Episode 11
I was far more nervous than I had to be as I eased my foot onto the brake and came to a stop in a spot not too far from the entrance to the gym. Edwin fumbled with the door and rushed around to help me out. He wouldn’t have had the time to do so if I didn’t have to switch back from my flats into my heels.
I knew I was being ridiculous. It was the car that had me unnecessarily freaked. It was three days before the dance when my parents had surprised me with the car that Stacy had told me about weeks before. I guess I’d thought that, since I’d started actively changing things in reaction to Stacy’s arrival, everything else would continue changing as well. Until the car, most of what Stacy had said would happen, hadn’t actually happened.
As I took Edwin’s arm and let him lead me towards the cheaply decorated gymnasium, my mind raced as scenarios unfolded that all ended with slight variations of Stacy’s stories. I adjusted the corsage that didn’t quite match my dress and fought the urge to hyperventilate. There was nothing to worry about, I told myself. Even if it didn’t quite feel like it, I was in control.
Parents and teachers made up most of the chaperone pool but in a pinch one of the photographers or a music technician would be called on to stand guard at the many exits, herding decked out students through the stations at the entrance and towards the dance floor. My eyes strained to catch sight of Erin and Robyn but flashes from the photo station near the entrance was clearly making me see things.
I didn’t know where to look first. Even with the lights dimmed, I could see Robyn blushing with a dopey smile on her face as she hovered at Tyler’s side. She seemed to be going back and forth between being deliriously giddy and nauseatingly anxious. She was nodding way too much and the part of me that was grudgingly happy for her wanted to tell her not to try so hard. But most of me was too aware of Tyler’s eyes taking in the sight of Edwin standing awkwardly at my side unsure of what to do to lead me into the crowd.
However I was a little too distracted by the more surprising sight of Erin and Brian laughing as they spun one another around in a less inhabited corner of the dance floor. They spotted me and Edwin on the other side and waved us over. Wading into the crowd, I had one final moment of eye contact with Robyn before my attention was taken over by navigating unpredictably moving bodies and teetering on unfamiliar heels. There was something in her eyes that drew too much of my attention back in that direction and I actually had to lean on Edwin to catch myself. It could have been fear but it might just have been a side effect from kicking myself over the whole Tyler situation.
“Thought you were gonna go down there for a minute,” Erin said once the four of us had taken up residence next to a table with drinks.
