151 Days (61 page)

I put the shoes down and put a hand on each of his shoulders. “Kyle. Look in my eyes. We need to be one in this instant, okay? Feel what I am feeling.” He nodded slowly. “I don’t give a fuck what you do or don’t want to do. Go get dressed before I set fire to the sweats with you still in them.”

He blinked a couple of times, checking to see if I was joking or not.

Finally he grabbed the suit bag and headed toward the bathroom. “Fine, but I don’t have to have fun.”

Madeline save me from teenagers.

Twenty minutes later, he walked out wearing the slacks and shirt, holding the jacket in one hand. “Am I going to a funeral or something?”

I looked over at him. “Do you want to? Because I swear to all that is unholy, if you come out here without all that on, I will….”

He turned tail and slammed the door behind him.

After another ten minutes, he came out, fully adorned in his new dark-blue suit. He was in socks, so the outfit was not quite complete, but it was close. “Why do I feel like I’m auditioning for
Doctor Who
?” he asked.

I held up a pair of red Converses, and his face exploded into a smile. “Oh, you rock on so many levels.” He grabbed them from me and slipped them on in a flash. The key to getting any teenage nerd into a suit is one part fear, two parts peer pressure, and one part Time Lord. If you don’t know what I mean, look it up. It will serve you well in the future, trust me.

He jumped up, and I could see him wiggling his toes in the new shoes. “Are we going to a convention or something?”

“Better,” I said, smiling at the unbridled joy on his face. “Come on, we need to leave.”

“I need to leave a note for my mom,” he said, dashing to the kitchen. “She’s working late, and I don’t want her to worry.”

I grabbed his arm and turned to lead him out of the kitchen toward the door. “No she’s not. She’s waiting for us.” He looked at me, once more confused. “You do need to lock the front door, though,” I said, pointing to the door.

He shook himself out of his stupor and locked the door behind us.

As we pulled out onto East Avenue, he began to ask me where I was taking him. I ignored his questions as we took First Street past Nancy’s so I could show him it was closed, so there was no way it was our destination. All that did was cause him to question me even more.

“We need to talk,” I said in a rare moment of him not talking. “And it has nothing to do with where we are going.”

“Are you dying? Is my mom dying? Is Brad? Okay, answer me this—is someone dying?”

I gave him a sideways glance. “God, I thought I was morbid. No one is dying—well, not that I know of. I mean, we’re all dying in a Sylvia Plath kind of way, but… oh God, why would you even ask that?”

He gestured to the road. “’Cause you’re driving me somewhere out of town in the middle of the night. Either someone is dying or I’m going to die, and I can’t imagine you would dress me up just to kill me.”

“We need to talk,” I said, opting to ignore the last few seconds of conversation. “Before you start to ramble about serial killers or something as equally quaint, I want you to tell me why you decided to just not go to prom.” He gave me a silent look, and I prodded him. “Don’t glare, answer the question.”

“Why?” he said, starting to sulk. “You already know the answer.”

I tried not to sigh. “Well, if I did, then I wouldn’t be asking you, but let’s pretend I did know and still wanted you to tell me. Why?”

He said nothing for a while, just watching the road unfold in front of us from the darkness. Finally he muttered, “Because why fight to be somewhere they don’t want you to be?” I didn’t say anything because I knew he was just starting. “I get the whole ‘treat us equal’ thing and ‘let us have the same rights,’ but when it comes to something like a prom or a celebration, if straight people don’t want us there that fucking bad, why go? All we would be are the assholes who insisted on being able to go, ruining the party for everyone else, and who wants to be that guy? I just don’t see why everything about our life has to be a fight. Please let us get married, please let us serve in the military, please stop killing us. I mean, seriously, after a while I’d just rather stay around gay people and tell everyone else to go fuck off.”

I wish I could say I was surprised, but I wasn’t, since everything he just got done saying was something I had thought in my head at least a dozen times. I pulled over to the side of the road because I didn’t trust myself to be able to drive, talk, and not burst out crying like I was menopausal. He looked over at me as I put the car in park.

“Okay, look,” I said, not looking him in the eyes because I needed to get through this without breaking down. “I understand why you think that, trust me, I do. But I need to say something that you aren’t going to believe, and I’m not going to waste time arguing. You just need to hear it.” He nodded. “You’re wrong this time. You are dead wrong.” He opened his mouth to argue, but I wouldn’t let him talk. “You can’t do what I do and just lump people into one huge group like that. It may seem like it’s easy and right, but you can’t do it. Every single time you think you have people figured out, they do something to surprise you. You’re not even twenty yet, and you can’t be this jaded, and I think I’m partly to blame.” I took a deep breath and steadied myself. “The reasons I hate Foster are my own, and I should have never tried to make them yours.”

“But you weren’t,” he blurted out. “You weren’t wrong at all. They locked us out of going to the prom, and look what happened? Nothing.”

He sounded so bitter for his age, so set in his hatred. It made me just feel older than I already did, and trust me, I felt like I was as old as Cher, circa
Believe
.

I just shook my head and wiped my eyes. “You’re wrong, Kyle, and I can prove it.” Before he could argue, I started the car and pulled back onto the road.

“Where are we going?” he asked. “What’s going on?”

A little ways up, I pulled off the main road and onto a dirt lane. I just prayed I didn’t get lost like I did the first two times Tyler tried to show me where it was.

We parked in the middle of a field next to Tyler’s Jeep, where Brad and he were standing.

“Is that Brad?” Kyle asked, almost jumping out of the car.

“And just like that, our conversation is forgotten,” I said to myself as I turned off the car. “Mom, I owe you a serious apology.”

By the time I got out of the car, the two boys were drilling Tyler for answers.

“—middle of nowhere?” Brad asked.

“And what’s with the clothes? Tyler, seriously. Is someone dying?” Kyle asked.

“Oy, again with the dying,” I said, slapping the back of Kyle’s head. “What did I say?”

He rubbed his head. “So then why are we here?”

I pointed into the dark woods. “To prove you’re wrong,” I said as cryptically as possible.

“Is this where we run?” Brad asked Kyle quietly.

“Shall we go?” Tyler asked me, smiling with pure mischief on his face.

I smiled back. “I like seeing them squirm, to be honest.”

Tyler rolled his eyes. “Come on, kids, this way.”

“This is how every person ever dies in a horror movie,” Brad said as they followed Tyler.

“I knew having sex would get me killed,” Kyle muttered. “Before I met you, I was the virgin nerd. I would have made it at least until the last part of the movie.”

Brad nudged him. “Yeah, but that would have meant no sex.”

I saw the look on Kyle’s face as he smiled at Brad, and I remembered smiling like that at Riley. And part of me knew I would smile like that again someday.

We walked into the dark copse of woods. I had no idea how Tyler was navigating, but I’m sure it had something to do with outdoors and manly crap, which made tromping through the darkness even more annoying. Finally I saw them stop, and Tyler looked over to the boys. “We’re here,” he said solemnly.

“We’re where?” Kyle asked.

There was the sound of a switch being pulled, and floodlights lit up the area like it was an outdoor field. Across the branches of the trees were strung Christmas lights, making the whole grove look like it was a magical place instead of just a campsite by Lake Foster. There must have been over a hundred kids standing there, all of them dressed up and waiting for the shock to settle in before they screamed “surprise” at Brad and Kyle. Music started playing, and people started to come up to them, every one with a huge smile on their face at the boys’ shock.

Kyle turned around and looked at me. “Did you do this?”

I scoffed at him and shook my head. “Did I plan a party in the middle of some old woods, outside, with bugs? Bitch, you don’t know me at all.”

Brad looked at Tyler, who laughed. “Nope, I was just the getaway driver. He’s the brains.”

Both of them looked back, and there was a kid standing there, looking three kinds of uncomfortable.

“Tony?” Brad almost spat. “Tony Wright?”

Tony nodded and looked around. “Guilty. You like it?”

“Why?” Kyle asked, obviously not believing any of it.

Tony took a deep breath. “Look, I didn’t do this ’cause I was guilty about Kelly or I felt sorry for you, if that’s what’s you’re thinking. I’m still not a fan of what you guys do behind closed doors, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get a prom. I mean, that’s just not fair. You went to school, you won us state, and you had a gun pointed at you. If you guys didn’t deserve a prom, then none of us did. I may not like what you guys are, but I can also understand that some things are just taking it too far. It wasn’t hard to set up, turns out a lot of people were pissed about it. So to repeat, this is just me being nice and nothing about Kelly.” He got quiet, and I could see his eyes tear up. “Okay, maybe it’s a little about Kelly too,” he said, wiping his eyes. “But anyways, welcome to prom.”

He held his hands up, and a couple of people around them cheered and held up their red plastic cups in celebration.

“Enjoy,” he said, taking a few steps back.

Brad took a step toward him and gave him a hug. I saw the boy freeze for a moment and then hug him back. “Kelly would have loved this,” Brad whispered, and I saw Tony hug him tighter.

I nudged Kyle. “See? You were wrong.”

Kyle turned around and looked at me, and I could see the absolute wonder in his eyes at how incredible the world can be if you just give it a chance. I saw that because I just learned that lesson myself.

“Third wish granted.” I smiled at him.

He dove at me and gave me a hug. I thought of something sarcastic to say in response, but instead I hugged him back.

The two of them went running into the prom holding hands while Tyler stood next to me and smiled. “They did a good thing here.”

I watched them grab a drink and start talking to people. “I still can’t believe it.”

Brad’s parents and Kyle’s mom joined us with Matt tagging along behind them. This was only part one of our devious plan, part two came later.

“I’m still worried for them,” Matt said as we began to walk over to a bench.

The DJ stopped the music and announced, “This one is for all of those who aren’t here.” “Some Nights” by Fun. began to play, and I could hear the kids begin to sing along. Their voices raised in tribute. I looked over at Matt and smiled. “I’m not. I think they are going to be fine.”

It was incredibly saccharine coming out of my mouth, but it was how I felt.

“But what if they think the rest of the world is like this? What if they go out there and are met by the assholes we know are out there? What if they aren’t ready for it?”

I walked over and put a hand on his shoulder. It was the first time I had actually touched him. “Listen to them, Matt. I mean really listen to them.” We paused, and they were practically screaming as one: “
This is it, boys, this is war—what are we waiting for? Why don’t we break the rules already?
”

“That isn’t a song, it’s a war cry. They aren’t just kids anymore; they are warriors. Those kids have it more figured out than we ever did. And they’re just graduating high school. Can you imagine when they have kids? Can you imagine what their kids will be like?” I shook my head marveling. “No, my dear moose, they are going to be just fine.”

And for the first time in a long time, I meant it.

J
ENNIFER

I
F
THERE
is anything sadder than an empty gym made up for a prom, I don’t know what it is.

I sat at the front door, my hands on the lockbox for the money, and waited. The rest of the bitches that made up the prom committee were inside, no doubt ready to peck themselves to death over blaming why no one was there. Mr. Raymond looked like he was about to throw up.

My phone chirped, and I looked down and saw a text message from Tony.

Tony: they r here.

I just smiled and gathered up my stuff.

“I don’t understand,” Mr. Raymond said with a cup of punch in his hand. “Where is everyone?”

I smiled as I walked up to him. “Oh. No one is coming,” I said as cheerfully as possible. Stacy and Patty swiveled their heads toward me like two dogs smelling fear. Once I was sure I had everyone’s attention, I said, “Everyone canceled their tickets a few days ago. No one is coming.”

Raymond put his drink down. “What are you talking about, Ms. Rogers?”

The girls moved in closer too, dying to know what was up. “Well, most of the school have been coming to me this past week saying they couldn’t make it to the prom.” I tried to look as innocent as possible. “What, no one told you guys?”

“This is not funny.” Mr. Raymond tried to sound threatening but honestly, my dad has caught Brad sneaking out of my room before. This guy had nothing on me. “What is going on?”

I heard someone whistle behind me, and I saw Josh standing at the door. He smiled and tapped his watch. I felt a glow in my chest, and I realized I really liked that boy.

I looked back at Raymond and his bitch squad and gave him a curt smile.

“What’s going on is this,” I said, handing him the lockbox. “School isn’t for you, it’s for us. You and everyone who work here, I think you’ve forgotten that, so we, as a school, have decided to remind you. You see, the school is here for us, to teach us, to guide us, and to make us better people, not for you to come and get a paycheck. It doesn’t matter what you like and don’t like. What matters is if it helps us grow as people. So we, as a school, have taken prom away from you.” I looked around. “As you can see. Now, if you’re lucky, and I mean really lucky, the class next year will let you give them a prom, but I would suggest not excluding people, because that’s just going to piss them off.”