By the time the clock struck half past eight on Friday night, and there was still no sign of Gerard, I resigned myself to the very high probability that I would be going solo to the winter ball.
Hugh had left over an hour ago to pick up Katie, meanwhile I remained slumped on the couch in my yellow satin gown, waiting on a boy who might never show up. Not that I cared if I didn’t make the dance. I’d missed my appointments with both the hairdresser and the beautician, and I was feeling a whole heap less festive than I was furious.
To be honest, if it wasn’t for the fact that my mam seemed so excited about the whole thing, I would have thrown on my pajamas and crawled into bed.
The fact that Mam had spent two painstakingly long hours straightening my curls, and had phoned up her friend Betty to come over to do my nails and makeup, only proved to me just how important this was to her, and I really hated letting my mam down.
She’s not the only person you’re letting down, my conscience hissed, and I wanted to cry.
I always like to think that I had a fairly straightforward moral compass. Wrong was wrong and right was right. But Gerard had forced my hand today, and now I felt like my compass was pointing in some morally gray area that I had never looked at before.
Dee had resigned. I’d watched her leave the school with my own eyes. It was definitely something to feel satisfied about. But it wasn’t enough. Because I would forever know what she did to Gerard, and, whether he wanted to acknowledge it for what it truly was or not, he would forever have to shoulder that abuse. Meanwhile, his abuser got to start over wherever she liked with zero consequences for her senseless actions.
“Claire?” Mam peeked her head around the sitting room door with a smile on her face. “Your date is here.”
My breath hitched and I felt weirdly emotional. “He is?”
She pushed the door wide open and there he was, standing in his tux, with a yellow corsage in hand. And not just any flower. “You got me a Midas Touch rose?”
His gray eyes locked on mine, and he offered me an uncertain shrug. “Andie Anderson yellow, right?”
Swallowing down the lump in my throat, I forced myself to stand. “Right.”
“You look beautiful, Claire-Bear.”
“Thanks.”
“Fuck,” he groaned, noticing the tear I had attempted to discreetly wipe away. “Come on, baby, don’t cry.” Closing the space between us, he cupped my cheek and pulled me flush against him. “I don’t want to fight tonight.”
Shivering, I leaned into his touch. “Neither do I.”
“Then let’s just put it on the backburner until tomorrow,” he said hoarsely. It being Dee. “Let’s have a good night, okay?” His thumb traced over my cheek as he spoke. “You and me, and we can deal with everything else in the morning, okay?”
“Okay.” I bit back a sob and steadied my breathing before whispering, “I thought you weren’t coming.”
“And leave my baby hanging?” His tone was gentle and coaxing. “Not in this lifetime, sweetheart.” Taking my hand in his, he placed the corsage on my wrist. “You really do look beautiful.”
“So do you,” I squeezed out, feeling incredibly emotional, as I entwined my fingers with his and looked up at his beautiful face. “I love you.”
His eyes burned with warmth in response. “I love you, too.”
“Aww, would you look at them, Sinead; aren’t they only adorable?” I heard Sadhbh gush from the doorway moments before a bright flash almost blinded me.
“Oh, don’t mind us,” Mam cooed, as she clicked furiously on her camera. “Just pretend like we’re not watching and act natural.”
“Bubba, put the corsage on Claire’s hand again for us, will you?” Sadhbh asked her son. “I want a photo of that for the wall.”
“Oh, good thinking, Sadhbh,” Mam chimed in, still clicking away like a demon. “It would look smashing on the mantelpiece.”
Thirty minutes later, we were sprawled out in the back of a limousine with our friends, having been subjected to a million different poses at the hands of our amateur photographer mothers.
“You know what, Claire-Bear, I’m sure your mam had her finger over the lens the entire time,” Gerard chuckled, as he leaned across the seats to clink champagne glasses with Shannon before returning to my side. “She’s going to be pissed as hell in the morning.”
“Oh God, let’s hope not!” I laughed, taking the glass of champagne Johnny poured for me. “Otherwise, she’ll make us dress up and do it again tomorrow.”
“You look so beautiful,” Shannon gushed for the dozenth time, as she admired my hair. “I can’t believe it’s this long when it’s straightened.”
“Claire, you look very beautiful,” Johnny acknowledged with a friendly smile before sinking down on the seat next to his girlfriend. “Now, where’s my queen?” he purred, draping his big arm around her slim shoulders. “Every time, Shannon like the river,” he purred, kissing her neck. “Every time, baby.” He pulled back to look at her and released a masculine growl of approval. “You take the breath clean out of me.”
“Is everybody good to go?” the driver asked, lowering the divider.
“Yeah,” Johnny replied before quickly backpedaling. “Wait, does everyone have their tickets?”
“I have ours,” Shannon chimed in, fishing two tickets out of her purse.
“I didn’t even know we needed tickets.” I looked at my friends. “We need tickets?”
“I have tickets,” Gerard confirmed, reaching into his tux and then frowning. “Let me rephrase that to ‘I have tickets on my nightstand’.”
“You’re a bleeding trainwreck, Gibs,” Johnny groaned. “I swear you’d lose your head if it wasn’t screwed on.”
“I’ll get them,” I announced, moving for the door. “I need to pee anyway.”
“Make it snappy, please,” the driver called out.
“I beg your fucking pardon, good sir,” I heard Gerard tell the driver when I climbed out of the limo, “please refrain from telling my girlfriend to be snappy about anything.”
Biting back a snicker, I made a beeline for his front door, kicking off my heels as I went. Bolting upstairs to the bathroom, I managed to relieve myself and wash up in record time before going in search of our tickets – something I was so not impressed about.
Considering the amount of money parents paid for their kids to attend Tommen, you would think they could have sprung for an actual hotel, but to find out they were charging us to dance around the PE hall? Well, that took the fecking biscuit.
Hurrying into Gerard’s room, I moved straight for his nightstand, deftly kicking a pair of my tights under his bed as I went. What Sadhbh didn’t see couldn’t hurt her.
The tickets weren’t on the nightstand like Gerard said, but they were on his bed, along with his phone, a lighter, a packet of chewing gum, and his wallet that I knew contained our emergency condoms. Opening my handbag, I scooped the lot inside, and then bent down to retrieve a folded-up note that had fallen from the pile. Shrugging, I tossed that into my handbag with everything else before racing back outside.
“Got them,” I declared when I joined my friends in the limo once more.
“Woo!” Gerard cheered, pulling me onto his lap and smacking an affectionate kiss to my cheek. “Let’s get this show on the road!”
