Hard Love by Wittlinger Ellen

Author:Wittlinger, Ellen [Wittlinger, Ellen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Published: 2012-06-19T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

“Brian!” I yelled after him as he and Emily pranced down the sidewalk to the parking lot. “It’s all set. We’re going with you.”

“To the prom?” Emily squealed. “Yes!” She hopped up and down while they waited for me to join them.

“Marisol can go.” I have to admit I was kind of enjoying this little fantasy of Marisol-the-girlfriend, even though I knew it would make her furious.

Brian banged me on the back. “Who’d have thought three months ago that we’d be going to the prom, huh?”

“Not me, that’s for sure,” I said.

“Not me either,” Emily said. “I never thought I’d get to go.”

“So we need to figure out about the limo and all, before they’re all booked up,” Brian said.

“Limo? We don’t need to go that far, do we?” I could just imagine the look of scorn on Marisol’s face if she had to climb into one of those big white hearses. “They’re so expensive. Can’t we just take your car?”

“Oh, please?” Emily begged.

“My car? That piece of junk? Come on.”

“Well, then, I’ll get my mom’s car.”

“It’s a station wagon, for God’s sake. You don’t drive a station wagon to the prom!”

“The girls can chip in too,” Emily said. “Marisol wouldn’t mind, would she?”

I was afraid by now Marisol was regretting consenting to this adolescent ritual anyway; I certainly wasn’t going to ask her to “chip in” to ride in a limo. She probably thought she was chipping in quite enough just by showing up.

“Can’t you touch your old man for some money? He’s loaded,” Brian pointed out.

“I don’t ask him for money. He gives me some once in a while, but I never ask him. Can’t be done.” Especially after last weekend. He barely spoke to me in the car on the way home. Mad, I guess, that he looked foolish in front of Marisol. Which wasn’t my fault. I don’t think it’s a given that wet jeans in the bathroom means your son has finally rounded the bases.

“Come on, John. Emily really has her heart set on a limo.”

And we certainly can’t disappoint Emily. “I suppose I could call down to the Harborside and see if Jake has any weddings this weekend. If he’ll take me on both days, I can probably make a few hundred bucks.”

I’d waited tables for Jake last summer; it was grueling work—rich people make you take everything back twice—but the tips were great. And it would be the perfect excuse to skip going to Dad’s this weekend. Marisol was spending Saturday with Birdie anyway.

“That’s the spirit,” Brian said, clubbing me on the shoulder again. “I’ll make the reservations.”

Emily couldn’t stand still. “I wonder what color dress Marisol will wear.”

“Black,” I said.

“You mean she bought it already?”

“I mean she never wears anything that’s not black.”

Emily’s face closed in on itself. “Never?”

“Nope.”

“Well, you’re gonna have a hell of a time finding a black corsage!” Brian said, laughing. Emily joined in, but she looked a little worried. You should worry, I thought. Marisol just might

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