Page 19 of Sunday Morning
“Neither.” I rolled my eyes. “It’s just us girls.”
CHAPTER FIVE
FOREIGNER, “I WANT TO KNOW WHAT LOVE IS”
“Are you wearing a shawl?”Dad asked when I descended the stairs in my pink dress.
Matt’s eyes sparkled as he watched me. He looked handsome in his black tux with a hot pink bowtie and matching cummerbund. And he looked older, a true adult who could have sex. I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
It’sallI’d been thinking about since we made the decision in the parking lot.
“Why would I wear a shawl?” I wrinkled my nose at my dad.
He frowned. “Because you’re showing a lot of skin.”
It was a floor-length dress with puffy sleeves that were off-the-shoulder. But I didn’t have much of a chest (as Isaac had kindly pointed out), so it wasn’t as if I had cleavage spilling over thebodice.
“I think she looks beautiful,” Mom said with teary eyes.
“You do look beautiful,” Matt added.
“Thank you. And you look very handsome.” I rubbed my lightly glossed lips together to control my grin.
Despite the makeup restrictions, I felt beautiful. Mom let me wear a little blush, pink eyeshadow, mascara only on my upper lashes, and some lip gloss. No foundation or black eyeliner. She curled my hair, but instead of leaving the perfectly shaped ringlets, she brushed them out into waves. I looked like a flower child from a decade earlier.
“I got you a corsage.” Matt removed it from the box and reached for the top of my dress, above my boob.
My dad cleared his throat.
“Here. Why don’t you let me do it so you don’t accidentally stick her.” Mom smiled, taking it from Matt.
“Thanks.” He seemed content letting her do it. I think his hands were shaking. He should have gotten me a wrist corsage.
After Mom pinned it to my dress and the boutonniere to his jacket, she used an entire roll of film for pictures on the front porch, mostly of us on the porch swing. “Matt, I told your mom I’d get plenty of pictures to share with her.”
“Thanks,” he said, opening the car door for me.
“Remember your curfew,” Dad reminded us.
“Yes, Sir,” Matt said.
“Be good examples for everyone else,” he continued his sermon.
“Of course, Sir," Matt replied, tucking my dress into the car.
“I’ll see you at post-prom.” Mom waved.
I smiled and waved as Matt closed my door. How did we talk my parents into this?
We ate dinner with Heather and Tyler at the best steakhouse in Devil's Head, and then we arrived at the Holiday Inn, where they held the dance in the ballroom. It was the only ballroom in a fifty-mile radius, so all the wedding receptions took place there as well. You had to book it at least a year in advance.
Violet volunteered to chaperone at the dance. We were the only students with parents who ensured a concernedrepresentativewould keep an eye on us at both the dance and the post-prom party. For parents who wanted us to be together forever, they didn’t trust us to be together alone.
“Did you get it?” I asked Matt while we were slow dancing to Foreigner’s “I Want to Know What Love Is.”
“Get what?”
“Protection,” I whispered in his ear.