Temporary Bliss

Today was the day; prom.

I rolled out of bed, grabbing my ringing phone off of my nightstand. I slid my finger across the screen to answer the call, putting the phone to my ear as I proceeded to the bathroom.

“Yes, I’m awake,” I told Caroline.

“Good, I’m like ten minutes away, so be ready.”

I nodded as a yawn escaped my mouth. “Yeah, okay.” I hung up just as she began yelling at another driver for ‘going slower than a fucking turtle.’ I set my phone down and looked at my reflection in the mirror; my eyes looked sunken in from lack of sleep the past few nights. I hadn’t been getting much sleep with my mind racing over the whole Cameron and Michael ordeal that I started.

I tied my hair back and turned on the faucet to wash my face. After drying it off with a towel I grabbed my toothbrush and ran it under water before putting on toothpaste. I wandered back out into my room as I brushed my teeth; I pulled out a sports bra, a pair of shorts and a Poway High school shirt from my dresser and headed back into my bathroom. I finished brushing my teeth and threw on the clothes, leaving my hair up. I grabbed my purse and phone and headed down the stairs to wait for Caroline.

The plan was to go out for brunch and then go to our hair and makeup appointments, then head back to my house to finish getting ready and then go out to dinner with Zach and Cameron and a few other friends we were going with, and then finally off to the dance.

My stomach was in knots. Cameron had been showing how excited he was for this and I didn’t want to mess it up, it was the least I could do. I had called John last night and caught up with him, it was nice to talk about him for a change since most of the time we talked it was about me and my cheating situation. He didn’t let me off the hook though; he brought up Cameron at the end of the conversation, reminding me that I said I would tell him after prom.

I had pushed it back so long, making excuses as to why I couldn’t just tell him, that I didn’t know if I could go through with it now. Maybe I could wait till the summer, so then I wouldn’t have to see him nearly every day at school. But if I did that, the beginning of summer would turn into late summer, which would turn into once the school year got started, which would turn into after Christmas and so on.

I heard a car horn and looked out the window, seeing Caroline’s car sitting in the driveway, I slipped on my white Keds and headed out the door, shouting a quick goodbye to my parents. I got into her car and gave her a smile, putting on my seatbelt.

“I have a craving for Denny’s can we go there?”

“Wow, I don’t even get a hello?” I joked as she backed out of my driveway.

“Hello Charlotte, it’s very nice to see you, I have missed you dearly.” She spoke in a very proper tone. Glancing over at me she smirked, “Happy?”

“Actually, could you do that one more time?”

She rolled her eyes, turning on her turn signal, “Only if you buy my breakfast.”

“Not worth it, I’m already going to have a fifty dollar bill from just me. I’m starving and I need to eat my feelings because of this whole cheating thing.”

“…Are you telling him?”

“That’s what the plan is. I mean, I’m going to wait a few days, you know?”

“Well, good luck.”

“Yeah, thanks.”

I really didn’t want to talk about Cameron, he used to be associated with happy memories, but now talking about him, even just the mention of his name, I get in a terrible mood.

I quickly changed the subject, asking Caroline about her romantic date with Zach for their sixth month anniversary. She began blabbering about the date but I couldn’t seem to concentrate. Cameron was on my mind and my body was torturing me. My stomach was beginning to tie itself in knots, causing not only a nauseous feeling, but also a sharp pinching pain. My heart felt heavy, like it was gathering up all of my blood, refusing to pump it back out to the rest of my body, which in turn made me light headed and I began to feel like I wasn’t really there. Everything began moving in slow motion, as it usually did when Cameron was on my mind. This was all a routine feeling. I could hear Caroline talking but I couldn’t comprehend any of it, it was as if she was speaking a different language.

We had reached Denny’s by now and were now sitting in a booth, the waitress came and said something, I assume about drinks. Both she and Caroline were looking at me and I didn’t know if I’d be able to form words, though I must have because my lips moved and the waitress scribbled something down on her pad of paper with her pen and then walked away.

Caroline began talking but I was trying to distinguish what was real and what wasn’t, to figure out if I was really here or not. It was almost as if I was in a dream. But it was real. I felt like I was stuck inside this stranger’s body, I was as uncomfortable as ever.

I looked around at the people, all of them oblivious to what I was feeling. There was an elderly couple, sitting in silence as they sipped on their coffee. I wanted to switch places with one of them, being old seemed so relaxing and perfect at the time.

A water glass was set down in front of me and I took a sip, slowly beginning to hear things clearly. My eyes didn’t dart around the room like they had been. My body began relaxing, my stomach untied itself and my heart began to feel lighter.

Caroline had switched from talking about her date with Zach to talking about how much her French teacher hates her.

“And she just hates me because I bring food in her class, like, sorry we have last lunch! I swear, you should see the death glares she gives me. Like one time, I dropped a goldfish cracker and someone stepped on it and the next class she bitched at me for making a mess. Like hello, that’s what vacuums are for, it’s not like it was a stain.”

I was about to respond but our waitress walked up to our table asking to take our orders. I got two scrambled eggs with two pancakes and Caroline got blueberry pancakes and a cheese omelet. We chatted for the next fifteen minutes until our food came and then more while we ate.

We paid the bill and left a tip before taking our time to the hair salon. We walked in, ten minutes early for our appointment and checked in before sitting down. I already knew what I wanted, I had picked out a hair style weeks ago, I just wanted loose flowing curls, nothing too extravagant, and I didn’t want fifty bobby pins stuck in my head. I picked up a People magazine with a picture of Leonardo DiCaprio on the cover with his model girlfriend with a caption underneath it “Leo’s Romantic Get-Away.”

I read it until I was called back by a middle aged woman with brown hair tied back in a ballerina bun. I followed her back to her station and sat down in the chair.

“So what kind of hairdo are we doing today, I understand it’s for prom?” she asked as she put the cover over me, snapping the button behind my neck.

“Yeah, I just want big, loose curls.” I handed her a picture I had tore out of a magazine with the hair I wanted.

She took it and studied it for a bit before nodding and getting started. She brushed my hair, then washed it, then brushed it again, and then blow dried it, then straightened it, and finally began curling it. I had been in the chair for an hour and I was almost done. She had done the curls tighter, knowing that it would fall out some and loosen up by the time of the dance. She soon finished up; spraying practically a whole can of hairspray on my hair.

Caroline was done shortly after me, though her hair was braided on both sides and put up into a bun with strands of curled hair popping out. We paid and then headed off to Sephora to get our makeup done. I felt awkward walking through the mall with this fancy hair and reeking of hair spray, so I was glad once we reached the sore, away from all of the weird looks. We both opted for a natural look, nothing too over the top, though we made sure our eye shadows matched our dresses.

Again, after paying, we headed back to my house where we lounged around until five which was when we were putting our dresses on and doing necessary touchups where needed.

I slipped on my dress, having Caroline zip it up for me. I was instantly taken back to the day when I got the dress and showed it to Cameron. Back when everything was good, and simple and normal, and no one’s heart was broken.
I zipped Caroline’s up for her and then we both slipped on our heels and looked at each other, fixing little strands of hair and such.

We walked out of my room and reached the stairs just as the doorbell rang. My stomach flopped around, knowing it was probably Cameron and Zach. I felt like the words cheater and heartbreaker were written all over me, that Cameron would see, though I knew only I saw it; it was invisible to everyone else. To everyone else I had the perfect boyfriend, the perfect relationship. Things were far from perfect now and there was nothing I could do to change that. Things aren’t always as they seem, and people aren’t always who you think they are.

My mom was somehow already at the door and swinging it open with a big smile on her face and a camera in her free hand. She gushed at how handsome the boys were before they stepped in. Zach walked in first and then stepped in Cameron, my breath caught in my throat and I didn’t budge at all for a few seconds. I finally remembered how to move and began walking down the stairs, I just stared at him, with him looking back at me.