“Why? You look amazing in your dress!”
I shrugged, taking the choker and making sure she still had the opal pendant. “I dunno. I guess Mom is just used to me being in pageant type dresses. Which are a bit more like yours. My dress is just a bit too—” I hesitated, trying to find the right word.
“Edgy?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
We headed downstairs and Maria reached over, squeezing my hand. “I’m not a mom yet but just thinking about my little girl growing up, graduating high school, getting a date to prom. It doesn’t seem real to me. Like I can’t even imagine. So…I guess for your mom, it’s probably the same. She still sees you as the little girl you used to be.”
I stopped at the bottom of the stairs, eyeing my mom who was chatting animatedly with my dad. She hadn’t noticed us yet, and his back was to us. I squeezed Maria’s hand back. “I’m not that little girl. And I don’t ever want to be. I used to blame her. I kinda still do, but I don’t hate her.”
“Does she know that?”
I opened my mouth but stopped. I didn’t have an answer to that, to be honest. Mom finally turned to us, squealing. “Ok, girls. It’s show time!”
I forced back a cringe. She used to say that same thing every time, right before I took the stage. But if Maria could hold her head high despite everything she was going through, so could I. So, I smiled at Mom, even though the movement felt foreign. Mom faltered, before hesitatingly smiling back at me. “Um, so…the makeup artist will be here in a few hours. I figure we eat. Your dad and I need to refine our threats to the boys. You girls can shower. I’ll do your hair. And by then it’ll be makeup time!”
Maria surprised us all by bouncing on her toes. Well, it was more like a wobble. But it was still cute, watching her teeter around in excitement. We spent the morning exactly as Mom suggested. Maria ate her weight in waffles and took a shower so long I was quite surprised it didn’t use up all our water. She came out smelling like cherries and sandalwood. It was a scent uniquely hers. A scent that enveloped me as she stomped herway into my room and brandished her razor at me. I eyed it with suspicion. “What?”
“I can’t reach. Like anything. Not my legs. Not my armpits. Not that annoying tiny sprig of hair on my big toe. I barely managed to shave off the obscene line of hair that has appeared without invitation on my belly.”
“Please tell me you’re not asking me what I think you’re asking.”
She stomped her foot. “Please, Holly!”
I waved my hands at her toweled form, “He won’t evenseeyour legs in that dress!”
“Holly!”
“Oh for Christ’s sake. Can’t you ask Mom?”
“Ohmigawd I cannot ask your mom to shave my legs!”
“Why the hell not? And why am I the first pick?”
Maria pointed her razor at my door, shaking it like a baton. “Well, who else do I have? The cat?”
I dragged a hand across my face. “Are you like 100% sure that Diego isn’t like…into that? Maybe he likes a little extra hair!”
She made a general face of disgust and brandished the razor at me again. When I fixed her with a look, she pouted, brown eyes begging me to give in. In the depths of them, I could see a glimmer of her pain. The need for this night to be perfect if nothing else was.
Which was how I found myself shaving my best friend’s legs as she laid on my bathroom floor. ’Cause she couldn’t stand for long and I didn’t trust myself to work on a vertical canvas that wasn’t me. When I was done, she preened in the mirror before flouncing out of my room with an ear-to-ear grin. The things you do for the people you love. I hopped in the shower and hurried over to my mom’s room after blow-drying my hair. I had highlights put in a couple days ago, and the mixture of honey blonde and caramel was eye-catching. Throwing on my silk robe,I made my way towards Mom’s room where she was already working on Maria’s hair.
I perched on a nearby settee, watching the two of them. They were chatting animatedly, completely enthralled with just how many curls they could pile on Maria’s head. If I hadn’t been watching so closely, I would’ve missed it. For a second, one split second, Maria stopped smiling. Her eyes dimmed. Her brow furrowed. Then my mom said something and immediately, her jovial attitude was back in place. I frowned at her, but she didn’t see. A little piece of my heart broke as I recognized what she was doing. Something I had done a million times. Putting on a mask, wearing a front so others didn’t see that you were crying inside.
Maria’s phone buzzed, and her hand trembled just so slightly as she slid it under her leg without checking it. This night was supposed to be about glitter and gowns. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that something ugly was coming for us.
CHAPTER 11 * HOLLY
Mom and Dad had wanted to hire a limo, but I knew the threats Jesse had made were not to be taken lightly. I insisted that we would be safer if we had a getaway car in case he did show up. Instead of waiting for a driver, we could just dip if things got dicey. Mom was still hesitant, but I could see that Dad understood. When Maria chimed in, agreeing with me, that was that. It was for Maria that I agreed to let Diego drive. I made several dark promises about what would happen to him if he was not gentle with Sally, but I knew it would make Maria happy, riding up front with her date by her side.
` Which is how I found myself crammed into the backseat with Jackson next to me. They had ridden their bikes to my place and, when Maria and I had walked out, I deliberately focused on watching Diego light up and twirling her around. Even then,I didn’t miss the way Jackson looked at me. The way his eyes looked me up and down, his gaze feeling like a caress that made me shudder. But not my usual shudder. Oh, no. This was my traitorous body being surprisingly appreciative of the way this ridiculously good-looking eighteen-year-old biker was staring at me like I was the last drop of clean water on a polluted Earth.
I thought he would say something, but he didn’t. He was leaning up against Sally, and I walked over, leaving Maria and Diego to whisper to each other like conspirators. Maybe I should’ve said something at least moderately friendly, but the heat in his gaze as he watched me left me feeling unsteady. So instead, I said, “Let’s maybe not lean up against my car and scratch the paint?”
His eyes morphed from a molten gray to an icy steel. “You sit on the hood of your car all the damn time.”
“So? That’s different.”
