Isa danced with Adrian until she could no longer, and dinner was served. She sat at a round table with Adrian, Harbor, and Shelly. Isa noticed her friends hadn’t gotten any dates, and seemed sour that Adrian wasthere.
They were served lobster, steak, and asparagus with mashed potatoes. Isa and Adrian didn’t stop talking all through dinner, but Harbor and Shelly were unusuallyquiet.
Isa reasoned this wasn’t so bad and the ball wasn’t going as terribly as she thought it would. She was even having fun. Maybe it was a good decision to come here and her earlier worries had beennerves.
During dinner, Shellyaccidentallyknocked over a glass of wine. It went spilling over onto Adrian’sjacket.
“Oh, I’m so sorry!” Shelly said, and she dabbed at the spot on Adrian’s jacket with a napkin. “I canfixthis.”
“Don’t mind.” Adrian smiled at her kindly. “I’ll take care of it. Be back inabit.”
Adrian got up and went to the bathroom. Isa’s eyes followed him longingly as he left, and she wished he’d nevergottenup.
“Finally, he’s gone,” Harbor said restlessly as she threw down her fork. “Wecantalk.”
“What do you mean?” Isa asked. “Anything you can say to me, you can say in front ofAdrian.”
“No, we can’t,” Harbor started. “Listen, Isa, we get that he’s hot and all, but you’re different since youmethim.”
“Different?” Isaasked.
“You’re not the same. You barely hang out with us anymore, and when you do, it’s like you’re somewhere else,” Shelly said. “It’s like you’reavoidingus!”
“Adrian and I just met. We’ve only been together a few days,” Isa saidslowly.
“Exactly!” Harbor burst. “You’ve been dating less than a week and it’s like you’re a completely different person. You’re not the Isa we knowatall.”
“He’schangingyou,” Shelly said. “We don’tlikeit.”
At that, Isa felt a steely ball of nerve rise up in her, and she said, “You don’t have to like it. I do. And I’m not sorry if I’m not the person you expect metobe.”
Isa got up with such force from the table that it shook and her chair was knocked backwards. She stormed off to find Adrian, angry that her friends could say such things to her. They thought she was different? This was who she really was! She was trying to be better at beingherself!
…Maybe that was her fault for being a fake around them. They didn’t know the real her, the person Adrian forced her to become when he was around, because there was no way possible for her to be fake whilearoundhim.
Isa went toward the bathrooms, but before she could enter she ran into someone in thehallway.
“Dad?” Isa said, gaping. There her father was, all dressed up in his military uniform. His expression was completely shocked as he took in her blue hair, her attention-grabbingdress.
She tried to gather herself as much as she could. “Dad, what are youdoinghere?”
“I wanted to surprise you. I didn’t want to miss my daughter winning the Coral Crown,” he said. “But I didn’t expect you to look like this. Your hair is blue! And what in God’s name are you wearing? It’sembarrassing.”
Isa swallowed. “I like how I look. I think I lookpretty.”
“You look like a clown,” her father shot back. “If I had known you’d wear something like that, I would’ve never given you the money to pick it out yourself. It’sdisgraceful.”
“You didn’t buy this. My boyfriend did,” she said lowly. “And for your information, he thinks I lookbeautiful.”
“I don’t want to hear about another one of your boyfriends, Ria. They never last. His opinion doesn’t matter,” her father said angrily. “You’re coming home with me this instant, and you’re going to wash that blue dye out of your hair! Your mother would be ashamed you went out lookinglikethis.”
Her mother would be ashamed of Isa lookinglike herself, who she wanted to be? No. That was wrong. It crossedaline.
“My mother’s the one who should be ashamed. She’s the one who left me, so I don’t give a damn what she thinks!” Isa yelled. “She’s not here. And you should be ashamed too, yelling at me when this is supposedly mynight!”
“Come with me,now,” her father growled. “This isn’t whoyouare.”
Isa shook her head. She backed away slowly, feeling horriblybetrayed.
