...and ended with love.
"Honey, are you ready? We have to go!"
Clarice finishes the final curl in my hair. We're having a party.
The karaoke place is packed. When word got out that this was Trina's goodbye party, everyone came. People who knew Trina, people who knew people who knew Trina. I heard that some people even flew in to come. I can't see Trevor, but that's okay. He said he'd be here.
Uncle Harris let me use the entire karaoke joint. There's a singing competition going on in one of the private rooms, and I'm teaching some people the proper way to dance to Basshunter's "All I Ever Wanted." Once they've got the hang of it, we're all going to karaoke it together.
"Hey! For a girl who gets scared shitless of parties, you sure know how to throw one!" Matt comes to see me, his hand around some random girl's waist. "There's no alcohol, though," he adds.
"Yes. Wouldn't that be pretty tactless, not to mention illegal?" Matt's mouth turns up in a frown as he ponders the word 'tactless.' Then he remembers how Trina died. His face turns red.
"Oh my God, Haley, I'm so-"
"Don't worry about it," I cut in with a smile. "Just consider yourself honorarily drunk." He smiles bashfully and hightails it out of there with the red-head girl at his hip. Didn't he walk up to me with a blonde? Such a strange boy.
"Haley?" I turn around to see two tall boys looking at me. They look so familiar. One boy around my age, one maybe 2 or 3 years older. Then the boy my age smirks, leans forward, and kisses my cheek.
"Hey, babe."
That's when I remember him.
"Nick?" My ex-boyfriend. My ex and the brother who drove the car.
"In the flesh," he says, his trademark smile over his face. It's funny, but after four years I can't remember exactly what I was thinking when I started crushing on him. Sure, his eyes are nice but they're not...Trevor's. I stiffen at the thought. Wow, I'm hopeless.
Hopelessly in love.
Yeah. Thanks for that.
"You look amazing!" Nick says, coming closer to give me a hug. Yeah, what he sees now is a complete 180 from when he left. I look over him and Andrew. Nick looks significantly happier but Andrew, geez, it's a change.
He looks at me instead of the floor for the first time in years, his clothes involve colors and look like he actually thought through what to wear. And, best of all, he's smiling. He's smiling like he's happy.
"How are you feeling?" I ask as I give him a hug. He looks down at me and smiles. I can feel his body shake as he takes a breath.
"A lot better. I've been going to therapy for the past four years and I think... I think I'm going to stop now." I look at him and he looks down at me.
"It wasn't your fault, Andrew." He nods, the smile slightly dimmer.
"It just took a while to believe it." I rub his back and pull away.
"You look a lot happier," I say with a smile. "Both of you." Andrew puts his hands in his pocket and smiles bashfully at the floor.
"I, uh, I have a girlfriend now."
"No!" I yell in shock. "For reals?" I can't stop the joy from showing on my face. He nods. "What about Nick?" Andrew laughs.
"Still hitting on everything with a pulse."
"I resent that," says Nick with a pout. "Every hot thing with a pulse." We laugh and I see Trevor walking towards us, an indiscernible look of worry and anger on his face. He can't be jealous, can he?
"Here's a hot thing coming, why don't you hit on him?" I joke.
Nick sticks his tongue out at me as Trevor arrives next to me.
"Hey," he says. His eyes say "Who are these people and why are they talking to you?"
"Hey, Trevor! Trevor this is Nick my ex-boyfriend and his brother Andrew. Guys, this is Trevor my..." Great. I don't even know what we are.
"Her current boyfriend," Trevor says with a smile, shaking hands with each of the guys and slipping an arm around my waist. I feel a shiver go up my back when he says that.
"Your taste is still the same," says Nick appreciatively, looking Trevor up and down. I think he's talking to me, but he's not. "You always went for the nice, pretty and quiet ones." Trevor shrugs.
"Never got them."
"You had enough sluts attempting to attach themselves to you," Nick says waving a hand. "Haley's already used to that, huh, Haley?" I look at him and scoff.
"Oh, yes. That imaginary band of admirers you had taped to your bedroom wall was quite something. What was that one girl's name? Megan Fox? Geez, so difficult to deal with, what with her chest sticking out in your face every time she saw us together." Nick sticks his tongue out and me and I repeat the gesture.
"Oh my God! Nick, right?" It's Christa. She's so lucky it's an open party or she'd be out of here.
"See?" I tell Nick. "He has a real following."
Nick rolls his eyes.
"Whatever." He turns to Christa and pretends to remember who she is. Andrew goes off in search of his girlfriend, leaving me and Trevor alone. He still has his arm around my waist. I twist my head slightly to speak to him.
"Girlfriend? Isn't that something you should ask me beforehand instead of spewing out randomly?" Trevor shrugs.
"And risk you saying no when in reality you mean yes? Not a chance. I'm a guy, I don't understand all these ulterior motives." I smack his arm.
"That was a special circumstance. I thought you said you wouldn't bring it up again!" He looks down at me and smiles slightly.
"Why? Does it make you feel guilty?"
"Yes!"
He shrugs.
"Oh well. It's not like anyone can tell by looking at your face." I smack him again and try to stalk impressively off to the bar. Unfortunately, his arm is still around my waist.
"Let go," I mutter. He pretends not to have heard me.
"Oh, I got you something," he says instead. I turn around.
"Huh? Why?" Trevor rolls his eyes.
"What do you mean why?"
"I mean you didn't have to-"
"Fine. You know what? Never mind." We stand there in silence: my back against his chest, his arm around my waist. I desperately want to ask what he got me, but I refuse to let him win. What's up with him anyway? I figure that's a safe question.
"Why are you so pissy today?" He doesn't answer. "Trevor?" I say a little louder. Still no answer. "You know what, I'm going to go get a drink. Do you want something?" I detach his arm and start to walk away. What a jerk. "I'll get you some water," I call over my shoulder. Suddenly, I'm spun around. Trevor looks kind of annoyed.
"What?" I ask again. My voice snaps. When was the last time I snapped at someone? Odd.
"You're not going to yell at me? Tell me I'm a jerk? Walk off in a huff?" I raise an eyebrow.
"You were purposely trying to get me to go away? Why didn't you just ask me to leave instead of being a jerk?" my voice is confused, and maybe the tiniest bit angry. I don't understand this boy at all.
"Are you annoyed at me?" he asks. I think about it.
"I feel like throwing you across the bar, laughing, and then walking away." Trevor looks at me and I look back. Then he starts laughing. Laughing so hard that he falls to the floor. "What?" He shakes his head.
"You said that with such a straight face!" I'm getting very annoyed now.
"Trevor, it's not fair for you to try to ruin my mood for this party." His face freezes and he stands up.
"Sorry. I just wanted to see you get a little emotional." I raise an eyebrow.
"Last time I got a little emotional you ended up moaning and holding an icepack to your chest," I remind him.
"Hey! I thought we weren't going to bring that up!" I just look at him.
"Okay, okay. Let's just...let's just start over okay? I just walked in and I came in and gave you a hug." He walks towards me and pulls me into a hug. I roll my eyes but smile broadly as I hug him back.
"Oh, guess what?" he says. "I brought you a gift." I know he wants me to be gracious but I decide to stick to my own lines.
"Why? You didn't have to." He chuckles. I guess he expected this.
"I wanted to. Now, come here so I can give it to you." I follow him to the bar where he pulls a gift bag out from under the counter. I can't help the smile that creeps across my face. What did I do to deserve this guy?
"Open it," he says with a smile. I peer through the tissue paper. There's some blue and white cloth.
"Trevor, where did you find this?" I feel my eyes grow wide in my face as I hold the dress up. Trina's dress. The Impossible Dress.
"I have my ways." I tackle him up in a hug, nearly knocking the wind out of him.
"But I looked for it all over town!" I say as he grunts on impact.
"I said I had my ways, right?" he says after he catches his breath.
Best boyfriend ever.
"What?" Uh, that wasn't out loud, was it?
"Uh, nothing?" I try to move away but his arms hang stiffly around me.
"Say it again," he says very quietly. I try to ignore how awkward the atmosphere is around us.
"Best boyfriend ever,” I repeat, my voice even lower. Trevor lets go of me and clears his throat, a grin threatening to overtake his features. I look down.
"I think I'm going to get changed," I say.
"Why? You can wear it later."
I just smile up at him.
"Because I want everyone to see the present my, uh, my boyfriend got me." I run off to get changed before he sees how embarrassing this is. I'm not used to feeling this way towards anyone. Makes me feel weird. In a good way.
"You look great," Trevor says with a smile. He grabs my hand and starts pulling me through the crowd. People smiling, talking, dancing, singing. Sharing stories about Trina, daring each other to chug the root beer, just having fun.
My mom talks to Trevor's parents like an old friend. Trina's parents join them, and they all laugh at how they know one another. Spike and Clarice wave to me as we pass them on the dance floor. Matt is talking up some brunette girl. What happened to the red head? Corey is attempting to order some curly fries, his eyes betraying nervousness as the waitress shamelessly flirts with him.
"Where are we going?" I ask Trevor. He stops as we reach an empty spot on the dance floor.
"I have to warn you," I say quietly. "I'm not that good at legit dancing." Trevor smiles and places my arms around his neck.
"Well then, you're lucky you have a damn hot teacher."
"Isn't better to have a good teacher?"
He smirks playfully.
"Well then, aren't you lucky to have both?"
We talk, we laugh, we dance. We eat, we joke, we mingle. We meet Trina's mom who laughs pleasantly at our new status. She asks about that first date and we all laugh.
Who would've thought? After the pain, the tears, the heartache. Who would've we would laugh about it like this? I would laugh about it like this?
Trevor kisses me outside my house before we go inside. His family's coming over for dinner.
The house is warm and bright. Lots of people, more than I can remember every seeing at the table before. Five whole people. Filling the warmth with words and laughter. I feel something in my stomach. Growing, heating, melting.
"What's wrong?" Trevor asks, looking at my face. I rub my stomach for a minute. The warmth keeps spreading: my toes, the tips of my fingers, the ends of my hair. I look up at Trevor.
"I feel happy." His fingers reach under the table and fold themselves into mine.
"Me too."
_________________________________________________________________________
Well, this is it everyone. This is the end. And so begins a rather understandably long author's note as a goodbye.
I will be making a sequel, a little summary of which has already been posted on my facebook and google+, so don't worry. Google+ doesn't have character limits on posts, so the summary on G+ is a little longer than the facebook one, but I'll be posting that preview on here as well in a day or two.
Did you like the ending? Well then, do me an enormous favor and comment! Tell me what your fave part was, who your fave character was, etc! The story may be over, but I still read the comments :)
Here's a discussion question for all y'all: Do you think it's Trina talking to Haley from beyond the grave or Haley's memories spurring her on the entire time?
Keep the comments coming! Even if the story is over, I want to hear what you guys think. Let me know what your favorite parts were, characters you want to see again, things you expected to see but didn't, etc.
Also, I'm looking for a couple more editors. So if you would like to edit this story or the sequel, drop me a line at miranda.worldclass@gmail.com
As a final point, I would like to urge everyone to vote for this story if they haven't already. No more posts means no more reminders, and I really would love for this story to do well in the Watty Awards simply because we've all worked so hard on it. (Particularly you readers. All that commenting and voting and waiting for updates that didn't come on time: I don't know where I would be without you all!)