Out of the Box

Chapter 5, Prom Questions?

A/N this will be short because I had holiday stuff to do. But anyways, Merry Chritsmas, Happy Hanukkah, or Happy Kwanzaa! 

“Can I go home now?” I asked tiredly.

After about a 10 hour tour, Emily, Roya, and Elizabeth dragged Dan and myself to the local mall to go shopping. We were going to pick up Emily on the way to the bar, but she had decided to meet us at the mall because she lived right around the block from it.

“No! I need to find a good dress to wear while I sing!” Elizabeth commanded while searching through the racks of the store we were in.

Why couldn’t I have gone with Emily? Emily, Roya, and Dan all went to the bookstore while I was stuck with the she-devil. Emily seemed nice, but she was pretty shy, that was until I mentioned how my mom used to work in Tokyo. Apparently she loves Japan and really likes anime.

“What do you think of this?” Elizabeth asked holding up a seafoam green dress with a white floral pattern on the chest.

“I don’t know, I’m not a girl.” I huffed.

She rolled her eyes and continued looking through the racks.

“How about this one?” she held up a dark blue cocktail dress that was knee length and had a white sash around the waist.

“That looks like a prom dress,”

“Well, I like it so I will buy it!”

I huffed and watched Elizabeth trot to the cashier. After she paid, she approached me.

“So, we should try to find everyone huh?” she asked.

I nodded and she grabbed my arm. Seriously, STOP touching my arm already. She smiled sweetly before dragging me out of the store and onto a mall bench.

“I thought you said we were going to look for everyone. What are we doing here?” I asked her curiously.

“Well, I think we should just meet up here before leaving, so get comfortable!”

I sat down begrudgingly at crossed my arms, while Elizabeth just stared off into space.

“Do you know what time they are expected to show?” I asked trying to make small talk.

“Hm? Oh I think like twenty minutes,”

I looked over at Elizabeth, her long, wavy, brown locks framed her pale face and her eyes didn’t look as distant as they did before. Now she was was twiddling her thumbs and glanced down, almost looking disappointed. Had I done something wrong?

This atmosphere was not like her usual one, she was supposed to be happy, cheery, and obnoxiously optimistic. Now, now it was just weird, and very uncomfortable.

“Are you okay? You seem like… well… like trash.”

She looked at me before letting out a little chuckle. I just said she looks horrible and she is laughing? I don’t understand her, or any girl for that matter.

“Yeah, no I’m fine… just upset. When you brought up prom it made me think how I am going to miss my prom.” she responded glumly.

Oh yeah, she graduated early or something.

“I don’t even know what senior prom is like.” she added while turning to me, “What is it like?”

I adjusted my glasses while she stared at me intently, like I held some sort of forbidden knowledge.

“Do I look like a guy who goes to proms?”

“Oh s-sorry, I thought you went to yours.” Elizabeth said while hanging her head in shame like a dog.

I sighed, “I went it’s just…. embarassing. Okay?”

When these words slipped out of my mouth, her eyes lit up and stared at mine, she was waiting for me to continue.

“Well? What happened?”

“It’s… that’s is a story for another time. I don’t feel like reliving that night right now.” I replied while pinching the bridge of my nose.

Elizabeth huffed and crossed her arms, obviously annoyed at my response.

“HEY GUYS OVER HERE!”

We both looked up and saw Roya frantically waving her arms, Dan holding who knows how many shopping bags, and Emily with her face in a book.

Finally.

 

***************************************************************************************************

“Oh, right.”

I looked at the mountain of boxes that was still on my living room floor. I had unpacked my turquoise comforter and black pillows. Not to mention my old mattress was set in my room, but that was it. I only had a bed, and my body was not handling all the junk I was putting into it.

Flopping down on my bed I thought about tonight, Elizabeth had sang better than I had thought. However, Dan had one too many drinks and kept on flirting with Roya. She had no drinks and thought drunk Dan was hilarious. There is nothing funny with a narcissistic who is tipsy.

Emily had nothing to drink, but she was filming Elizabeth. I on the other hand, was sitting at the bar have a few beers, but not enough to get me drunk or anything. The evening went relatively smooth, and there were no guys hitting on me, so that was a plus.

I looked at the ceiling, it was 2 am and I had to meet Roya in the lobby in about 7 hours to go to the shelter. The bright side, was that the shelter was hiring. Which means I wouldn’t have to spend the rest of my life eating fast food. The only thing is, I am not terribly fond of animals, and getting chased by a pack of neighborhood dogs in the seventh grade did not exactly help.

I was not in the mood to remember all the horrible things that had happened to me right now. Oh and my mom wants to see my new apartment, so things are going downhill at record speed.

I am too tired to think right now. And with that, I closed my eyes and got some well-needed sleep.

********************************************************************************************************