“You look totally hot!” Olivia squeals. “Rob is going to lose his mind.” I roll my eyes, but inside I’m buzzing. I feel full of possibility. Tonight stretches out before me like an ocean. It feels expansive, limitless. Like I could float in it forever.
“We gotta go,” I say. I glance at my phone. We’re already forty-five minutes late, which means by the time we get there, the dance will have already begun.
“We know, we know,” Olivia says. She’s running around her room with a tiny clutch, tossing things inside. Charlie is just standing there, smiling at me.
“What?” I say. “What are you looking at?”
“Nothing,” she says, mock choking up. “I’m just so proud.”
“Done,” Olivia calls, snapping her bag closed. “Let’s rock.”
We leave her room and file out into the hallway. Olivia’s staircase is gigantic with an enormous crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling right smack in the middle of the foyer. It’s the kind of staircase you imagine descending from on your wedding day. Charlie makes a fuss of gliding down, and then we follow Olivia into the kitchen, our heels clicking on the marble floors.
“I hear the troops,” her stepdad calls. He and Olivia’s mom are chasing Olivia’s two little brothers around the table. Her momlooks up to give us a frazzled smile. One of Olivia’s little brothers, Josh, charges her.
“If you touch me, I will murder you!” Olivia yells, but she’s already bending down to hug him back. “Just keep your hands where I can see them,” she says, tousling his hair.
“You girls look amazing,” Olivia’s mother says. “Gabe, where did you put the phone?” Olivia’s stepdad grabs it off the kitchen counter and waves for us to follow him out of the kitchen.
Olivia’s mom positions us at the front door. “One, two, three,” she says. “Smile!” She’s holding her leg out to prevent Drew from storming us, and her other arm is positioned on Olivia’s stepdad’s shoulder. It’s an impressive balancing act.
Charlie locks her hand on her hip and juts her arm out, Olivia wiggles her shoulders, and I, per usual, stand in the middle of them, not sure exactly what to do. Unlike them, I don’t have a signature picture pose.
“If you put your hand on your hip, it takes off five pounds,” Olivia says through her teeth.
I barely have time to register what she’s saying before Charlie is dragging me out the door and we’re all piling into Big Red, Olivia’s mom calling, “Have fun! Be safe!” behind us.
Everyone is already in the courtyard by the time we get to campus. Lauren didn’t respond to my text, but she waves atus, looking unconcerned. She’s dressed in a periwinkle slip dress that shows off her slim shoulders. Her sandy-blond hair is pulled up in a knot.
“I’m so sorry,” I say. “What can we do?”
She waves me off with her hand. “Nothing,” she says. “Seriously, no biggie. We’re all set.”
She’s done a great job. The courtyard is strung with twinkle lights and paper lanterns. The trees are sprinkled with silver and gold tinsel, and flower garlands hang down from the breezeway. It reminds me ofA Midsummer Night’s Dream, a play I saw once with my mom in LA. I was ten then, and I didn’t really understand much of it, but I remember the set looked like a kind of fairyland. Like magic.
Students are milling around sipping apple cider out of champagne flutes. It doesn’t feel like just another school dance. It feels enchanted, important, like maybe something special is happening here tonight.
I spot Jake, Ben, and Rob by the punch table with Charlie and Olivia. Rob is wearing a suit jacket, which he never does. He keeps tugging down the sleeves. It’s sort of adorable, actually, how uncomfortable he looks. I can’t see Juliet anywhere. She must not be here yet.
In the time it’s taken me to talk to Lauren, Charlie and Jake have already started arguing and Ben and Olivia are on the cuspof making out. She’s giving him her power move—chest out, stretching—and he’s got his arms around her back.
I look at Rob again. He’s so cute in his suit jacket and gray pants. He has on a pink-and-white-checkered shirt underneath. It’s one of my favorites, and he never wears it.
I want to go over and put my arms around him, but then I remember that, technically, he isn’t even here with me. I haven’t really let myself think too much about it. I just keep hoping she just won’t show up.
As I cross the courtyard, “Kokomo” by the Beach Boys starts playing.
“You know, I think I’ve been to all of the places in this song,” Olivia says. She’s holding out her fingers and counting along with the lyrics. “Yep, all seven.”
“You are such a snob,” Charlie says. Ben seems to have found this comment endearing, though, because he takes Olivia’s hand in his and kisses the back of it. She giggles.
I can feel Rob’s eyes on me, and I will myself not to look at him. Not yet. I know as soon as I open my mouth, I’ll just be Rosie, and I’m enjoying having the dress speak for me, just for a moment.
“Wow,” he says. He comes up next to me and runs a hand down my arm. “You’re stunning.”
“You like it?” I drop my hands by my sides and play with some of the material. I’m feeling just a little bit tipsy from Rob’shand on my arm. Like I’ve had a drink or something, even though I’m dead sober.
“You look great,” he says.
