A Prom to Remember(23)

She smiled up at him and dropped his hand. “Thank you.”

He left the room quickly after that, before his mom could say anything else. He had the distinct feeling that he might cry, but instead he focused on his studying and got down to work.

??????*

The next day in English class was at least a laptop day.

Laptop Girl was his only saving grace these days.

I promise to find something lime green to have with me, her message started out.

I can’t promise that I’ll buy a lime-green dress. I just don’t think I’d look very good in it. But I’ll find something. We should try to make sure to both be out on the dance floor for the first slow song, no matter what. I wish I could give you more hints about me, but I worry that it’ll ruin the anonymity, and we’re so close to meeting each other it’d be silly not to wait until the prom.

He inhaled deeply and finished reading her message.

It was becoming apparent that he really needed someone to talk to about his family stuff. It was getting so bad that he almost walked up to Henry that morning. But what would he have even said? How do you apologize for just not doing anything? Someday he’d figure it out.

For today, he had Laptop Girl.

I haven’t decided what my lime green will be, but I know it’ll be something cool. Because anything lime green is automatically awesome.

I’m really glad we’re going to meet soon. I have all this … crap going on in my life, and I can’t wait to talk to you about it. You seem like you’re such a good listener. Although you’ll probably run away crying once I inundate you with my random drama and emotions.

I fear I have said too much.

But I can’t wait to meet you.

With nothing more to say, Cameron saved the draft and closed the laptop.

He spent the rest of the period chewing his pen cap and staring out the window.





Chapter 11

Jacinta

When she was invited to join in the shopping trip for her sister’s wedding dress, Jacinta was delighted. As the baby of the family, Jacinta was often left out of things that were deemed “grown-up.” This outing made her feel like her family was finally taking her seriously now that she was almost eighteen and recognizing her as the adult she was becoming.

It turned out that she was probably only invited because literally every female relative in her family was invited. The trip included: Jacinta, her mom, her sister (obviously), her sister’s future mother-in-law, her abuela on her mom’s side, two of her tías, her brother’s wife, and her brother’s wife’s sister.

From the very first minute, Jacinta could tell it was going to be the longest Saturday afternoon that she had ever known.

The bridal store associate led the large party up to the second floor, and sometime during her speech about dress fitting Jacinta checked out of the whole process. There were obviously at least four people too many here and way too much going on. She didn’t need to be involved. She’d make sure she put in an appearance when her sister started trying on gowns.

Instead she wandered around looking at bridesmaids’ dresses and considering her options. Her “options” meaning how could she trick her sister into choosing the dress that Jacinta liked.

Her mom called her to join them upstairs about fifteen minutes later, and Jacinta stuck around for a bit, honestly enjoying herself. All the abuelas and tías and various family members oohed and aahed at Flora as she came out in dresses that all looked wonderful on her. She was going to be a beautiful bride.

But then she went back to try on dress number thirteen, and if Jacinta knew anything about her sister it was that she wasn’t going to buy dress number thirteen. It seemed like a good time to go look at the clearance rack Jacinta had been eyeing across the balcony from where they were.

Jacinta slipped away and started shuffling through dresses.

They weren’t arranged by color or size, but that was part of the fun. She didn’t necessarily see anything that struck her fancy, and it would probably be tough to convince her sister to select something from last year’s line anyway. The Ramoses weren’t rich, but they knew what they wanted and they knew how to throw a wedding.

Jacinta got to the end of the rack and stopped in her tracks. There, hanging on a half-broken hanger, was what might have been the most beautiful dress she’d ever seen. Not a bridesmaid’s dress; definitely not, it wasn’t her sister’s style at all.

But it would make the perfect prom dress.

If she hadn’t already wanted to go, this dress would have sealed the deal.

She grabbed it off the rack and slipped into the nearest fitting room, hoping that no one from the entourage would notice that she had disappeared.

She slid the curtain closed behind her and started undressing as quickly as she could. The quicker she got this over with the quicker she could be disappointed by how this perfect dress looked terrible on her.

Except. It didn’t look terrible.

It was her favorite color, light icy blue, and it looked perfect with her dark brown hair and deep tan complexion, thanks to her Puerto Rican roots. It looked strapless, but it actually had some kind of sheer, gauzy material holding everything in place. She wanted to call it netting, but she was sure that wasn’t the proper term. The skirt was short but full and hit right above her knee.

The best and most amazing part was that it fit her like a glove. No dress had ever fit her like a glove before. She had a weird shape. Her mother told her it was lovely any time Jacinta brought it up, but she had broad shoulders and a broad chest, and clothes never looked right on her. She often looked stiff and uncomfortable in dresses, because she was stiff and uncomfortable in dresses. If she bought them big enough for her top half, she looked like she was swimming in the rest of it. But this dress was a miracle.