Loose Change~ Montgomery De La Cruz / Zach Dempsey/Scott Reed

Part 4 Chapter 13b

"Ophelia-"

"Too bad she's not here!" Ophelia called after him, as she started walking down the hallway. "You could've taken her to prom!"

He rolled his eyes. "Well, my mom worked it out so that I'm going with you anyway."

"Shut up," Ophelia snapped, not even wanting to egg him on. "I'm going with my boyfriend."

Zach fixed his backpack over his shoulders. "Whatever, I'll see you Saturday either way."

She had a glare set on her face. The bell rang, and before heading to class she yelled, "Hopefully you'll find a girl that doesn't now what an asshole you are to be your date!"

*****

Saturday came fast.

The plan for the day was already laid out. Marisa, Paul, Estella, and Justin would all come over and go with her and Scott in a limo to prom. Afterwards, they would all take Ophelia's car, which was already parked next to the event building, back to Scott's house, where they would all spend the night.

Ophelia's mother, of course, would be told that she was spending the night at Marisa's, and hopefully she would believe it.

Ophelia had on a robe, and was getting ready that morning in her bedroom. She was caught off guard by Justin's sudden entrance. Mostly, because he didn't announce himself before coming in. And because he didn't even mention that he was headed over already, four hours before they'd be leaving.

"Alright, how do I look?" Justin asked, stepping into Ophelia's room.

She was doing her makeup. She looked over, startled. "Justin? When the hell did you get here?" He just came straight up to her room?

"How do I look?" he repeated, with a whining voice. "Do I wear a tie or a bow tie?"

"Oh, um...tie," she said. "You just got here?"

"No, I've been talking to your dad for, like, forty minutes," he told her. He went over to where she was, scooting her out of the way so he could use the mirror. "You know he thinks that Scott's JT's real dad?"

She stilled. "What?" How the hell did that even come up?

"He told me," Justin said. He already had his white button down shirt on, so now he focused on his tie, putting it on in the mirror "He said he knows it's not Zach's, like your mom tried to tell him it was. He says the baby looks too white."

It was an odd thing to hear. JT did have pale skin, only a bit darker than Ophelia's, but he wasn't caucasian at all. "Are you kidding? Scott? He thinks Scott's the dad?"

"He told me it was easy to figure out," Justin said.

"Why?"

"Ask him yourself," Justin told her.

Ophelia felt burdened. "I can't talk to my dad about that. I don't want him to know about Monty. My dad's never here anyway, why would I throw all this on him?"

Justin looked at her from the side of his eye. "Why do you keep acting like you're a bad person for telling people what actually happened?"

Ophelia stood still. "I don't act like that."

Justin looked back in the mirroring, fixing his tie, just saying, "Okay." A moment passed. "I'm telling your therapist about this-"

"Shut up, Justin." She rolled her eyes. "All it'd do is make him feel bad he wasn't here," Ophelia said. "Telling my dad would only make me feel better, not him. There's no point."

"There is a point. You just said it'd make you feel better."

"That's not enough," she said, under her breath.