Emmalee (14 page)

Ugh.  This party is going
to be so stupid.  Why did I even waste my time coming here,
seriously?
  I tried to hide my own frustration, but I guess
I didn’t do that good of a job when I heard Chase near my elbow
say,

           
“Hey, you don’t have to pout you know, Ethan
will
show up sooner or later.”

           
I rolled my eyes and gritted through my teeth. “I wasn’t
pouting.  But thank you, Chase, for being such a gentleman and
pointing out that you thought so.  Nothing like telling a girl
she looks funny.”

           
“Hey!  I never said anything about your looks.  Which
are, very nice by the way.  Where did you find that costume? 
Did you rent it?”

           
“You like my lounge singer dress, eh?”  I twirled
around to show off the whole ensemble. 
I mean, if the guy
is giving away compliments he might as well be giving them to me. 

           
“Very pretty.  You look like you’ve stepped out of a
Bob Hope movie.”

           
Bob Hope?  Who’s that?
  “I-is that a
good thing?”

           
“Don’t tell me you have no idea who the great Bob Hope
is?”

           
“Okay, I won’t.”

           
Exasperated, Chase sighed. “I practically grew up on Bob Hope
movies.  He was my grandpa’s favorite movie star and
comedian.”

           
“So he’s funny, too?”

           
Chase looked at me like I had come from another planet.

           
“What?  I’ve never heard of the guy.  So sue
me, okay?”  I was saved from Chase’s answer when
Hannah ran up.

           
“Emma!  You’re here!  Wow!  That dress
makes you look like a million bucks!”

           
“Thanks.”  I smiled.  “Yours looks great
too.  That brooch turned out perfect.”

           
“Oh!  Have you seen Cassidy’s costume?” Hannah
gushed.  “If you think ours looks good, just wait until
you see hers!”
           
Really?”

           
“It looks amazing!”

           
I glanced over at Chase to read his reaction.  He nodded his
head and agreed, “Yeah, she looks really good.  I think
she blows every costume I’ve seen out of the water.”

           
“Oh.  That’s cool.”  I couldn’t
quite put my finger on why Cassidy’s costume would bother me,
but it did.  That was until I saw it. 
Holy cow!
 
I had never seen anything so authentic before.  Chase was
right.  It totally blew mine and Hannah’s eighties
knockoffs out of the water.  Cassidy had a genuine nineteen
forties antique dress.  And it fit her like a glove.  After
a couple of shocked moments where I stood speechless watching her
walk into the kitchen mingling with a couple of guests, I finally got
up the courage to approach her.

   “Cassidy, I love
your dress.  Where did you get it?”

           
She smiled and glanced down at the gown and then replied, “Thank
you.  It was my great-grandma’s.”

           
“Y-your great grandma?  Are you kidding?  And you’re
allowed to wear it.”

           
She laughed.  “It’s actually falling apart. 
Don’t look too closely, or you’ll see spots where the
sequins and rhinestones are a bit bare.  I’ve been
patching it up for weeks getting it ready for tonight.”

           
Weren’t you
not
supposed to wear antiques that
were falling apart?
  I was clearly baffled.  “But—?”

           
Cassidy laughed again.  “Don’t worry.  I have a
whole storage container full of my great grandma’s old
dresses.  She used to perform a lot, so she has a lot of cool
clothes.  This is by far the worst of the lot.  You
should’ve seen some of the other gowns she had.”

           
“Are you kidding me?” 

           
“Nope.  When I was little and she came to visit, I was
always dressing up in my mom’s clothes.  So Granny—not
sure what to do with her old things—willed them to me. 
They came with specific instructions that said I wasn’t
supposed to sell them or hide them away.  I was supposed to
“dress up” and show them off.  Just like I did when
I was younger.  If it wasn’t for Granny, I don’t
think I would’ve been able to convince my mom to let me throw
this party to begin with.”

           
“Cass, Mom needs you,” interrupted her sister, Claire. 
“She’s in the family room trying to decide how many teams
there will be.  So can you go and tell her how many people are
here?  Oh!  You made the punch.  Good.  I like
that punch.  Ooh!  Emmalee, your dress is so—don’t
you think her dress is pretty, Cass?  Cass?  Oh duh, she’s
heading over to help my mom.  I totally forgot.  Have you
tried any cookies?  Cass made them.  They’re
really—here you have to try them—Cassidy is the best
baker ever.  They’re her very own recipe.”

           
“Thank you.”  I took the offered cookies and looked
around for an escape.  But Claire was quicker than I was,

           
“When did you get here?  You’re so nice for
coming—we didn’t think you would.  You have no idea
how surprised we were when Cass came back from your house saying that
you were coming.  But even then, my mom said she’d be
shocked if you really showed up.  I told her how nice you were
and how you were so fun at your party—I liked the pizza at your
party.  Was that Little Caesar’s Pizza?  I can’t
remember—it was good though!  My mom said that she would
have to wait and see how you acted here—if you came—before
she would make her opinion of how you really were.  Even though
I assured her, she still made me promise not to—Oh!  I
wasn’t supposed to tell you that!  Well, you won’t
tell my mom will you?  Of course you won’t.  You’re
too nice remember—Oh!  Look.  There’s my friend
Justin.  I hope you don’t mind if I leave you to go talk
to him, I’ve been waiting for him to show up this whole time. 
Justin.  Justin....”

           
Whew!  Saved by Justin.
  Dazed, I shook my head
and followed Claire’s beeline toward the poor guy.  Just
then, I heard a familiar chuckle behind me.

  I grinned and closed my eyes
a moment before turning around.  “Chase, it is not nice to
laugh at me.”

           
“Who says I was laughing at you?”  His blue eyes
sparkled playfully into my own.  “I was thinking of the
poor guy she’s just herded into that corner.”

           
His eyes were way too pretty.  It seriously wasn’t fair. 
I smirked, and then tired of discussing Claire I asked, “So how
are you holding up?  Talk about awkward.  I mean, this is a
high school party.  Could there be more measly little teenagers
in one place?  Honestly?  You’ve got to be the oldest
guy here, so—”

           
The rest of what I was about to say was smothered by Chase’s
finger over my mouth.  Before I could even react he propelled me
through a small doorway next to the kitchen—down a step—into
the laundry room. 
What in the--?  Chase?
  He
shut the door.  We were all alone. 

           
“Will you stop?”

           
I was stunned by the anger I heard in his voice. 
What?
 
“What are you talking about?  What do you mean?”

           
Chase took a couple of swift steps toward the large washing machine
and turned around.  Roughly he ran his hand over his face and
took a deep breath.

           
“Stop what, Chase?  What did I say?”  I was
beginning to get worried.

           
“Look, you don’t always have to be a Prom Queen, okay?”

           
Prom Queen?  What in the--?

           
“Sometimes it’s okay to go somewhere and just enjoy a
place for what it is.  You know, relax.  Have fun. 
Not always expect everything to be this super great entertainment.”

           
Where in the world did this come from? 

           
“To answer your question.  Yes!  I’m having a
fabulous time, all right?”

           
“O-kay?”

           
“And yes, I may be the oldest guy here, but so far I’ve
met some pretty cool people.”  He pushed himself away from
the machine and approached me.  “Many of them, believe it
or not, I already know, because they work for my dad.  Now if
you’ll excuse me, I’m going back to the party, which is
ten times more fun than being in here with you.”

           
“Chase?”  But I spoke to thin air.  He had
already opened the door and shut it behind him.  Baffled, and
more hurt than I was willing to admit.  I slowly made my way
over to the washing machine he had just left.  Absentmindedly, I
let my fingers trail over the crevice of the lid. 

           
Why am I even here, anyway?  I knew coming to this party
would be a big mistake.  I even dressed up in a costume for
crying out loud!  I never wear costumes.
 
Was I
really the only one who felt uncomfortable with the idea of playing
dress up?
  I thought of Hannah and Cassidy, both of them
happy with the large crowd of people out there in the house.  If
I was honest with myself, I hardly knew anyone at the party. 
And for the first time in my life I felt utterly alone.  It
wasn’t a feeling I was comfortable with. 

I stared blankly at the other door
that led to the Hart’s carport as I tried to assess my
feelings.  When two crummy tears started to make their way
toward my heavily lined lashes, I knew this whole party was a waste. 
In a flash I opened the side door and walked outside onto the Hart’s
gravel-covered carport.  I prayed my heels would last as I
gingerly picked my way down the drive toward my car.  There were
so many people at the party; it wasn’t like I’d be
missed. 
Besides, there’s no reason to stay anyway.

Three weeks later and Hannah still
hadn’t forgiven me for bolting from the party like I did. 
Good grief!  Like I knew she would actually miss me that
much. 
It was gratifying in some ways to be missed. 
Even though I had tried to block that night out as much as I could. 
It’s not pretty reliving messy eyeliner streaks and stupid
costumes that refuse to come off fast enough, when all you want is
out of them! 

           
So I cried.  Big deal.  I’m all grown up and besides,
I must’ve been just highly overemotional that day, or
something.  Usually, I am much more relaxed and calm in
situations like that.  Anyway, as I’m sure you can see, I
tried to block it from my memory as much as possible.  And I
probably would’ve done a pretty good job of it too, had Hannah
stopped bringing it up every couple of hours or so. 

           
“I’ll never forgive you—ever—for leaving that
party,” she announced as we walked through the grocery store
with my mom’s last minute Thanksgiving shopping list.

           
“So you’ve said.  A thousand times, I might add.” 
I stopped and pulled down two cans of black olives and one jar of
green ones.  I set them in the cart and crossed them off the
list.

           
“Yes, but it’s true.  I can’t forgive you.”

           
I inwardly sighed and tapped my toe while I searched through the list
again. 
Crackers and cheese. 
I headed for the
cracker aisle.  Hannah followed.

           
“Really.  I don’t think you realize what I fool I
looked like searching for you.  I mean, my goodness, I thought
you had got locked in one of the Hart’s bathrooms or
something.  How was I supposed to know you had just up and
decided to leave like that?  Didn’t you even think how
rude you might look to people?”

           
I slowed the cart as we rounded into the cracker aisle and scanned
for my mom’s favorite crackers.  “No, Hannah. 
I didn’t think about coming off as rude.  Honestly, I
didn’t leave hoping to ruin the party for you, okay?” 

           
“Well why did you leave then?”

           
There it was.  The question I didn’t even want Hannah to
know the answer to.  The whole reason why she was still mad at
me.  But how could I tell her I left because Chase didn’t
want to be around me?  Or that Mrs. Hart was just waiting for me
to say or do something rude to prove I wasn’t nice.  Or
even worse, that I left because Chase made me cry. 
See? 
It was hopeless. 
It was something I wasn’t even
willing to admit to anyone right then, not even myself.  So why
in the world would I think of plaguing Hannah with it?  It
didn’t matter anyway, because in the end Chase was right. 
I did think I was better than everyone there.  I wasn’t at
the party to feel impressed and to enjoy myself; I was there to meet
Ethan Franklin, plain and simple. 

           
It’s just that had I been given half a chance I might’ve
actually enjoyed myself.
 I mean, I was warming up and I
was pretty curious about the games they were planning. 
Ugh! 
But who was I kidding, anyway?  I was just as welcome to be
there as I felt I was. No one wanted me to be there really, no one
expected me to show up in the—

“Hey, Emma!” A voice
interrupted my thoughts. 

           
I looked over into the excited face of Carson Franklin.  “Oh,
hi!  I didn’t see you there.”  I smiled and
then glanced over at the guy by his side.  He was really cute
and staring straight at me.

           
“Imagine running into you at Safeway of all places.” 
Carson chuckled and nudged the guy next to him in the arm. 
“Hey, Ethan, that’s Emmalee Bradford, the girl I’ve
been telling you about.” 

Chapter 14

“Well, here I am.  What
were your other two wishes?”

           
Eeh!  Ethan Franklin!
  My heart skipped a beat as
I returned his lazy smile.  “Hello.”

           
All at once Ethan’s grin grew to dangerously enchanting
proportions.  I was struck by the wicked gleam I caught in his
hazel eyes.  He took a step towards my cart and then another to
the side of it.  With a short tug he pulled the cart and me
along with it right up to him.  His grin near enough caused me
to swoon when he whispered, “Hey, yourself.”