grind fest.
“Dude, I gotta pee.” Andi crunches up her face in agony. “Go with me, please.”
“Sure, let’s go.”
We weave through sweaty bodies on our way to the rest room.
“Nice dress, Meg,” a familiar face says.
“Thanks,” I say, making a beeline for the door that says ‘girls’. “I’ll wait out here for you. I need to cool off.”
Andi rushes inside with a groan. Scanning the crowd, I see couples kissing, fighting, and some too shy to say anything.
“I don’t know why you even asked me to come if you aren’t going to dance with me. Just take me home,” a girl says as she stalks past with a guy trailing at her heels. Yeah, I’d be pissed too if my date didn’t dance. Brody was about to get pounced on last year when he said he wasn’t going to dance. But I got him going. I wish he would’ve come tonight. I tried to bribe him with promises of hot girls and steamy dances, but he wouldn’t budge because of some comic book festival. At least he promised he’d go to prom. As long as they’re no geek conventions, I guess.
“Are you scoping out your next victim or what?”
Just the sound of her voice makes me cringe. “You’re dumb. Go away.”
“Or are you happy going back to Eric? I never thought you would, after … you know. What he and I did.
A lot
. But then again. He has experience. Maybe he can teach you a few things because you wouldn’t want to be
less experienced
than your college boyfriend.”
“Dude, shut the fuck up already. You’re such a sad excuse for a girl. I thought the movie Mean Girls was bad. You put a whole new spin on the word bitch.” Andi links her arm in mine and tugs me away. I’m speechless. “She’s awful. I can’t believe you were friends with her.”
“I know what you mean.” Amy is awful. The girl needs more therapy or something. I don’t get how she can be so mean especially after I held her hand through one of the hardest times in her life. Maybe it wasn’t hard for her. It would be for me. I don’t know. I need to stop trying to figure her out. She’s beyond comprehension.
After party, baby! Hotel party! Can’t say we’ve done
this
before. As homecoming queen, Keesh got hooked up with invites to a ton of parties. Josh was going to throw one, but we talked him out of it. We want to go out and have fun without worrying about the dang clean up. It took the whole crew several hours to get his house back to normal after his end-of-the-summer bash.
Another ASB kid reserved a luxurious suite for the party. I don’t know how he managed it, but I’m not about to start asking questions. We’re here to make some memories. It has two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a huge living room. I plant myself on a sofa and kick off my shoes. I’m surprised I lasted this long in my two-inch heels. (Don’t judge. I’ve come a long way from my three-quarter inch chunky platforms.)
“I’ll get some drinks,” Dom says. He and Travis head into one of the restrooms.
“I thought they said they were getting drinks.” I lift my head to zone in on them across the suite.
“They are,” Josh flops down next to me. “The tub is filled with ice and booze. Randy has beer, bottles of tequila, vodka. You name it. He’s got it.”
“Wow,” I say. “Some party.”
Other familiar faces from class start to shuffle in slowly. Guys slap hands and girls peel off their shoes and toss them in the corner. I’m glad we got here early enough to find a place to sit. I’m beat. My feet are throbbing and they feel like giant beaver tails attached to my ankles.
“Come on, Meggie.” Keesh jumps into my lap. “Girl, you need to catch your second wind. This queen is here to partaaayy! And you’re my date so we’re gonna tear this shit up in here.” She starts wiggling her booty against my thighs.
“Woooooo,” I yell, trying to wake my ass up. “Where’re the boys and those drinks?”
A bottle of tequila dripping with ice cold water appears from over my shoulder. Josh takes it from Travis.
Eric rubs his hands together. “Who’s ready for some body shots tonight?”
Keesh and I look at each other with disgust. “The only body shot you’ll be taking off me,” I tell him, “is off my foot. So don’t get any ideas.”
“Wait, wait, wait.” Keesh stops everyone with her hands in the air. “Before we get started, who’s driving?”
Steph looks over at Dom. “Hey, babe. I’ll drive your car tonight. You have fun.”
He shakes his head. “No, baby. This is your night with your friends. I’ll drive. Plus, I need to keep an eye on all of you.” He squints at each one of us like he’s in charge.
“I’m driving too,” Travis says. “But none of you are getting in my car if you look like you’re gonna puke.”
“What do we look like? Amateurs?” I joke.
“Hey, they have a game of beer pong going over there in the hall.” Keesh gestures over to a long table littered with red plastic cups. She finally slides off my lap and sits next to me.
“No, thank you. The idea of dirty balls floating around in my drink just doesn’t do it for me.”
“Yeah,” Travis says. “She’d rather have that fresh nut sac flavor.”
“Dude, that was totally gross.”
“What’s wrong, Andi? Sweaty balls don’t do it for you either?” Steph teases. And we all bust up laughing at the testy jokes.
“I’m gonna go play,” Josh says, jumping over the back side of the couch, leaving me with the cold bottle of ta-kill-ya.
Travis stands. “I’m gonna go watch.” He kisses Andi on the top of the head. “You wanna come?”
“Yeah, why not? All this talk about balls makes me want to play with some.” She flutters her brows.
Travis is still, all wide-eyed staring at his girl. She winks at him. “We can leave if you want. I have some balls you can play with.” She smiles, pushing past him toward the game. He looks over at us. “What have you girls done to my innocent woman?”
The three of us crack up as he leaves, shaking his head.