The winter formal is tonight. I am going with Max and we've already planned everything. He got a pink tie to match my dress and my mom scheduled appointments for my nails, hair, and makeup. All I have to do is get through the school day. Not even five minutes into 2nd-period people started saying weird things.
"How was Max?" Jenny asked me.
"He's alright," I told her confused, my friends don't normally ask me stuff like this.
"He's just alright?" She asked.
"Yeah..." I answer still confused. Claire and Emma were close enough to hear and joined in.
"I hate men. They never look over our needs," Emma says.
"What are you guys talking about?" I finally ask.
"Didn't you-" Claire makes a thrusting gesture towards her mouth, "with Max?" I felt my face grow pale.
"No, I didn't blow him!" My voice raised slightly and they all looked around the room to see who was listening.
"You guys did at the party, Max's friends told me," Jenny said.
"It's not true," I whispered to them and they smirked at each other.
That whole conversation made me grumpy for the rest of the day. Did Max tell his friends that? Doesn't matter if it was true or not, he shouldn't have said anything. I thought about texting him but I couldn't even bear to look at my phone. At lunch, I didn't even eat a single thing off my tray.
English came and Nathan noticed my crabbiness.
"What's wrong?" He asked. I wasn't embarrassed to tell him because he's basically one of the girls, but I was still so upset I didn't say a word.
I was working on the English worksheet when the final bell rang. I tried to hurry and throw all my things in my backpack so I could leave for the day. Everyone else seemed to notice the time and like usual, I was the last one out. Before I could even walk past the first row of desks a hand grabbed my arm and pulled me back.
"Tell me what's wrong," Ms. Wright said. I looked around pointlessly, I knew she wasn't going to let me go until I told her.
"Is it about the formal tonight?" She guessed.
"No," I respond plainly. She ushers me back to her desk and we sit down.
"Something happened between me and Max," I tell her.
"Your boyfriend?"
"He's not my boyfriend yet," I correct her.
"Well, what happened?" She asked. I look down and fiddle with my hands.
"It's too embarrassing," I say honestly. Ms. Wright reaches over her desk and holds both of my hands to stop them from fidgeting. I look into her soulful eyes that I can't resist.
"Max told his friends that we did it and it's not true and now all my friends know and next the whole school will know this lie," I rant.
"Everyone is going to forget it in a couple of weeks, don't worry," She tries to reassure me.
"I don't have a couple of weeks. I'm going to the formal with Max and everyone is going to be making sex jokes about us," I tell Ms. Wright. She scoots her chair closer to her desk and looks back into my eyes.
"Listen, I am chaperoning the dance. If anything happens that makes you feel uncomfortable come to me and I can take you home or whatever you want," She says sweetly. Although she said that in a soft voice I couldn't get over how she said 'we can do whatever you want'. I smile at her as a way of saying thanks.
"I got to get home soon and start getting ready," I tell her and pick up my bag.
"See you later," Erica says back.
"See you later," I reply.
I haven't yet confronted Max about the rumor. My parents love him. I sit on his lap as my parents take 400 photos of us. I never really get dolled up this much so it feels weird.
"Put your hand on her leg," My mother instructs Max. He gently places his hand above my knee and I can feel my eyes turn into daggers. Nevertheless, I sit still and smile pretty.
Finally, when the pictures are done, we leave for the dance. Max's uncle has a corvet and lets him borrow it for the formal. He has only been polite the whole night so far. He made sure my dress was tucked nicely into the car before we drove off. While driving, I just had to say it.
"Did you tell your friends we had sex?" I ask. I see his face turn guilty.
"Yes, it was just because the guys were pressuring me. How'd you know?"
"Some of your friends told my friends," I say still mad.
"Are you mad?" He asks. Yes yes yes. I am mad.
"Yes, but can we just ignore it for tonight?" I ask.
"Of course, I promise I won't say anything like that again," He says assuringly.
We arrive at the school and already people are taking a bunch of pictures, both for the yearbook and the newspaper. I step out of the car and my curled hair falls perfectly framing my face. I take Max by the arm and we take a few pictures for parents before walking inside. As soon as my heels touch the school's floor and release my hands from Max's arm. Max sees some of his friends and runs over to them, ditching me already.
"That was fast," Ms. Wright's voice caught me off guard, "You look absolutely beautiful,". I blush violently but I doubt you can see it through the layers of makeup I was wearing. Erica's eyes begin to travel downward from my eyes.
"You're wearing the necklace I gave you," She said staring at my chest.
"Yes, it matches my dress perfectly," I smile at her.
"Veronica! Come over here!" Jenny begins to yell at me. I glance back at Ms. Wright before heading over to the "dance floor" where Jenny was. Our school is pretty small so our dance is just held in our commons. At least they decorated it with fairy lights and streamers.
"So are you leaving the dance early?" I can already feel Jenny's shade.
"No, because I'm not having or wanting to have sex with Max," I tell her.
"Yet," She adds and I look around for some other loser to talk to.
I walk back over to where Max was and all of his friends were laughing.
"Did she call you daddy?" One of them asked. Before Max could say anything I punched his arm hard.
"I told you to stop this," I say. He rubs his arm and fake smiles at me.
"I'll stop I swear," He says.
"Ladies don't like to talk about that stuff," One of his friends says.
"Do you want to get punched too? I'll post up and I'll knock your shit down," I threaten him. He whistles softly.
"You sure got a cougar there, Max," He says as I start walking away. I turn around and see Ms. Wright standing quite a ways behind him. She was shaking her head as to tell me to stop. I look at him up and down before walking away. I see a familiar friend group and begin to walk over to them.
"It looks better like that," Sabrina began fixing Aidan's suit.
"Hey guys," I say.
"Hey," They all reply back. Sabrina was wearing a tight blue dress while on the other hand, Gia was wearing a corset with dress pants and a blazer.
"I saw your little boyfriend over there. How big is it?" Gia asks. I was so tired that night that I didn't even respond, I just walked away. I walk over to the single-use bathroom. I reach to lock the door but it slams open. Ms. Wright walks in and locks the door behind her.
"What was that about?" she asks acting like my mother. I lean against the wall and place my hand on my forehead.
"Can I get a break?" I ask.
"No, you can't when all you attract is chaos. I'm just trying to look out for you," Erica says, "Now stop avoiding my question. Why were you trying to fight that boy?".
"He brought up the rumor Max made and then called me a lady and a cougar," I say.
"You need to pick your fights wisely, you could've gotten seriously hurt,"
"I could've beat his scrawny ass,"
"Do you hear yourself? You don't normally talk like this,"
"Like what? Swearing? Sorry that I have been bottling up all these emotions and I can't seem to keep them contained any longer. Everyone is talking about me and Max and I just want them to stop because I don't even think I like him anymore," I rant. It goes quiet between us.
"Would you like to leave with me?" Erica asks quietly. I look up at her.
"Yes," I answer.