In Search of Tomorrow ✓

Thirty-Five

The next few days passed slowly. I spent them either at school, by Clare's bedside, or in my room at Sara's house trying to keep up with my increasing load of homework. By the time Saturday rolled around, I was thoroughly exhausted.

I spent the morning finishing up an English project and working on my bio project with Ashley, then ate lunch and went to the hospital to visit Clare. My little sister was still unresponsive, and the nurses were with her almost twenty-four/seven after her recent scare. I sat in the chair beside her bed for a few hours, talking to her and stroking her hand, before going to work for a little while at Belinda's.

The café was bustling, and I kept my mind preoccupied as I served customers and prepared food in the kitchens. Melissa was working, too, and we had fun making food together and pouring drinks from the soda fountain.

"Your prom's tonight, isn't it?" she asked as she put a lid on a Sprite and grabbed a straw.

Even though I'd been busy all day, the fact had never quite left my sub consciousness. "Yeah." I grabbed the Sprite and a lemonade, then placed them on the tray with a salad and some sandwiches. "It's at seven."

Cameron had agreed to pick me up at Ashley's house, which was where I would go at four to get ready. Then he'd take me to dinner and we'd go to the dance, where I would hopefully enjoy myself and forget about all my worries for a while. We'd already agreed we wouldn't be going to any of the after-parties, both because I wasn't a major partier and because I was already exhausted.

Melissa nodded as I pushed open the kitchen door and headed to serve the food to a large family sitting near the window. The kids were boisterously coloring and managed to spill the lemonade over the table not a second after I'd set it down.

"Sorry about that," apologized the mom as I went to grab some napkins and then began wiping up the mess.

I wondered if she knew how used to cleaning up after little kids I really was. "It's fine," I said, setting the sopping napkins onto my tray and heading back into the kitchen.

The afternoon passed quickly, and I had little time to worry about Clare or the prom before Ashley came into the restaurant to pick me up and take me to her house. She was practically bouncing on the balls of her feet as she took my elbow and guided me to her car.

"Can you believe you're actually going to prom?" she asked as she started the engine and pulled out of the parking spot a little faster than I would have liked. "I'm so proud of you—being all social again. Your dress has been hanging in my closet all week—it's unwrinkled and everything. And I have some shoes you can borrow to match. And the boutonniere we ordered came in, too."

Kyle, Cameron's friend who had been crushing on Ashley for a long time, had gotten the guts to ask her to prom, and Ashley and I had had fun looking at boutonnieres online to give them when they came by to pick us up. Just imagining the corsage Cameron would give me in exchange turned my cheeks pink with excitement.

We spent most of the drive home analyzing how we thought the prom would go, and when we pulled up to her house we hurried up to her bedroom to get ready. I'd spent so much time in her house it was like home to me, and I realized as I was upstairs putting on my dress just how much I'd missed my best friend when we were fighting.

The dress fit just as well as I'd remembered it. Ashley curled my hair while I did my makeup and then we reversed roles—before we knew it both of us were ready. She had put delicate silver pins into my golden curls so that my hair seemed to sparkle.