"He's not that bad…I guess…"
It's Friday night, prom is Saturday night, and I'm stuck here with Spencer and Glen in the middle of Gray's, seated at a booth and people-watching with both Carlins in a manner that is reminiscent of my own plan to help Spencer figure out her sexuality. Only this time, it was Glen's idea, and he's basically doing the opposite of what I did.
"Okay, so what would be wrong with dating him?"
Spencer mumbles something under her breath, and it's hard to hear over the boom of the music.
"What?"
"He's a guy!" she says loudly enough for the both of us. "It's just weird, Glen."
Glen's eyebrows furrow, but then he nods towards the door again a moment later. "Him?"
"It's the same thing. They're all guys."
"But how can you write them all off if you haven't even met-?"
"How can you?" Spencer retorts, crossing her arms.
"That's different," Glen stammers out. "Because girls start out liking guys until they decide to switch over. Normal guys never like guys."
"Stop it!" Spencer snaps, glaring at him. "It's not a choice, and I am normal. Get it?"
"I'm trying," Glen deadpans. "But this isn't working."
I'm watching them from across the table, slightly bored out of my mind here, because this is going nowhere and we're in a club but we're not doing any dancing or drinking, and I'm not really used to just sitting here in places like this. "Fine. I'll try to do this in a way you understand." Spencer switches sides and slides into the seat next to me so that we're side by side across from Glen, and I sit up straight, taking my palm off of my cheek and looking over at her curiously. It's about time things got interesting.
"Hot girl. Right?" Spencer asks, pointing at me. Glen looks suspicious, but nods. "Hot guy." She points at a random guy on the dance floor, and, speaking from the viewpoint of someone who used to be into that kind of thing, he is pretty good-looking. "Which do you like better?"
"Is this a trick question?" Glen asks. "Ashley, of course."
"Okay. Me too," Spencer replies, wrapping her arms around me and pressing our cheeks together. I can't help but smile. "Is it really that hard to understand?"
"Okay, but if that guy comes over here and flirts with one of us, it's going to be either of you, because guys and girls are supposed to like each other and he'll assume you're straight because that's what most people are."
"Now you see what we have to go through," I point out. "They'll assume, we'll have to tell them otherwise, and then they'll look at us hopefully like they want us to start making out. It never fails. So, if you don't mind backing off a little bit on the gay thing, it'd be nice. We have enough to worry about without you giving us shit about it all the time." Glen glares at me, and I add, "Aren't you supposed to like this kind of stuff, anyway?"
"Not if it's Spencer," he retorts sharply.
"Not even if it's really hot?" I tease.
"Spencer's not hot; she's my baby sister."
Spencer scoffs, reaching for my hand. "Come on, Ash. Let's go dance."
She's mumbling something along the lines of "Not hot? I'll show him…" as she pulls me onto the dance floor, and I'm still laughing by the time we've found a good spot and Spencer has tugged me forward and placed her hands on my hips. "What's so funny?"
"You and Glen have got the whole sibling rivalry thing down," I tell her, watching Glen glare at us from across the club. Spencer follows my gaze, then smirks at me and slides a hand to the back of my neck. She doesn't even have to pull me forward to get me to kiss her, though.
Glen's beside us in a second, pulling us apart before things can get too heavy, and then he's practically dragging us out of the club by our arms, ignoring our protests and attempts to pull away the entire time.
"We're going home."
"You can't tell me what to do. I'm almost eighteen, and Ash is eighteen. We're adults, too."
"I don't really care how old you are. You'll always be younger than me." He lets go of me all of a sudden, but continues to drag Spencer forward until I catch her other hand and hold her in place.
"I'm not letting go," I promise when Glen is forced to stop in his tracks, and Spencer looks a little nervous about possibly being ripped in half by the two of us.
"I'm taking her home. Let go," Glen commands, tugging on Spencer's hand experimentally.
"Uh…no," I emphasize, tugging right back, and Spencer lets out a tiny nervous squeak. I shoot her an apologetic look. "You let go. She's my girlfriend."
"Yeah, well she's my sister. I care about her way more than you do."
I laugh disbelievingly, unable to suppress it, and Spencer raises an eyebrow at Glen like she doesn't believe him either. "That's so not true."
"You're ruining her life," Glen argues, tugging.
"You're making it harder than it needs to be!" I retort with my own tug.
"She was completely normal before she met you!" Tug.
"She wasn't happy!" Tug.
"And you think she's happy now?" He pulls particularly hard and I stumble forward a little, but manage to keep my balance and responds with a sharp tug of my own.
"That's your fault, not mine. Everything would be perfect if it wasn't for you and Paula!"
"Don't you drag our mom into this."
"I didn't need to drag her; she stuck herself in the middle just fine on her own."
"And for a good reason! Look what's happened!"
"Oh? What?"
"Spencer makes friends with the gay girl, and now she's gay. It's not a coincidence."
"I didn't say it was."
"So you admit you turned her gay?"
"I didn't do anything, you're just-"
"Okay, stop!" Spencer intervenes, glaring at the both of us, and I'm a little taken aback. What did I do wrong? "Both of you let go of me, now!" We do, and Spencer rubs her arms for a moment, taking deep breaths like she's trying to calm herself down. "This is not okay. Glen, you're my brother, and Ashley's my girlfriend. You two are just going to have to learn to get along. You don't have to like each other, but you do have to tolerate each other."
Glen and I exchange glares for a moment, staring each other down while Spencer massages her temples. After a moment, Glen opens his mouth to say something, but Spencer cuts him off with, "This is not open for discussion." She turns towards me to see that I've started to say something, too. "Yes, Ash?"
"What?!" Glen cries incredulously. "That's total favoritism!"
"I was just wondering if I could have a goodnight kiss before Glen makes you go home," I say sweetly, and Spencer grins at me, but turns back to Glen without replying.
"Fine; I'll go home. But you have to go get the car so I can say goodnight to Ashley."
"Deal," Glen agrees, taking a ring of keys out of his pocket and twirling them around his finger. "If I come back here and you two are gone, I'm calling Mom and Dad."
"We'll be here," Spencer replies with a roll of her eyes, watching him walk away to go find where he parked.
I'm pulling her in for another kiss the second he's gone.
It takes me approximately two hours, seven minutes, and forty-three seconds to get ready for prom, which might sound like a while, but it's nothing on Kyla's four hours.
"I can't believe you're seriously putting all of this effort into looking good for Aiden," I tell her as she's just finishing up her hair, glancing over at the clock to make sure we aren't going to be late. "The limo's going to be here in fifteen minutes, you know."
"I'm almost ready," Kyla insists, scrambling across her bedroom to grab her shoes off of her bed. "Just give me a minute."
"We have to be at Spencer's by seven."
"I know, Ash. Just…one more thing…" She starts messing with her hair in the mirror again, and I roll my eyes and grab her wrist, leading her out of her room and then turning towards her when we're by the front door.
"Okay, how do I look?"
"Perfect. Me?" Kyla replies, doing a quick twirl, and I give her a thumbs up, grabbing her purse off of the coffee table and then handing it over to her.
"Alright. So we'll go to Aiden's first and pick him up, then head to Spencer's. Did you give her that thing she needed?"
"The boutonnière?"
"Yeah, whatever."
"Yup. She's got it."
"Awesome. Let's go."
Aiden's hair is slicked back and he's got your average black suit on, but for some reason Kyla still thinks he's adorable. I have to tolerate sitting alone in a limo with them for about ten minutes before we get to Spencer's house.
"Corsage?" I ask Aiden as we make our way to the front door.
"Check," he replies, showing it to me, and Kyla awes at how pretty she thinks it is.
I roll my eyes at them, and then point at their joined hands. "Hands?" They let go. "Okay, remember: you two have to act like you're just friends, and Aiden, you have to act like you're actually going with Spencer. But don't be too convincing," I warn him, and he raises his hands defensively.
"Relax, Ash. That's in the past now, and you know it."
"Whatever," I mutter, still not liking that I have to stand there and watch Paula fawn over Spencer and Aiden for the next five minutes.
Kyla rings the doorbell, and Arthur answers it a moment later, smiling down at us as he opens it wider to let us in. "Hi, you must be Kyla," he says to my sister, who nods and shakes hands with him. "I'm assuming you're all here to pick up Spencer?"
"Yup," I tell him, looking around to make sure Paula isn't within earshot. "Is she almost ready?"
"Almost," Arthur confirms, shooting me a knowing smile. "I want her back home safely tomorrow, okay?"
Tomorrow? Okay, Spencer's dad is officially the coolest person alive. "Definitely."
"Alright, here she comes!" Paula practically squeals as she heads down the stairs and stops at the bottom, grinning widely at us. I'm a little nervous now, because if Paula helped Spencer get ready, things can't be good. "She looks beautiful, Aiden. You two are going to have so much fun tonight!"
"Yeah…" Aiden agrees half-heartedly, and I elbow him in the side the second Paula looks away. He clears his throat. "Um…right. I can't wait to see her, Mrs. Carlin."
"Oh, call me Paula, sweetie."
Bitch.
She's got her camera ready a few seconds later, and I can hear Spencer call down from upstairs, "Mom! You don't have to make such a big deal out of this…"
"Spencer, get down here!" Paula retorts. "You didn't go to your junior prom in Ohio and I want to get plenty of pictures of this one!"
"It's embarrassing! Glen didn't have to wait until everyone got here to leave!"
"That's because he's being punished, honey!"
Spencer groans, and Kyla and I exchange smirks when we can all hear Spencer's footsteps from upstairs.
She's embarrassed the whole way down the stairs, and I have to remind myself several times not to stare, but it's especially hard when she can't take her eyes off of me, either. I'm pretty sure she even forgets for a second that Aiden's supposed to be her date for the night, but luckily, she comes to her senses by the time she's reached us, and tears her eyes away from me to place herself in front of Aiden instead.
He slips Kyla's corsage onto her wrist, and I can tell Kyla's getting kind of jealous. I know exactly how she feels a second later, though, because Spencer's pinning that thing on Aiden's chest and I'm secretly hoping it pokes him in the process. Paula looks like if she smiles any wider her head might explode, and Kyla and I are immediately forgotten in favor of snapping five-thousand pictures of Spencer and Aiden, who look way too awkward together to actually be a real couple. It's a good thing Paula doesn't notice.
Arthur finally wrestles the camera away from her and offers to take a few group photos, and I make sure I'm as close to Spencer as possible in the pictures. "You look beautiful," I whisper in her ear.
She blushes and murmurs that she can't wait to be alone with me tonight, and I'm officially ready to get the hell out of here and get prom over with so I can go to that hotel room with Spencer, but Arthur Carlin has one more trick up his sleeve.
"…And let's get one of just Spencer and Ashley," he suggests in this perfectly nonchalant way that only Arthur can pull off without making his wife suspicious, and Kyla and Aiden are out of the way before I can even hiss at them to move. Photo album, here we come.
After sneaking a few extra pictures of Spencer and I, Arthur takes a few of just Kyla and Aiden, because he's not an idiot and obviously if I'm Spencer's date, then chances are Kyla and Aiden are going together.
"Have fun!" Paula calls after us as we hurry out the front door, and we're not even to the limo yet before Spencer has handed Aiden his corsage back and Kyla has unpinned the boutonnière so she can put it on Aiden herself.
"Here you go," I offer to Spencer, showing her her real corsage, and she responds by producing one of her own and slipping it onto my wrist. I put hers on as we settle into the back of the limo, and Aiden lets out a sigh of relief when the vehicle starts to move again.
"It's a good thing we broke up, Spencer, because that was way too awkward," he comments honestly, and Kyla kisses him on the cheek, while Spencer kisses me.
Prom is already in full swing by the time we get there, and the first thing Spencer and I do is go and get a prom photo taken. Kyla and Aiden head into the crowd to dance to some upbeat pop song I've never heard before, but I drag Spencer to a table before she can make the same suggestion.
"You don't want to dance?" she asks, pouting, and I glance across the gym at the punch bowl, which Glen is currently standing behind. He's watching us with a deep frown that tells me it's going to take him some time to get used to seeing me with Spencer.
"Maybe in a little while," I tell her, reaching over to squeeze her hand. We watch other people dance for a while, until I finally point out, "So your mom was being pretty nice to you back at your house. Did she apologize for not believing you?"
Spencer laughs dryly. "No. She isn't into that."
"Apologizing when she makes a mistake?"I ask, raising an eyebrow.
"Something like that," Spencer agrees, standing up. "I have to go the bathroom, but I'll be right back," she promises, and I wave her away overdramatically.
"Like I need you. Do you know how many people at this school would kill to dance with me?"
"I'm sure there are plenty," Spencer replies with a roll of her eyes, smiling at me before she turns to head off to the bathroom. Not even a second after she's gone, the current song ends and a slow one starts playing. And I'm sitting here alone like a complete loser. Great.
"Dance with me."
I raise an eyebrow at Glen, hiding my surprise when I see him standing in front of me, his hand extended.
"Aren't you supposed to be manning the punch bowl?"
"It'll be okay without me for a couple of minutes."
"I thought we'd already crossed this bridge. You're a dude, …dude."
He rolls his eyes, grabbing me anyway and pulling me to my feet. "Stop being stupid. I need to talk to you."
"Fantastic. My first dance at my senior prom is going to be with my date's older brother."
"You'll get over it. I want to talk about Spencer. If you're really planning on being with her-"
"Please don't tell me you're actually going to try and pull that 'protective big brother' shit on me after all the crap you've made me put up with," I cut in, wrapping my arms around his neck anyway. He puts his hands up high on my hips, in safe territory, so that I don't have an excuse to stop dancing with him.
"It's my job," he admits grudgingly. "And I suppose that the first step to treating you two like a real couple would be to threaten you about breaking her heart. At least I'm trying, alright?"
"But you don't want me with her," I comment.
"I don't," he confirms. "But you are with her, and as you two have proven, I can't control it."
"What if I was a guy?" I reply idly, and his hands tense at my sides. "Relax. I'm being hypothetical. Spencer's into girls anyway, and I quite enjoy being a lady, thank you very much."
Glen snorts quietly, shaking his head. "If you were a guy, we wouldn't be having this talk."
"Because there wouldn't be a problem with me dating her?"
"Because I wouldn't be dancing with you right now," he corrects, and I wrinkle my nose at him.
"That's offensive."
"And true," he adds.
"Where's Madison?" I ask, changing the subject before any kind of argument about being gay can ensue, and Glen shrugs in response, taking the bait.
"Somewhere around here. She dumped me a while back."
I raise an eyebrow. "How long is 'a while'?"
"Earlier this month. Does she still make fun of you and Spencer?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"I told her about what I was going to do with the pot to try and break you guys up, and she went all 'gay rights activist' on me and started talking about how you two probably go through all kinds of stuff that I don't even know about, and she said that it's people like me that are responsible for all the crap gays have to put up with."
"Wow," I manage to say, thinking back to the hairbrush incident where Madison pretty much watched Spencer break down right in front of her. "She hasn't acted any different towards us, though."
"Then she's a hypocrite," Glen replies, and we're both quiet for a while. I'm waiting for the song to end so I can go find Spencer.
"Thanks for fessing up," I finally say. "I know you could've just let Paula go on believing I gave Spencer drugs."
Glen shrugs. "She still doesn't like you anyway, so you didn't gain much ground."
I sigh, knowing he's right. "Yeah, well…she doesn't have to like me. Spencer's the only one who does."
"Unfortunately," Glen mumbles, and I scoff, pushing him away from me and stepping back.
"I think I hear the punch bowl calling you," I tell him, smirking, and Glen crosses his arms and nods noncommittally.
"Right. I can take a hint. Keep the PDA to a minimum, got it?"
"I'll try."
"Whatever."