I'm Always Yours

After All This Time

DECEMBER 1998

It only took Marley a few months into her freshman year of high school to realise something extremely important. Boys suck.

The thought had first occurred to her at the very beginning of the school year when her friend, Dina, had been stood up by the guy who was meant to be taking her to the homecoming dance. Marley herself didn't have a date, so she wasn't planning on going, much to the dismay of Doug, who said she needed to go to her first ever high school dance. At 8.30pm that night, Marley received a call from a sobbing Dina. She invited her friend over and comforted her with ice cream and a funny movie.

Her opinion on the male gender only got worse the Saturday before Christmas of her sophomore year. On that particular day, Marley had resorted to crying in bed after she and her mom took a trip to the grocery store, only to see her boyfriend of 2 months, Lucas, across the street with another girl. As soon as she got home, she left a message on his machine to say they were over.

She tried to tell herself she was being stupid and just to get over it, but it didn't help her at all. All she could think was that maybe she wasn't pretty enough to have a boyfriend. Lucas hadn't even called her pretty before.

Just as she was trying to calm herself down to go to the kitchen for food, there was a knock on her bedroom door.

"Who is it?" Marley called out, hoping it wasn't her mother there to give her a lecture on being too young for a boyfriend or on being overdramatic.

"It's Doug." Thank God.

She opened the door and was met with her brother giving her a sympathetic look. "How you feeling?"

"Terrible. Thanks for asking." She forced a smile. Her response caused Doug to pull her in for a hug.

"I'm sorry. I know, it sucks." He pulled away from her. "Listen, there's a guy in my grade throwing a Christmas party tonight. You wanna come with us?"

Marley was shocked. Doug had been to parties with Stu and Phil before , but he had never offered for his little sister to come. She had never even been to a party herself. "You're kidding, right? I mean, do you really want to show up there with your sophomore sister?"

He shrugged, "Doesn't bother me."

"But what about mom? She would never let me. And Stu and Phil—"

"Relax, Marl, seriously." He cut her off, "I already talked to mom about it, and she's fine with it. And those guys love you, they'll be happy to see you. Phil always asks me to bring you to parties."

She furrowed her brows. "Why would he do that?"

"Beats me." Doug looked down at the watch on his wrist and said, "They're meeting us here at 8, then dad is driving us. You have two hours to get ready, alright?"

Marley nodded. Her brother began walking away, but she stopped him before he could close his bedroom door. "Hey, Doug?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks." She smiled at him before shutting her bedroom door. She let out a heavy sigh, realising she was about to go to her first ever high school party and she had no clue what to wear.

——

Marley was pulling her shoes on as she heard a loud knocking on her door.

"Marl, they're here!" Doug's voice came from the other side, followed by the sound of his footsteps going down the stairs.

She took one final glance in the mirror as she put on some perfume. She was only starting to get the hang of doing her makeup, but she thought she did a pretty good job. Her dress was plain white with spaghetti straps that she had gotten from the mall a few days prior.