A Prom to Remember(7)

He had a feeling Jamie wouldn’t understand that sentiment, so he kept it to himself.

Lizzie

It was Friday night and the mall was hopping.

The parking lot was full, the stores were packed, and there were lines at every eatery in the food court. Except for Hot Potato. No one ever lined up for Hot Potato. It was always a last resort.

But the unpopularity of their workplace left Paisley and Lizzie with plenty of time to talk.

Lizzie leaned her hip on the counter by the register, looking alert in case a customer came up, while Paisley picked pieces of chive out of the adjacent container of shredded cheddar using the world’s smallest tongs. They might actually have qualified as tweezers, and Lizzie had to wonder where Paisley even found them.

“So are you super psyched about prom?” Lizzie asked in a voice dripping with fake enthusiasm.

“Totally!” Paisley said with an eye roll of her green eyes and a rock-and-roll hand gesture. Her brown hair was cut into a floppy, growing-out pixie cut that really helped sell her whole vibe, Lizzie thought.

Lizzie attempted the same gesture back.

“I’m pretty sure you said ‘I love you’ in sign language,” Paisley said.

“Oh, oops,” Lizzie said.

Paisley could always pull off stuff like that. Lizzie just wasn’t cool enough, particularly in comparison to Paisley. Lizzie was chubby to Paisley’s waifishness, and her hair was frizzy instead of straight. Lizzie told herself over and over that it did no good to compare herself to other people, especially other girls, but there was something about Paisley she wished she could emulate.

“Anyway, I’ve been trying to figure out what exactly is so thrilling about going to prom,” Lizzie said, changing the topic and attempting to cover her embarrassment. “Is it all the money you spend? Or stressing out over having the same dress as someone else?”

Paisley stood up, having finished her chive scavenger hunt, and brushed any errant chives she left behind off the work area. “If I had to guess, I would say it’s the cummerbunds.”

“Or the, you know, the sex thing,” Lizzie mumbled.

Paisley thought about that for a second. “What?”

“You know. Our classmates are horndogs, in general, and there’s an inherent sex vibe surrounding the whole thing, you know? Like all those prom movies about having sex for the first time, feeding the teenagers of America big dreams for loss of virginity.”

“I don’t have the proper sexy radar,” Paisley said with a shrug.

A customer came up then, interrupting their conversation. As Paisley walked him through selecting his toppings and explained for the millionth time that yes, they only have potatoes, and no, they don’t have any burgers, Lizzie thought about the prom. She definitely never wanted to go before. There was nothing about it that enticed her; she hadn’t been lying to Paisley a few minutes ago.

But there was one thing that had been nagging at the back of her mind.

She rang up the customer, and he walked off in search of a burger to go with his chili cheese potato. It seemed like overkill to Lizzie, but she tried not to think too hard about it.

She turned to Paisley. “Do you think you’ll ever regret not going?”

“Um, no,” Paisley said, checking herself out in the reflective paper towel dispenser and fixing her visor. She turned to Lizzie.

“Aren’t you on the prom committee? Isn’t it your duty to go?”

“I’m only there for something to put on my college applications. Do you think you’ll go?”

Lizzie’s shoulders fell. “Never in my life have I ever wanted to go to prom. I didn’t understand the romance of it, or what the point was in general. But now, it’s like something has changed.”

Paisley gave her a knowing look. “I’m going to assume this is about Mystery Boy.”

Lizzie buried her face in her hands. “Yes,” she said, her voice muffled.

“It’s nothing to be embarrassed about,” Paisley said.

“It’s not?” Lizzie asked, peeking out from behind her hands.

“Of course not. Just because I’m dead inside doesn’t mean that everyone has to be.”

“You’re not dead inside.”

“Fine, I’m not dead inside, but sometimes I feel dead inside. Like I never have the feelings that other people do,” Paisley said.

Lizzie stood up straight, preparing to defend her friend from herself, which was a confusing situation but one Lizzie felt quite strongly about.

“You are totally awesome,” Lizzie said.

“Oh, I am. But I’m pretty sure that’s what my problem is with all of this. I don’t get it, you know?” Paisley said.

Lizzie shrugged. “I don’t get it, either. I’m sure we don’t get it in different ways, but that doesn’t make you an emotionless robot.”

“I mean, I might be an emotionless robot. I don’t even feel anything about graduating from high school. Like, nothing.”

At that moment, someone cleared their throat from the other side of the cash register.

Lizzie turned around, plastering her best Hot Potato smile on.

“Oh, it’s you,” Lizzie said when she saw her friend Madison standing there.

“Damn, I can’t believe how fast your customer service smile faded when you saw me,” Madison said.