Color Blind

Chapter 15

"Ohhh!" Aunt Rachael squealed, covering her mouth with both hands when she walked into the living room. "Look at my kids!" She turned suddenly and ran back down the hall, calling over her shoulder, "Let me go get my camera!"

I could only wish that my own mother had been as enthusiastic when I told her that I was going to the prom. She was so lethargic about everything lately that I didn't even bother to tell her who I was going with. Tia and her mom had been right. My mother did need me at home, but it seemed more and more like she didn't even realize that I was there. She would go for days at a time without even getting out of bed, and it was a wonder to me that she still had a job at all.

I wasn't about to worry about that this night, though. This night, I could already tell, was about to be ridiculous.

I looked over at Scott and Lafayette in their matching pimp suits and couldn't help but laugh. I don't know what they were thinking when they picked those things out.

On second thought, yes I do.

They were both used to being the center of attention and weren't about to let their status change on prom night. I looked over at Tia and then down at my own dress and decided that we all looked pretty good that night.

Scott and Lafayette had picked out some ridiculously loud country pimp looking suits. Scott's was green and blue with a matching fedora - green and blue feathers on the side, of course. Lafayette had picked out a similar purple and gold suit, also with a large hat that sported purple and gold feathers. To complete the look, they both carried straight canes - Scott's was green and Lafayette's gold, both with a clear plastic ball on top.

The thing was, they should have looked like pure comedy with all that going on, but maybe because they were already so smooth and cute to begin with, anything they put on only made them look flyer.

Tia and I still fell out when they walked through the door, though.

The boys had told us ahead of time the colors they would be wearing so that we could coordinate with them – picture that - but we had no idea just how bright their suits would be.

Going along with it, though, we also picked out matching outfits. Rather than those frilly, big, poofy things that girls usually wore to prom back then, Tia and I decided on something a little subtler and a lot sexier. Our dresses were sleek, long and very form fitting. They each had a wide cut up the side, revealing more than a little thigh.

Aunt Rachael had protested at the height of the slits at first, but once she saw how nice we looked with the spaghetti-strapped, low-backed dresses on, how could she resist?

My dress was emerald green, which that night matched Scott's eyes perfectly. I finally figured out that he must have chameleon eyes, which changed colors to match the things that surrounded him. Once I had even seen them turn amber in the setting sun.

Tia's dress was gold, and her hair was in a cascade ball with tiny gold flecks of artificial baby's breath- like things all around it. She also decided to leave a few spiral curls out to cascade down around her crown once she put it on. I had never seen anyone more confident that they were going to win anything in all my life.

Scott on the other hand, didn't even seem to notice that he had been nominated. I guess that once you've been crowned for one thing, you've been crowned for them all.

My hair was also swept up, but in a large, curved Chinese ivory comb that I hoped wouldn't fall out before the night was over. When Scott reached out to touch it, I quickly jerked my head and stepped away.