Tag Along (17 page)

Mr. Chan, the vice-principal, shakes his head at me and points to his watch, but I bang on the door again and keep at it until he comes and unlocks it from the inside.

“Paul,” he says, opening the door a crack and speaking to me from inside, “you know you can't come inside this late. The doors are closed. Not to mention you're wearing jeans. There's a dress code, you know.”

“I'm not here for the prom, Mr. Chan,” I tell him. “I need to talk to Alannah Freston. It's important.”

“I'm sorry, Paul,” he says. “You'll have to wait until the dance is over.”

“Mr. Chan,” I say, looking him straight in the eye, “I need to talk to Lannie now. It's important.”

He gives me a funny look, as if he's trying to decide how serious I am, then pushes the door open and lets me through.

“You've got ten minutes before I come in and find you,” he says. “That's it.”

“Thanks,” I say, walking past the cluster of curious teachers and through the doors to the gym.

I stand there for a minute and look around. It takes awhile for my eyes to adjust to the dimness. I spot Jerry and Ahmed with their dates.

“Holy shit, man,” says Ahmed when I walk up to them. “What are you doing here?”

“People were saying you were in the hospital with pneumonia,” says Jerry. “Then Penner showed up and started spreading some story about you and Roemi hanging out with some satan-worshipping chick. It didn't make much sense, but he's pretty messed up.”

“None of that is exactly true,” I say. “Listen, I only have a minute, but I was wondering if you guys want to come over to my place tomorrow. Shoot some hoops or something?”

They exchange quick glances. I can't really blame them for being suspicious.

“Are you sure, man?” asks Jerry. “You don't have something else going on with Lannie?”

“Nah,” I say. “I'd rather hang out with you guys. No worries if you're busy or whatever.”

“No, man, that sounds cool,” says Ahmed. “We'll be over.”

“Awesome,” I say. “By the way, have any of you seen Lannie?”

“Yeah,” says Jerry. “She's been hanging out in the corner of the gym all night.”

Darrah spots me first. She leans in to whisper to Lannie, who turns around to face me as I approach.

Even with her arms crossed, not smiling, Lannie is incredibly hot. Hot and definitely unimpressed.

“Look who showed up,” says Penner. “Where's your boyfriend anyway, York?” he asks.

“Give it a rest, Penner,” I tell him. I turn to Lannie. “Hey,” I say. “I've been looking for you.”

“What are you doing here?” she asks. “I spent all night worrying about you, and then Ryan told me that you aren't sick after all.”

“I know, Lannie,” I say. “I'm really sorry. I owe you an apology.”

“Can you please just tell me what's going on?”

“Come on,” Darrah says to Penner. “Let's dance.” She drags him away.

“It feels kind of weird to say this out loud, ” I say.

“Just spit it out.”

“When I was a kid,” I say, “I used to have panic attacks. Bad ones. I had to go to therapy, and eventually I got over them. But this week I started having them again. I don't know why, but every time I thought about coming here, to prom, they got worse. So when you talked to my mom this morning, that's what was happening. I was in the middle of a really bad panic attack.”

Lannie just stares at me. Then she bursts out laughing.

“What's so funny?” I ask her.

“Sorry,” she says. “I thought you were going to break up with me or something. Panic attacks? Really?” She starts to laugh again.

“Yeah,” I say. “Really. They're kind of hard to describe. I get dizzy, my heart races, and my mind fills up with crazy thoughts. They're pretty intense.”

She waves me off. “Please,” she says. “I know what it's like to freak out about exams or a game or whatever.”

“It's not really the same thing,” I say.

“Well, whatever it is,” she says, “it doesn't explain why you ended up hanging out with Roemi Kapoor and some strange girl.”

“Well, it's kind of a funny story.”

“I bet it is,” she says. “I don't really want to hear it right now. My night has been ruined enough already.”

“I'm really sorry,” I tell her again. “You look incredible.”

She manages a half smile. “Thanks,” she says. She closes her eyes and exhales deeply. “Listen,” she says. “Do you want to get out of here? Go get something to eat? We can grab Darrah and Ryan and maybe go to Bizzby's.”

“I don't really feel like hanging out with Penner right now,” I tell her. “He was kind of an asshole when he ran into me before.”

“You know what he's like,” she says.

“What if we went with some other people instead?” I ask her.

She raises an eyebrow at me. “What other people?”

“Roemi and his date, Sean,” I say. “Andrea and Justin. Maybe Jerry and Ahmed.”

“Andrea Feingold?” she asks. “Jerry and Ahmed? Roemi? Are you nuts?”

“They're my friends, Lannie,” I say.

“Well, they're not mine,” she says. “Come on. Let's just go by ourselves. Darrah and Ryan can do their own thing.”

She reaches out and grabs my hand. I look down at her freshly manicured fingers, the smooth pale skin on her wrist. My eyes trace a line up her bare arm, along her neck, up to her perfect face, staring at me, waiting for me to follow her anywhere she wants. I pull away from her.

“Do you know what, Lannie?” I say. “I don't think it's going to work out between us.”

Her mouth drops open.

“Let's face it,” I go on. “As soon as you graduate and get to college, you're just going to dump me for someone who does a better job of living up to your expectations. Why waste the time?”

“Okay, hang on,” she says. “
You
don't break up with
me
. I should be the one breaking up with you.” On the surface she sounds confident, as if she's still in control of the situation, but I can tell that she's panicking. I actually feel sorry for her. Lannie Freston isn't used to people telling her she can't have what she wants.

“Okay then, Lannie,” I say. “Feel free. Break up with me.”

She doesn't say anything for a moment. She just stands there as the confusion on her face turns to anger.

“Screw you, Paul,” she says finally. Then she turns and storms away.

I'm heading for the exit when the lights come on, throwing a harsh glare down into the gym. There's a collective groan and some jeers and boos, and the music comes to an abrupt end. I get caught up in the crowd as everyone beelines for the front doors at the same time. Somebody grabs my arm, and I turn to see Roemi, huddled with Sean, Andrea, Justin and Bethanne.

“What's going on?” he asks. “Why are you here?”

“I decided that I needed to talk to Lannie,” I tell them.

“Did you find her?” Andrea asks.

“Yeah,” I say.

“And you're leaving by yourself,” says Roemi. “So does this mean…?”

“Yeah,” I say. “We broke up.”

“Thank god,” he says. “I was wondering if one of us was going to have to do it for you.”

“Roemi!” says Andrea.

“What?” he says. “Am I wrong?”

We squeeze through the bottleneck at the front doors. Once we're outside, the six of us move down the sidewalk, away from the crowd and off to the side.

“My parents are parked down the street,” says Bethanne. “Do you want a ride home, Andrea?”

Andrea glances at Justin, who smiles at her. “I think I'm okay,” she says. “I'll make it home all right.”

“Okay,” says Bethanne. “See you later, guys! Bye, Paul,” she says, looking right at me and smiling before she hurries away.

“Brace yourself, Paul,” says Roemi. “You're going to be drowning in women once they hear that you dumped Lannie.”

“Hey!” someone yells. “York!”

I turn and look down the sidewalk. Penner is pointing at me. Lannie and Darrah are standing right behind him, staring at us.

“This guy sure knows how to make an entrance,” says Roemi as Penner strides toward us.

“What do you want, Ryan?” I ask.

“What do you want?” he repeats, mocking me. “Are you seriously dumping the hottest girl in school to hang out with a bunch of losers and homos?”

A crowd starts to gather around us, people whispering to each other. I notice Jerry and Ahmed have pushed their way to the front.

“What do you care?” I ask him. “And quit talking shit about my friends, Penner. Take it back.”

“Oh, I'm sorry,” he says. “I meant to say
faggots
, not
homos
.”

“Whoa,” says Sean, moving to stand next to me. “Who are you calling a faggot?”

“Who are you?” asks Penner.

“I'm Roemi's date,” says Sean. “Not that it's any of your business.”

“Well, I guess I'm calling you a faggot then,” says Penner. He takes a step forward. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Jerry take his jacket off and hand it to his date, and he and Ahmed move a bit closer to us.

Darrah pushes through the crowd and grabs Penner by the arm. “Come on, Ryan,” she says.

“Get out of my way,” he says. He shakes her off with his arm, and she stumbles backward. She stares at him for a moment with her mouth open, then starts to cry and runs back to Lannie.

Penner is a big guy, but it occurs to me that he's totally outmanned. Sean is standing his ground right next to me, and I know that Jerry and Ahmed are ready to jump in if things escalate. The last thing I want is to get caught up in a fight, but I'm facing off against Penner whether I like it or not.

“That's enough!” I hear Roemi yell from behind me. He shoves his way between me and Sean and walks right up to Penner.

“Listen here, you two-bit, knuckle-dragging, shit-for-brains orangutan,” he says, standing on his tiptoes and getting his face right up into Penner's. “Nobody in this school likes you. Nobody in this town respects you. Nobody on earth thinks you're funny or intelligent or attractive, with the exception of your girlfriend and possibly your mom, and the jury's still out on her. So why don't you back off and leave me and my friends alone?”

Penner's eyes widen and his jaw clenches, and you can practically see the veins in his forehead pop. He leans in toward Roemi so that their noses are almost touching, but Roemi doesn't flinch. A hush falls over the crowd, and the moment seems to drag on forever. Then Penner steps back, gives Roemi the finger and turns to walk away.

“That's right,” Roemi calls after him. “Don't let the door hit you on the ass.”

Penner stops in his tracks and stiffens. He turns around, glaring, and charges at Roemi. It all happens so quickly that before anyone has a chance to intervene, it's already over. There's a blur of activity, and somehow Penner gets flipped onto the ground and Roemi ends up sitting on his back with one of Penner's arms twisted back in an unnatural position.

“Say uncle,” says Roemi. Penner wriggles and tries to get up, but every time he moves, Roemi twists harder. “Say uncle!” Roemi yells again.

“Uncle,” comes Penner's muffled reply.

Roemi gets up and steps back, and Penner scrambles to his feet. He stands there for a minute, confused and disoriented, and then stumbles over to Darrah.

“Come on,” he says. “We're going.”

“Whatever,” she says. “We're through, Ryan.”

He looks as if he wants to say something else, but instead he shoves his way through the crowd. When he gets to the street, he starts running.

“What the hell just happened?” asks Andrea.

Roemi shrugs. “I guess seven years of martial-arts training was worth every penny.” He walks over to Sean, reaches out and grabs him by the waist, and pulls him in for a long, lingering kiss. The crowd cheers and hollers and then Roemi steps back, turns to where Andrea and Justin and I are standing and does a three-phase finger snap in the air.

“Let's roll, bitches,” he says, before turning and strutting off toward the Audi.

CANDACE

After Paul heads to the school to work things out with Lannie, I sit on the hood of the car for a while, just thinking. It's been a better night than I ever would have expected, and I can't help feeling a bit of karmic satisfaction about the way things have turned out. Paul is making up with his girlfriend. Roemi finally has a date. Andrea is at the prom after all, and if I do say so myself, she looks great.

There's just one more thing to take care of.

I stare at my phone for a long time before making the call. After the third ring, I start to second-guess myself, and I'm about to press End when I hear someone pick up.

“Candace?” I hear Vanessa say. There's a lot of background noise, and I can barely make her out.

“Hey, Vanessa,” I say.

“Hang on a sec,” she says. “I'm going somewhere quieter.”

In a minute I can hear her clearly.

“Hey,” she says. “Sorry about that. A few of us came to Bizzby's after the dance. I'm in the parking lot.”

“How was prom?” I ask.

“It was okay,” she says. “You know what that shit is like.”

“Looked like you were having a good time with Evan,” I say.

She laughs. “Yeah,” she says. “We've been hanging out lately.”

“I'm happy for you,” I say.

“Thanks,” she says.

I hesitate. I'm sure she's wondering why I'm calling, but I'm not sure how to put it into words.

“Listen,” I finally say. “I'm really sorry.”

“No,” she says. “I'm sorry. I know I've said it already, but I'm really, really sorry. I should never have talked to your parents.”