Juliet burst out laughing. “Do you honestly not want me to go?”
“No, I do! I mean, it’s senior prom. Of course I want my best friend to go,” Callie insisted.
“Obviously!” Juliet laughed. “And looking like this, I can’t imagine they won’t let me in. Right?”
“Right,” Callie said. She wiped the sheen of sweat from her brow and got off the sofa. “I need to get dressed, I guess.”
“I’ll help you! It’ll be great,” Juliet said, following her into her bedroom. Right before she entered, Callie was careful to hide the pictures of herself and Theo, which she’d arranged on her bedside table. She left the photograph of Callie, Juliet, and Theo, but seeing it now made her sick. Juliet didn’t comment on it. She sat on the bed and bounced, ordering Callie to get dressed.
For prom, Callie and her mother had selected a buttery-yellow dress that brought out the blond light in her hair. It was sort of like Belle’s in The Beauty and the Beast, which Callie had loved as a little girl, but she never would have admitted to Juliet that now. Juliet helped her button up the back, then did her makeup, talking in monologues about another upcoming audition and interview with potential agents and managers and on and on.
Callie thought she was going to faint. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d eaten, as she’d wanted to be light and happy and beautiful in Theo’s eyes, before their necessary post-prom burgers. They’d been planning for weeks. She told herself to think, to find a way to get Juliet out of her house before Theo arrived. But seven o’clock got closer and closer, and Juliet got more and more frantic, more and more excited about their big night out as “best friends at prom.”
Callie felt as though she were in a nightmare. Over and over again, she told herself to wake up. “What’s up with you tonight?” Juliet asked her three times. “You look really nervous. And pale?”
“I am nervous,” Callie admitted.
“Because of Jeremy? Come on, Callie. You’re too good for him.” Juliet grinned.
When the doorbell rang at exactly seven o’clock that night, Juliet shot out of Callie’s bedroom and down the stairs, hollering, “I want to answer it! That will mess with his head.”
Callie hung back, walking down the stairs slowly as though she were walking a plank. She wanted to throw herself back on her bed and cower beneath the sheets. But she knew she needed to face the music. Tonight was the night Juliet would learn the truth.
The door opened, and Juliet cried, “Theo, what are you wearing?”
Silence was all that Callie could hear after that. She counted to five, then walked the rest of the way down the stairs to find Juliet and Theo in the foyer in a sort of stand-off. Theo had dropped the corsage he’d bought to match Callie’s dress, and it had landed between Juliet and Theo, its ribbons glinting in the light. When Juliet turned to look at Callie, she gave her a look of resentment, one that chilled Callie to the bone.
“Oh,” Juliet said finally, taking a step back. “Oh.”
All the puzzle pieces were currently clicking in Juliet’s mind. Callie could feel them. She could hardly bring herself to look at Theo, but when she did, she saw that he was just as pale as she felt. Why had they thought this was a good idea? Juliet was always going to find out!
Juliet bent down to pick up the corsage, then handed it to Theo. Her face was difficult to read. Rather than look at Callie again, she walked out the door and past Theo, calling back, “See you at prom!” She walked perfectly in her heels, because she’d spent her entire childhood practicing. Callie bit her tongue to keep from crying. She knew in her heart that her friend hated her.
Once Theo and Callie were in Theo’s car and driving to prom, Callie managed to explain the story to Theo. He took it in, looking grim. “I know how she gets,” he said. “There was no fighting her when she came in wearing that dress.”
Callie let her shoulders sag. “My mom thinks…” She stopped herself from telling Theo that Juliet was probably in love with him after all.
“Does she think she walks all over both of us?” Theo asked angrily, his fingers flecking over the steering wheel. “I’m starting to wonder that, myself.”
“She’s my best friend. I love her,” Callie said.
“She wants to get rid of us,” Theo said. His cheeks were inflamed.
They didn’t say anything till they entered the prom. The first person Callie saw was Juliet, slow-dancing with one of the hottest jocks in their year, Nathan Stillson. He held her close and whispered in her ear as she stared daggers at Theo and Callie.
Theo tried to take Callie’s hand, but Callie felt that it was half-hearted. She felt foolish, falling for the boy who’d only ever had eyes for her best friend. She began to wonder if she had only fallen for Theo because she’d wanted to be Juliet. Because she’d been jealous of her their entire childhood? Oh, her heart ached at the thought.
Suddenly, she thought of her NYU admission. She thought about how she’d been ignoring their calls, so sure that she wanted to stay in and around Bluebell Cove so that she could fall deeper in love with Theo and become his Bluebell Cove bride.
Now, she felt that that was crazy. She had a way out of this mess, a route away from Juliet and away from Theo and away from all the fear she’d always had as a girl.
She was going to be someone! She had to be.
Theo approached her with a glass of punch. His eyes were wounded. “Can we forget about her for tonight?” he asked under his breath. A hip-hop song bounced from the speakers. “I came here with you. I want to dance with you.”
But Callie was too in her head to enjoy herself. She was too lost in her sorrows and fears. She shook her head, drank the rest of the punch, and excused herself to go to the bathroom. It was on the way there that she ran into her ex-boyfriend, Jeremy. Jeremy looked just as handsome as ever, but he’d probably grown five inches since he’d broken up with her. He swayed slightly as she approached and grinned at her. It was only afterward that anyone figured out he was drunk, that he’d been sneaking shots of vodka from his older brother’s flask.
“Callie, darling,” he said, grinning. “You look pretty as a picture.”
