Gone

“I should have been more critical when I bought this,” I commented as I looked at myself in the mirror, yanking down the powder blue bustier as if I were trying to make it cover more of my stomach. “Because now I have my period, and I’m bloated, and I look fucking ridiculous.”

“You look great,” Manny responded in a bored tone. “No one’s going to notice that you’re a little bloated. And if it’s bothering you that much, just pop a Midol or something. It’ll be fine.”

I poked at the little pouch of stomach that seemed desperate to escape over the top of my skirt and sighed. “Manny, I can’t go out like this.”

“Stand up straight,” she demanded, and sure enough, the little flap of skin disappeared. “Just don’t stand like a dude, and you’ll be perfectly fine. Now stop whining and come over here to help me with my makeup.”

I did as I was told, careful to keep my shoulders back and stand ramrod straight.

“You look like you have a stick up your ass. Walking without a slouch does not mean squeezing your butt cheeks together and waddling.”

I hadn’t realized I was doing that, but I made a fast mental note to watch out for it in the future.

While I helped Manny apply the winged eyeliner she was going for, she insisted on speaking, which made my job slightly more difficult. “So Liam hasn’t spoken to you at all? Not even at the soccer games or anything? And he didn’t say a word about Halloween?”

“Nope. At the soccer games, he just ignored me when I spoke to him, which made things a little awkward. But at least he still passed to me, and we’ve still been winning, so I can’t exactly complain about it.” I muttered a curse under my breath as I screwed everything up, reaching for a Q-tip and dipping it in the cup of water Manny had prepared just in case. “And he definitely didn’t say a word about Halloween.”

“He’s probably going to stay at home, watching action movies and eating ice cream and masturbating.”

“Classy,” I replied drily. “But whatever he does, I don’t care. I’m going to ignore the whole situation tonight and try to have a good time.”

“That’s my girl!” Manny grinned and got to her feet. “Now let’s head out to the party before it gets too crazy without us.”

We piled into Manny’s car and were on our way in no time. I kept yanking down on my skirt self-consciously, adjusting my top, and my best friend kept giving me annoyed side-glances as she drove.

“Will you cut it out?” she demanded as we pulled to a stop at a red light. The streets were almost deserted of cars, the streets dark, since everyone had pretty much finished their trick-of-treating. “If you look self-conscious, you won’t look hot. Do you want guys to admire how you look?”

“As long as they don’t touch,” I replied, thinking back to Liam’s anger in the backseat of my car.

“So tell them not to touch, and they won’t. And if they do, it means you have permission to cut off any limb you want. Including their penis.”

“I don’t think that’s a rule.”

“It sure is.” The light turned green, so Manny eased on the gas pedal to start forward. She’d always been a pretty good driver, but she got even better after I gave her a couple lessons when she got her license. She’d always been the kind of girl who would make jerking stops that made me fly into the seatbelt, so I helped her learn how to press on the pedals more gently and gradually.

I laughed lightly before pulling down the mirror and examining my hair and makeup. Which still looked great, so I had nothing to worry about.

A few minutes later, we pulled to a stop in front of the party house, which was already in full swing. Some people were in costume, like us, but a couple of fun-ruiners were dressed in jeans and a t-shirt with some kind of sign on their stomach.

When we stepped out, a couple of guys cat-called at us, which made me blush like crazy, while Manny owned it and shot the guys a smirk. She could always own her sexuality, wearing or not wearing absolutely anything, without being the least bit embarrassed. I wish I could have said the same.

So I walked inside and immediately found a couple of girls from my soccer team, who were chatting in the corner, dressed as one of the girls from Sailor Moon and a young Christina Aguilera. They folded me into their group easily and enthusiastically, since they’d been talking about our upcoming game with Springfield, the school that was most closely matched to my team’s talent, and we started to brainstorm about some strategy ideas.

“As long as Liam’s on his game,” one of the girls, Emma, expressed, “then we should be fine. But he’s been acting really strange for the past few days.”

“I know,” I sighed. “But hopefully, whatever it is, it’ll be fine by Friday. We’re good, but they know we’re good. Liam’s like our secret weapon.”

Annie nodded before running her hand through her long, straight black hair. “I agree. Maybe you should have a talk with him if he’s still all weird tomorrow.”

“I’ll have to,” I agreed lightheartedly, laughing a little. Because they could have no idea that his whole problem was me. Even though Liam might have been acting like a dick, he at least had the decency to take out his anger on everyone equally. Which meant that one girl was almost reduced to tears, but what could you do?

As Annie went to get us all cups of beer, Emma and I talked about the math test we had earlier that day, which had been near impossible. Not that it mattered, since we had to start getting serious about our college searches and applying, so most people were focusing on where they were going to spend next year instead of studying for tests that no longer seemed important.

Annie came back and handed us each a cup. The beer was kind of warm and flat, but it was better than nothing. With Annie’s return, since she was in all the honors classes, we started to talk about other things, like Emma’s attempt to charm a guy at a fast-food restaurant into giving her an extra free drink, only to find out that he was gay and taken.

I was having a good time. I no longer felt self-conscious about the fact that I was showing more skin than usual, since almost everyone was dressed in something revealing. And our conversations were flowing freely, without any kind of awkwardness or feeling like I was hiding something from them.

Manny was long-gone, but it didn’t take a genius to find out where she was. I knew that I’d just have to wait until she was done, completely done, and then we could go back to her house to have a sleepover.

“Frankie!” I heard her call in a somewhat crazy tone of voice, and when she emerged from the crowd, her face looked pretty similar. Her eyes were wide, and her expression exuded panic.

“Is something wrong?” I asked, my heart racing as I struggled to keep my cool in front of my teammates. “What happened?”

“We just have to leave right now, okay?”

Before I could answer, she grabbed my arm and dragged me toward the door without offering another word of explanation.

“Hey, Manny?” I questioned, trying to ease my limb out of her grasp unsuccessfully. “Manny, are you alright? Did something happen?”

“Yes, something happened. Now quit talking and move.”

I felt the blood drain out of my face as I thought of the worst possible outcomes. With the way she was dressed, I wouldn’t have put it past the most primitive, disgusting guys to try to take advantage of her.

I waited until we were already on the road, when she relaxed slightly, to ask again. “Manny, you need to tell me what happened. Did some guy try to rape you?”

“No.”

Her answer was short and curt and did nothing to squelch my fears.

“Then what happened, Manny? Just tell me!”

“I don’t want to.” Her hands tightened around the steering wheel, making her knuckles turn stark white against her otherwise tanned skin. “Just drop it.”

“I’m not going to drop it! What the fuck happened?!”

“God, do you ever stop asking questions?”

“MANNY.”

She let out a sigh before smacking her palm against the steering wheel angrily. “Goddammit, Frankie! I walked in on Liam having sex with some girl, okay?!”