An Innocent Moon

Chapter 8

The days leading up to prom flew by in a swirl of final projects, graduation preparations, and Lisa dragging Cece to decorate the gym. Although sticking up paper streamers and silly fish cut-outs was not her idea of fun, Cece appreciated the distractions from thinking about the incident at the mall. Still, from time to time, a shudder would run down her spine and Cece would wonder about the men's comments or about her strange dreams. The dreams had tapered off and Cece had not woken up dirty again, but they still bothered her.

"Cece!" Lisa called her name from across the gym, startling her and several other prom committee members. One boy tripped over the last rung of the ladder causing it to fall with a loud metallic bang. The sound then triggered a scream from another girl and several people rushed over to the boy thinking he was hurt.

"Oops, sorry!" Lisa said as she, too, walked over to the scene.

Cece crossed the distance to her. "Lisa, what are you yelling at me for?"

"I saw you spacing out and you were crumpling one of the lobsters. Those were really hard to get right."

"Ah, oops. I'll fix it. Couldn't we have done a simpler theme? Under-the-sea seems a bit labor intensive."

"It's fine. Jacob's not hurt either. He tripped over the bottom of the ladder, he didn't, like, fall off or anything."

At that moment, three teachers rushed into the gym and started frantically looking around. Cece noticed that Aaron was with them as well. He met her eyes for a moment and she swore his shoulders dropped into a more relaxed posture at the sight of her. She, on the other hand, felt her shoulders tense.

The adults ran over to Jacob to find a skinned knee and a lot of overly dramatic teenagers. Cece stepped further away to smooth out the paper lobster that had been the cause of the debacle. She looked back up to see Lisa gesticulating wildly at one of the teachers who was clearly scolding her.

Cece's light giggle abruptly cut off at the sound of a low voice next to her.

"Are you okay?" Aaron asked having crossed the gym while she was distracted by Lisa's antics.

"Oh, um, yes. I'm fine. I think Lisa just startled everyone." Cece shifted slightly and saw Aaron frown.

"I want to talk to you about something, but I don't think the school is an appropriate place. Can you meet me later?" Aaron's gaze on her face seemed to intensify.

Cece swallowed hard. "I have to work after this and then my parents expect me home for dinner."

"It won't take long. I can meet you at work. I'll see you later."

Aaron seemed to fade away from her as the teachers guided Jacob out of the gym with two more students following behind.

Cece sidled over to Lisa. "Well, that was eventful."

Lisa rolled her eyes. "I don't know why Chrissy and Tina had to go, too. We're already behind schedule as is. Now we'll have to stay later to make up for them."

"Oh, um, I can't stay. I have to leave for work in like 15 minutes."

"Of course you do. Fine, just leave me, too. I'll just do all decorating myself." Lisa flung her arm up to her forehead in a dramatic motion.

"Okay, chill out. If we're not done in time, I'll help you finish on Saturday morning."

"Deal!" Lisa crowed.

As Cece packed up her things to head out, she felt that somehow she had been steamrolled by two separate people in matter of minutes.

I really need to stick up for myself more, she thought as she got in her car.