Toxic: A Sociopath Novel

Chapter 20

Prom was approaching. Christopherof course asked me to go, but it wasn'tgood enough. I told him I wanted apromposal, one so big that the schoolwould stop talking about my stupid speech.So, the next day, I was in for the surprise ofmy life. I walked through the hallway wherethe staff and other students moved toeither side, creating a pathway for me. Theband started playing the instrumental toJosh Turner's "Would You Go With Me" andthen a few minutes later, Christopherpopped out spitting the lyrics. He can sing,well enough to make the lead role in ourschool's play, too bad he'd never give thatclass the time of day.After he sang: "I love you, so wouldyou go with me..." he pulled out a posterboard that completed the sentence: "toprom?" I felt a big smile form on my faceand I literally ran into Christopher's arms.Everybody else applauded."Of course I'll go to prom with you," Igrabbed his head and pulled his ear close tomy mouth. "I still would have gone withoutall of this." I whispered. I knew Christopherrolled his eyes, but I ignored him. I got whatI wanted; for the school to talk about some major event that wasn't my speech, andthat's all that matters.Prom is still a month away, but I wasstoked to start hunting for my dress.Christopher's mom would be taking me."May I come too?" Lyn asked shyly."Are you attending prom?" I asked,puzzled."No, but I think it'll be fun just to trythem on with you." That actually soundedreally nice, so I agreed.We went to the mall and our firstdestination was J.C. Penny. I picked out amermaid style, pink, sequined dress and Lynchose a royal blue knee length. We sharedthe same dressing room so we could zipeach other up."I'm doing this just for fun, but itwould be a shame if this doesn't fit, it's alarge." I went to zip up her dress as shesucked in what little tummy she had andheld her breasts together. "Lyn, honey..." I said, trying to attachthe zipper. At that moment, she knew thedress wasn't fitting and becamediscouraged, slipping back into her leggingsand tee shirt, explaining that she would stillhelp me but she didn't want to try anymoreon herself. I failed to mention that sizes allrun differently in different departmentstores, but mostly on purpose. She isn'tgoing to prom, so I wouldn't want her to fallin love with a dress that she'll never use.After trying on almost the wholestore of dresses, I finally made a decision.The damage was a three hundred dollartwo piece that consisted of a flowy tutu likepink skirt and a black laced top. I thenwalked over to the shoes and fell for thefirst pair that caught my eye, a two hundreddollar pair of two inch stilettos that came inthe same shade as my top and almost thesame lace. My total cost was five hundredplus tax, which was pretty good considering I had a budget of one grand, courtesy of mygrandma.On the car ride home, I struck upconversation with Lyn."Why aren't you going to prom?" Iwatched her shrug her shoulders from therear view mirror."School dances aren't really my thing."She responded, but I knew she was lying.Lyn loves to dance; at least that's what Ilearned from Christopher. A while back,Christopher told me that Lyn was acompetitive dancer and she even won atwenty five hundred dollar scholarship toLander University, which she would havebeen attending in the fall after shegraduated in three years."Perhaps that's why she's so bitter," Ithought. "There isn't any sort ofcompetition dance at Lincoln High or withina fifty mile radius of it." I think Lyn was justembarrassed to admit that nobody askedher to prom. I glanced down at my phone when invibrated in my lap. It was a text messagefrom Taylor."I did a thing..." the messageread."What did you do?""I hacked into Lyn'ssocial media account." I almostchoked on my own saliva when I read that.Since when does Taylor know how to dothat?"What'd you do that for?"Curiosity struck me silly."I just wanted to see ifI could find some dirt on her,check out what I found." Iopened her message to a screenshot ofLyn's direct messaging from her Facebookaccount. I gasped at what I saw. There wasa line of messages, mostly guys, but alsosome girls, and at a closer look, I could seethat two of the messages came from Codyand Wright. All of the messages were askingher to prom. "What's wrong?" Lyn's mom asked."Nothing!" I shouted, hugging my phone.Both Lyn and her mom eyed mysuspiciously. "Lyn, are you bi-sexual?" Thequestion just popped out of my mouth, likeword vomit. She turned her eyes to me, toher mom, and back, she looked nervous."No, who told you that?" Shesounded defensive."I can't hang out with you anymore ifyou're bi," I started. "Being bi is an illusion.You cannot like men and women; you getone or the other. If you like boys, that isfantastic and how it should be. If you likegirls that is a sin and you're going straight tohell!" I explained."Your cousin Gene is gay." Lyn wascalm."Yes, and he goes to church and thatmakes me uncomfortable!""First of all, I'm straight, as far as Iknow. The girls like me, but I don't like thegirls, and sorry to burst your bubble princess, but who the hell cares? Who cares princess, but who the hell cares? Who caresif someone is straight, gay, bi, or ifsomebody fucks their dog? That is not anyof your business and if God didn't wantthese people to exist then they wouldn't!"Lyn was yelling now."Gay people don't believe in God. It'snot possible.""Gene, your cousin, goes to church,and oh yeah, did I mention that he's G A Y?"I opened my mouth to speak and thenclosed it again. Arguing with her is useless. Ishook my head and decided to send Wrighta message."Hey." It took him a few hours torespond. We were back at Lyn's houseeating dinner when he finally did."Hey LeighAnn, how areyou?""Good," I got right to the goodstuff. "I heard you askedsouthern yankee to prom." "Yeah. I never got aresponse, bitch left me onread.""I thought you didn'tlike her?""I don't, but I thinkshe'd be a good time if youknow what I mean." He sent thatwith a winky face. Ew, I cringed."I don't know how easythat'll be for you," I started."She likes girls."