Loose Ends

Chapter 52

"Yes."

Across the courtyard Grace was telling Adrian and Alice about the homecoming dress she had picked out, Grant having asked her to go with him weeks ago.

"It's a pale light blue with a fitted waist that flares out as it goes down," she said excitedly. "You've gotta come over and see it, Adrian!" Adrian pouted, deflating Grace's bubble somewhat. "What's wrong?"

"I'd rather not talk about homecoming since I can't go," Adrian said grumpily, moving her pasta salad around but not eating any of it.

"Why not? There's still time to tailor a dress if you can't find one that fits just right," Grace offered helpfully. Adrian glared at her.

"They don't really make flattering homecoming dresses for pregnant teenagers, Grace. Besides, being on my feet for too long makes them swell up and sitting in a hard plastic chair for too long will make me uncomfortable." Alice, Henry, Ben and Grant all suddenly became very interested in their lunches and remained quiet, not wanting to say anything to further annoy Adrian. In another part of the courtyard Griffin was talking animatedly about the tux he'd picked out.

"So it's powder blue with a black cummerbund and I found this quirky silver tie in my dad's closet he said I could borrow. I'm gonna look rather fetching if I do say so myself." Ashley snorted into her can of soda.

"Who on earth says 'fetching'?"

"I do," he answered matter-of-factly as he took a bite of his pizza. "So have you picked out a dress yet?" he asked, speaking around the food in his mouth.

"Not yet. Nothing seems to jump out at me as the right kinda dress."

"The theme is a moonlit wonderland. You could pick out all kinds of dresses that either match it or make fun of it."

"Make fun of it?" she asked curiously, causing Griffin to smile.

"Wonderland. As in Alice and Wonderland. You could go extremely quirky for the heck of it or pick a dress that goes along with moonlight and nighttime: white, silver, midnight blue, black. You've only got another week to find the right dress so I say we go shopping this weekend. What do you say?" he asked, taking another bite of pizza. Ashley rolled her head from side to side as she thought about it.

"Oh alright." As Ashley and Griffin continued their lunches, Ricky, Jesse and Justin headed to the homecoming ticket booth to buy tickets for the dance.

"So do we wanna carpool or anything?" Justin asked as they got in line. "I can borrow my mom's van if we wanna save on gas," he offered.

"Do you think the girls will wanna go out to dinner before the dance?" Jesse asked, as the line slowly inched forward.

"Don't know," Ricky replied. "We should check with them first and go from there." Jesse and Justin nodded and then they waited patiently to reach the front of the line. Back at the table the girls were chatting.

"So there's this awesome sorta mega thrift store complex I found downtown and the dresses are sooo cute!" Madison informed her best friends. "And most of 'em are under forty bucks!" Lauren's brows lifted in surprise.

"That's a good deal for a homecoming dress." Madison and Amy nodded in agreement.

"So are we gonna get ready together or what?" Madison asked before she took a bite of her chicken sandwich.

"We can. We just gotta tell the guys whose house to come to to pick us up," Amy replied, taking a bite of her pizza.

"Let's do it at my house since it's closer to the school," Madison offered.