Page 35 of Enemies to Prom Dates
“Anyway, there’s been talk…”
“What talk?” I asked.
“Of asking Miss Havisham to replace you.”
My jaw dropped. “Replace me. With who?”
Star winced. “Anne.”
Anne. Of course that made sense. Anne was the most popular girl in my class. The prettiest, the best hair. She was Star’s junior captain on the cheer leading squad. Reen hated her with the force of a supernova, but only because she treated Reen more harshly than all the other girls in our class. Probably because she was jealous of Reen’s overt sexuality and all the male attention that came with it.
Anne was the essence of the Snob crowd. Teachers loved her. Her peers idolized her. The truth was she really should be dating Fitz. Those two made infinite sense as a couple, but for some reason while they attended all the same parties and events, he’d never gonewithher.
However, Anne was not on the debate team. Anne was not chosen by Miss Havisham to host the fashion show.
Anne did not have apresencewhen she spoke.
Probably because she had a ridiculously high, squeaky voice.
“Well, let Miss Havisham replace me if she wants. Until then I still need to be prepared.”
Star shook her head. “Beth, you know…you could still be in her circle. If you made more of an effort.”
I smiled at my nearly perfect sister. She’d never needed any effort to be part of anything. People just naturally gravitated toward her.
“I put my effort to its best use,” I told her. “Being part of Anne’s circle is not that.”
Star reached over and took my hand. “Sometimes I wish I had your common sense. You’re so practical. It isn’t lost on me how much we need that right now. You’re the only one who is working…”
“Because I’m the only who can right now,” I reminded her. “It’s your senior year. Your schedule is too full. And Mary and the twins are too young. Mom just straight up refuses, so that leaves me. So please know that if Anne bumps me from my fashion show duties, it will not be a hardship. I’ll take an extra shift that Sunday at The Club.”
“Like I said, that’s very practical of you. I also think it makes you a little bit of my hero right now.”
“That would be a role change,” I said softly even as I squeezed her hand. “Because you’re always my hero.”
She looked at me and I could feel her sadness. “We’re going to get through this, aren’t we?”
I nodded. “We have no choice.”
Because I think we both knew what neither one of us wanted to say.
Our father was never coming back.
* * *
I watched Star drive away.She’d offered to pick me up when I was done, but I knew she was headed to Chas’s place and I didn’t want to put any constraints on their time together. Maybe I was more my mother’s daughter than I thought.
Did I really imagine that Star and Chas would stay together through college, get married and go on to lead happy, rich, wonderful lives?
It seemed like a fairytale. But maybe, right now, it was okay to believe in something magical rather than the reality that was soon going to bear down on us.
“Is your family in some kind of trouble?”
I couldn’t help but wonder what Fitz would do if he knew. He’d said he wanted to help but how could he? It’s not like he could make his dad write us a check. It’s not like he could ask his mom to contact the FBI to find my missing father.
Truth be told, I was pretty sure, based on his actions, if my father was found he was probably going to jail for a very long time. He had to be doing something illegal with his hedge fund. Otherwise disbanding it like he did and taking all the money made no sense.
So there was absolutely nothing Fitz could do that would help my family, other than to possibly keep my sisters from being targeted in some kind of disgusting virgin-betting ring. And he was only doing that because it impacted his sister as well. I needed to remind myself of that.
