Shifting uncomfortable, she was feeling the pressure under fire. Sweat beaded at her hairline in panic. She forced a laugh of silliness, like it was the most absurd thing she could ever imagine. It had to be convincing, and Emma was no actress. “Hardly. His family is great.”
“You aren’t the least bit scared to be alone with them? In that big old house?” Brandy asked wide-eyed, uncertainty lacing her tone.
This she could answer with honesty. “No. If anything I feel the opposite. I feel safe there.”
Emma thought for sure she would press the matter. Her heart pounded. It turned out that Brandy move swiftly from topic to topic. She was slightly scatter-brained and could be difficult to keep up with. Apparently covering the basics on her relationship with Travis had satisfied her need for gossip.
Well at least for now.
Kailyn appeared around the corner, bouncing curls framing her face with an armload of glitzy dresses. She looked between the two of them empty handed. “Why are you guys just standing around with your thumb up your ass? Do you plan on going to the dance naked?”
Brandy and Emma looked at each other and busted out laughing. Kailyn had the class of a mule. They spent the next hour trying on dress after dress. She adored every minute. The dressing room was littered with discarded clothing and filled with their giggles. It was wonderful to be silly and carefree.
In the end, Emma fell in love with the most beautiful dress she had ever seen. It might just be over the top, but she couldn’t help it. She felt like this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Regardless of how much fun she had today, something loomed in the future she couldn’t yet gasp, but it was inevitable.
She wasn’t sure why she suddenly felt a cloud of gloom. There was a nagging in a tiny corner of her brain telling her she needed to treasure each moment she was given. It could all end as quickly as it began.
And that this might be the only high school dance she would attend.
Chapter 16
The next day the weather took a dramatic turn. A blizzard like Emma had never seen raged outside her bedroom window. So thick were the flakes it was nothing but a sheet of white. It looked fierce and anger as it waged a battle against elements, wind, brittle cold, and heavy snow.
She sat with her hand in her chin staring at the storm beating on her window.
All hope of seeing Travis today vanished. You have to be insane and crazy to venture on in a storm like this. She had visions of being snowed in as she watched the piles of flakes accumulate at rapid speeds. That would just be her luck. She was probably the only girl who actually wanted to go to school only to be denied by the physics of nature.
How cruel.
With all her commitments at home and at the studio, school was the one place she was sure to see Travis.
Sighing against the frozen pane, she started to feel trapped inside her room and a little stir crazy. Maybe she should go entertain Abi for a bit and get her mind off the disappointment. Just as she was about to get up from her position on the window seat, her phone buzzed beside her.
Travis.
His name splashed across the screen. She smiled.
Are you as bored as I am? His text read.
God was she ever. You have no idea. Is the snow ever going to end?
It doesn’t look like it. I think we’re pretty much caged in for the day.
Ugh. Any chance you can control the weather?
Sorry, not part of my curse.
She hated that he thought of himself as cursed. In her eyes he was perfect. This sucks. She had such an elegant way with words.
Her parents were downstairs doing who knows what, but as long as they were up and around there was no way she could sneak Travis in. Well that was also if he was able to trudge through this blasted weather. Something told her that those were all very large and impossible ifs. She couldn’t help but be disappointed.
I was really hoping to see you. She sent back to him before he had a chance to reply.
Me too. He answered with a sad face.
Suddenly she needed to hear his voice. It wasn’t enough through words. If she couldn’t spend the day with him, then she could at least spend it talking to him. So when her phone rang and startled her, she shouldn’t have been surprised it was Travis. They always seemed to be operating on the same wavelength.
It was freaky.
“Hey,” she answered. “That was weird. I was just going to call you.”
“You were,” he said in a voice like velvet. “Looks like we both had the same idea.”
Their conversations were always so effortless and carefree. She didn’t have to worry about saying the wrong things, or filling in uncomfortable silence. Words, laughter, and longing flowed between the two of them.
Easily they lost track of time. She noticed how quite the house had gotten as their conversation turned toward his secret life. The more she learned about his world, the more she felt like a fish out of water.
“Are you ever afraid?” she asked