A Broken Promise (19 page)

              There, the dress was on, makeup done, and hair curled. Just an hour before I felt like the ugliest thing to ever walk the planet. But now, in Indigo’s dress, I felt like the most beautiful girl in the world. The dress was white like she had said. But it wasn’t anything like I was expecting. Her calling it a wedding dress was definitely an understatement. This dress…well, let’s just say it was strapless, and was so short that getting into a car would probably be harder to deal with than childbirth. Though, I looked hot! The dress showed off all my curves, and it would drive my mother crazy!

              “Hey, I’m here!” Lacey exclaimed as she burst through my bedroom door. I turned to look at her, waiting for her answer. I kind of felt like a cheap whore in the dress, but it was so pretty with the ruffles and sheer covering that gave it a slight sparkle.

              “Holy crap!” Lacey exclaimed. “Where’d my best friend go? You look amazing!” She ran her fingers over the dress. “Let’s switch!”

              “No way!” I laughed. “Do you think I look okay?”

              “Look okay? You look like a freaking Playboy model! You’re hot!” Lacey couldn’t keep her eyes from my body. “And look at your legs. Damn, your legs are so sexy.”

              “I think it’s the heels,” I noted as I twirled around so she could see my four inch heels. This was the tallest I had ever been. I bought the heels years ago when I first met brad. I wanted to look sexy for him. But soon I realized that I couldn’t walk in them and hid them in the back of my closet.

              “I think it’s your badass self. Girl, you are beautiful!” She nudged me playfully in the arm. “And you know who else will think it’s hot?”

              “Who?” My mind first flashed to Keiffer, but then to Brad. Brad was the one I was going to prom with, not Keiffer.

              “Brad, duh!” Lacey laughed. “And if you don’t hurry, Brad’s going to leave.” She grabbed my hand and raced towards the door. She was down the stairs before I even had a chance to get out of my room.

              Standing at the top of the stairs, I took a deep breath. I could hear Brad’s voice coming from down below. He was talking to my dad. I started to step down, not wanting to fall. Still self-conscious about the dress I tried to walk as carefully as possible. But once I was far enough down the stairs to see everyone’s faces they were all just staring at me. Brad’s mouth was hanging open just slightly.

              “Hi,” I said nervously. No one said anything back and I took each stair one at a time. Brad, finally kicking into action, stepped forward and took my hand once I reached the bottom of the stairs.

              “Wow, Jenna…you look…” Brad started.

              “Hot,” Alex finished for him. I laughed at Alex’s comment. Lacey didn’t even scold him for it. It was obvious that she agreed with him.

              “Thanks, boys.” I let Brad slip the white and pink corsage around my wrist. He kissed my cheek lightly as we stood there. Still, even after five minutes, no one took their eyes off of me. Finally, as though she knew she needed to kill the moment, my mom stepped into the room. Her voice was just as annoying as I had remembered.

              “Why is no one coming outside? I’ve been waiting out there for a good ten minutes and no one is coming out. Where the hell – Oh, Jenna!” She finally noticed my presence. “Oh, don’t you look –“ She stopped talking once she noticed my outfit. “Well, come’on. Let’s get some pictures!” She shuffled back outside, grabbing both Lacey’s and Alex’s hand. Brad stayed behind in the house with me so we could talk.

              “I’m sorry about my comment that I made earlier. It was really wrong of me to say that.”

              “It’s fine.” I placed my hand gently on his cheek. “Let’s go take some pictures.” He followed me outside into the front yard by the rose bushes. They used to be my mom’s winning roses. Well, until she moved away. Then they just became roses.

              Lacey and Alex were the first ones to get their pictures taken. Their parents were standing next to my mom and they all had their cameras out. It was funny how parents treated prom as though it was a pre-wedding. They were all proud of us as we stood there all done up. It was actually quite silly.

              Brad was talking aimlessly next to me about God-knows-what. I began to finally tune him out after a few minutes. He did that a lot, talk about nothing. Well, it wasn’t
nothing
to him, but I really didn’t care. Once he got on a subject, he never stopped. Looking over at Keiffer’s house I saw a small crowd, like what we had, out in his front yard. Indigo was talking to another couple in front of the garden that she had planted. Keiffer was nowhere to be seen but I knew he was there.

              “Brad,” I interrupted. “Can you hold that thought?” I caught him in mid-sentence. His mouth was still open as though he were about to say something else. Finally he nodded and I took off across our lawn and into Keiffer’s. I heard my mom call after me, but I kept walking. And I kept walking until I reached Indigo.

              “Jenna, honey, you look stunning!” Indigo ran her hands over my shoulders as she stared at the dress on me. “I knew we were about the same size.”

              “It’s nothing that I was expecting,” I laughed.

              “Well,” she got closer to my ear. “You couldn’t expect me to give you something modest. I wasn’t exactly a saint when I was a senior in high school.”

              I laughed at the way she said it. Of course she wasn’t. She had given birth to her daughter while in high school. “Well, I’m not either,” I finally admitted. She was the first one that I had ever admitted that too. Everyone else, including my parents, thought I was still a virgin.

              Indigo studied me closely. I thought that she was about to scold me. Any moment now she would give me the sex-talk, but instead, she wrapped me into her arms and gave me a hug. I wasn’t expecting it, but I allowed her to hug me anyway. This was one of the first honest-to-God true hugs that I had had in a while. She loved me like a daughter, exactly how I loved her like a mother.

              “I know,” she finally said. She cupped her hand on my chin. “That’s why I can relate to you, Jenna. And right now, Keiffer and you are about to make a huge mistake. I know he’s difficult, but he loves you back.”

              “Indigo –“

              “And I love you,” she finally said. “I’m never going to leave you, Jen. I’m always going to be here for you. And so will he…even if he’s difficult, he’ll go to the ends of the world for you.”

              “What do you mean by that?” I asked, my heart pumping wildly. She placed her hand on my stomach and I quickly backed away from her. My mind was spinning out of control. “How do you know?” I asked, my voice much louder than a whisper.

              She shrugged her shoulders. “I assumed.”

              “Well, you’re wrong!” I said quickly, crossing my arms across my chest – which gave me great cleavage!

              “No, I’m not.” Her voice was still calm and steady even though I was making a scene.

              Finally, giving in, I looked up at the sky. It was bright blue with a few clouds. How the hell was my life spinning so out of control? “Does Keiffer know yet?”

              She shook her head. “No, he doesn’t know. I wasn’t one hundred percent positive. Your father was talking to me earlier. And the whole sickness thing. Honey, I knew it was morning sickness from the moment that I heard you put orange juice on cereal. That was my vice too when I was pregnant with Keiffer.”

              “I’m really scared. I can’t tell anyone,” my bottom lip started quivering.

              “You told me,” she smiled. “And together, you and I, we’ll work it out. But I think you need to tell my son. He deserves to know.”

              “How do you know he’s the dad?” I was embarrassed talking about the fact that I was pregnant with her son’s baby. She now knew that he and I had been having sex behind her back. It was all pretty mortifying.

              She laughed again. “I didn’t. But you gave it away.” She kissed my forehead again before turning around as Keiffer and his date stepped out on the porch. And, much to my surprise, his date was Brenda. I felt as though I just got punched in the stomach.

              He didn’t notice me at first as he helped her down the porch steps. They stood hand-in-hand in front of the garden, both of their eyes getting adjusted to the sunshine. Then, once he looked up towards Brenda’s parents and noticed that I was standing among them, our eyes never ceased to look away from each other.

              He excused himself from the pictures, and walked towards me. With one swift moment, he grabbed me forcefully by the arm and led me into the house. However, it was difficult for me to walk quickly in my heels so he just ended up picking me up and carrying me up the porch stairs. Once inside, he shut the door behind him and he stared at me like what Brad did earlier. Except, Keiffer’s stare was much more serious. His eyes worked their way up from my toes to my head. Of course stopping a bit longer when he got to my breasts.

              “What are you doing here?” He finally snapped.

              “I came over to say hi to your mom.”

              “My mom and you best friends now?” He asked, crossing his arms. He looked very handsome in his tuxedo. His hair had been gelled lightly, and parted to the side. He looked extremely attractive.

              “Maybe,” I said while shrugging my shoulders. “You decided to go to prom with Brenda? I would’ve thought you’d at least ask someone descent.”

              “Like who?” He asked, obviously amused by my jealousy.

              “I don’t know…me.” I finally said it. I wasn’t sure if I would actually admit that I wanted him to ask me to prom, but I decided that it was now or never.

              “You have Brad.”

              “But I want you!” I walked towards him, reaching out and grabbing his shoulders. “You keep pushing me away. I tell you that you’re the only one I want, and it’s great for a little while. But then you get some weird thought in your head and you begin to think that I want Brad! How many times do I have to keep telling you that I don’t?”

              For the first time since meeting Keiffer, I actually saw the hurt in his eyes. He looked down quickly, not wanting me to see the tears. Beginning to tear up myself, I followed him up to his room, where he sat down at his window sill. He was looking out the window, not willing to look over at me. Even though I couldn’t see his face, I knew that he was crying. I knew that he was feeling exactly what I had been earlier.

              I walked over to him, placing my hand on his. He finally looked up at me, letting me press my lips against his as we stood in front of the window. He moved his hand to my back, feeling the straps to my bra. He didn’t unlatch it – thank God! – but he did play with it for a bit until our lips finally unlocked.

              “Why is it that every time one of us says goodbye, the other one isn’t ready to let go?” He laughed.

              “Because maybe it’s just not time yet,” I answered. “You’re the only one who understands me. But you’re also the only one who doesn’t want me in their life…”

              “I want you in my life…but this just wasn’t a part of the plan.”

I touched his cheek. “Maybe there is no plan. Maybe this is it.”

“Jenna,” he smiled slightly. “How can you say that? You always have a plan for everything. It’s just a part of your charm.”

I shrugged my shoulders. “I met someone who changed that for me. We could’ve had it all. You and me. We could have had the world. And you kept throwing it away.” I paused, almost telling him about the baby. “But now I have a date outside waiting for me, and you have…Brenda…”

              “Outside waiting for me,” he finished. He held my hand as we walked towards the front door. With one swift movement, I kissed him hard again. I’d wanted to kiss him for years it seemed. And now, as we stood so close, I knew that this wouldn’t last. He would get scared, like normal, and push me away. But I tried not to think about it.

              “Bye, Keiffer,” I whispered into his ear. I opened up the front door and made my way back to my house.

              I didn’t get far before Brenda stopped me. She stood in front of me, her hands on her hips. Her face had no trace of a smile, though I really wasn’t expecting one. She was trying to act all scary and tough, but really she just looked as though she were constipated. I stood awkwardly in front of her, not sure what her next plan of action was going to be.

              “You keep away from him!” She sneered.

              “From Keiffer?” I let out a laugh. “I had him way before you did.”

              “Of course you did… you’re a little slut.” Brenda looked at me with such hatred that I actually felt myself start to grow nervous. I wasn’t quite sure, and maybe it was the sun, but I was starting to sweat.

              “Slut?” Now she was just being mean. “Why is it that you always come in for my sloppy seconds?”

              Now it was her turn to feel the heat. She opened her mouth to say something, but then quickly shut it again. Obviously, she had nothing. “Sloppy seconds, huh? There was nothing sloppy about Brad when I screwed him.”