They Just Don't Know You

Chapter 27

Jade's POV

Saturday, October 5

Nana is, to put it mildly, not pleased with this turn of events. 

"You said you were going to watch a movie," she says from the other side of my closed bedroom door as I yank a dress over my head. It's black and sleeveless, with a flared A-line skirt that ends just above my knees. The material is casual jersey, but I put on a few long, glittering necklaces to dress it up. With my one and only pair of heels, it can pass for semi-formal.

"We changed our minds," I say, reaching for a bottle of curl enhancer and squeezing a small amount into my palm. I already spent more time than I'd like to admit on my hair before leaving for Perrie's, but the battle against frizz never ends.

"I don't like the idea of you going to this dance, Jade. Not after everything that's happened over the past few weeks."

"You let Karl go," I point out, slipping into my shoes.

"Karl wasn't targeted like you were. One of the girls who was on the homecoming court with you is missing, for God's sake. It could be dangerous."

"But Nana, there's not even a court anymore. Now the whole thing is more of a fundraiser. There'll be kids and teachers everywhere. Ellie didn't disappear when she was in the middle of a crowd like that. She was at home with her parents." I run my hands through my hair, brush mascara across my lashes, and coat my lips with sheer red gloss. Done. 

Nana doesn't have a good response for that. When I open my door, she's standing there with her arms folded, and she frowns as she looks me up and down. "Since when do you wear makeup?" she asks. 

"It's a dance." I wait for her to move, but she doesn't.

"Is this a date?"

I get full-body butterflies as I think about kissing Perrie on her couch, but blink at Nana like it's the first time I'd ever considered her question. "What? No! We're going as friends, like Kamille and Karl. We got bored and decided to meet up with them. That's all."

I can feel my cheeks flame. I do not, as Norma would put it, have the appropriate emotional connection to this scene. Nana looks entirely unconvinced. We regard one another in silence for a few seconds until she sags against the doorway. "I could forbid you I suppose, though that never worked with your Mother. She'd just go behind my back. But I want you to call when you get there, and I want you to come straight home after. With your brother. Sairah Purcell is a chaperone. She brought him and Kamille, and she can take you home too."

"Okay Nana." I try to sound grateful, because I know this isn't easy for her.  Plus if I'm going to be annoyed with anyone it should be me, for somehow managing to turn my first kiss with Perrie into a stakeout. Maybe I need to work out a system with Karl so he can text Nobody wants to hear your murder theories the next time I get the urge to ruin my own night. 

I follow her downstairs, where my seriously cute not-date is waiting. The side benefit of me forcing us off the couch is getting to see Perrie in a dress again. This time she's wearing a beautiful silver knee-length dress accompanied by a black blazer with sequined cuffs. "Hi Mrs Thirlwall," she says, and then her eyes go satisfyingly wide when she catches sight of me. "Wow. You look great."

"Thanks. So do you," I say, even though I already told her that at her house. We smile at one another in a way that's not helping the we're just friends argument.

"Jade needs to be back by 10:30," Nana interjects, throwing out an arbitrary time that we did not agree to upstairs. "She'll be coming home with Karl."