Watch Me Disappear

explain so much.”
    “Just because he doesn’t date much—”
    “Whatever. It’s just my opinion. All I’m saying is you’re wasting your energy. There are plenty of other guys who’d love to go out with you.”
    “Yeah, okay,” I say. Like there is a line of suitors tripping over themselves to win me over.
    “You’re a cute girl,” Wes says. “Don’t sell yourself short.”
    Flattered as I am, I have had enough of Wes and decide to go find Paul and Missy. Wes gets up with me and we make our way to the gym. It is more crowded than before. I can’t believe the teachers are just standing there letting kids grind on each other and blatantly make out right in front of them. We can see a circle has formed near the DJ and we fight our way in. Everyone around the outside is clapping and cheering for the brave people taking turns in the middle. We spot Missy and Paul on the other side of the circle. Missy waves and we push over to them around the outside. I stand beside Paul for a minute and then someone shoves us from behind and suddenly we are in the middle of the circle.
    He holds onto my waist again and I just sort of follow along for a minute. And then I look up over Paul’s shoulder and see Maura staring straight at me with a look of hatred in her eyes. I pull away from Paul and out of the circle.
    Missy follows me out of the gym and into the cafeteria. She saw the look Maura gave me, too, and we both know this is not good. I am thankful to see that it is almost 10 o’clock. Soon the dance will be over. I am staying over Missy’s afterwards, and her parents want us home by 11:00, so there won’t really be time to check out any of the parties. That’s fine with me.
    “It’s not like she owns him,” Missy says after a few minutes.
    “He thinks she’s unstable.”
    “What, like crazy?”
    “Yeah, like you never know what she’s going to do,” I say.
    Missy considers this. “She does seem off. Think about the battle of the bands.”
    “I thought that was just the booze, but maybe not,” I say.
    We see the lights in the gym come on, and it is as if some kind of magical spell is lifted. In an instant, all the kids realize how their behavior is viewed by the chaperones, and they can’t get out of there fast enough. Some couples are holding hands, but most people are scurrying out, looking at their own feet, in a hurry to get outside into the relative dark of the parking lot. We walk out toward the van, figuring the rest of the group will find us there. In fact, Hunter and Alison beat us to it. Hunter is resting against the rear bumper with one arm around Alison’s waist. Missy starts asking them how they liked the dance, breaking it down into music, pizza, dancing. Wes comes around from the front of the car. He apparently was lurking in the shadows, not wanting to be the third wheel with the attractive couple. And then we are just waiting for Paul.
    “This could be a while,” Hunter says, and we all turn to look at him, startled. He hasn’t spoken voluntarily to any of us all night. “Maura cornered him.”
    The line of cars waiting to pull out onto Main Street is diminishing rapidly. Hunter whispers to Alison, who nods, and then he pushes himself away from the car.           
    “Tell Paul we’ll catch up with him at the party,” he says.
    We watch as Hunter knocks on the window of a car that is waiting in the parking lot traffic. Then he opens the back door for Alison and climbs in behind her.
    “What party are they going to?” Missy asks.
    “I don’t know,” I say. Wes just shrugs.
    Before too long, there are only a handful of cars left in the lot, presumably some of them left by people who got rides with other kids.
    “That’s Jessica’s car,” Wes says, pointing to an old white Volvo that’s idling near the gym doors. The windows are down and I can faintly hear music coming from the car. I squint and see that indeed Jessica is at the wheel and someone else is sitting in the back. We watch as the car rolls forward toward the corner of the building and hear three little beeps. Apparently Jessica and her friend are also getting sick of waiting. A minute later, Paul and Maura come around the corner into the glow of the streetlight. He has his arm around her shoulder. When they get to the car, he kisses her on the cheek and opens the door for her. Then he hurries over to us.
    “Hunter left?” he asks, looking at our diminished numbers. “Should we check out