Goth & Donut

“Ah Drew, come in.” Janelle’s grandmother said as I walked through the door. She quickly gave a suspicious smirk before turning into a smile. “You look emm… great.”

“Thanks. I hope Janelle likes what I’m wearing.” I smiled and showed her the corsage. If we’re going to go to the Prom together, I better make sure she doesn’t feel out of place. With the assist of my billet mom, I put some black eyeliner around my eye and spiked my hair to look like Pete from Fall Out Boy. My tux is all black except for my blood red tie and boutonnière.

“Janelle, Drew is here.” Her grandmother calls out. On cue, Janelle appears at the edge of the stairs and walked down. It was completely the opposite of what I was expecting. She was a total goddess, wearing a soft black gown with some silver embroidery around the waist. Gone were the spikes on her wrists and was replaced by a simple silver bracelet. Her hair was full of blonde highlights. I know I shouldn’t be thinking of her that way, but she looks amazing… and she’s my date for tonight.

“Oh my goodness,” Janelle said as she walked towards me. “Did you spend the day at the Gerald Way slash Jared Leto School of Dressing Like An Emo?” She put her hands on my hair to feel how much hair gel I put on to keep that spiky look.

“I was going for Pete Wentz.” I joked as I put on her blood red rose corsage on her wrist. “You look amazing, Goth Princess.”

“Should I now call you Goth Donut, Drew?” She looked down and saw I was wearing Converse sneakers. “Oh, you really were going overboard but thank you.” She jumped up and gave me a hug.

“Ready to hit the deep end, Princess?” I winked as we walked out there door.

Janelle and I made it to the Guelph Country Club where the Prom was being held. It already started more than an hour ago but I felt that we should be late to keep the suspense. I linked Janelle’s arm as we were about to walk into the club. I sense some nerves from her as she doesn’t want a repeat of what happened a year ago.

“Janelle, you’re going to be fine.” I whispered in her ear as we walked in.

The ballroom fell silent as everyone was looking at us. Janelle was starting to shake her arm a little bit but I led the way to the dance floor. First notes of The Donnas’ “Keep On Loving You” was playing in the background. It reminded me of that scene from that Adrian Grenier movie in which he cleaned up and was dancing with Melissa Joan Hart. We were going to have a great time, even if people look and talk about us.

I chose to be careful as Janelle’s knee is still rusty, so I dance very slowly. I’m trying to remember that while Janelle looks amazing, Brittany is my girlfriend. I know if she was here, she would have a great time. Oh that scent. Cherry blossom. I think I can remember that. We were quickly interrupted by Sammy, who wanted to dance with my date.

“Mind if I cut in?” Sammy then took Janelle into his arms, leaving her very uncomfortable. “Looking good tonight… Goth Slut!”

“You were the one who made that flyer?” Janelle angrily asked.

“Hey what do you expect when you’re starting to hang out with a hockey player.” Sammy tries to pull her close. I quickly try to break them off but Janelle quickly took care of it when she punched him on the nose. “Ow, bitch. You broke my nose.”

“Fuck with me one more time and I’ll make sure I’ll castrate you with my shoe!” Janelle shouted while everyone watched. However she didn’t wait to punch him again, this time on his eye.

“Are you okay, Janelle?” I looked at her fists to see if she broke anything.

“I just want to party.” She laughed as we went back to enjoy our prom.

We took a walk along the golf course to call off from all that dancing. Most of the people at the prom apologized to her for the bullying but while she was willing to let bygones be bygones, she wasn’t ready to make friends with them. We’ve found a spot to sit on the course. For a Spring evening, it wasn’t too chilly.

“So what happened over there?” I asked Janelle while she was looking up in the sky. “How did you know Sammy?”

“He asked me out at Grade 9 and I went on a date with him.” Janelle started to explain. “The date wasn’t that bad until he was trying to kiss me. I was already going through a lot of personal issues back in Quebec that the last thing I needed was a boyfriend. So I told him no. The next morning, he told everyone that I was a freak and other names. No one wanted to be friends with me as they saw me as a bad person. However, I didn’t care. I wanted to be different from the status quo. So I decided to put a ‘stay away’ front and focus on myself. Call that selfish but that and figure skating got through my days. Well until you came along.”

“You’re really a strong woman, Janelle.” I smiled at her, assuring her that everything was going to be alright. “I’m glad you told me about what happened with Sammy but what happened back in Quebec? I know I’ve asked you that question before--”

“Now is not the right time to talk about it. It’s too depressing to talk about, especially since this is Prom Night.”

“Yeah. Janelle, I know you said you never had a boyfriend but have you at least been kissed?”

“Once but that was in Grade 3. It was a boy I had a crush on and one day to shut him up, I kissed him. It wasn’t an open mouth one, just a quick tap. While technically it’s a kiss, I don’t think I really been kissed.”

“It’ll happen and it when does, that guy have to go through me.” We both laughed at the comment. “Honestly, you’re a beautiful woman. I’m not only saying that as a friend but I think you’ll do just fine if you open up to the right person.”

“I am?”

“Yeah, you are. Don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise.” I brushed a piece of her bang behind her ear and took into her hazel eyes. I knew she had pretty eyes but without the glasses and the dark makeup, it looked amazing with the moonlight. I looked down on her lips and just want to see if I can give her that first real kiss. But as I was starting to lean, the sprinklers went off and we both ran out of the course so we won’t get wet. Maybe the sprinklers were a sign that I do have a girlfriend who is out of town.