"Millie Stargel?" He laughed. It was a wild, loud, and frightening laugh. "Whose idea was that, his?" he said, nodding at Robert.
"No, I just thought--"
"She's a pretty girl," Robert said, "and I bet she'd love to go."
"So why don't you ask her?" Cary retorted.
Robert smiled softly and gazed at me.
"I've already got a date," he said.
"Then why are you looking at other girls?" Cary shot back at him.
"I'm not. I was only saying--"
"See, I warned you," Cary said to me and got up. "These dances are stupid anyway," he said. "Hanging out in the school gym is not my idea of fun. If I go on a date, I'm not going to bring her back to this place."
"Cary," I called as he started away. He just glared back and continued out of the cafeteria.
"He'll be all right," Robert said, and put his hand over mine. "One day he'll meet someone and his heart will pound just like mine did when I first looked at you."
I nodded.
But I didn't have as much confidence in something like that happening to Cary anytime soon.
Not for a moment. And I knew that until Cary was happy, I would have a very hard time being happy myself.
It seemed to me Cary deliberately walked a great deal slower than usual when we left school. He didn't have to be a genius to see how eager I was to get back to the house.
"May will be waiting for us," I complained. "I'm not waiting for you to catch up," I added.
"So go on by yourself," he said, and I hurried away.
May was actually just coming out of her school when I arrived. I signed for her to hurry and we started for home. Cary was so far behind, he was still out of sight of May's school. May asked where he was and I told her he was being a brat. She looked back, confused, but she didn't slow down. She knew why I was hurrying home and she was almost as excited as I was. When we got to our house she asked if she could help me get ready for the dance and I signed back that I would need all the help I could get. May laughed and signed that she thought I was already beautiful, so I wouldn't be needing much help at all.
Despite May's words of encouragement, I wanted to do something special with my hair. I had shown Mommy a picture of a girl in Seventeen and told her I wanted to style my hair that way. She said she would help. She was almost as good at it as a regular beautician. So after I showered and washed my hair, I sat at my vanity table and Mammy began to brush out my hair and trim it. May sat on the stool beside me and watched, her eyes full of excitement: She was full of questions.
Why, she wanted to know, did I have to change the way my hair looked?
"This is a special occasion," I told her. "I want to try to look as good as I can."
"Oh, you'll be beautiful, Laura," Mommy said. "You're the prettiest girl in the school."
"Oh Mommy."
"You are. Cary says so."
"He's . . . prejudiced," I said.
"I remember there was a girl named Elaine Whiting when I was in school. She was so pretty everyone thought she would become a movie star. All the boys tried so hard to be the first to ask her to the school dances. I never saw her without every hair being in place and there wasn't a boy whose head didn't spin when she walked by. I bet it's the same for you," Mommy said with a wonderfully happy smile on her face. She was looking at me in the mirror, but her eyes seemed to be focused on her own fantasy. I could tell that neither she nor Daddy had ever heard a nasty whisper about Cary and me. It would just break her heart if she knew what some of the students in the school thought. Ugly rumors could be like infectious diseases, corrupting, rotting, sickening even the most healthy of souls.
"Which boys did you go to dances with, Mommy?" I asked her.
"Oh, no one ever asked me. I was what you would call a wallflower," she said with a smile, "I'm sure you weren't, Mommy."
"I was frightfully shy, especially around boys. I was glad when my father and Samuel planned my marriage to your father."
"What? Your marriage was arranged?"