WE LEAVE THE PROM kind of early, trailing out with some kids who are headed to an after party in a hotel room somewhere. One of the girls, a senior, screams out her car window, “Premarital sex!” and laughs maniacally.
Adam shakes his head; I roll my eyes, but I feel strangely empty. Prom night is when lots of girls lose their virginity, and I know that’s not going to happen tonight, and definitely never with Adam. I didn’t come to the prom hoping to have sex with anyone, but for the first time, I wonder why I’m the only teenage girl in America who isn’t chasing after boys. Maybe Xander’s right. Maybe something is wrong with me. Mom always said it’s just that I’m too cerebral, but I can’t help wondering if I really am frigid like Xander says.
Adam drives in silence to the bar where Xander and Margot are supposed to be. I don’t really want tonight to be about Xander, but when I told Adam about her fake ID he got really worried and insisted on checking out the place. “I just want to make sure she’s safe,” he said.
She. No thought for Margot.
I study his profile, the way he’s peering into the dark street as he drives, licking his lips, his brow tense. Everything about him seems strained. I wonder if I were at a bar, would he come looking for me? Would he be this worried?
“That must be the place,” he says, and slows down to park.
The bar shares a parking lot with a liquor store and a check-cashing place. Across the road is a strip joint.
“This street reminds me of every Tarantino movie I’ve ever seen,” Adam says through his teeth. He watches the door as a large, leaning man stumbles through it, keys in hand. He lurches to his truck, burping loudly. After him comes a very small woman wearing a tight-fitting denim vest. “Give me those damn keys, Harvey, I mean it!” she bellows as she yanks them out of his hand. He sort of crawls, sort of falls into the truck and she crawls in after him, swearing loudly.
“Charming,” Adam says as he takes off his jacket.
“What are you doing?”
“You wait here. I’m going to see what she’s up to.” He pulls his tie off over his head and unclips his cummerbund. “Do I look like a kid who just left the prom?”
I grudgingly look him over. His normally springy hair is slicked back, and his shadow of whiskers adds years to his face. “You’ll pass.”
He points his finger in my face and says sternly, “You stay here.”
I hit his hand away and fold my arms over my front. I expect to hear the car door close, but instead I hear, “I’m sorry, Zen.”
I turn to look at him. He’s leaning into the car, his face solemn and sad. His eyes are too honest. He isn’t just apologizing for talking to me like I’m a child, or for leaving me alone in the car. He’s apologizing for preferring Xander to me. I’ve known him long enough to see that.
I’m furious that he would expose me like this, and I turn away from him, twice as angry as I was before. He can have her, as far as I’m concerned. Let someone else baby-sit her for a change. I’d love the vacation.
He slowly walks to the door of the bar. The steady way he’s stepping over the gravel shows how scared he really is. He opens the door, and a loud swatch of guitar music sails into the night. The door closes behind him, and I’m all alone in the quiet.
I can hear crickets chirping, and every so often a frog’s throaty call. We must be near the river that runs through town along the railroad tracks until they veer north. The door opens, and I see two youngish guys come out. One of them says, “I knew she wasn’t twenty-one.” I peek into the window to see Xander fast-talking a tall, pretty woman who is holding up a phone and pointing to the door.
The door swings open again. Margot stomps out in her sequined platform sandals. When she sees me, she marches over and opens the rear door so hard, the car jiggles. “Thanks a lot, Zen. And after I did all your makeup!”
“What happened?” I try to sound surprised.
“Adam told the bartender we had fake IDs!” Margot yanks her crystal combs out of my hair, none too gently. “Where did he get that idea?”
“He said he just wanted to check the place out.”
“You shouldn’t have told him where we were! You know how protective he is of Xander!” She angrily shoves the crystal combs in her own huge hair, which swallows them up. “He’s totally in love with her!”
I don’t say anything to this. It makes me feel shaky. I just want to get out of here.
The door slams open and Xander flounces out. She’s heading for our hatchback, but when she sees Margot sitting in the back seat of Adam’s car, she makes two fists and stomps over to us. “What the hell are you doing in his car?” she slurs, her face twisted in a nasty scowl at Margot.
“I don’t want to drive with you,” Margot says to her. “You’re drunk.”
“I’m not!” Xander says. She doesn’t even look at me. She only ignores me like this when she’s insane with fury.
Adam comes out, tucking his wallet into his back pocket. “I paid your enormous tab,” he tells Xander angrily. “Get in my car.”
“Go to hell,” Xander says, and takes off toward the hatchback.
Adam marches up to her and grabs her elbow. She jerks away from him. “Who appointed you my daddy?”
He doesn’t say anything, just grimly clamps his arms around her and lifts her toward his mom’s car. She kicks at his legs, catching his shin. He yells and lets go of her before falling down. She takes off at a run, laughing wildly.
“Oh, man, she’s really lost it now,” Margot says.
“You’re just catching on to that fact?” I spit at her.
“Hey, don’t yell at me! She’s not my responsibility!”
“No, just your best friend!”
I turn to see that Adam is holding Xander around the waist. She’s bent away from him, laughing her ass off. “Let go of me!” she keeps trying to say, but she can’t form the words without laughing right through them.
Adam leans his head on her back and yells, “No!” He’s laughing too now. “Come on!” he wheezes. “Get in my car!”
Xander relaxes. “Okay, fine. You’re right. I’ll get in your car, just let me stand up.”
Adam doesn’t want to let her go at first, but slowly he releases his grip on her waist. As soon as his guard lets down, she bursts out of his hold and sprints for her car, yelling, “I won! You’re a loser, Adam Little!” She pulls on the handle of the car door, but it doesn’t open. She feels around her pockets for the keys, and looks at Adam, sheepish. “Oh shit.”
Just then the door opens and the bartender appears. She gives Xander a mean-eyed look before throwing her denim purse at her. “Don’t come back,” she says, and slams the door for emphasis.
Xander looks at Adam, who puts his hands on his hips, tapping his toe.
Head down, she walks over to her purse, picks it up, dusts it off, and gets in the back seat behind me. Before Adam can get in, I feel a sharp pinch on my shoulder.
“Ow!” I squeal. I forget my back and twist around to try to hit her, but the searing pain stops me and I have to sit very still and try to catch my breath.
“Oh, that was an accident, I’m so sorry!” Xander says as she pinches me even harder.
Adam gets in. “Everyone put on their seat belts.”
“Or Adam here won’t win Fuddy Duddy of the Year,” Xander clucks.
The drive is quiet for a few blocks. Too quiet.
“Ow!” Margot suddenly yells, and I turn to see her rubbing her shoulder. “What’s that for?!”
“That’s for telling her where we’d be tonight!” Xander yells.
The rest of the way home, Xander pinches us all at random until Adam finally tells her he’ll drop her off in the middle of nowhere if she doesn’t quit it.
She stops pinching him and Margot.
I am not so lucky.