In Your Dreams (In Your Dreams #1)

Chapter 21

Titusville does Prom a little differently than most high schools, and for the worst of reasons. The tradition used to be that before the dance, couples would drive all the way to Sumner for dinner at one of the decent restaurants there or out by the mall before making the trek back to Titusville for the actual Prom. But three years after my mom graduated, two couples died in a single-car drunk driving accident on their way to Sumner. In response, the school instituted a catered dinner in the cafeteria before the festivities so people wouldn't feel the need to drive forty-five minutes away for a meal that doesn't involve sitting down for burgers at the Diner or a trip through a drive-thru out near the interstate. To add to the alcohol-free theme for the evening, the Stanleys, whose eldest daughter was one of the kids killed in the accident, began offering their barn for an after-party, which essentially ends up being a mini-Prom out in the boonies about fifteen miles from town. Obviously, the school can't control whether or not students go to the Stanley Farm, so a small percentage of kids still sneak off to wherever to do whatever. But since the Stanley Farm After-Party is the parentally-approved venue for post-Prom activities, Kayla, Brad, Kieran and I will end up there, assuming Kieran has energy left after the dance.

Once the four of us arrive at school, we walk through the main lobby and glance inside the gym, the otherwise darkened space lit up by thousands of tiny white Christmas lights strung low from the ceiling, creating a canopy effect. The Prom Committee has also draped lights across the walls, mingling them with giant cotton ball clouds in order to construct a sort of "heaven on earth." The sight of the Christmas lights stirs my anxieties once again and my knees buckle, forcing me to slump a little against Kieran's side. "You okay?" he asks, putting his arm around my waist to support me.

I give him a weak smile. "I think it's the shoes. I wanted to wear my Chucks tonight but they didn't exactly go with the dress."

"Well, I'll hold you up if you hold me up. Deal?"

"Deal."

He gives me a little squeeze, and we follow Brad and Kayla into the cafeteria, transformed for the evening into a pale imitation of a classy restaurant, white tablecloths hiding the drab brown table tops and still more Christmas lights strung about the room. Other than the set of overhead lamps on back near the kitchen and the orange plastic cafeteria chairs decorated for the occasion with white and light blue streamers taped to their backs, we could almost forget that we eat cardboard-flavored pizza slices and soggy tater tots in this room five times a week. Almost. As if we're programmed, we head straight for the usual Jock Table in the back corner where Kayla, Brad, and I eat lunch every day, and we're soon joined by Cassie and Cody Hull, Lauren and Bill Burcheron, and Ashley and her date, Rick Matthews.

Leaving Kieran's side for a moment, I slide up to Cassie and link my arm in hers. "My compliments to the Prom Committee," I tell her.

"Thanks. Hung all the lights myself," she jokes. "Seriously, though-I took the Christmas light idea you had to the committee and they loved it, obviously. But you'd be surprised how hard it is to get this many Christmas lights in May. Lucky for us, we got people to donate a bunch so we didn't need to buy them all. There's probably not a set of white Christmas lights left in the whole county."

My stomach starts churning again, but I stuff the fear down and sense it evaporate completely when Kieran comes up behind me and puts a hand on my shoulder. The calm lasts throughout dinner, which passes uneventfully-or uneventfully for us, anyway. Kieran falls asleep twice, once during the salad course and again right before dessert, but his behavior is so ordinary now everyone just ignores it, and I'm able to shake him awake by jostling his leg with my knee. But once dinner's over and we all head into the gym for the dance, the panic rises in my stomach again, as I'm aware that what I saw in my dream happened while Kieran and I were dancing. For completely different reasons-me with my fear of the lights going out, and Kieran with his fear of passing out-we head together to the first row of the bleachers and sit down, laughing at Kayla and Brad as they flail around on the dance floor, their limbs seeming almost disconnected from their bodies.