Elodie and Heloise (19 page)

As Heloise stepped out of the car, making sure she wasn’t stepping on the bottom of her dress with her shoes, she saw a few people she knew from school. Her cousin Noah was walking inside with a few of his female friends when he caught her eye.  Heloise grinned widely and waved at her dear friend, hoping he could see her from across the hundred feet that separated their limo waiting at the curb of the hotel, to the front entrance. Sure enough, Noah saw her and gave her a huge smile as he waved in kind. He made his way through the crowd and came walking swiftly toward his cousin.

“Hey Noah it’s so great to see you!” Heloise gushed. She and Noah hadn’t seen each other much in the last few weeks since he was busy with the school basketball team, so she was especially excited to see him. He was still one of her best friends in the world, no matter how much time went by between them.

“Thanks, you too,” he replied as enthusiastically. “Wow, you look... amazing! Who knew you could get all dressed up and go places?” He eyed her with a smirk that only came out when he was joking around with friends.

Heloise let out a laugh and playfully punched Noah on the shoulder. “And I could say the same of you. Last time I saw you, you were all sweaty in your basketball uniform. So imagine this!” Heloise gave her cousin the once over, who was dressed in a black suit, matching shoes, with a red tie with his brown hair slicked back. 

“So who is this guy trying to hit on my girlfriend?” Kyle smirked from behind Heloise, raising his eyebrows a little bit. “Should I be worried about him at all? He is dressed pretty sharply.”

“Oh goodness no!” Heloise exclaimed, surprised at her enthusiasm. “This is Noah, my cousin. You’ve heard me mention him before, haven’t you?”

A look of recognition came over Kyle’s face. “Ohhhhh yes, I remember now. You’re the basketball player, right?”

“That would be me. Nice to meet you. Heloise has told me a lot about you,” Noah replied, putting out his hand to shake. “Only good things though.”

“And I’m Kyle. Kyle Cayce. Nice to meet you.”

Heloise giggled to see Kyle blushing as he lightly shook Noah’s hand. “Of course, only good things. So who’s the lucky girl?” Heloise, Noah, and Kyle began walking toward the front entrance of the hotel, following the crowd of other students.

“Don’t you mean, lucky girls?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well a few of my other female friends didn’t have dates, so I decided to take them all to the prom then!” Noah responded, walking toward a group of four other girls who were waiting at the entrance for him. “I thought of coming dressed as a pimp, but decided against it.”

Heloise immediately burst out laughing. “Only you, Noah. Only you.” With a joking wink, she added, “Have fun then.”

Noah grinned as he walked toward his group of friends. Heloise saw him hold out his two arms for them to hold on to and she giggled again at the silly but happy expression on her cousin’s face. Kyle watched the whole scene too and couldn’t help but laugh along with her. 

Kyle glanced at Heloise and held out his arm for her to hold on to, just as Noah had done with his ladies. “Shall we go in, my lady?”

“Why yes, my lord. Let us go in and partake of this event they call ‘prom,’” Heloise spoke in a mock British accent. She took his arm with a huge grin and they followed the crowd of other students into the hotel. For the first time in her life, Heloise felt like she really belonged.

The music blared over the speakers as Kyle and Heloise walked into the hotel ballroom. It was really a sight to see all of her classmates dressed so well. Even some of Kyle’s usual gaming friends cleaned up well as they stood around with their respective dates. She was used to seeing them with funny and sarcastic graphic t-shirts, so she hardly even recognized them when she and Kyle came over to their table located in the back of the ballroom.

Kyle pulled out his chair for Heloise to sit and she gladly took a seat. She liked being dressed up in heels and beautiful dress, but even in the comfortable heels she had purchased for this event, the straps of her shoes were starting to dig into her feet. She reached down to adjust the straps when she saw Elodie across the room.

Elodie was seated at a table with some of her other friends and Quentin, with perhaps the most miserable look on her face that Heloise had ever seen. It seemed like the façade that Elodie had worked so hard to put up for so long in front of her friends and classmates was slowly crumbling and she couldn’t contain her emotions any longer.

Kyle noticed that Heloise’s attention was focused elsewhere, so when he came back to the table with some clear cups of punch, he looked over in the general direction of where she was looking and saw the object of her attention. He glanced back and Heloise and raised his eyebrows as he handed Heloise a cup of punch.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say your sister looks really sad.”

“I’ve never seen her like that. Whatever it is, she’ll get over it I’m sure. I’ve long stopped worrying about her. Especially since she’s stopped worrying about me.”

“You know, I don’t mean to bring up anything bad, but what exactly happened between you two? I just ask because you guys are so distant and I thought you’d told me you used to be really close.”

Heloise sighed and peered down into her glass, as if she expected her drink would hold the answers. “We grew apart. That’s what people do. People change, and not necessarily for the better. She actually didn’t used to be like that at all. But as soon as Duncan, our childhood friend, moved away before fifth grade, she became different. She started getting in with the popular crowd and just.... never looked back. She told me she couldn’t stand being like me anymore, being a nerdy bookworm, those were her words, and she kept asking me why I wasn’t doing what everyone else was doing. ‘If you want any friends, you’ll have to change. I can’t be friends with you unless you change. Otherwise, I’m not allowed to associate with people like you.’ And the most hurtful of all, which was, ‘I’m ashamed to even call you my sister.’ I couldn’t stand being around her anymore. She became a completely different person, and not someone I wanted to even call my friend.”

She wasn’t even aware of the tears that started coming down her face. When she felt an itch coming down her cheek, Heloise swiped her hand over her left cheek so that her makeup wouldn’t be too ruined, even if all she had put on was a little eyeshadow and light mascara.

“Anyway, that’s what happened. And you know what? We’re not hear to talk about my sister, we’re here to have fun.” She sipped her punch and then thumped the cup on the table. “Kyle, will you dance with me?”

“Sounds good to me!”  

The first hour of the prom for Elodie was a dance of another kind. After the obligatory prom pictures, Elodie and Quentin found the table with all of Elodie’s friends, though none of their friends spent much time sitting. Several of Elodie’s other friends also joined the table, eager to talk about their after-prom plans and asking Elodie if she was going to join them. She told them she’d have to ask Quentin, not wanting to say she had no desire whatsoever to join in any after-prom festivities. She felt increasingly uncomfortable being there with her friends, and even more so with Quentin. He was being far too attentive to her when all she wanted was to be left alone. There were the small grins he would give her when she said something amusing. Then there was Quentin never keeping his soft eyes off of Elodie and giving her constant attention, whether it was keeping her plastic cup full of punch at all times or pulling out her chair every time she sat down. All of this attention was not lost on Elodie.

“Is everything okay, Elodie? You seem a bit.... preoccupied.” He leaned a little more forward in his chair.

Elodie turned to face him, nervously running her fingers up and down the sides of her plastic cup. “Quentin....” Her voice drifted off again. Finally she sat straight up and put her hands on her lap. “I’m going to be frank with you. You’re making me uncomfortable.”

“Oh....” He looked away from Elodie, looking like a puppy dog that had just been kicked. “Well, I’m sorry Elodie. I truly am. It wasn’t my intention to make you feel uncomfortable at all. I was just trying to be an attentive date.” He shook his head and looked back at Elodie. “Is that what this is all about? Why you’ve been avoiding me?” 

“Yes. Yes it is all about that.” Elodie heard her voice getting a little bit louder. “I don’t want to be with you as anything more than a prom date, all right? I got over you a long time ago and I have no interest in doing anything else with you except come here to the prom, dance with you, and then leave. But you’re being.... overattentive to me, and you won’t stop looking at me!” She took a breath before continuing. “And I’ve had a lot on my plate these last few weeks, things you wouldn’t even understand, so I’m not really in the best mood right now.”

“Quiet down, Elodie. You’re making a scene,” one of her friends said from across the table.

“I don’t care! I’m tired of keeping it all in.” She buried her face in her hands, trying to stop the buzzing going on in her head. A moment later, she felt a hand on her back and she knew that it was Quentin’s. The strains of a soft pop ballad came over the speakers as the lights in the hotel ballroom dimmed. In a soft voice, he asked, “Elodie, would you like to dance? We can talk more then.”

Elodie slowly lifted her head to look at Quentin, who appeared genuinely concerned. Instead of it touching her though, it only irritated her even more.  

“Yeah sure,” Elodie whispered. Anything to get away from this table and these people. 

Quentin stood up and held out his hand to Elodie. They then joined the rest of their classmates on the dance floor, who were swaying back and forth in time, or sometimes out of time, with the music playing on the speakers.

Quentin and Elodie stood in front of each other as the strobe lights shone across their faces. He gently took her hand and placed his other hand on her waist, her eyes scanning the room for anything to look at that would take her away from where she was. 

Her eyes fell on her sister and Kyle slow dancing with the rest of the crowd. Heloise’s head rested on his shoulders as he held her close to him, one hand on her waist and the other holding her free hand. She was so peaceful in his arms, her eyes closed and a small smile forming on her lips. Elodie wanted to be that happy.

Unfortunately, the one person she knew who could make her feel like that probably never wanted to speak to her again. Rightfully so, as her mother pointed out. Elodie would have given anything to be there with Duncan, laughing and dancing and being close to him, knowing him even deeper than she ever did when they were kids. Being herself. That’s all she really wanted.

“May I have your attention please?” a familiar voice erupted over the speakers as a song came to a close. Gennifer Beers, the school council secretary, stood up on the stage at the front of the ballroom tapping at the microphone trying in vain to get everyone’s attention in the room. Only when the microphone gave a loud feedback sound did everyone turn around to her.

With a sheepish look, she apologized to the crowd and cleared her throat. “It is my pleasure to announce our winners for this years’ Prom Court!” Thunderous applause from the attendees soon followed as Gennifer fumbled for the cards with the elected officials written on them.

“As you know, we, the Student Council, have chosen the officials based on your recommendations, and I think you will all be delighted at who we have chosen!” Gennifer practically squealed into the microphone. She was known for her exuberance, one of the reasons she even got elected as the council secretary in the first place.

Elodie looked around at her fellow students. She wasn’t sure if she would even be chosen, but it wouldn’t surprise her if she was. After all, she was one of the more popular and well-liked students at her school. The prom court selections were always so secret, so their selections always came as a surprise to those in attendance. 

“This year’s Prom King is..... Quentin Rice! Come on down!” Gennifer shouted into the microphone to the excitement of the crowd. 

A spotlight shone on Quentin, who was in utter shock at having been chosen for such a position. His piercing eyes were alight with excitement as he walked through the crowd to the steps at the side of the stage, his other friends whooping and hollering all the way.

All Elodie could do was just stand there and watch, bewildered and dreading what might be coming next. At this point, she was sure that she had been chosen as the Prom Queen. And more than ever, she did not want the spotlight on her. 

Gennifer placed the paper crown on top of Quentin’s thick black hair as his classmates continued cheering loudly for him. He seemed to lap up the attention, constantly bowing to the amusement of the audience before sitting down at the designated Prom King throne set up in the middle of the stage.

“And now, for the lucky lady who will be joining him up here as Prom Queen.....” Gennifer once again fumbled for the index card as the DJ put on a drumroll over the speakers.

“This year’s Prom Queen is..... Elodie DeGarmo!”

It took Elodie about ten seconds to register what was going on. Only when the spotlight shone directly in her eye and all of her classmates turned to look right at her did she realize that she was the lucky one to have been chosen. Her mouth flew open and she felt like she was going to throw up. 

I should be happy. I should be reveling in all this attention. But all I want to do is run and hide.

The applause thundered around her as she stumbled up to the stage in shock. She reached the stage, walked up the side steps, and looked out over her classmates, watching Quentin wink and clap loudly for her. The next few moments were a blur as Gennifer put the crown on her head and whispered a congratulations before Elodie took her seat at the throne next to Quentin. 

“So here you go, our Prom King and Queen! Woooo!” Gennifer screamed into the microphone as everyone kept clapping. 

Elodie felt her face grow hot in embarrassment as everyone cheered and hollered for her and Quentin. She did not want to be here.