Chapter Six
Henry
Prom...
Tonight was perfect. Kory and I went to have our pictures taken with my family, and my parents loved her, just like I knew they would. Afterward we went to dinner with everyone and we laughed the whole time. I held her hand under the table and kept seeing her blush anytime I would look at her. God, she’s so beautiful.
We danced until she said her feet hurt and then we sat in the corner of the ballroom and talked for most of the night. I’d never felt happier in my life just being with someone. It was crazy. It was like we were instant best friends, but there was something more. Standing near her somehow calms something inside me, and I don’t want it to stop.
After they shut the ballroom down, some of the guys from my soccer team were headed to a lake house for an after-party. I wasn’t sure I wanted to go, but when I asked Kory she said she wanted to. I felt like maybe she was saying yes because that’s what she thought I wanted to do, but I didn’t push it. I was driving and I hadn’t been drinking, so we could leave anytime she wanted.
We got to the house about an hour ago, and we’ve just been hanging out on the porch talking since then. It’s nice to be alone, not having to shout over the music.
“I told you I was a terrible dancer,” I tease as Kory slips off her heels and rubs her feet. “Here, put them in my lap.”
She laughs but props her feet up on my thighs, and I begin rubbing them.
“It’s not you, it’s me,” she says, and I tickle her foot in retaliation. “Seriously. I’m such a klutz. I never walk in heels, and tonight wasn’t the time to start. I didn’t realize you were going to have me on the dance floor all night.”
“What can I say? I found a beat and I shook my tail feathers.” God, how are my lame jokes actually making her laugh?
“I like your tail feathers,” she says, and a moment of silence passes between us.
Just when I’m about to say something, Marcus, one of my soccer teammates, comes out on the porch with a few of the guys behind him.
“Oh, captain, my captain, it’s your turn for a shot,” he says, holding out the shot glass.
“No can do. I’m driving tonight.” I feel Kory try to pull her feet from my lap, and I hold on to them so she can’t.
“Don’t worry, we’ve got a bus to take the ships back home once they’re finished cleaning up,” Marcus says, and the guys behind him start laughing.
“What did you say?” I ask, my tone low and filled with anger.
“My bad, Henry,” Marcus says, holding his hands up and taking a step back. “I thought this was a charity thing. No harm no foul.”
The other guys fall around laughing and I’m pissed as hell. I stand up so fast the soda that was on the arm of my chair falls in my lap and spills all over my tux and Kory’s feet.
“Shit, I’m sorry, Kory,” I say, trying to wipe it off.
Her feet are out of my grip and we’re both standing up before I notice everyone that was on the porch disappeared.
“Assholes,” I grumble. “I—”
“Don’t worry about it. Why don’t you get cleaned up? I think I’m ready to leave,” she says, and I can see some of the light in her eyes has dimmed.
“Okay,” I concede, not wanting to ruin any more of our night. Coming here was a mistake and I shouldn’t have done it. These people suck, and Kory deserves better. “Wait here. I’ll be back in a second.”
I open the sliding glass door and hear loud music coming from inside. I go into the house and find a few people in the kitchen, and I walk by without saying a word. I make my way through the living room, and there are some people in there doing shit I don’t want to see, so I hurry to the back of the house, where there’s a bedroom. I find a bathroom attached, so I close the door behind me and unzip my pants to take a piss before we get on the road. It’s about an hour drive back and I don’t want to have to waste any time stopping when I could spend it talking to Kory.
I grab some tissue from off the roll and try to blot off as much of the soda as I can, but it’s no use. It’s all wet. When I’m finished, I walk over to the sink, leaving my pants undone so I can try to wash some of the sticky syrup off my belt buckle.
I hear a slight knock and turn to the door. “Occupied!” I shout over the music thumping all the way in the back of the house.
When I hear the door open, I turn around to tell whoever it is to get out, but it’s not who I expect. Cassie Springer, captain of the volleyball team, walks in and closes the door behind her.
“Cassie, what are you doing? I’m in here. Go find somewhere else.”
She made it clear to me at the beginning of the year she’d do anything I wanted if I’d take her to prom. And then she proceeded to detail what that included via text. I finally had to block her number after she didn’t like me turning her down. I’d heard she was pissed as hell when she found out I was taking Kory to prom, but I didn’t give it much thought.
“Hey, handsome,” she says, taking a few steps toward me but swaying a bit. It’s obvious she’s had a lot to drink. “I just thought you might like to see what you’re missing out on tonight.”
I’m fumbling with my belt to close my pants up as she gets closer to me.
“Cassie, get the fuck out of here. If someone sees you—”
“It’s okay. I don’t mind if you don’t. I told you I’d do anything, and I’m true to my word.”
She reaches up to the halter tie around her neck, and with one flick, her silky dress falls off her body and to the floor. She’s standing completely naked in front of me, and I back up so fast I hit the wall behind me and knock a picture off of it. The crash is loud, but it does nothing to stop her coming at me.
She takes another step and stumbles over her own feet in her drunken state, and I have to hold my hands out to keep her from landing on me.
It all happens so fast I’m not sure what order it happens in, but one second I’m clutching my pants and the next, Cassie is on the floor in front of me, and my pants are at my feet because I had to let them go. At that exact moment, the door flies open and Kory is standing there staring at me with the group of guys from the porch behind her laughing their asses off.
“Kory!” I shout, but it’s too late. She’s running and I can’t untangle myself from Cassie and my pants around my feet.
The guys come into the bathroom and all stare down at Cassie, who’s fully naked. I see a short dark-haired girl pushing her way through and feel relief. “Julie, get over here.”
Cassie’s friend Julie is thankfully sober enough to know this situation is bad and helps me get her covered up.
I pull up my pants and get them buckled and help carry Cassie out to the bed. I want to get to Kory, but I can’t leave a girl passed out drunk with these guys just standing around watching.
“I’m going to call her parents,” Julie says, pulling out her phone. “She’s going to be so pissed at me, but I don’t know what else to do.”
I nod and look around the room until I spot Marcus.
“You!” I bellow. I lunge at him and tackle him to the ground. We wrestle for a few moments before I punch him and he passes out. Anger has flooded my veins and I don’t have time to deal with this shit. I look around the room to see everyone has cleared out.
I look back and see Julie is talking on the phone. She’s got this under control. I don’t see anyone else in the house as I run through, shouting Kory’s name. When I get back to the porch, her shoes are still in the same spot, so she couldn’t have gone far.
But I was wrong.
I spend the entire night searching for her in the surrounding woods before calling the cops and reporting her missing. But it turned out she walked home, or hitched a ride, because all the cops would tell me was that she was home safe.
I spend hours and hours trying to get her to talk to me, to hear me out. She won’t even speak to me. I went to her house and banged on her door until her mom called security and I was banned from the building.
It was all a stupid misunderstanding and I’m broken in two because she won’t just hear me out. One conversation and this would all be cleared up, but then there had to be something more. If only I can get her to hear me out, then maybe I can get to the bottom of why she ran.