Forever for a Year(59)

Mrs. Darry opened the front door. I’d forgotten to warn Trevor about Peggy’s mom. You know, that she’s the craziest adult in the universe. But she seemed to be a good mood, which was rare. When it did happen she would laugh after everything she said. So as long as you laughed a little too, it would be okay. “You must be the infamous Trevor,” she said, and giggled as she let us into the house. Gosh. But I laughed because I had to. Mr. Darry, who never said anything, was watching sports on the TV and drinking a beer. I didn’t want to leave Trevor alone with the Darrys, but I knew Peggy would kill me if I didn’t go upstairs to her room.

“I’m going to check on Peggy,” I said, then kissed him on the cheek.

“No teenage kissing in my house!” Mrs. Darry yelled. Even though she meant it to be funny, it made me feel bad. I still smiled at her because, you know.

*

“Hi,” I said as I opened Peggy’s door.

“You look amazing!” Peggy said, and ran over from her mirror to hug me.

“You do too!” I said even though her dress was cut so low I thought her nipples might show. And she wore so much makeup. Purple eyeliner and super-dark lipstick and foundation even. Gosh. She looked so old, like, nineteen, but, I don’t know, not as pretty as she did when she looked like a freshman. But maybe I was being mean. Or maybe I was jealous that her mom let her wear so much makeup. I was hardly allowed to wear any. It was like I didn’t have any on at all. But I guess Trevor loved me without it so it was okay. But really you also want to look pretty for girls, not just boys. And at homecoming maybe even more for girls than for boys. Maybe. I don’t know. This was my first dance ever. It was exciting. But also a little scary.

*

So eventually everyone arrived, and the freshmen gathered into a big group together, including the popular girls, Emma Goldberg, Jean Booker, Raina Bethington, and Wanda Chan, even though their dates were upperclassmen. I guess they were still the popular girls, though I didn’t really think about it much anymore. Maybe that’s what love does: makes you forget about being popular. Shannon Shunton was supposed to come, but she was late, I guess. It was weird, but I missed her. Not missed. How can you miss someone you barely knew? But, I don’t know, I just think Shannon Shunton is interesting and I wanted Trevor to get to know her.

Trevor was nice to Henry, Jake, and Licker, even though I knew he hated them. They kept talking about their football game and how hard Henry had tackled this one boy on Glenbrook South’s team after Henry threw an interception. The freshman team had lost by like twenty points today and had only won one game all season, so I don’t know why Henry kept talking about their team as if they were good.

So I said, “Did you know Trevor might run with the varsity at next week’s meet?”

“That’s cool, Trev,” Licker said, which made me remember he was the first person I ever kissed and now he was talking to the second person I ever kissed. So silly to think about that.

“Yeah, but it’s cross-country,” Henry said, and Jake laughed. Ugh. Now I remembered why I hated them. Trevor didn’t say anything. I wished he would say something. I hated how he never talked back to jerks. He should be tougher. No, he was great. I loved him just the way he was.

*

After we took a million pictures, we all got on the party bus. We sat at the very front because we were both freshmen. Then all of Katherine’s friends were at the very back. Shannon Shunton never showed up. I texted her to see if she wanted us to wait. I don’t even know why. I had never texted her anything before. But she didn’t text me back.

The upperclassmen started passing up plastic cups filled with alcohol as soon as we started driving toward the dance. Trevor and I had never talked about drinking. I didn’t know what I was going to do if he started drinking. I guessed I should if he did. Just a sip. I knew he’d still love me even if I didn’t, but I didn’t want him to feel alone. Or maybe I didn’t want to feel alone. But guess what? When Henry handed him a cup, Trevor said, “No, thanks.”

Henry said, “You should at least hold a cup, dude, so they don’t think you look like a loser.”

Which I didn’t think was a terrible idea, but Trevor said, “I don’t care what they think.” And oh my gosh, it was like Trevor had just said the coolest line in a movie, like one where the audience would cheer, and I was his girlfriend. And you should have seen the look on Peggy’s face. It was like she knew. Knew Trevor was so much better than Henry. Not better. That’s mean. But yes, better! Henry was a jerk and he pretended to be this leader but really he was the biggest follower and said dumb things all the time!

But as much as I loved what Trevor said and thought more than ever that I had the coolest, most amazing boyfriend in the history of the universe, after he said that to Henry, we were kind of ignored the rest of the ride to the dance. Licker asked Trevor one question about basketball. But Henry and Jake ignored him totally, and Peggy and the other freshman girls ignored me.

Then at the dance, we tried to dance with the group except it was weird to dance with people who weren’t talking to you. I mean, this was the first time Trevor and I had ever danced together, and all I could think about was how Peggy wouldn’t even look at me. So eventually, during a slow dance, which was my favorite, I whispered to Trevor, “Want to go dance with your friends?”

“Sure, babe,” he said, which was the first time he ever called me “babe” or anything besides Carolina. I liked it. I think. He took me by the hand and we walked away from Peggy and the others and I almost cried. But not really. I think, maybe, I was done crying over Peggy. We danced with his sophomore friends and their dates, who were super nice. It felt really good to have people not ignore you, and eventually, after the dance was over, we got in their limo and went to Denny’s. It was fun, but I didn’t feel like I was living my own life. It was like I was this other girl who had never known Peggy or any of those freshmen. Like I was a sophomore girl who had grown up with these sophomore girls and been friends with Aaron and Tor forever and had been dating Trevor since we were born.