We hadn’t done more than kiss. But I suddenly began to imagine the possibility of losing my virginity to Jesse Ford, the boy of my dreams, in my mean old principal’s house, before our entire town slipped under water.
If the rain hadn’t been pounding my window, none of it would have felt real.
But it was real, as real as poor Russell Dixon being escorted out of his home, as Sheriff Hamrick’s warnings, as my waning hope that there would be a happy ending for Aberdeen.
The epicness of all those things combined turned something I wouldn’t have considered into something I desperately needed. Because I knew sex with Jesse would overshadow all the terrible things that had happened. It would give me something good to cling to. That was the power of Jesse Ford. Being with him made everything else I was feeling inside disappear. And I needed that now, more than ever before.
So I decided it right then and there. Yes. If the chance to have sex with Jesse Ford at Secret Prom presented itself, I’d take it.
I sent him a quick text. Weirdly, I hadn’t heard from him since he dropped me off yesterday afternoon.
Hey Prom Date. Guess what? The last 24 hours of my life have sucked so hard, it’s not even funny. I don’t even know where to start. Sigh. Anyway, I can’t wait to see you tonight.
I held my phone for a few minutes after. And then I turned it off so I wouldn’t have to invent a reason for why Jesse wasn’t writing me back.
• • •
Morgan was to pick me up at 8 p.m. I waited until 7:59 to go downstairs.
Mom was lying across the entire living room couch. I figured she was doing paperwork, but she was actually reading a book, something I hadn’t seen her do in forever. It looked old. The dust jacket was flaking away in places, and the author photo on the back was dated, a woman in big shoulder pads and bigger hair.
Though I didn’t say anything to her, Mom sat up and glanced at her wristwatch. “Oh no! I meant to only read a chapter or two! I have work to do.” She rolled her neck in a circle. “Is your father still outside?”
I shrugged. He was supposedly working, though I didn’t hear any tools, just his radio.
“Keeley. Is everything okay? You’ve barely said two words to me all week.”
I turned and smiled my fake smile. “Yeah. Everything’s okay.”
“Good. Have fun tonight.”
I watched her cross the room. She paused at Dad’s dirty plate from lunch, still left on his computer desk. She looked as if she was about to pick it up, but then didn’t. Which annoyed me. Dad was still working hard, harder than Mom even knew. And she decided now to be a bitch about him cleaning up after himself? I would never forgive her for meeting with the adjusters behind his back. In fact, I was starting to blame my waning hope on her. Maybe she’d compromised him, if the mayor and the governor knew she wanted to take the money and run.
I heard a car pull up and I grabbed my bag, barely shouted “Bye!” and rushed out. But it wasn’t Morgan. It was another pickup truck. Charlie, and he had another man in the cab with him. Not Sy. Someone else. I sat down on the porch and watched as they parked and sprinted into Dad’s open garage door bay. He was sitting on a folding chair, just watching the rain fall.
Morgan pulled up. I didn’t even have to turn my head. I heard her music. Led Zeppelin, blasting. When I did, she smiled at me, played drums on her steering wheel. I hadn’t seen her do that in forever. She was beaming a big smile, ear to ear.
“Can you turn that down a sec?” I said, tossing my stuff into the backseat and pulling my hood up over my head.
She laughed. “Okay, Grandma.”
I was trying to hear what the men were talking about with Dad and took a few steps closer, but I still couldn’t. Not with the rain and not with their voices hushed, quiet. I knew it was something not good by their body language. The two men shoved their hands in their pockets. Dad crossed his arms. Then he saw me, lingering nearby, and dropped his head.
“What’s happening?” Morgan asked.
I could have gone over and asked, but honestly, I didn’t want to know. I just wanted to get to prom, be with Jesse, and forget all my troubles.
“Oh, he’s got something big cooking,” I said.
“No kidding.” She didn’t sound skeptical, exactly. But she was watching Dad too.
“I don’t know all the details. He’s being super-secretive. But yeah. It’s all good.” I turned the music back up. “Let’s go!”
On our way across town, Morgan got a text from Wes. Since the roads to Aberdeen were now closed to nonresidents, he’d had to sneak in through the woods. When we pulled up, he was standing on the side of the road in his boxers.
I reached across the car and beeped Morgan’s horn before she could stop me.
Wes jumped. That actually put me in a good mood. “Whatcha doing, perv?” I probably should have started things off with him on a better note, but I knew teasing him would make me happy.
“My jeans were muddy and I didn’t want to get Morgan’s car messed up,” he said, quickly stepping into a clean pair of navy pants and pulling them up.
“Aww, that’s sweet,” I said, mainly because Morgan looked nervous, and I didn’t want her to think I was going to go at it with Wes all night long.
“That was actually kind of scary,” he said, crawling into the backseat. “I think I walked over five miles.” He leaned forward and gave Morgan a peck on the cheek. “Hi.”
“Hi,” she said shyly.
“I got you this,” and he pulled out a beautiful corsage. It was all white and ivory blooms. As soon as he popped open the clamshell, the whole car filled up with the smell of freesia. “Sorry I didn’t know what color dress you were wearing.”
“Oh my gosh, you didn’t have to do that.”
As we drove, Wes got dressed up in the backseat, putting on the rest of his navy blue suit with a white shirt and black tie. He looked like a prep school advertisement. But I thought that was nice of him to do, to take it so seriously.
Just as Jesse’s video had instructed, we parked a few blocks away from Principal Bundy’s house. It was almost an unnecessary precaution because all but one of the houses had been cleared on that street, but Jesse wouldn’t have known that. Wes stood on the sidewalk as we shimmied into our dresses and put on our makeup.
And that’s when I noticed Morgan’s dress. She hadn’t worn her mother’s clingy lace one, like we planned. She was wearing her dress from Spring Formal. The one she’d bought to wear to prom with Wes, before they’d broken up.
I couldn’t believe she hadn’t told me beforehand. I waited for her to say something about it to me now, but it didn’t happen. Then I remembered that I had turned my phone off earlier. So maybe she had. It started to rain, so the three of us hurried toward the house, Morgan explaining to Wes about the night as we went.
“Basically, Keeley and her boyfriend set this whole thing up. It’s amazing. I mean, can you believe it? A prom inside our old principal’s house? This is like a movie.”
I instantly forgave her for the dress betrayal, because I liked that she was bragging about me to Wes. And, honestly, it was a lot to be proud of. This was the kind of night that people would talk about their whole lives. If we were lucky enough to have a reunion one day, this would be the story everyone would relive, minute by minute. Plus, it made sense. She was still in love with Wes. Breaking up with him was never something she’d wanted to do. It was something she’d done for me, to prove how much our friendship meant.
Tonight, we could both be happy.
We walked into Principal Bundy’s house through the back door. Jesse was leaning on the kitchen counter, looking at something on his phone. He was in a legit tuxedo and black Converse sneakers, and he looked amazing. I was about to say hi, but then some random girl, I think she was a freshman, jumped over the top of him, boobs pressed into his back, giggling like crazy, trying to see. Jesse kept pushing her away, shielding whatever he was looking at. They were so involved with each
other, he didn’t even notice us walking in.
But Morgan noticed. And she frowned. “Who’s that all over your boyfriend?”
My stomach dropped. I wanted to turn around and walk straight back out the door, but instead I pretended not to hear her and pushed in front of Morgan and Wes so I would be the one leading the way.
“I’ll go get you guys some beers,” I announced like a hostess, once we’d made it to the living room. Morgan stared unblinking at me for a second or two before walking with Wes over to the corner and putting their stuff down.
I’d had a very different idea of what the night was going to be like. I knew Jesse had bought some jokey things, but there wasn’t one element that was classy or nice. It was like a bad frat house. The kiddie pool that Jesse had said was to keep the booze cold was in the middle of Bundy’s living room, only filled with bubble bath. Inside it were two soccer boys and a girl, in their underwear, very drunk.
Someone had stolen the picture of Bundy that hung in the high school foyer and leaned it against the wall. People were flicking bottle caps at it, then beer cans and bottles. My shoes crunched over the broken glass. They were already hurting my feet, but there would be no taking them off.
I found three beers in a cooler at the top of the stairs. When I turned around, Jesse grabbed me and kissed me. I could tell he’d been drinking. Not one or two beers, either, but then again, he’d been here all afternoon setting up. Maybe that was why he hadn’t texted me back.
“Were you not going to say hi?”
“Hi,” I said flatly.
“Hi,” he mimicked back, pouty like me. Then he knocked into me, like we were both joking around. “You look hot in your mom’s old dress. Is that weird to say?” He smothered me with a hug. It did feel good to be in his arms. “Where’s Morgan?”
“She’s in the living room. I’m about to deliver beers.”
“I’ll come with you.”
I made sure to put on a smile as we approached.
“This was such an awesome idea,” Morgan said. “Thanks for inviting underclassmen.”
“Well, it would have been pretty empty if it were only seniors. Plus, you know, I’m sure Keeley wouldn’t have had as much fun without you here.”
He was trying. I softened a little.
But then his arm slipped off me. “Well, seems like you guys have found the alcohol already. Help yourselves. I’ll be back. Got to make the rounds.”
I wasn’t surprised that Jesse was about to walk away. But I couldn’t believe he wasn’t going to take me with him.
I pulled on his tuxedo tails. “Hey, can we talk for a sec?” I was about to add something jokey, like Don’t worry . . . not about that slutty girl who was hanging on you two seconds ago . . . but Jesse pulled himself free.
“Kee, I’m about to start a beer pong game in the dining room. Let me kick some ass and then I’ll catch up with you.”
Catch up with me?
I would have said something, but Wes and Morgan were only a couple of feet behind me. So I told Jesse, “Okay,” with forced brightness.
I waited. And I waited. As I wriggled through the party, I ran into Jesse a few more times. I’d try to talk to him, start up a conversation, but he’d do something to get out of it, like do a dance move past me or clink beer bottles with me, then walk away.
The thing was, I didn’t want to have some big conversation with him. I just wanted to tell him about what had happened with Russell Dixon, about the thing that had just happened with my dad, and get it out of me so I could move on. I knew he’d say the perfect thing to make me feel better, if he’d give me all of five minutes.
Meanwhile, Morgan and Wes were totally cozy. Though she’d been so excited for the party, they were just standing in the corner with each other, talking intensely. Catching up, I suppose. She was the only girl with a corsage on her wrist.
At some point, I even stopped trying to make eye contact with Jesse. I just kept drinking.
As I was finishing one beer, Jesse came over and placed another in my hands.
“Prom pics!” he yelled out to no one in particular.
Jesse pulled me in close under his arm, put his chin on my head.
“You two are the cutest,” Morgan said, pulling out her phone.
After a couple of poses, I felt him start to drift away. This time, I had drunk enough that I wasn’t going to let him go.
“Please don’t blow me off again to go hang out with Zito or whoever.”
“Zito? He’s not here. He left town yesterday.”
“What?”
He made a face. “You were there, Keeley. I said bye right after graduation.”
I thought back. I did watch him bro-hug Zito and kiss Zito’s mom, but the scene didn’t register as a good-bye good-bye. “I thought you guys were best friends.”
“We were friends, yeah. I mean, do guys have best friends?”
“I think they do.” But I was starting to get nervous. If Jesse could be so over Zito, how quickly was he going to forget about me?
“Hey. Did you see the Bundy dart board upstairs? I set that up for you. Come on. Let’s have a contest. Winner takes—”
“I want to talk to you. Didn’t you get my text? I had a really terrible day.” I don’t think he heard me. He was too busy getting clapped on the back by two guys passing him on their way to the kitchen. “Jesse!”
“Sorry.” Of course Jesse laughed. “I’m just trying to have a good time, Keeley. I mean, if you want to talk, we can talk. But, and I don’t mean any disrespect, can’t it wait until tomorrow, when we aren’t in the middle of the most epic party ever?”
“No.”
He shrugged with a little bit of annoyance. “All right, all right. Let me just deliver this beer to Denise.”
I was simmering. I did not move out of his way. “Denise? Is that the girl who was hanging all over you in the kitchen when I walked in?” Even though I’d been drinking, my mouth felt so dry. I saw that Jesse had four beers in his hands. I downed the one I was holding, took one of his for myself, and swallowed a big swig.
“Yeah. Why are you acting so jealous?”
Because you are supposed to be my date.
Because we’ve been kissing for weeks.
Because this was supposed to be me and you, together, till the end of Aberdeen.
Because I need you right now.
“I’m not jealous. It’s not like this is a real prom, anyway.”
He pushed a laugh out of his nose. “Were you honestly expecting it to be one? Are you mad that I didn’t pick you up in a limo? That my tux smells like mothballs because I bought it for five bucks from the thrift store? Sorry you feel let down. I did my best to have a fun night for everyone.”
“Oh, I see. Maybe it was crazy for me to expect you to maybe, like, I don’t know, want to spend time with me tonight? I mean, I did pay for this crap when you saw your dad at Walmart and freaked out.”
His eyes cut straight through mine. “I told you I’d pay you back. And for your information, that wasn’t my dad. That’s Julia’s dad.”
I steadied myself against the wall. “Well, how was I to know that? You never said anything about how weird you acted that night.”
“This is crazy,” he said, trying to shake our entire conversation off. “You’re my date tonight, no one else.”
“Then why haven’t you hung out with me at all?”
“Because I’ve been busy! I’m trying to make sure everyone has a good time.” He ran his fingers through his hair, pulled on it a little bit. “And, if I’m going to be completely honest, I knew you’d be in a downer mood from the text you sent. I’ve been waiting for you to loosen up and have fun. I don’t want to sit in a corner and have some sad talk, Keeley. And you shouldn’t either. It’s not the night for that.” He was annoyed with me. Clearly. “Now, I’m going to play cards with some people. That’s what these beers were for,” he said. “But you go ahead and keep that one,” nudging his chin to the one
I’d taken from him. “Hopefully it’ll put you in more a party mood.”
As he walked away, I saw Morgan lingering at the doorway. She’d been watching our tiff. She knew I saw her, but I turned my back to her anyway and just started opening kitchen cabinets and drawers for something to do.
And then something caught my eye. It was a small square of paper taped to the refrigerator.
To Whom It May Concern:
When moving, my beloved cat, Freckles, escaped before I could get him into his cage. After much searching, I was not able to find him. He is microchipped and has a thin red collar. I have left word at all local animal shelters, but should he come back to the house while someone is here, would you please get in touch with me ASAP?
Below that, Bundy left her cell phone number and e-mail address.
I spun around to show it to Morgan, but she had already left the room.
Bundy was a monster, leaving Aberdeen without her cat. I felt self-righteous in the moment, or that’s how it came across in my brain. Really, though, I was mad. And sad. And so wound up that I was about to explode.
I slipped a finger underneath the paper and carefully pulled it away from the fridge, so it wouldn’t rip. I folded it in half and squeezed it tight. Then, while I walked upstairs, I dialed the number and put the phone to my ear.
It rang three times before Bundy picked up.
“Hello?”
I whispered back, “Hi.”
Bundy spoke again. “Hello? Who is this?”
Then I said, “Meow,” and hung up.
I started snapping pictures of the house, the chaos. The kids in the pool. The picture of her face with bottles thrown at it. I kept texting them to Bundy. One after another after another.
I was calling her again when I saw Morgan and Wes rounding the corner. I quickly hung up and rushed over to them. We went and got more beers together. I drank the next one fast. I was about to toss the bottle when Wes came up beside me.
“I was hoping to clear the air at some point.”
“You don’t have to do that.” I went back to my phone and typed out another meow text.