The Improbability of Forever (Kismet #2) ✓

8. Sixteen Candles

Eight

Sixteen Candles

My sweet sixteen came before I could stop it.

I really tried. I feigned the flu on Thursday but Mom took my temperature and insisted I went to school. On Friday I went with a more novel approach and took to pretending I had terrible friend issues (in part, this was fact), trying to convince Mom to be merciless and grant me a wellness day at home. She did neither of these, insisting that if she was capable of juggling a Master's degree, a job, two high-maintenance daughters, and a giant move, I was more than capable of going to school with a bit of a heavy heart.

And so it was with a heavy heart that I slouched through school on Friday. Cody tried to cheer me up in every way possible, but none of this helped because every time I passed Andrew in the hallway we exchanged glares as if we were moral enemies. My boyfriend was thrilled with this arrangement, and asked me multiple times if we'd decided not to go to prom together—the most recent time, I'd shut him up with a deadly glare and headed to lunch alone.

Currently, it was Saturday at three PM. Mom had let Julia into my house and the girl was acting like she was on a sugar high, arranging my makeup, hair supplies, and party dress in impeccable order on my bed.

"Is this your prom dress?" she squealed as she opened my closet door.

A crazy part of me wanted to run over to her and shield the dress from her view. "Yes," I muttered, flopping onto my bed so that a mascara tube rolled out of formation.

"It's so you. You're going to look stunning in this."

I ran my tongue over my teeth and didn't reply, because my brain was elsewhere. "Hey," I said suddenly, sitting up straight. "Is Andrew still dating Maybelline?"

Julia's cheeks turn slightly pink. "Actually, they never were dating. I thought they were, but it turns out they were just hanging out as friends."

"Oh." I wanted to point out that Andrew did a lot of hanging out with people who were supposedly "just friends," with exhibit A being me, but refrained. At least this way I didn't have to try and explain to myself why Andrew had a girlfriend while supposedly being infatuated with me.

Of course, this left me with no excuse to continue ignoring him, especially considering the fact that he'd RSVPd with an enthusiastic "yes" to my sweet sixteen. I didn't know if he was still planning on going, but it he did, maybe I could muster up an apology. I did still sort of want to go to prom.

Julia was already wearing a bright yellow bubble dress and dainty chandelier earrings, and she rearranged my makeup in proper order as I slid into my party dress. While I did so I did the best I could to ignore my prom dress, but the bag rustled every time I went near it and made it impossible not to look at. All I knew was that I'd better go to prom now that I'd spent two hundred dollars on a dress I'd probably never wear again.

"Prom is so stupid," I said as I tried to zip up my dress, with little success.

Julia came up behind me and zipped it for me, patting my shoulder once she'd finished. "I'll be happy to take your ticket," she said. "Not the dress, though. It'll look great on you but it isn't really my style."

I rolled my eyes and crossed the room so I could examine myself in the mirror. I'd picked out my dress a few months ago online and had been thrilled that it had fit me perfectly when it had arrived on my doorstep. The dress was a bright turquoise that made me look even tanner than I was naturally and fell around me loosely, showing off my petite frame. I couldn't help but smile as I stared at myself. Maybe I could turn this night around and make it one of the best of my life.