Two Years Later
"You look great, honey. Really. Go have some fun tonight." Catherine said as she zipped up Eliza's dress.
"Mom, I don't know." She said as she turned and looked in her bathroom mirror.
It was prom night, and it was safe to say Eliza was nervous. She was going with her boyfriend, Matt, who she'd been dating for over a year now. They met while sitting next to each other in chemistry class, and the rest was history. Most of her classmates were shocked when they began dating, as they didn't quite "fit" together. Eliza barely touched 5'3", had long blonde hair, and was known to be the quiet girl around school. Matt, however, was 6'3", the quarterback of their school's football team, and was known as the biggest class clown. So, it was quite a shock when everyone saw them walking the halls together.
"Is Matt coming to pick you up?" Catherine asked as Eliza slipped on her shoes.
"No, I'm driving myself."
"That's a little weird, isn't it sweetheart?"
"No, he just said he wanted to drive himself so he could get there a little earlier, that's all."
Catherine let out a disappointed sigh as she led Eliza out the door. "Have fun tonight, kid. I love you."
Eliza waved as she pulled out of the driveway. Catherine did not approve of Matt. Eliza couldn't see it yet, but he did not treat her as she deserved. He was always off without her, doing strange things. Like not picking her up for prom. Her "mother intuition" screamed every time he walked through their front door. But, these suspicions were to be confirmed by her daughter, not herself. So, she watched as her daughter drove off, headed towards her prom.
Eliza pulled up to the dining hall where her prom was being held, reached for the handle to get out, and then sat back down again. She watched as her classmates ran up to the door, excited to be there. All Eliza could think about was leaving. She tugged at the top of her red dress in hopes of making it pull tighter across her chest. She was suddenly insecure about how she looked in her dress, the simplicity of her hair and her seemingly lack of makeup. She didn't look like any other girl here, and she knew she'd stand out because of it.
Knowing she was going to have to get out eventually, she stepped out of her car. She straightened out her dress, then headed into the dance. The room was completely dark, with colored lights illuminating various parts of the dance floor. She spotted a punch table in the corner and some snacks on the table next to it.
She walked towards the punch table, hoping to spot Matt on the way over. She made her way towards its direction, and grabbed a cup. When she turned back around towards the dance floor, she spotted Matt walking towards her.
"Hey what's up, babe?" He asked as he put his hand on her shoulder.
"Nothing, I just got here."
"Cool. Well, I'm gonna go catch up with some buddies, I'll come find you in a little bit." He said as he walked off.
So, Eliza was left alone at prom while her boyfriend went off with his friends.
She sat there, finishing her punch, looking out into the dancing crowd. She had nobody here to hang out with besides Matt, so she decided to venture into the bathroom until Matt came back to her.
She walked in, and decided to go into a stall. She opened the first one, and felt her heart sink into her stomach.
There she found Matt, making out with some other girl. She immediately shut the stall door and ran out of the bathroom. She went over to get her purse from the rack. She could hear Matt calling after her, and she didn't even look back. She wanted nothing to do with him. She'd wasted a year of her life on some guy who had just broken her heart.
She made it all the way to the front door before Matt caught up with her.
"Hey, Eliza, wait up. I just wanna talk to you." He said, grabbing her arm once they made it into the parking lot.
Eliza spun around, revealing tears streaming down her face. "What do you want?"
"I want to say goodbye. I know it's over, and I just wanted to say goodbye to you."
"You aren't coming here to apologize?" She hollered.
"I mean, me apologizing wouldn't change anything."
"Get the hell away from me, Matt." She said, throwing his hand from off her shoulder and walked away.
Suddenly thankful that she drove herself here, she threw herself into the front seat and began to sob. Devastated that her first relationship had just come to a close, she sat there and just wept.
After Eliza had spent a while crying to herself, she decided to drive to her favorite restaurant and treat herself. She wasn't quite ready to go home yet and face the embarrassment of telling her mom what had happened.
She drove and pulled up to the restaurant, got out of the car, and headed inside. Sitting at a table for one, she ordered her favorite meal without even glancing at the men. A BLT without the tomato, a side of fries, and a lemonade. She could feel the stares from the other people in the restaurant drilling holes into the back of her neck. Of course, she recognized the fact that she looked like a disaster. Her mascara had been running down her face and her eyes were swollen. Her hair was tangled from laying in the front seat of her car. Her dress was no longer sitting perfectly on her frame, it instead had developed numerous wrinkles from her curling up into as tight as a ball as she could manage. However, Eliza did not care one single bit. Her life had just collapsed around her. The last thing she could care about was how she looked.
Her food arrived and she began to eat it as fast as she could. She'd worked up quite an appetite from all the crying she'd done in the past hour.
A few minutes later, she looked up as the bell above the door rang, signaling that someone had entered the restaurant. She could not believe her eyes. David.
He'd walked in with a group of his friends, all looking like they'd just come straight from a punk rock show. Each of them had on some variation of black leather, black boots, and greasy long hair. They all held skateboards at their sides, and a few wore chains around their necks.
Immediately trying to avoid eye contact, Eliza slumped back into her booth and began eating her meal in an attempt to not draw attention to herself.
David's group walked over to their table without any of them looking in her direction. She continued to eat and stayed out of their eyesight.
Once she was done eating, she went to grab her purse to find her money. Just as she looked up from her plate, David walked right past her, likely headed for the bathroom. Holding her breath, hoping he didn't recognize her, Eliza sat very still.
"Hey, Eliza, what's going on?" She heard the sweet sound of David's voice come from behind her. He walked around to the front of the booth, and she watched his face dropped from the sight of her.
"Oh my god, is everything ok?" He asked as he took a seat in the side of the booth in front of her.
"Yeah, it's a long story, but I'm ok."
"You don't look ok, that's for sure. Do you want to talk about it?"
"You're here with your friends, don't worry about it." She said, trying to blow it off. Deep down inside, however, she'd love to sit and catch up with David. It's all she'd thought about for the past three years.
"Eliza, I see those losers almost every day. I can miss a night out with them. I'm worried about you." He said, reaching out to touch her hand.
"Well, I guess, if you insist."
"Sounds good to me. Do you wanna go somewhere else?"
"Sure, just let me pay this bill." Eliza said as she began rummaging around her purse to find her money.
"I got it." David said as he placed some cash on the table.
"Oh, you don't have to do that-" She was cut off by one of David's friends approaching their table.
"Always one with the ladies, aren't you?" The guy said as he stopped in front of the table.
"Franz, this is Eliza, my neighbor." David said, introducing them.
"Hey Eliza." Franz said. "The gang's headed out to the bar. Let's get this show on the road."
"I think I'm gonna miss tonight. Go ahead without me."
"David, you really don't have to stay with me. I'm fine." Eliza piped in.
"David, who the hell is David?" Franz asked, laughing.
"Yeah, I kind of go by Dave now." David told Eliza.
She sat there, thinking about the other things she could have possibly missed from his life.
"See ya, Franz. Practice at your place tomorrow?" Dave asked.
"You know it." Franz said as he walked off.
Dave turned back towards Eliza. "Sorry about that. You ready to go?"
"Yeah."
They walked out to the parking lot. "Can we take your car? I kinda only have this." Dave said, showing her his skateboard.
"Of course. I'm parked right over here." Eliza said, leading the way to her car.
"Where do you want to go?" Dave asked.
"Anywhere." Eliza was jumping out of her skin at the thought of going anywhere with Dave. As long as she got to spend some time with him, she'd be happy going anywhere.