On My Way To Mr. Right

Chapter 47

“What took you guys so long?” Charles met us at the entrance to the fields.

“The moon was glistening. We had to stop and stare,” James answers with a tugged smile. “Are you sure you don’t want to wear the jacket? I don’t want you freezing to death in here.”

“It’s fine. The inside is probably a lot warmer.”

I didn’t just waste eighty dollars on a dress just to wear a denim jacket over it.

“Where are the others?” I asked Charles as my boyfriend settled our attendance on the logbook with the gym teacher as the security personnel.

“Uhh, Daniel Lee was hangry for dinner. B accompanied him. My date kind of vanished though. Maybe in the dessert buffet. I don’t know. I’d hate to seek her out.”

“Hangry?” I clarified his vowels. He nodded, sympathetically.

“He was getting kind of impatient that we had to wait for you two. He actually got pretty rude. Beatrice had to hand him some chocolates from her purse.”

“We should go in,” James announced, and we followed his lead.

Inside was an epic rendition of Frozen. If Elsa and Moana had a baby, it would be this winter formal.

“I can’t believe our parents had to contribute fifty dollars for this. This is like a children’s party,” Charles mumbled.

It was unfortunately true.

The décor by the entrance was a charming snowflake-themed standee. But attached to it were balloons. The ones you’d usually see at the carnival. The center stage was also beautifully lit in a wintery fashion. But other than the lights and Styrofoam crafts, it was disappointing. They didn’t even bother to hide the speakers very well. Someone from the decoration committee just decided to throw in Maui’s standee with a big smile and a thumbs up in front of the stack of speakers. It didn’t even cover the whole width.

The chandeliers were charming, though. They were glasslike and stayed within the theme. Snowflake chandeliers hung in a disorganized fashion from the tents’ ceilings. However, it made a cool reflection of the lights on stage and flashed a disco-y pattern every few minutes or so.

“Do you want something to drink, Lottie?” James asked, looking around. He had the same expression of both awe and disgust as me.

“Um, sure. Whatever they have available.”

“I’ll come with you. Let’s hope the food and drinks are better than this petty décor,” Charles chuckles. The two disappeared in the crowd of people long before I could make another quick turn into the room.

I found plenty of faces I recognized. Clara. Kenny. Classmates from different classes. But they were all too absorbed in their own world. At least everyone was having a good time, regardless of the venue.

“You look lovely,” A man’s voice whispers behind me, a little too close to my ear, making me jump out of place.

It was Damien White.

“I’m sorry to have caught you in shock,” he smirks, enjoying my uneasiness at his presence. “I just wanted to wish you a good evening. As good as that dress is making you look, honestly.”

What a pig.

“Thank you. I wish I could say the same for you. That suit is not doing you any favors,” I spat out, mockingly.

“The three girls who rushed up to kiss me tonight alone beg to differ, shortcake,” he grins his awful, sexist grin.

How could it be possible for him and James to come from the same household, have almost the same character traits, but be so completely different people?

He grins, smirks, and smiles as frequently as James. Yet his lips knew no innocence. Knew no boundaries, and knew no charm.

He held charms, but I’d call them rather perverse. He charms 14-year-olds who can’t even read right.

“Is everything alright here?” James returns with two plastic cups of our drink, whatever it was, and sneers at Damien, who held his gaze at me.

I didn’t think it was possible, but I felt so violated with his eyes roaming all over my body. I just wanted to cover up in sweats right there and then.

“Yeah, bro, me and Lottie here were just having a chat. Your girlfriend looks lovely, I told her so, too.” His tone changes from a malicious pig to an admiring stranger.

“Lottie?” He turned to ask me for confirmation. I nodded anyway. I didn’t want it to make it to be a bigger deal than it was.

Damien and James had a lot of history. I didn’t want to uncover all that nastiness in the winter formal.

Damien leaves us alone with a smirk lingering on his face. I wanted to punch that smug look off him.

James lowers his protective stance on me and grabs me by the waist a little too aggressively. He hadn’t fully taken Damien out of his system yet. He needed to focus on something else.

I peck his lips. Soft and quick. Just to take his attention off the rugrat that left us.

“Hey, what are you thinking about?”

“What did Damien want?”

“Nothing, he was just complimenting me on how I look tonight. Isn’t your girlfriend pretty lovely this evening?”

He looks at my face and his expression softens. He pecks my lips back. But his was more of a soft kiss. Ever so slightly touching my lips, all the roughness of his expression was completely gone without a trace of his soft touch that reminded me of all the good in the world.

“I hope we’re not getting too far along tonight,” We heard a woman coughing up behind us. I turned around to see it was the principal. Abashed by the incident, I blush incessantly.

James took his charms to see the principal to a dance, taking away all the focus from our scene.

“Why, don’t you look lovely tonight, ma’am?” He says as he escorts her to the dance floor, winking at me before leaving.

“Was that James taking the principal for a dance?” Charles approached me again, a drink in his hand, and his date’s hand held on the other.

I gave a suggestive look to the two. His date looks unbothered but contented.

“Yeah, I don’t know what he was thinking. He either needs more credit to pass the semester or just really wanted a dance with the woman.”

“Um, Lottie, I don’t think you’ve formally met each other yet,” He faces his date to me to introduce us. “This is Sarah Lynne. Sarah, this is Charlotte.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” I told her as I shook her hand which was cold to the touch.

“You, too. Charles has whispered some great stories about ya’ll,” She replies with a warm grin.

It was almost weird for the emo-goth lady dressed in black from head to toe to be smiling so warmly. Her smile resembled sunshine. I don’t know how that was possible. She actually had such a kindred personality.

We got into talking. Although there was not much to whisper about in such a loud event.

“I must say, we found it shocking when we heard you ask Charles out. We know he’s not a bright, social person. But damn, I wish I had your courage,” I tried to make small talk.

“Why?”

“What?”

“Why do you find it shocking? Is it because I’m a woman and women are so submissive to men? We’re expected to do everything else but the social roles assigned to men. Do you live in the 50s? Because your admiration of my courage is new to the 50s. Not to us who live in the 21st century.”

I was speechless. Dumbfounded at her blunt statement. Taken aback by her harsh take on my attempt at small talk. I guess I assumed correctly about her.

I walk away, completely humiliated and finding it within myself to feel indignant. I wanted to say she was wrong. Correct her. But she was right. My expression of ‘shock’ was more from a misogynist point of view than hers really.

But never in my deepest thought would I expect her to react that way.

This angel was too stunned to speak.

Thankfully, I find Beatrice in the food buffet being served with a few pieces of wings.

“Hey there, Angelita.”

“Hey, B,” I followed her cautiously as she moved on to the mashed potatoes section.

“What are you looking for? These are all they have. I’m disappointed, too,” She sighs, taking a huge bite from the slider on her plate.

“Had a weird conversation with Charles’ date. I don't wish to relive it. I swear she was going to attack me at any moment.”

She chuckles and begins to walk back to a table. I see Daniel Lee was already down on the wings. His face was smeared with barbecue sauce. No one else was on the table. B sits next to him and I sit next to her, still vigilantly looking around for any sign of Sarah Lynne.

“What did you say to her?” She didn’t take a moment to distract her from eating the sumptuous meal.

“I don’t know. It was small talk. I said what I knew about her. I mentioned how it was surprising of her to ask Charles out,” I shrugged.

Bea shrugs as well. I give her a questioning look and she returns the expression to me.

“Stop mirroring me. What? Was I wrong to have mentioned it?”

She shrugs again. For goodness’ sake.

“Nothing. It’s just that, for someone that’s so feminist and anti-misogyny, you should have seen the flaw of that statement. Especially when you dish it out to someone like Sarah Lynne. Char, have you seen her death glare? She’s not bowing to any man. You suggesting any hint of sexism probably just upset her.”

She was right. I just hated being wrong and had to apologize.

“It was small talk. I didn’t even mention gender. I could have simply meant I was shocked because I didn’t think Charles and her were such good friends. Or that she liked him or whatever,” I reasoned, trying to find some point in my pointless argument.

I know. I know I’m wrong. It sucks to be wrong, though.

“Yes, and you could have expounded on that angle rather than force the gender aspect, right?” I nodded. “Yet you didn’t, right?” I nodded again, sighing in the direction she was heading.

“Why do you assume I’m wrong, anyway? You didn’t hear what I told her,” I scoffed, turning away from her.

“Charles told me about the first conversation you had with her. He said he left in fear of you awakening her evil spirits within. He didn’t want to be a casualty. It turns out he was right.”

“Well, why didn’t he stop me!” I exclaimed, sneering at Charles who was approaching our table.

“I don’t know. Ask him,” B said, pointing at Charles with her chicken wing bone.

“Ask me what?”

“That I was unintentionally provoking your date with my rude comments!”

“Didn’t you know they were rude?”

“Okay, Charlotte,” Charles steps back, agreeing to disagree with me, which annoyed me even further. But before I could call his attention again, a few of his friends from the Math Club had already dragged him away.

I drop to my seat in resignation. I guess I have to apologize to Sarah Lynne now.

Beatrice notices my sighing expression and pats me on the shoulder comfortingly.

“I know you’re not used to being wrong, Angel. But it’s a learning curve. You’ll learn to accept it,” She mocked, returning to her chicken wings.

Daniel Lee attempted to let a snicker out but I glared at him before he could even do so.

Just in time for my temper, James returns with an exhausted sigh, sweat dripping off his temple.

I grab him my spare handkerchief and aggressively start patting away his sweat.

“Easy there, tiger,” He snaps me out of my focused gaze and takes the handkerchief from my hands. He pulls my chin to turn me around to meet his gaze. I held a pensive expression at his charming smile.

“You’re pouting,” he observed. What a genius. “What happened?”

He looks to Beatrice and Daniel Lee for an answer but, upon receiving none, looks back at me.

“Did Damien say something to you?” that was his first guess, and along with it, his protective stance.

“No, James. She’s just being petty. She said something mean to ‘Sarah what’s-her-name’ and she refused to admit it. You know how Lottie can get a little too Lottie,” Beatrice remarked, stopping her chewing on the chicken bone to interject to our private conversation.

I glare at her but she ignores me and laughs anyway. She stands from her chair, dragging her date away, whispering something along the lines of ‘washing their hands.’

Yeah, washing their hands clean of my petulance.

“Is it true?” James asks. His stern look had vanished and replaced it was a cheeky smile.