chapter 8: trigger
don't think twice about it, baby
The spring term flew past Leah in a supercut characterized by her infatuation with Sam and blatant disregard for everything else. Between preparations for final exams, ASB elections, and prom, this time during any other academic year would have stressed her out beyond reason, but the pressure didn't weigh on her so much this time around. With the weight that usually sat on her shoulders now relieved, her mind followed suit as the daylight hours grew longer—a true halcyon.
The week that school resumed following spring break, Leah's basketball season came to an unceremonious conclusion, with QTS losing to Port Angeles High School and falling out of the playoffs. Leah would have encountered mortal humiliation had the soul-crushing loss occurred at a home game, but Sam had softened the blow when he showed up at halftime after getting off work early. She had emerged from the foreign locker room, out onto the court, and instantly pinpointed his face in the crowd. Just as the game concluded, she saw him and momentarily forgot that she'd taken a loss at all.
And then in April, Leah and Sam placed sixth at the state science fair, held all the way in Olympia. In the weeks preparing for the fair, they spent long hours after school and even longer ones on the weekend—part-time jobs permitting—working to dot every i and cross every t for their project, but she knew that they'd needed more time. When it came down to the wire, it showed. But, despite earning sixth place, her ego hadn't suffered that much for it because she simply couldn't lose with Sam.
Part of her worried about her competitive streak dissipating until she found herself too busy not keeping score to address it. Wins, losses… none of that mattered. Study sessions full of laughter and euphoric weekends full of kisses and the occasional late nights full of soft touches with Sam mattered, though. His soft eyes and strong hands and sincere words didn't hold a candle to any of the academic or extracurricular pressures. She loved him from the very pit of her soul to every last nerve ending in her body, and she somehow still had room for the love to grow everyday.
How could she have decoded that everyday life improved tenfold when she actually lived it instead of racking up lists and numbers in her mind? At least she figured it out later rather than never. In light of this discovery, she blossomed like an early-September sunflower rising from the earth.
The supercut ran out of tape on the afternoon of prom '05, when Sue picked up the house phone. Leah sat in a kitchen chair while her mother manipulated her hair into a half-up half-down style with an industrial-sized can of hairspray, several bobby-pins, and a two-inch barrel curling iron that hadn't seen the light of day since the last millennium.
"Oh, hi, honey," Sue said into the phone. "Yep, she's right here, just a second."
Leah grasped the phone from her mother with careful hands in order to not smudge her almost-dry, maroon nail polish. "Em?"
Emily's tone sounded more cagey than usual, but Leah didn't pay it any mind. "Hey, Lee."
"Hey, girl." She blew on the nails of her free hand. "You almost done getting ready? I'm so excited to see your hair, it's gonna be so c—"
"Okay, so don't be mad at me," Emily cut in.
It took Leah everything in her power to remain as composed as she could, but she still shot forward in the kitchen chair. "Alright…"
"I said not to be mad!"
"I'm not even mad!" She lightened up her tone. "What's going on?"
"So I—"
"Leah, I can't do your hair if you don't sit back," Sue reminded her. She complied, correcting her posture.
"Sorry, I didn't catch that," Leah said into the phone.
"I'm—I'm running late," Emily sputtered out, "so me and Joseph will just meet you guys at Cora's."
"Wait, so you can't take pictures with us anymore?" So much for not being mad. Leah didn't mean to come off so accusatory, but she physically could not wait for an answer. "You two are supposed to be here in less than an hour. Please don't say you're still at home."
"No, I'm not still at home—I'm literally on my cell right now. But we can still take pictures at the dance," Emily assured her. "It's just that I had to find another dress. Me and Nadia have been driving around all day trying to find one in emerald, and we picked it up just now."
Leah could hardly believe her ears. A new dress?! "What happened to your old dress?"
"I just felt super gross in it," her cousin explained glumly. "And I looked crazy bloated. PMS, you know."
"Yeah, that sucks ass," she sighed, to which Sue hissed at her to watch her language. Leah rolled her eyes since she knew her mother couldn't see her face. "I hope you like the new one, at least."
"I'll make it work."
"And your new ETA?"
"We shouldn't be too late, but you and Sam should just go ahead and order food if we're not there ten-ish minutes after you guys get to the diner."
"That's not really a time, but okay."
"I wish I could give you one, but I swear we won't take too long," Emily asserted. "I just need to get home and do my makeup."
"What about your hair?"
"Trust me, it's basically done—I've been running around in rollers all day." Then Emily's tone turned insistent. "Just please don't be upset."
"I'm literally not upset," she retorted, more unconvincingly than she'd initially hoped to come off.
"Well, you sound upset," her cousin poked back.
"Well, maybe you should just take my word for it and drop it." Leah paused. "I'll see you soon, though. Drive safe."
"Always do. Bye."
"Bye."
"Your shoulders are all tense and you caught an attitude," Sue said as the line went dead. "What happened?"
Leah handed the phone back to her mother so she could hang it back on the hook. "Nothing," she lied.
"You know I heard exactly half of that conversation," Sue pointed out. "So what's going on? What sucks ass?"
She had no choice but to come clean. "First, Forks High steals our prom theme, then Joseph messes up dinner reservations at Blakeslee's, and now Em's gonna be late because she just had to get a whole new dress."
Joseph had insisted on making the dinner reservation out of courtesy (and also probably so he'd appear helpful at all), but that he'd dropped the ball. While his screw-up vexed Leah to no end and Emily's news still needed to settle in, the set of circumstances relating to Forks High had devastated Leah and the other members of her prom committee. FHS had announced their Casino Royale prom theme and event date two months after QTS announced theirs, ripping off the Tribal School's gig, verbatim. FHS's prom committee lacking the decency to change their theme, blaming it on their budget, only rubbed salt in the wound. Everybody and their mother in Clallam County knew that the QTS prom committee announced their theme every January; FHS didn't even start planning theirs until late-February. And, of course, the Tribal School's committee refused to stand down. Leah theorized that the leak had been an inside job and, by this point, the very day of both proms with the same theme, nobody on either side had fessed up to it.
So, a lot of things sucked ass, and the collective suckiness all culminated now. If any gods existed and could hear her, Leah would need their help making sure tonight wouldn't be a total flop.
"It'll be okay, baby girl," Sue told Leah. She misted a section of her curls with hairspray. "All you need to worry about is having fun."
On the bright side, Leah had no worries about the fun that would follow prom. She had a plan: As far as Sue knew, Leah would grab ice cream with Emily, Sam, and Joseph after the dance, hang out at Sam's place, head back to Neah Bay with Emily afterward, spend the night, and then catch the bus back to La Push in the morning.
The ice cream part remained true, but the actual itinerary deviated after that: Emily and Joseph planned to split off to Emily's place since her parents would be hours away at the Lummi rez for the weekend. Meanwhile, Leah would spend the night at Sam's since Allison would be working an overnight double—rough for her, but perfect for them, who had been trying to get an entire, uninterrupted night to themselves for the longest time. The logistics had been so thought-out that Leah had met up with Sam this morning to pass along her overnight bag, loaded with every possible necessity for their night together—even a nightlight.
But until then, things would continue to suck ass for as long as Leah couldn't count on her cousin. Since their toddler days, Leah and Emily always had a solid alibi in each other, but now, the sudden uncertainty made her grimace—why today, of all days, did her cousin lack her usual dependability? While she thoroughly understood that shit truly did happen, she hadn't ever accounted for something as unexpected as Emily suddenly needing a new dress to throw a wrench in the plan. Now, she felt the pressure of having to put everything back in place before it all fell apart. The halcyon had screeched to a halt.
Shortly after Sue finished styling Leah's hair, she helped her with the final steps of getting ready, making a last-minute attempt to convince her to wear heels instead of sandals. Leah couldn't be dissuaded in the eleventh hour, so Sue finally gave up. As Leah waited for her nails to completely dry, she heard Sam chatting with her parents outside, in the backyard. Their golden boy. His arrival indicated she only had mere moments left, so she went to her bathroom mirror for the ultimate moment of truth.
Her reflection didn't disappoint—she could already picture Sam's reaction in her mind. As she gently loosened her curls with her fingers and applied another coat of clear gloss to her lips, her image rang true to how she actually felt. She didn't look like a princess. Rather, she simply looked like her.
For this year's prom, Leah donned a simple black dress with thin straps, a low neckline, and a slit that could almost be considered scandalous, borrowed from Gabby Connweller's closet. She paired it with flat black sandals. In her dark ensemble and gold accessories, the confidence she had this time around totally surpassed any uncertain feelings that had plagued her last time. She had embodied Sue's ideal prom look last year, dressed up like Cinderella. Since then, she had vowed to herself that she'd be not only authentic to her own sense of style this time around, but comfortable too.
Once she finished fixing her hair, she put on her diamond stud earrings. (She had repierced her doubles at home two weeks ago in a moment of boredom, armed only with rubbing alcohol, a tiny sewing needle, and a good deal of luck. The soreness had finally subsided last night.) She then put on the fancy earrings that Emily had made her, sitting below the studs and dangling close to her exposed collarbone. The beads shimmered brightly even in the bathroom light—she couldn't wait to tell Emily how proud she should be of her work.
She took one last glance in the mirror, silently wished herself luck, and left her reflection behind before she could find something wrong with it.
While Leah would have to wait on Emily and Joseph, at least Sam didn't wait too long for her. (His reaction to her prom look matched up with what she'd predicted—a respectful You're so gorgeous in front of her parents, and then similar compliments with a Damn, Lee-Lee in front of them when he thought they weren't paying attention.) In front of the backyard deck and underneath the hanging string lights, she had a good feeling about tonight. The overcast sky combined with the brisk late-May breeze made for a galvanizing atmosphere.
Like last year, Emily had taken time out of her congested schedule to create a matching corsage and boutonnière for the formal occasion. This time, the accessories had been made of silk sunflowers, a nod to Leah's favorite flower and an accent to her black dress. Complementing her, Sam had also taken a simple approach to his attire tonight, clad in a black suit and tie. He wore his hair down this time, but his cheekbones and jawline still had nowhere to hide, which Leah had no complaints about. They both suited the sleek, sophisticated prom theme.
Seth kept them all company in the backyard, offering the couple moral support. Once Sue and Harry got their fill of photographs on their camera (and Sue reminded them to get their pictures taken at the dance too), Leah handed her own disposable camera to her brother. She instructed him to take only three pictures of her and Sam so she could leave space for impromptu photo ops at the dance.
Seth held the camera up once she stepped back and turned to face Sam. As she pretended to adjust his boutonnière for the camera, she realized he stood maybe six inches taller than her five foot nine this time—a major difference from last year, when she'd worn heels for their pictures and stood about an inch taller than him.
"Damn, you're way taller than me now," she mused aloud. "I should've worn heels."
He broke into a laugh just as she did. Click.
"You've got jokes," he remarked.
"Told you I'm funnier than you."
The photoshoot ended shortly; Seth had a talent of getting to the point and only snapping the essential poses. Leah just finished stuffing the disposable camera into her clutch purse when she heard a chorus of greetings. She rounded Sam's car to see Jacob—clad in a beige button-up, a striped brown tie, dark dress pants, and sneakers—walking up the hill and heading to the Clearwaters' driveway. A lanky, walking beanpole, he towered over Seth but almost matched Sam in height as they met each other in a one-armed hug.
"Hey, Jake!" Leah said with a wave, taking note of his attire. "Got a date or something?"
"Or something," the fifteen-year-old replied sheepishly. He glanced from Leah to Sam, and then back to Leah again. "Can I ask you guys a huge favor?"
She nodded cautiously. "We're kind of about to leave, but what's up?"
"You guys are heading to Forks before the dance, right?"
"That's right," Sam said.
"Can you guys drop me off at Forks High on your way? The bus schedule sucks and my dad won't let me take the Rabbit since it's not technically done yet. Actually, you don't even have to drop me off at the school—I can get off a couple blocks before, whatever works for you."
Sam exchanged a glance with Leah. "That should be okay," he told Jacob. "Hopefully Joseph and Emily won't be waiting too long for us at Cora's."
"That's if they make it at all," Leah grumbled, trying not to sound too bitter over their tardiness.
"They'll make it, Leah," Sue reassured her. "Just gotta have a little faith."
"We should probably get going, then," Sam told Leah. He gave a single nod in Jacob's direction. "Ready?"
"Been ready."
"Hold on, Jake," Sue called. "They mixed up the mail again and we got some stuff addressed to your dad. Wait right there and I'll go grab it."
Sue ducked into the house, and before Leah could follow Sam and Jacob to the car, Harry called her aside. He had a mixture of pride and concern in his eyes. Having spoken to Sam earlier, while Leah finished getting ready, she figured she'd get a similar talk. At least she could count on him to be consistent.
"You look stunning, baby girl," Harry said. "Prom night already, huh? Time flies too fast."
She smiled. "Thanks, Dad. Just last year we were out here with the twins and Andy. Now it's just me and Sam."
Leah saw the concern cross his face—he could be so easy to read.
"About that… I know Sam's a good kid," Harry started, "and I know you like him a lot. And I know he really likes you."
"But?" she prompted.
"But I need to say this," he continued. "Take care of yourself, okay? You can have fun, but you have to be responsible."
She nodded. "I promise, Dad. We'll be careful—I mean, it's just prom."
"I know, I know," Harry said with a chuckle, but he didn't seem more at ease. "It's just hard to let go sometimes, is all. It feels like yesterday you were only this tall, with your hair in braids and no front teeth." He motioned his hand only a couple feet off the ground, somewhere above his knee.
She pulled him into a hug. "Love you, Dad. And thanks for taking pictures. I really appreciate it."
"I love you too," he replied, embracing her back. "Anytime. Now, go have fun."
Sue returned outside and handed Jake the mail. Leah gave her parents one last hug and waved goodbye as she boarded the car. She, Sam, and Jacob then departed.
"So, who's your date, Jake?" Leah pried from the passenger seat, fidgeting with the radio as he returned to the car after dropping off the mail.
"She's not my date," Jacob explained. He clicked his seatbelt in with a sigh. "I'm not going-going to prom. Basically, my dad's paying me twenty bucks to go talk to some girl in town."
"Twenty bucks and all this travel over a girl in Forks?" Leah asked.
"Must be a big deal," Sam added. "Who is she?"
"Bella Swan," Jake confessed.
"Oh," Leah replied. "Good luck, 'cause I heard that she's back with her boyfriend and they're real serious." She never missed out on Sue's updates—as if she had a choice but to overhear them.
Jacob's tone became curt. "Yeah. I know."
"Wait a minute," Sam said, turning onto the highway that led to Forks. "You bought a ticket just to talk to a girl who's already going to prom with her boyfriend?"
"It's about helping out a friend," Jacob clarified. "But nah, man, I don't need a ticket. They let just about anybody into Forks High."
"Shit, you've got that right," Leah said, turning up the music as they made their way east.
Once they neared the high school, Jacob opted to get out of the car almost as soon as they entered the parking lot. He thanked Sam for the ride, and after they wished him luck (and more than just twenty dollars from Billy, for his efforts), Leah and Sam headed in the other direction, towards Cora's.
In true Leah and Emily fashion, they had planned their prom outing before the boys had even gotten involved. Emily, particularly, had scouted out Blakeslee's, a new seafood spot in town. Word of mouth had deemed the restaurant fancy enough to show up in prom attire but not so extravagant that the bill would break the bank.
To say that Joseph had let their group down would be a massive understatement. It only made it worse that he didn't tell anybody he'd forgotten to book a table until it had been too late to do anything about it. The girls had been ahead of the curve in their pursuit of the mildly bougie Blakeslee's, but the prom attendees of both QTS and FHS eventually caught up. Now, some other couples dressed to the nines would get to eat moderately priced surf 'n' turf instead of them, all because Joseph had forgotten to book a table.
At least they had Cora's.
Keeping her word, Leah waited until Emily and Joseph's window of ten-ish minutes closed before ordering anything to eat from her unglamorous workplace. Cora and some members of the wait staff working tonight complimented her and Sam's attire when they'd entered the restaurant; a few of her other coworkers on the clock didn't seem to recognize her at all outside of her work t-shirt, jeans, and non-slip shoes.
Over a plate of crispy French fries and cold glasses of soda with her personal heartthrob, it turned out that Leah didn't miss moderately priced surf 'n' turf too much. When she looked at Sam—really looked at him, with his silky hair and sparkly eyes and dimpled chin and kissable lips—she didn't care where they ate before prom. Nothing else mattered but him. (And Emily too, obviously, if she'd ever show her face tonight.)
"You know, Cora's ain't all that bad," Sam assessed before eating a fry from what remained of the large pile between them. "The music's good, they gave us extra fries, I'm here with the finest girl in the whole world as my prom date. Can't beat it."
"The whole world?" she challenged, dipping a fry into her side cup of barbecue sauce before taking a bite. "I'm digging all the compliments. Is this part of your elaborate plan to seduce me later?"
"I mean, with the way you've been batting those long-ass eyelashes at me, I was starting to think you have a plan of your own. But that depends." He smirked suggestively, slightly tilting his head. "Is it working?"
She threw a flirtatious smile his way and tossed her hair behind her shoulders. "A little bit."
"Then cheers," he said, raising his glass of Sprite.
She held up her glass of Coke. "To what?"
"How about a night of dancing and romancing?" he suggested.
A kaleidoscope of butterflies stormed her stomach. "Look at you talking a big game," she ribbed him, trying to keep cool. She gently met her glass to his with a low clink. "Hope you can keep your promise."
"I wouldn't say it if I didn't mean it, Lee-Lee," he promised her.
With the way that he kept his tone so laid-back and even, she couldn't detect any jitters over their impending sleepover. The confidence did nothing but make him more attractive. So, she went along with it. They already had a habit of bantering all day with each other, anyway; only this time, they went about it under the assumption that they wouldn't be able to call themselves virgins by the end of the night.
"Oh, is that right, Samson?" she asked, maintaining eye contact as she leaned forward into the table.
And he played along right back. His eyes fell down to her low neckline and then lingered on her lips before returning up to her eyes. "Give me a couple hours and I'll show you."
Her breath hitched as she took a sip from her glass. She cleared her throat to prevent herself from choking.
The charged conversation left her parched, but not for anything from the diner's menu. She felt the sexual tension diffusing through the air, so thick that she could slice it with the butter knife that had been cast aside with the rest of their cutlery. It emanated from her now-warm skin, from his always-warm skin. She wanted nothing more than to leave this diner, fast-forward through prom, and reach the sensation of feeling their skin together. Prior to now, she had tried to hold little expectations for tonight, but to hell with that. The diner had about two minutes and one more instance of Sam checking her out before it would detonate in a fiery explosion.
"Wait, Leah, are you okay?" he asked. Her name rolled off his tongue like water, and it had the same effect as throwing a single bucket of water at a Northern California wildfire in the middle of August.
"I'm good," she lied while her heart threatened to tear her open like the chestburster from Alien. "Totally chill. Should we get the check now?"
"For sure."
Sam attempted to flag down their server; Leah, both hot and bothered, let out a breath that she didn't know she'd been holding in.
Characterized by black and red balloons, giant playing card decorations, blackjack tables, a vast dancefloor illuminated by multicolored lights, and a photo booth setup equipped with a photographer and giant dice pieces, the Casino Royale theme of prom '05 had almost all the signs of being an improvement over last year's theme. The only difference was that their original deejay canceled on QTS at the last minute, so the new one—the balding gym teacher—had to step in. She couldn't imagine that his mix would come close to rivaling last year's, so FHS might have had the upper hand in that category. But, more importantly, Leah had no doubt in her mind that Forks High's setup didn't look as good as her school's.
As soon as they entered the gymnasium and scoped out the attendees, failing to find Emily and Joseph, Leah and Sam joined the photo booth line in the hopes that the other couple would join them soon. After waiting their turn, checking out the decorations, and chatting with their schoolmates for what felt like an eternity, a group of six joined them in line—Kim, her sister, Jared, Paul, and two other students, Matt and Nikki.
Leah and Kim met in a hug, careful not to mess up each other's hair.
"Leah!" Kim exclaimed. "You look hot—you should raid my sister's closet more often."
"Aww, thanks," Leah beamed. She gestured to Kim's fitted, eggplant-colored number. "Your dress is hella pretty. I just can't believe you're here on time."
"I'm still fashionably late." Kim giggled. "Even then, prom's serious."
"It's cool how Admin started letting sophomores come without an upperclassman date. That must be new." She made a face as her eyes fell on Jared and Paul, chatting it up in line, and then back to Kim. "Speaking of dates…?"
"Girl, I have a whole story for you later," Kim answered. "But I promise you that Admin doesn't care."
A twinge of retroactive humiliation struck Leah for thinking that attending prom as a sophomore last year had been a relatively exclusive and rare experience for her. As the photo booth line inched forward, she changed the subject. "All the decorations look amazing," she marveled. "Like, even better than last year, and those sea turtles took forever to make."
Kim nodded proudly. "We made it happen all over again with papier-mache and a dream. Have you seen Forks High's setup?"
"No, but I bet it sucks," she deadpanned.
"And you'd win the big bucks off that bet." Kim unzipped her tiny silver purse to retrieve her Nokia. "Jessica texted me some pictures a couple minutes ago. I already knew Forks High wouldn't have shit on us besides the deejay, but I'm not that impressed."
A quick swipe through the photos of Forks' prom confirmed Leah's suspicions, and the doubt in her mind remained at bay.
The line progressed forward, and Leah and Sam—just the two of them—got their official prom '05 picture taken, surrounded by the giant dice. After the flash, she once again scanned the room for her cousin and her date, but she never spotted them. The odds of their night being even half as enjoyable as the seemingly lofty expectations shrank as the minutes passed.
Most of the students hung around the edges of the dancefloor at the beginning of the event. Leah and Sam had joined Kim's group at one of the larger tables, chatting over punch and wondering when the deejay would finally get things started. Leah's eyes never left the gym doors for long.
"By this point," she told Sam, "I don't know whether to call for help in case Emily and Joseph got into an accident or just rip my own hair out."
"I wouldn't worry too hard about it. They probably just stopped to get something to eat," he insisted. "I'm sure they're hungry since they missed out on Cora's."
"What if they didn't?"
"They'll be here before you even know it. Besides, it'd be a real shame if you ripped all your hair out. It looks too good."
His sentimental humor could always pick her back up whenever she started spiraling—she wished she could pack it up in a jar to take with her wherever she went. "Fine," she said. "You win."
Keeping the reality of what Sam said in mind, she shut out the thought of Emily and Joseph altogether. Em already habitually accused her of compartmentalizing; provided that she would turn up, maybe they could have a little psychoanalysis session and laugh about it later.
Sam leaned into Leah to begin to say something, but before he could get it out, the deejay started spinning a high-tempo song that brought all the other prom attendees to the dancefloor. Without exchanging another word, she smiled at him, and they followed the crowd.
The deejay proved himself to be relentless tonight, playing fast songs back-to-back. Leah only got a break after the fourth fast song in a row when Kim broke away from Jared to tell her, "I have to pee. Come with me?"
Leah moved closer to Sam and cupped her hand around his ear. "We're gonna run to the bathroom," she said. "Be right back."
He nodded. "I'm getting hungry so I'm gonna check out the snack table. You want anything?"
"Can you get me some punch?" she asked over the music. "And some Tim's Cascade chips."
"The spicy ones, right?"
"Yeah, the spicy ones."
"Gotcha. Do you need me to hold your—"
"Wait, take this too." She handed him her clutch and stood on her tiptoes to give him a hasty, soft kiss. The bass reverberated around them before she pulled away. "That's it. I'll see you over by the snacks."
He grinned at the sudden affection. "See ya."
Leah and Kim then left the gym to enter the starkly lit hallway just outside of it. The fluorescent lights quickly sobered her from the kiss she and Sam just shared, and she got dizzy all over again at the reminder that there would likely be so much more to come later.
The bass of the music echoed from the gym. She needed to stay on task.
"I see that the chips aren't the only thing that's spicy," Kim said to her with a cheeky smile.
Leah's eyebrows jumped. "Guess not. But please tell me if I'm trippin' because I have not seen my cousin Emily once since me and Sam got here. Have you seen her at all?"
"She's Joseph's girlfriend, right?"
"Yup."
"Yeah, no, I haven't seen either of them. You can call her, though." She lifted the strap of her purse and took her Nokia out, handing it over. "Here."
"Thanks a million, girl."
Standing outside the nearest girls restroom, Leah entered the ten-digit number that she knew by heart into Kim's cell phone. She called twice and also reached Emily's voicemail box twice. "Shit!" she hissed.
"God, I hope she's okay," Kim replied as Leah handed the phone back.
"At this point, she better be dead," Leah said with a straight face. "If not, I'm gonna have to kill her and then bring her back to life just to kill her again."
Kim snorted.
The girls restroom served as a fast-paced revolving door of their schoolmates touching up their makeup and fixing their hair. Kim lent Leah a tube of lip gloss, and while she used the restroom, Leah found a corner of the long horizontal mirror to apply the gloss. She'd just finished rubbing her shiny lips together when the faintest yet most familiar weeping and sniffling noises caught her attention. Emily always got the stuffiest nose whenever she cried.
Leah snapped her head back. "Em, is that you?"
"Leah?"
"Oh my god, she showed up!" Kim gasped from her stall.
Emily opened her stall door and walked to the sink, passing by Leah with her face scrunched up and wet. She began washing her hands. "I'm so glad you're here, Lee," she said with more relief than enthusiasm.
Em's hair still looked great despite the emotional turmoil. She wore it down in bouncy curls (as the result of spending her day in rollers), neatly tied back with a wide, emerald green bow to match her replacement ensemble, a flowy A-line dress. The style showed off her silver beaded earrings. Leah met her cousin's eyes in the mirror. "I'm just glad you're here—I was starting to think you wouldn't make it. Also, your hair and new dress look super cute."
"Thanks." Emily sniffled loudly. "I wish I didn't make it."
"What the hell happened?" Leah demanded.
Kim exited the stall and stood in front of the sink next to Emily's to wash her hands. "Pretty bow. It goes perfectly with your dress," she said. "I'm Kim, by the way. It's nice to finally see you for more than two seconds in passing, even though you're crying."
"I'm Emily. And thanks, it's nice to see you too." She giggled through a sob. "Even though I'm crying."
"I have some concealer you can borrow, if you want," Kim offered.
"Sorry, but can we stay on topic?" Leah interrupted. "Em. What. Happened?"
Emily looked down, rinsing her hands. "Me and Joseph got into this fight on the way over. It wasn't big, just annoying. He wasn't ready by the time I got down to his house, and then I found out that he forgot to buy a tie. He ended up getting a tie yesterday, but it's chartreuse."
Leah blinked. "And I take it that chartreuse looks nothing like emerald?"
Kim looked at Leah and shook her head. "Uh-uh."
"I mean, I can't say he didn't try," Emily continued as she dried her hands off.
Leah pursed her lips. "He obviously didn't try that hard."
Emily blotted the tears from her cheeks and eyes with paper towels. "I guess. We don't even look like we showed up together, with his ugly-ass tie. And now, our pictures are gonna be totally screwed because I made our corsage and boutonnière specifically to go with emerald, not chartreuse."
Anger rose in Leah's chest as she harkened back to the last time she'd socked a boy who had slighted her cousin, and her knuckles ached at the distant memory of connecting with a jaw. "God, I always freakin' knew Joseph was a dumbass, but this is insane," she scoffed. "He messes up everything he touches."
"That's not even all of it," Emily blurted out. Her eyebrows pulled together and she blinked back more tears before looking away.
Leah's eyes widened. "What do you mean?"
"It's nothing, Lee."
"You're crying in the bathroom," she reminded her. "That's not nothing."
"It's really not a big deal."
"Except it is," she pressed.
Emily exhaled sharply. "Alright. When we were in the car, on the way over here from his house, I guess I was bitching at him."
Leah narrowed her eyes. "Were you actually bitching at him or were you just sharing your feelings like a normal girlfriend?"
Emily stayed silent. Leah shot her a look that said, Spit it out.
"I was trying to tell him how I feel like he never listens to me—because he doesn't—and then he called me a controlling bitch," Emily explained. "Maybe my tone was off, maybe it was the PMS, whatever. But he hasn't said a word to me since we got here. I don't know what's gotten into him, Lee."
A critical hybrid of indignation and vindication overcame Leah, and her blood began to simmer under her skin. As if I needed another excuse to knock Joseph's lights out. "And where is he now?"
"Don't cause a scene," Emily replied in a low voice.
She unclenched her jaw. "I didn't say anything about that. But where is he?"
"I don't know, the dancefloor maybe? We just showed up, but when we got inside, I ran in here and he went off to do his own thing."
Leah's response came out calmly, like the warm, still air that lingered before the thunderclouds rolled in on an otherwise tranquil day. "Oh, okay." She handed Kim's lip gloss back to her, and with that, she left the bathroom.
She started cracking her knuckles.
"Leah, wait!" Emily called after her, but that did nothing to slow her down. Kim and Emily's heels clacked on the floor as they followed her, but they didn't catch up in time. Running on adrenaline and flat sandals, Leah rushed back into the gym, dead set on locating a douchebag in an ugly-ass chartreuse tie.
The crowd on the dancefloor had grown damn near exponentially in the time that she'd spent away from it. Her eyes traced over all the bodies in the room, and—there. In the center of the dancefloor, despite spending all that time searching for him and Emily everywhere else before they had even showed up, she spotted Joseph. Somewhere between calling Emily a "controlling bitch" and going out to the dancefloor, he had ditched the chartreuse tie in favor of his puka shell necklace to go with his black suit. He looked even more punchable.
She dodged her classmates left and right, and squeezed between the ones who hadn't seen her coming. "'Scuse me, 'scuse me," she said. "Sorry, 'scuse me."
With the music blaring and the lights flashing, none of her schoolmates paid her any mind until she came up from behind him, preoccupied with dancing in a group of his bros. She tapped him hard on the shoulder with a manicured index finger.
"Hey, Joseph."
He stopped dancing and turned around with his usual smug look on his face. He must not have registered in time who it was. Too bad for him.
Leah punched him square in the face before he could say anything to her. The blow landed with a crunch she could feel with her fist.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" she shrieked at him.
Under the pounding of her heartbeat in her ears, she heard the crowd gasp and oooh. Their reactions echoed all around her; somehow, she even shocked herself. She'd walked into the confrontation fists-first, having no idea that she had hit him that hard until her knuckles connected with his nose and she met everybody's recoil. But none of that could cool off her wrath.
He stumbled backwards on his heels holding his nose with his hands as he barely caught himself. "What the hell is wrong with you?!" he screamed back.
"Oh my god, Joseph!" Emily immediately rushed to Joseph's side. (For what reason? Leah had no idea, but she ignored her regardless.) "Leah, what's wrong with you?"
"You totally screwed up my cousin's prom and now you're acting like nothing even happened?" Leah yelled at him, her eyebrows scrunched in irritation. "Seriously, what is your fucking problem?"
"Ugh, I think you broke it!" Joseph cried. Blood quickly gushed from his nose, leaking onto his hands and white shirt.
"Tough shit!" Leah spat at him. "Emily has been nothing but kind and patient to you this whole time. All she asked you to do tonight was come correct and you couldn't even fucking do that! You're not even wearing a tie, you jackass!"
Joseph shrugged Emily off him and took a large step forward. His response came in the snarkiest tone Leah had ever heard in spite of him still holding his nose. "Turns out the psychotic bitch thing runs in the family," he said. "You know, you really could've warned me ahead of time."
She lurched to deck him again—and harder, just so she could see him cry—but Sam appeared behind her, holding her right arm back as she raised her fist.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, back the hell up!" Sam shouted at the other boy. He stepped around Leah and shielded her away from Joseph with his body. "If you're gonna get in someone's face, try me."
"Nah, babe, we're good," Leah protested. She gave Joseph a dirty look. "He's not gonna do anything but keep calling me a bitch, anyway."
When Sam slightly loosened his grip on her arm, she took the opportunity to quickly reach around him and snatch Joseph's necklace right from his neck. Most of the puka shells scattered along the ground.
"God, Leah, did you really have to do that?" Emily exclaimed at her.
"The fuck was that for?" Joseph fumed, holding his nose again. "That was my favorite necklace!"
Leah scoffed, launching the remaining shells in her hand into his face with a nonchalant flick of her wrist. "'Cause you're a sorry-ass loser."
Leah and Sam left the gym before they could be escorted—well, kicked—out of the dance. A teacher chaperone escorted Joseph to the school nurse, who happened to be on campus tonight in case of instances like this one. Emily attempted to follow him, but he paid her no mind. Wordlessly livid, Emily stomped ahead of Leah and Sam, out the gym doors, and to the parking lot. She headed towards her car for the botched evening, her mom's Jetta.
The cool air slightly soothed Leah's skin, but the effect was surface-level as her rage still ran deep, keeping her feverish. "I can't believe—" she started to complain, only to be interrupted.
Emily turned around, now audibly livid. "Why the fuck did you do that?" she yelled.
Leah's heart dropped. Her cousin never cussed or yelled, let alone at her.
"Are you seriously asking me why I defended you?" she asked. "Did you hear, like, anything he said tonight?"
"No, I'm asking why you assaulted my boyfriend to the point where his whole face started bleeding!"
"Okay, there is no way you're more mad at me right now than you are at him."
"I can be mad at more than one person at a time," Emily shot back. "The shit you pulled just now didn't make me feel better. It never makes me feel better. It only makes you feel better! I never asked you to do any of that."
Leah crossed her arms over her chest. "You never stopped me from punching all the guys who've insulted you before."
"This isn't even close to the same thing. Joseph's my boyfriend, not some rando. I wanted to just try to have a good night and then deal with him in my own way, not get my whole prom night ruined."
Leah's face burned red-hot, and her tone grew nastier as she ran down the list of Joseph's offenses. "Um, he ruined your whole prom night when he had you miss dinner, he showed up super freakin' late not matching you after you went out of your way to get a new dress, and he had you crying in the bathroom the second you got here."
Emily looked off slightly, towards the Jetta. "It's not his fault I had to get a new dress."
"It's never his fault with you!" Leah retorted, loud and exasperated. Emily flinched back with wide eyes, but she didn't say anything.
"You know what," Leah went on, "my bad for trying to stick up for you when some dickhead—who you still keep claiming is your boyfriend, for some stupid-ass reason—called you and me a bitch. If you want him to get away with it next time I'll just let you 'deal with him in your own way.'"
"Ugh, shut the hell up, Leah!" Emily sighed. "You don't get it. I don't even go to your school, and you just embarrassed the fuck out of me. Now, Joseph will never talk to me again, all because you decided to act like a sociopath."
She rolled her eyes. "Save the psych terms for someone who gives a shit, Emily. You can try to diagnose me with everything in the book, but that's never gonna change the fact that your boyfriend fucking hates you!"
Emily did nothing but stare at her, so she unloaded everything else that she had.
"Joseph is a dumbass, and a hater, and a fucking scrub," she proclaimed. "He's a loser, Emily. Your feelings don't mean shit to him, and if you'd stop wasting your breath trying to make excuses for him all the time, maybe you'd finally see that instead of getting mad at the only person who's got your back."
"That's all so easy for you to say when you have a perfect relationship, right?" Emily hurled at her with tears running down her face. "You've got this shit all figured out, huh?"
"No one said anything about my relationship." The heat drained from her face once she saw her cousin's tears. "Where are you going?"
Emily awkwardly fished her keys out of her purse with one hand and wiped at her face with the other. "Home. Where else?"
"Well, what are you gonna do?" Leah asked.
"Why do you care? You said I'm wasting my breath, and now I'm starting to think you're right."
"Em, please."
Emily paused before lowering her own voice. "If you need to know, I'm gonna go take a long, hot bath and try to forget this whole day ever happened."
Sam, who had spent the past few minutes standing in silence while the girls duked it out, piped up. "If you wanna take some time to cool off or anything, we're here for you. We can all grab food and just chill out."
Emily unlocked the driver's door. "Thanks, but no thanks," she said to him, scowling. "Wouldn't wanna ruin you guys' romantic evening."
"Then I'll call you," Leah told her in a deflated voice as her cousin got into the car. "Drive safe."
"Always do." Emily slammed the door shut, fired up the engine, and skidded off. The Jetta's tires squealed against the pavement as Leah watched her make a sharp turn onto the street.
A chorus of "Damn…" came from somewhere else in the parking lot. Leah and Sam turned their heads to see the small group of their schoolmates who'd served as the audience for the showdown.
Damn pretty much summed it up.
Disclaimer: I don't own any recognizable media or characters mentioned here. All histories and cultural aspects of the Quileute tribe belong to them.
