The Duet(67)

She was a quiet girl, obviously shy around Jason and I, but when we returned to the limousine and I told her that I liked her dress, her apprehensiveness started to fade.

“Thanks! It took forever to pick the perfect one,” she said, looking down at the material and smoothing it out between her palms.

“You look great,” Jason said, with a small smile.

You would have thought he’d just told her she won a small island off the coast of Jamaica. Her eyes widened and she visibly stiffened. Jason met my gaze and I smiled to let him know he’d done the right thing.

…



The senior prom was held in the cafeteria of their high school. I didn’t know how the room was normally set-up, but the prom committee had done a good job with decorations. Save for that quintessential school smell, I’d have thought we were in a fancy ballroom in downtown LA. Multi-colored lights flashed overhead and there were balloons and streamers everywhere. A young DJ was up on stage with a laptop set-up on a black table. His music pounded through speakers set up around the room.

To the left of the stage there was a line forming to have professional photos taken with a blue backdrop. Couples stood beneath a white plastic arch with fake ivy twined throughout. The set-up might have been cheesy, but their smiles were real and you could feel the romance and excitement in the air.

I tried to ignore the lingering stares around us. Even in the dim lighting, Jason and I stood out like sore thumbs. We had Hank with us as well as an additional security guard that Hank had brought with him. The pair of them stood at least a foot over the rest of the crowd, and combined they probably out-weighed an elephant. Very discreet.

“What should we do first?” I asked, turning to our small group.

“Let’s go check out the food,” Logan said, just as Jessie spoke up.

“Can we go say hi to my friends?” she asked Jason with a timid voice.

Jason and I exchanged a wary glance. We’d have to split up. Before I could think to protest, Logan headed toward the food table, tugging me along with him. Jessie moved toward the other side of the dance floor and Jason had to think fast to keep up with her.

I shouldn’t have felt a pang of sadness, I mean we were still in the same building, and we’d see each other later. But knowing that our time was so limited, that in two weeks our arrangement would end, made me sad that we’d be separated all night by a sea of teenagers.

After the food table, Logan dragged me over to where a group of boys were standing in a circle to the side of the dance floor. Before that night I didn’t think it was possible to discuss video games for that long without an end in sight. I don’t care about the merits of a good cosplay outfit. I just wanted to bash my head into the concrete pillar beside me.

I didn’t want to leave Logan, so I held out, trying to keep up with the conversation while also trying not to fall asleep from how bored I was. Every few minutes a student would come up to ask me for a photo or an autograph. Normally the constant interruptions would have been annoying, but I welcomed them. You want a photo? Great. Let’s take fifteen.

But then I spotted Jason out on the dance floor. Jessie was wearing a giant smile as he did a poor rendition of the “sprinkler”. I couldn’t help but laugh. The other girls on the dance floor would try to position themselves behind Jason so it looked like he was dancing with them. Their friends would snap a photo and they’d all giggle, looking down at the iPhone screen. It was funny to watch and I knew I’d have done the same thing when I was their age.

A few of them were bold enough to ask him to dance, but he never accepted, instead he stayed true to his date with Jessie. He showered her with attention, doing his best to display a stream of various dance moves. (Some of which were truly terrible. I made a mental note to ask him why his dance moves were not on par with his bedroom moves.)

A little while later, I got the brilliant idea to excuse myself to go to the bathroom. I figured I could take my time; maybe walk around the perimeter of the dance just to have something to do. I wanted to be a nice date to Logan, but it was clear that he was a teenage boy, and girls, even a celebrity crush, couldn’t hold his attention like a good ol’ video game discussion could.

I watched Jason on the dance floor as I walked through the dance. He glanced up just before I turned the corner to the bathroom and his eyes locked on mine. I smiled and waved, and he flashed a playful smile. I would have lingered there longer, but another group of girls walked up to ask Jason for a picture. The man clearly had his hands full.

Hank pointed me in the direction of the bathroom and I took my time once I was inside, listening to the conversations taking place around me. They were exactly what you’d expect from a deliciously trashy MTV show.