Page 68 of Ask No Questions

I was so exhausted from the night before I completely forgot about the assembly for the formal until the girls saw me. I was stepping out of my car when the three of them rushed over, and Talia threw her arms around my shoulders.

“Honey, I know you’ve had a rough night, but you cannot go to school looking like a bum, not today!”

I looked down at my yoga pants and sweatshirt. It was a little big, but it was the only one I could find in the laundry this morning. I was sure Brandon wouldn’t even notice it was gone.

Talia turned to Alexis and Mckayla. “Do you guys have any extra clothes? I’m going to take her to my car to fix her hair and makeup. Meet me over there.”

They dispersed, and Talia dragged me a few rows over to her Jeep. She opened the passenger door and ordered me to sit. Wasting no time, she pulled out a makeup bag from her glove box and began dusting my face with powder and bronzer.

“I can’t believe you showed up today like this. You’re going to be in front of the entire school!”

I shrugged, not really caring. I was just so tired.

“Good thing you have us to take care of you. Now close your eyes.” She blended eye shadow before telling me to open for mascara. The final assault was lip gloss. It took her under three minutes to transform me. When I looked in the mirror, I could hardly see the dark circles under my eyes. I looked pretty, actually. Maybe I could get them to do this every day… how long would it take before they caught on?

I was still examining when Alexis walked up holding out a gray sweater.

“It might not be assembly worthy, but anything is better than what you have going on. Oh, pretty makeup!”

I laughed at her as I threw off the sweatshirt and pulled over the sweater. It was a fitted V-neck that was surprisingly flattering. I raised a brow and waited for their verdict.

“Not too bad. Nice job, Alexis.” Talia turned and scanned the parking lot. “Where’s Mac?”

Mckayla came running up to the Jeep. “I didn’t have any clothes in my car, just some bikinis. I asked Cassie, and she had a pair of your jeans in her car from a few days ago. She said you left them there after dance.” She held them out to me and smiled.

“Huh, I forgot about that.” I jumped out of the seat, and they formed a human wall around me so I could change into the jeans. “Done!”

Talia shook her head as she looked me over. “We’re pretty fantastic. You look amazing. Just let me fix your hair.” She pulled out my bun and pulled two front sections back. She braided and pinned them in the back of my head. “Perfect, now we have to run! We’re all late now.”

Twenty-Eight

The assembly took place during second period, so instead of changing out for dance, I went directly to the gym. The rest of the senior and junior nominees were already there, talking in a back corner. I was relieved my friends had taken over this morning. The other girls looked amazing, some were even wearing dresses. I waved to Mike and walked up to Luke.

“Hey, Luke.” He turned and gave me a nod. When did his signature, beautiful smile get replaced with this lame acknowledgment?

“Do you know what we’re supposed to do for this?”

He shrugged and nodded toward the senior class president. “She’s in charge.”

All right. Before I could ask anything else we were instructed to line up against the wall with our partners since the rest of the students were about to be let in. I looked over at Luke, but he was turned away, talking to one of the senior nominees.

Hopefully, this would be quick. It was painfully awkward standing next to Luke, who I thought was my friend, as he ignored me. The assembly started, and I listened to the announcements and then the junior nominees were called to the center of the court. They introduced each of them then called the seniors over. This was a lot less embarrassing than I expected. Our class president announced each of our names, and cheers broke out from the crowd. I was surprised by how many shouts and hoots we got and almost felt bad for Sydney when the crowd drew quiet at her name. Poor girl needed to learn how to make friends.

The whole assembly lasted thirty minutes, but it flew by. We were dismissed with twenty minutes left before third period started. I grabbed Luke before he could walk away.

“Good luck with your competition tomorrow.”

He looked surprised I remembered. “Thanks. We should hang out tonight, maybe get in the mood for tomorrow.”

What was with him? He was so hot and cold. I couldn’t keep up with him. “Sure, just call me tonight.” Maybe I had imagined things.

I didn’t want to get my hopes up that Luke would actually call, so when I got home from school and dance, I showered but didn’t go through the motions of getting ready. I was laying on my bed reading when Brandon knocked on my door.

“Hey. You’re home early.”

He walked in and sat down next to me. “Yeah, it was a slower day. I was just wondering if you had plans or if you wanted to hang out.”

“Well Luke did mention going out tonight, but he hasn’t called.”