Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 102079 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 510(@200wpm)___ 408(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102079 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 510(@200wpm)___ 408(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)
Joanna smacked her gum, gathering her black permed hair in one hand while her other checked her voluminous mall bangs, which were held in place with so much hairspray that they could’ve survived a tornado.
“Did you tell Matt you were flirting with his brother?” Joanna eyed me.
“Shut up. I was not. Isaac is such a jerk.”
“But a hot jerk,” Heather said.
Yes. Isaac was very hot. Scorching hot. Burn-in-Hell level of hot.
“Oh, did you ask your parents about camping over the Fourth?” Heather asked.
“Mine said yes,” Joanna said, absentmindedly twirling her hair around her finger.
I nodded. “They said as long as it’s just girls and no guys.”
“How would they know?” Heather waggled her eyebrows even though we weren’t inviting guys.
“Who would you invite?” Joanna asked. “Matt or Isaac?”
Heather snorted, covering her mouth.
“Neither.” I rolled my eyes. “It’s just us girls.”
CHAPTER FIVE
FOREIGNER, “I WANT TO KNOW WHAT LOVE IS”
“Are you wearing a shawl?” Dad asked when I descended the stairs in my pink dress.
Matt’s eyes sparkled as he watched me. He looked handsome in his black tux with a hot pink bowtie and matching cummerbund. And he looked older, a true adult who could have sex. I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
It’s all I’d been thinking about since we made the decision in the parking lot.
“Why would I wear a shawl?” I wrinkled my nose at my dad.
He frowned. “Because you’re showing a lot of skin.”
It was a floor-length dress with puffy sleeves that were off-the-shoulder. But I didn’t have much of a chest (as Isaac had kindly pointed out), so it wasn’t as if I had cleavage spilling over the bodice.
“I think she looks beautiful,” Mom said with teary eyes.
“You do look beautiful,” Matt added.
“Thank you. And you look very handsome.” I rubbed my lightly glossed lips together to control my grin.
Despite the makeup restrictions, I felt beautiful. Mom let me wear a little blush, pink eyeshadow, mascara only on my upper lashes, and some lip gloss. No foundation or black eyeliner. She curled my hair, but instead of leaving the perfectly shaped ringlets, she brushed them out into waves. I looked like a flower child from a decade earlier.
“I got you a corsage.” Matt removed it from the box and reached for the top of my dress, above my boob.
My dad cleared his throat.
“Here. Why don’t you let me do it so you don’t accidentally stick her.” Mom smiled, taking it from Matt.
“Thanks.” He seemed content letting her do it. I think his hands were shaking. He should have gotten me a wrist corsage.
After Mom pinned it to my dress and the boutonniere to his jacket, she used an entire roll of film for pictures on the front porch, mostly of us on the porch swing. “Matt, I told your mom I’d get plenty of pictures to share with her.”
“Thanks,” he said, opening the car door for me.
“Remember your curfew,” Dad reminded us.
“Yes, Sir,” Matt said.
“Be good examples for everyone else,” he continued his sermon.
“Of course, Sir," Matt replied, tucking my dress into the car.
“I’ll see you at post-prom.” Mom waved.
I smiled and waved as Matt closed my door. How did we talk my parents into this?
We ate dinner with Heather and Tyler at the best steakhouse in Devil's Head, and then we arrived at the Holiday Inn, where they held the dance in the ballroom. It was the only ballroom in a fifty-mile radius, so all the wedding receptions took place there as well. You had to book it at least a year in advance.
Violet volunteered to chaperone at the dance. We were the only students with parents who ensured a concerned representative would keep an eye on us at both the dance and the post-prom party. For parents who wanted us to be together forever, they didn’t trust us to be together alone.
“Did you get it?” I asked Matt while we were slow dancing to Foreigner’s “I Want to Know What Love Is.”
“Get what?”
“Protection,” I whispered in his ear.
He nodded, and I tightened my grip around his neck. I couldn’t believe I was hours from doing it for the first time. My pubes were trimmed (shaved on the sides, short on top), lotion, perfume, and sexy underwear that Heather bought for me because the preacher’s daughter couldn’t be seen buying lace and satin.
Of course, I couldn’t tell Heather the truth since Matt didn’t want us to tell anyone. So I told her I wanted to feel sexy even if I wasn’t having it.
“Come on,” Heather said, tugging my arm at the end of the song.
I released Matt. “Where are we going?”
“To change our clothes for post-prom. Do you want to come to my house?”
“I figured we were going to my house,” Matt said. “I don’t have clothes in the car.”
“We’ll meet you at the school,” I told Heather while Matt took my hand and led me toward the exit.