The Pretty One(16)

He doesn’t notice me.

Not so much as a flicker of recognition, a don’t I know you from some place, nothing. Nada. Zilch. Niente.

“Megan?” Simon asks. “Are you okay?”

My brain cranks into overdrive. They’re heading right toward me and even though there’s a chance Drew might actually notice me when he gets closer, the chance of him not noticing me, the thought that he could be right next to me and still not see me, is more than I can bear. I have to get out of there. Fast!

“I have to go to the ladies’ room,” I say to Simon.

But I’m too late. I have no choice but to walk right past Drew. Even though I’m tempted to throw myself at his feet and confess my love, I force myself to look away from him as I pick up my pace, determined to make this as painless as possible for both of us. Or at least for me.

“Hey, Megan,” Drew says, greeting me.

I whip my thumb out of my mouth as I stop still, stunned.

“So?” he asks, bringing Lindsey to a stop so he can talk to me.

“What do you think of the dance? Did I steer you wrong?”

He remembered. He remembered that he told me I should come to the dance. “No,” I say. And suddenly everything is all right again. Everything is great.

“Come on, Drew,” Lindsey says, as she tugs on his hand, signaling her impatience.

“See you around,” Drew says, before following Lindsey to the dance floor.

As I watch him walk away my insides get warm and gummy as a surge of happiness pumps through me. The crowd may not have parted and he may not have tossed Lindsey across the gym and stepped on her face, but for reality, it was still pretty darn good.

I practically float the rest of the way to the bathroom. Even though I don’t really have to go, I figure I might as well try since I’m halfway there already. I go into the last stall in the empty bathroom and slide the latch over the door. I have my SPANX around my ankles when the bathroom door opens.

“I just feel sorry for her,” I hear a girl say. I recognize the voice. It’s Alicia Tucker, a senior drama major and a friend of my sister’s. “It looks like she poured herself into that dress.”

“I know,” I hear Lucy respond.

I’m about to call out to Lucy when I hear her say, “She could’ve used a bigger size but I didn’t have the heart to tell her.”

The euphoria I felt only seconds earlier disappears, replaced by a queasy uneasiness. Is Lucy talking about me? I yank my SPANX back up and peer through the crack in the door. Lucy and Alicia are standing with their backs to me, admiring their reflections in the mirror as they apply lip gloss.

“She looks like a giant watermelon,” Alicia says, smacking her lips.

A watermelon? I glance at my dress. They can’t be talking about me. Watermelon is red and green. My dress is fuchsia, kind of a purplish red, nothing like the red in watermelon. And there is no green on me whatsoever.

“Actually, I’m surprised she’s not wearing a hoodie,” Alicia says. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen her without it. It must just reek.”

That settles it. They are definitely not talking about me. Although I wear a hoodie every day, it is not the same one, for God’s sake. They’re not even the same colors. I have five hoodies. Five. Two navy blues, two black, and one gray.

“Truth of the matter is, it’s not the dress. She could be wearing the most beautiful dress in the world and it wouldn’t make any difference. Not when you look like that.”

“A nose job would help,” Lucy says. “But she doesn’t seem to have any interest.”

A nose job? Say what?

“It’s not just the nose,” Alicia says. “What’s the deal with the teeth? Why didn’t she ever get braces?”

I stare at the back of my sister’s blond-streaked head. I think about how I felt when the hairdresser told her how beautiful she looked with her hair pulled up. That’s my sister, I thought. I was proud to share her DNA.

“The dentist wouldn’t give them to her because she sucked her thumb forever,” Lucy says. “He said it was a waste of time until she stopped.”

I take my thumb out of my mouth as I put my hand on the stall to steady myself. “Well, she doesn’t still suck her thumb, does she?” Alicia says as she starts to laugh.

Lucy begins to laugh along with Alicia like, you guessed it! Like I still suck my thumb.

I flush the toilet, open the stall, and step out.

Lucy stops laughing and her eyes grow wide at the sight of me. “Megan,” she breathes.

I try to keep my head held high as I walk past her and Alicia on my way to the door.

“Wait,” Lucy says as she grabs for me, attempting to stop me. At my sister’s touch, something inside me snaps. I push her away with all my might, causing her to topple into the bathroom sink. As tears fill my eyes and sobs wrack my body, I slam myself into the bathroom door, knocking it open. I need to get out of there, away from the stupid gym, the stupid dance, my stupid sister.

I run through the gym, barreling my way through the crowd as I head for the door. Students are still arriving but I don’t acknowledge anyone. I make my way against the crowd, pushing past them, escaping outside into the darkness and pouring down rain. How could I have been so stupid as to actually believe I looked good? That a pretty dress and some makeup would make a difference?