I'll Be Here

“If he likes you as much as he should, he won’t think that going to prom with you is lame—he’ll jump at the chance.”  I pull the dress off the rack. 
    “Try it on,” I suggest.  “It will look great with your complexion and eyes.”
                She doesn’t look entirely convinced but a tiny smile plays at her lips.  “Can you imagine me in heels and a corsage?”
                “Well, I’ve seen you in a smocked dress with ladybugs that your mom made you wear to school when she was taking that sewing class so...”
                Laney’s groan transforms into a laugh.  “Please don’t remind me of that ever again.  I thought that I’d taken care of all the witnesses already.” 
    She yanks the dress from my hands and moves towards the rear of the store where a girl with lemon-colored pigtails, a dangling name tag and a mouth full of pink gum leads her into a fitting room.  Laney pulls the curtain closed behind her and I sit down on a wire bench just on the other side of the fabric barrier so that we can still talk.  I try not to dwell on the fact that this is the second time in less than a week that I am in a dressing room waiting to give my non-professional opinion about dresses.
                “Are you going to invite Alex?” She asks.    
    “I haven’t thought about it.” 
    Lie. Lie. Lie.  Okay, I have thought about it.  Of course I’ve thought about it. 
    I almost tell Laney that Alex might think that a high school prom is stupid, but considering the advice that I’ve just given her, that seems a bit hypocritical.  And, if I want to build a relationship based on trust and mutual respect, I should tell Alex the truth—that I want him to go to my senior prom with me.  Mutual respect?  God, I sound like my mother.
                “You already have a dress, don’t you?” 
    “Hmmph…”    
    Her head peeks out from behind the dressing room curtain.  “I’ll take that as a yes.”  She waits for my nod before she moves behind the dark fabric curtain again. 
    “And it will be fun.  Maybe we can go together.  Like rent a limo or something cheesy.  I’ll ask Asher and Dizzy what they’re planning on doing.” 
    Abruptly, the curtain pulls away and Laney steps out of her dressing room.  She’s left her boots on and the chunky black leather toes peek out from beneath the silky fabric giving her a look all her own.
    “Ya think?”  She asks even though I haven’t said a word.
    “Yes,” I breathe.  “Definitely.”
    “Definitely sounds pretty sure.”  She turns, checking her reflection from a side angle.
    I am smiling.  “Laney, you have to get that one.”
    “It’s not very Arabian.”
    “Who cares?”
    Laney sticks out her thin hips.  “Honestly, I don’t get the whole Arabian theme.  Are we supposed to show up on camels or something?”
    I laugh.  My thoughts exactly.  I am going to say this but my phone buzzes and I leap for it, my heart thumping at the prospect of a text from Alex.
    It’s not Alex.
    Laney notices my quiet and spins to me.  “What is it?” 
    I look up.  Suddenly the light overhead seems too bright and I have to squint to see Laney’s face. 
    “It’s from Dustin.”  His name feels weird on my tongue, like when you put on flip flops for the first time after months of wearing closed-toed shoes and your feet feel strange, almost like their afraid of so much freedom.  I stare at my phone.  It stares back but the text on the display screen is the same.
     
                Dustin: Can we meet up? 
Me:  Why?
Dustin:  I want us to try to be friends.
     
    Um.  What does that even mean?
    I hold up my phone so that Laney can read the screen.  She leans forward squinting into the blue light of my phone and then her face clears and she laughs.  It sounds bitter and unlike her.  My stomach hurts.  I think about lying down on the bench and going to sleep.
    “It’s just typical,” she says simply.  Her lips pinch together.
    “What’s typical?”
    “I told you that Dustin would get jealous about you spending time with Alex and now, right on cue, he wants to shove his way back into the picture.”
    I wince, my mind wrapping itself around the idea.  “I wanted that before but not now when things with Alex are....”
    “Are what?”
    Inexplicably I blush.  “Well… progressing .”  Progressing seems like a fairly safe word. 
    “Ahh,”