Prom Night in Purgatory(23)

Music with a steady, throbbing beat suddenly erupted from the jukebox and several kids cheered and jumped up, filling the dance floor. Dara and her friends took center stage and began a series of semi-choreographed moves apparently designed to attract male attention. Maggie turned away, wishing their food would hurry up and arrive. Johnny watched the action on the dance floor for several minutes, while Maggie stared out the window into the deepening shadows.

“Hey, Mags.” Shad stood at her side, shifting from foot to foot, his eyes darting to Johnny and then away again. “Scoot over baby.” And without waiting for her to respond, he crowded in next to her, jostling her until she shifted over enough for him to sit on the bench without sitting in her lap. His eyes never left Johnny’s face. His body was vibrating like a tuning fork, and his feet and fingers tapped non-stop against the table and the floor, making Maggie long to grab his hands and press them flat and stomp her feet on his toes to quiet them, even for a second. Shad looked jealous, afraid, and uncomfortable all at once. He couldn’t take his eyes from Johnny. Apparently he remembered some things about the night of Johnny’s rescue, and Gus had filled him in on the rest. She and Shad had never discussed it. Maggie assumed Johnny was just more than Shad was willing to accept.

“So.....you’re the guy Maggie’s got the hots for.” Maggie rolled her eyes and dropped her head into her hands. Leave it to Shad to just come right out with it. From her dejected position, she couldn’t see Johnny’s response, but she felt his interest pique like a blow torch aimed right at her face. Her neck and cheeks flamed hot.

“Johnny Kinross - in the flesh,” Shad was warming up to the subject now, his lines right out of a poorly-written made-for-TV movie. “You are Johnny Kinross, right? I mean...I never saw you. But I think we had a pretty good relationship.” Maggie sputtered, a laugh erupting from her chest. Shad swiveled his head and gave her his “Shut-up-woman!” lips and his “domineering male” chin thrust. He was talking again before Maggie could give him her “you’ve-got-ten-seconds-to-vacate-the-premises-before-I-cut-you” glare in response.

“My Grandpa Gus says you can’t remember anything.” Shad was banking on that much, Maggie thought wryly. “I just wanted to say thank you and let you know that I got your back.” Shad extended his hand across the table, waiting for Johnny to grasp it. When Johnny did, Shad maneuvered his hand into a series of hand shakes that had Johnny fighting not to smile. Maggie felt a small amount of gratitude to Shad for that much. It didn’t last long.

“Oh, and Johnny? Maggie is my girl. Sorry, man. I’ll forgive you this time, ‘cause you didn’t know better. But this?” Shad pointed from Maggie to Johnny and back again. “This here? This ain’t happ’nin’ - clear?”

“Shad!” Maggie was no longer grateful or amused. Johnny looked like he was going to explode, however. His face had gone almost as red as hers had been seconds before, but it wasn’t from embarrassment. He was laughing at her. Shad was clueless as ever, and he turned to Maggie then, sliding his arm around her shoulders.

“Do you wanna dance, Mags? I got something good coming up after this!” Shad waggled his eyebrows suggestively. She shrugged Shad’s arm from her shoulders and would have turned him down just for being such a pain, but then she caught Johnny’s expression as he turned his head to stare out across the dance floor. He looked out at the writhing figures, at Dara as she ran her hands through her hair and strutted around the floor. Then he eyed Maggie doubtfully. He slid his hands along the back of his plastic seat and smirked the smallest bit.

“You said you love to dance, right Maggie? Let’s see you. Go on now. Your boyfriend wants to dance.”

Maggie felt her temper flare and burst in her skull. What was with him? He seemed to relish making her feel completely undesirable. What? Did he think she couldn’t dance? Did he think mousy Maggie with her big glasses couldn’t do the same moves Dara and her trashy trio were doing? He didn’t find her attractive? Fine. She would show him a thing or two.

Maggie shot to her feet, shoving Shad out of the booth and setting her glasses on the table. She didn’t look at Johnny as she walked away. Instead, she called over her shoulder, “Don’t wait for me....I might be a while.”

Shad had chosen her favorite song, thank God for small miracles. It was several years old, but the driving beat and the funky base line were hypnotic and gritty, and she threw herself into the song, pulsing and popping with the rhythm, prancing around the floor as if she owned the place. Shad tried to keep up, but knew within seconds Maggie was in rare form. Instead, he hollered and raised his hands, the first to form a circle around her. By the end of the song, Maggie had quite the audience. Take that, Johnny Kinross. She raised the damp hair off of her neck and spun a little, soaking up the whoops and whistles around her, dropping into a sloppy curtsy, blowing a big air kiss to all the admiring bystanders.

She walked triumphantly out of the dancing throng to see that the table she and Johnny had occupied was empty. Maggie whirled, wondering if Johnny had so disapproved of her display that he had left Shimmies. But no...she could see his car through the windows, still parked in the same spot. She sat down in dejection. So much for showing Johnny how attractive she could be. “Showing someone” wasn’t effective if he didn’t care enough to watch. Her eyes wandered around the dining area, wondering where Johnny was, feeling silly sitting alone, especially after she had just called so much attention to herself.