Merry Go 'Round

The weeks after my date out on the town were arguably the best days of my high school career. I spent every living moment with Tyler. We often snuck away from school during breaks because if we were to be out in the open with what we were doing then the whole town would know from the gossiping teens. So we spent most lunch periods in an old classroom. A modular that had been placed on the field when they were remodeling the school back in the seventies. The lock on the door had broken so getting in was easy. It wasn't necessarily the most romantic getaway, but it was privet, that is if you didn't count the colony of mice and extreme amount of spiders that lived in the abandoned building.

One Thursday afternoon I was laying in the sun with the girls. Tyler had stayed home sick, leaving me to go to school alone. Of course when Tyler wasn't at my side all the girls were asking questions. Such as,

"What do you think you guys are?"

"Have you kissed yet?"

"What does Kale think?"

And my all time favorite,

"What are you going to do after the wedding?"

I just brushed most of the questions off, ignoring the irritated harrumphs they would give me when I would give a so, so answer. On this particular day the topic was diverted away from me and onto the spring ball that was coming up. I didn't really pay attention to what they were saying so it was no surprise when I was getting poked in the leg. I looked up into Jessica's big brown eyes. She looked curious, like she was waiting for an answer.

"Sorry, what?" I asked, propping myself up on my elbow's so I could see the group.

"We were talking about our plans to go to the dress shop after school and pick out our dresses, we have post-poned it long enough." I furrowed my eyebrows.

"Yeah that sounds fine to me, but what do you mean long enough? We still have another week don't we?" I asked. Kelsey shook her head before I even finished.

"No the Ball is this Saturday, how could you forget." Kelsey chirped in her high pitched voice. I knew the how could you forget was a rhetorical question, but I shrugged anyway.

"Well then today sounds good I guess." I mumbled, already loosing my self in my train of thought. I had told Kale I would go to the ball with him, but I am secretly dating Tyler. He hasn't said anything about me going to the ball with him, but is he expecting me to? My thoughts continued on like this until I was interrupted again.

"Taylor!" Jessica snapped.

"What?" my eyes shot up again looking at the slightly irritated faces of the group.

"Who are you going to the Spring Ball with?" Jessica asked, slowly as if she was talking to a moron. I rolled my eyes at her.

"I, uh, well that was what I was just thinking.. I mean, I told Kale I would go with him, and Tyler hasn't exactly asked me to go with him. So I guess I am going with Kale." I told them, shrugging my shoulders. They all stared at me for a moment before starting a conversation about who I should go with. Jessica was arguing for Tyler, saying I would have enough time to dance with Kale after we were married, but every one else was saying Kale because it was the right thing to do.

Suddenly the bell rang and I stood up faster then the other girls and rushed to class, eager to get away from the girls and their nagging questions.

After school was over we all piled into our cars and headed over to the dress shop. It was mentally painful to sit and watch the girls try on dresses. Once they would have one on they would come out and ask for opinions. If every one liked it the girl would find something wrong with it and then every one would agree. They were such typical girls. I stood in my section of dress sizes and flipped through the selection, not really seeing each dress as I pushed it by. I was still lost in thought about my boy situation.

A squeal of delight brought me back to my current predicament and I snagged a few dresses at random and headed back over to the dressing rooms where Kelsey was standing in front of everyone wearing a dress. I didn't see what was so special about the dress, it was a light yellow and it pushed up her breasts in the slightest way, one that parents wouldn't notice, but a boys eyes couldn't miss. The hem of the dress was a white lace and it ended just at her knees. The bust of the dress was tight, but it bloomed out into a puffy skirt at the waist.

All the girls were gushing about how gorgeous it was, no one was paying attention to me so I quietly slipped into the changing room to try on the dresses I had. The first one I tried on showed that I really hadn't been paying attention when I grabbed the dresses. It was an ugly olive green with a very high neck line. I didn't even bother to zip it up. The next was a bubble gum pink dress, similar to the one Kelsey was wearing. I made a face at myself in the mirror before discarding that one as well. The last dress I had was beautiful it was light blue silky fabric covered with a light blue lace. The front was a little low, but nothing my mother would stop me from wearing. The hem of the dress ended right above my knees. The back however was a problem. The fabric plummeted, starting back up at the middle of my back, with only the lace strip that laced up my back to cover it. I called in Jessica to help me.

"Oh. My. Goodness." she squealed quietly, "That is the most beautiful dress on you." she laced up the back and tied it in an elegant bow. Stepping back so she could see it. I turned to face her and she smiled brightly at me.

"That's your dress." she told me with confidence. I smiled shyly at her.

"But do you think my parents will let me wear it?" I asked

"Just tell them you are going to the ball with Kale and they will be fine with it." she sounded like she was sure. I just nodded and she let herself out of the changing room, leaving me to change back into my plain old paisley dress. I left the dressing room, my dress draped over my arm and moved on to the shoe section. I found a pair of strappy wedge heels that I could wear with stuff other then this dress. I figured I could just wear my locket my grandmother had given me as an accessory and moved to the counter to check out.

I had to wait for Jessica and Kelsey to finish because they had hitched a ride in my car. On the way back to the school they were chattering about how excited they are and all I could think was that I wanted Tyler to take me not Kale. I knew that it was not polite to back out of plans, and my parents would murder me if I didn't go with Kale, so I decided that I would just brave through it. I would talk to Tyler about it tomorrow.

After dropping the two girls off at school I rushed home, trying to get there before my mother got back from bible study. I failed, because she was stepping out of her car as I pulled into our drive way. She smiled brightly and waved at me. I knew she was in a decent mood because she had put on her bright pink lipstick. She only ever wore that lipstick when she was in a happy mood. I stepped out of my car, clutching the back with my dress and shoes in it.

"Hey sweetheart, how was dress shopping?" she asked as I walked closer to her. I could smell the mint from her gum on her breath.

"It was good, I got a dress and shoes." It was no surprise to me that she knew about the dress shopping even though I hadn't told her.

"That is great, you absolutely have to show me!" she chirped, wrapping her arm around my shoulders. I could smell her perfume. It was the same one she always wore, but I hated it. It made her smell cold and untrustworthy, two things a mother shouldn't be.

"You will have to wait until the night of the ball, no one but Jessica has seen it." I told her with a teasing smile. She pretended to pout, a look that no mother should ever use.

"Ok." she said in a mopey voice. I resisted the urge to shiver. These past few weeks I had been avoiding my mother more and more. There was just something about her these days that rubbed me the wrong way. She had been inviting Kale and his parents over for dinner at least once a week now and she would make Kale and I sit beside each other. Her face lit up every time we held hands when we said our blessings around the dinner table.

When we entered the house I gave her some bogus excuse about finishing homework and I rushed up the stairs to my room with out looking back.