Winter Dance

As she tried to concentrate on her textbook, Beth got an uneasy feeling that she was being watched. Slowly, she looked away from her book to see Ev staring at the book cover. Not at her, but the book cover.

Ev looked at the book for a few more seconds until he saw her name in the upper right hand corner written in small block letters. A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth from his discovery, that was until he met the intense gaze of the book's owner.

"Do you mind," Beth hissed, "I'm trying to study!" Her eyes flashed angrily.

Ev blinked and recoiled slightly. "You got a quiz or something?"

Heavy sigh. "Yes. Next period. I'm trying to study."

"Sure, sure," he answered. He thought for a second before looking at Beth once more. "Algebra? Right?"

Another heavy sigh. "Yes. Algebra. Do I need to spell it out? I need to study. You are making this very difficult to do. Please, leave me alone." Her eyes, once angry, were now pleading with him.

Ev held his hands up in defense. "Okay, okay. I'm sorry. I'll leave you alone." Shaking his head, Ev opened his textbook.

Beth tried to continue her studying; but she knew it was a hopeless cause. It was nothing but a jumbled mess of letters and numbers staring back at her. And it was all his fault! She was doing fine until he made all that noise and bothering. She felt like cussing him out. It would make her feel better, but she knew it wouldn't solve anything. Not a damned thing. She closed the book and put it under her seat. Ev noticed immediately.

"Got it all figured out?" he asked innocently.

Beth slowly turned her head in his direction and glared.

"What did I do?"

Seething, she replied, "You made enough noise to wake the dead and then you wouldn't leave me alone. I was hoping for a few extra minutes to study, but forget that now."

"I said I was sorry."

"That doesn't help me right now, does it?" she exclaimed, a little louder than she intended. Beth's eyes were blazing again.

A rap from Mrs. Blackmore's ruler silenced them.

Ev looked at Mrs. Blackmore and then back at Beth, but she was digging into her books and notes. He knew better than to say anything else although he really wanted to know what was bothering her. Mrs. Blackmore wouldn't tolerate another outburst and he certainly didn't want either of them getting into trouble.

When they had talked in the past, he now remembered that Beth had always been nice especially when he helped her with an algebra problem. Even though she obviously wanted to study, it still puzzled him as to the severity of her anger towards him. He could only shrug his shoulders and chalk it up to having a bad female day.

Later, Ev caught up to Cory and Doug in the parking lot after school. Luckily, they parked in almost the same spot or area every day. As they put their book bags in the trunk, Ev turned to Cory. "You could have given me a heads up this morning."

"It wouldn't have made any difference," she replied coolly.

"How's that?"

"You would have just mumbled something, then rolled over and gone back to sleep like you always do. I wasn't going to waste my breath."

"When did you tell me yesterday?"

"On the way home right after we got out of the parking lot," she said as Doug closed the trunk. "You were probably still moping about seeing Amanda and Greg in the hallway. You seriously have to get over her, Ev." They got in the car and closed the doors.

"Easy for you to say," Ev replied. "We dated for over two years, you know."

"And who dumped whom?" Cory shook her head. "She dumped you and you're acting like a whipped puppy." Cory started the car and put it in gear.

"I am not acting like a whipped puppy," Ev protested.

"Sounds like it to me," Doug chirped from the back seat.

"No one asked you," Ev said over his shoulder without looking. "Anyway," he turned back to Cory, "maybe I was preoccupied, but I didn't hear anything about leaving early today."

"Ev, seriously, she said it plain as day," Doug said.

"I really did," Cory added. She pulled into traffic. "As I was saying, you need to forget about her. Are you bringing anyone to the dance?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"I wasn't expecting to go."

"You're kidding."

"I'm not kidding. I thought they'd let me stay home tonight."

"You ought to know better than that," Cory said. "They never left you alone before. Why would that change now?" She made a right at the light.

"Well, the year's almost up and I thought they'd give me a break."

"Yeah, right," Doug snorted.

"I know, pretty stupid of me," Ev said. "I just thought they might."

"Don't know what to tell you," Cory said to him as she watched the road. "At least your friends will be there."

"Yeah," he replied, looking out the window, "that'll be fun." Cory noted the hint of sarcasm in his voice.

It wasn't long before they arrived home and found their parents getting ready for the evening. When he got to his room, Ev saw the freshly dry-cleaned suit hanging on the door with the wrapper still protecting it. He peeked under the white plastic and cringed when he saw his tan suit beneath. Ev groaned loudly and dropped his backpack on the floor with a thud.

"Why the tan one?" he growled. She knew he hated the tan one. Any of the others would have been a hundred times better, especially the black or the navy. He mulled the situation over and over in his head. Should he try to get along and go with the program or should he just go ahead and piss her off? In his mind, he knew she cleaned that one only to show she was boss and that irritated him to no end.

Ev opened his closet and checked his other suits, all of which were in decent shape but hadn't been cleaned in a while. Lord knows she could have had the others cleaned as well and let him choose what he wanted to wear. Unfortunately, that wasn't her style.

His dress pants and shirts were all cleaned and pressed so he would have plenty to choose from in that regard. He made up his mind then and there that he wouldn't wear a suit at all. Who was he trying to impress anyway? Certainly not a date he didn't have. Amanda would be falling all over Greg if they decided to come and probably wouldn't even notice Ev's existence. He hoped they wouldn't show, but with how his day was going, it was inevitable.

If he really wanted to spite his mom, he would have worn all black: shirt, tie, and pants. But he wasn't in a total black mood that day. Instead, he decided upon a black shirt, silver tie and gray slacks. Ev dressed slowly taking precautions not to wrinkle his clothes. He was that way when he dressed up for a special occasion, although he didn't consider this special. At least not now. Still, he didn't expect too much of an argument from his mom and even if she did put up a fuss, he wasn't going to change. What was she going to do, say he couldn't go? Ev laughed inwardly at that thought. He checked his watch and saw it was almost five o'clock. After tying his last lace, Ev took a deep breath and headed down to the living room.

Chapter 4

Beth stood in front of her mirror, checking herself and sighed. Her teal, knee-length dress wasn't fitting the way it did in the store. Or maybe it was just her imagination. She fussed and pulled until she was almost satisfied with the way it looked. She had really wanted the sexy blue number, but her mom tsked her disapproval and Beth figured she had to be at least twenty-five to pull off something that sophisticated.

She had spent half an hour curling her hair and was happy with that, although she began to wonder why she was going through so much bother when she wouldn't be doing anything except hanging out with her friends. No one had asked her to the dance, but Megan, her best friend since grade school, insisted she go anyway and keep her company. Beth hadn't thought about refusing and was actually looking forward to the evening.

It certainly wasn't the first time she and Megan had gone to a dance dateless and it didn't bother them. They would always find friends to hang out with. Neither thought dating a boy was something they had to do to feel like their lives were complete. Like Beth, Megan dated infrequently and no boy had ever become special to her. She tended to go out on group dates whereby everyone knew each other and there was no pressure. One on one dates wasn't Megan's style most of the time, one of the few things that greatly contrasted herself with Beth.

The girls met in fourth grade when Megan's family moved into the area. Alphabetically seated, she was placed behind Beth and soon after became best friends after Megan offered her a chocolate chip cookie at break time. They would stay up until all hours during their frequent sleepovers, sharing their dreams, wants and desires. They helped each other through boys, puberty and difficult homework assignments. Nothing was sacred (except their friendship) and no secrets were kept.

Now, as they approached graduation in a few months, Beth wondered at times if they would remain close or slowly drift away. It was a subject rarely brought up, probably because it was too painful to think about. Megan had insisted they would be best friends forever even though they wouldn't be going to the same college. It was something they had talked about frequently before their senior year, both going to Ohio State or Indiana or whatever school they decided upon. But when it came time to seriously think about their futures, their choices were inevitably different. Megan wanted to go to Bowling Green State University to study music while Beth had decided that the University of Louisville best suited her for a career in journalism. Bittersweet reminders of their earlier pact tried to cloud their decisions, but each knew their choices were for the best.

"You're going to write me every week," Megan had said when Beth got her acceptance letter to UL.

"You're only saying that because I told you the same thing," Beth retorted.

It was agreed upon that they would meet as often as possible during breaks and holidays and Beth hoped their friendship would indeed last forever.

Beth exhaled another deep sigh as she came back to reality. She was about as ready as she would ever be. The only thing she had to wait for was Megan to come and pick her up.

* * *

"Why aren't you wearing the suit I had cleaned for you?" his mom demanded upon seeing Ev enter the living room.

"I didn't feel like wearing a suit tonight. I'm not going with anyone," he replied placidly.

"If I knew you weren't going to wear it, I wouldn't have had it cleaned."

"I never asked you to have it cleaned."

"That's not the point."

"The point? What is the point, mom?"

"Oh never mind," she replied, dismissing the subject with a wave of her hand. "We don't have time to send you back upstairs to change." She went to Everett and straightened his tie. "I swear, I have to dress everyone in this house," she muttered under her breath.

Ev smiled to himself. He knew his mother pretty well and figured she wouldn't put up too much of an argument. And it was just like her to change the subject when she didn't have the answer. As Ev got older and had a clearer understanding of his parents, their virtues and faults were easier to see. He no longer accepted their word as gospel, although most of the time they had sound reasoning behind their actions.

He realized his mother was not the fussy, over-protective person he thought her to be while growing up, but instead, a person who had to be in charge and had to have her hand in everything her family did. It wasn't just Ev who felt her presence in everything he did, Cory perhaps had it the worst since she was the only daughter. Ev believed his mom saw a younger version of herself in Cory and was determined to move her in the direction she saw fit, be it clothes, boys, or school subjects to take. In one of the few times Cory and Ev had a serious one on one discussion without arguing, Cory confided that she couldn't wait to go away to college.

"I can be my own person and breathe," she said. "I can do what I want, wear what I want and not have her criticizing me all the time."

"I didn't know she did that to you, too."

"All the time. She doesn't say much around you guys, but it seems like nothing I do pleases her. Either my hair isn't combed right or my dress is too short or my makeup is too thick. I just get really tired of it. Do you know she got really pissed at me when I told her I didn't want to be a lawyer?"

"I had no idea," he replied. "I thought you wanted to be a lawyer."

"I thought I did at one time, mainly because she wanted me to. But over the last few years, deep down in my heart, I knew it wasn't for me."

"What do you want to study?"

"Criminal Justice."

Ev looked at her in disbelief. He never would have guessed in a hundred years. "Criminal justice? You're kidding, right?"

"Not at all," she said seriously.

"What part of criminal justice?"

"I was thinking of becoming a police officer."

Ev's jaw almost hit the ground. His twin was the last person he would think of as a police officer. She was tall and thin and always shied away from physical activity, be it work or play. "A police officer? What would ever possess you to become a police officer?"

Cory's jaw tightened slightly. "I think it would be a very exciting career. I wouldn't be stuck behind a desk every day and each call would be different. The adrenaline would always be flowing." She hesitated for an instant. "That's not all," she said softly.

"What do you mean?"

"I could always advance higher if I wanted to, especially if I continued to go to school and got my master's degree."

"Higher, as in lieutenant or captain or something."

"Exactly. The possibilities are endless. Don't you see?" She looked at him and her eyes told him she needed assurance, not lectures or disapproval. She was sure to get plenty of that from her parents.

"If that's what you want to do, it's okay with me. It just a real surprise to me since you've never mentioned it before."

Cory reached forward and hugged him, something that was uncommon between them. "Thanks. Please don't tell anyone about this."

"Sure," Ev said.

And so he didn't.

It surprised everyone except Ev when Cory announced she was accepted to Arizona State on an academic scholarship and that she planned to attend there instead of the University of Cincinnati where she had told everyone she wanted to go. The argument was monumental with a lot of harsh words, tears, and ill-feelings, but Cory stood her ground and the furor died down after a few weeks.

The same subject hadn't been broached with Ev because he hadn't let his choice be known to anyone. He had been accepted to a dozen or so colleges in and around the Ohio area, but he had yet to make up his mind. His biggest hang up involved his major. Ev didn't know what he wanted to study and he wasn't going to choose a school until he made that decision. Business and accounting had always interested him and he took a few classes pertaining to such, but he just could not make up his mind.

During his junior year, he was given a test by his guidance counselor to zero in on his academic and career interests. He laughed when he saw the results. It was determined that he was best suited for cartography, something he had absolutely no interest in, although it did appeal to the analytical part of him. Next, an English teacher. Well, he did like to write. Thirdly, sports management. Now there was something that piqued his interest. He liked business and he liked sports, so that was a possibility. The test and the results had been pushed back into the deep recesses of his mind and had stayed there for the most part until Cory confided in him about her desires. He knew he would have to make a decision fairly soon in order to start the ball rolling before the schools began to fill their freshman classes.

Doug, bounding down the stairs and hitting the landing with a loud thud broke Ev from his thoughts.

"Can't you walk down the stairs like a normal human being?" Everett asked as Mary finished fussing with his tie. "Sounded like the whole house was falling down."

"It's the only way I know," Doug grinned.

"Try it my way sometime. You might like it."

"I doubt it."

"Do it anyway," he ordered.

"Alright, alright," Mary said, "enough of the arguing. Let's get going."

Cory had been picked up a half hour earlier by her date. With no further arguing, they left the house and headed to the school.

* * *

Megan arrived at Beth's house in her gray Chevy S-10 at 5:45 and honked the horn once. Without checking to see who it was, Beth yelled good-bye to her mom and closed the solid wood door behind her. As the chilly wind whipped around her, Beth was immediately thankful for the warmth of her thick wool coat, a Christmas gift just a year before. Walking briskly to the rumbling pickup, Beth looked up as Megan unlocked the passenger door to let her in.

"It's freezing out here!" Beth exclaimed as she climbed into the cab. She shivered as she locked the door and began to fasten her seatbelt.

"Yeah," Megan agreed. "It didn't seem so bad coming home from school. I was surprised when I came to get you." She backed out of the driveway easily and began the trip back to school.

"Did Eric call you?" Beth asked. Eric was Megan's boyfriend although she would never admit it. In her mind, they were just friends who hung out together on occasion.

"Yeah, he said he'd be there. Didn't know what time he'd get there though."

Beth felt a small pang of jealousy seep into her at the news. She was hoping it would be an all-girls night with her friends, but this bit of news changed things. As much as Megan would say they were "just friends hanging out", Beth thought otherwise. More than likely, they would head off by themselves at some point in the evening and Beth would have to find someone else to hang out with. That's not to say that her other friends wouldn't be fun, but Beth was hoping to spend her time with her best friend. After all, graduation wasn't too far away.

"That's cool," she heard herself say. It made her feel guilty to find her statement not entirely truthful. It also pained her to realize their time together before college was dwindling quickly. They would be graduating in less than four months and who knew how much time they would have to spend with each other in the summer before college started.

"Eric's a good guy," Megan said, her eyes fixed on the road.

"He's alright," Beth replied indifferently.

"He's more than alright," Megan corrected. "I like hanging out with him." They came to a red light and stopped. Megan looked at her and said, "What's up? You seem down."

"Nothing," Beth said quietly and shrugged. "I just had a bad day, you know, tests and stuff."

"Well, it's time to snap out of it," Megan laughed. "We're supposed to have fun tonight. Only two more dances after this until graduation."

"It's going too fast," Beth said.

"What is?"

"This school year, everything," she complained. "It's been a total complete blur. I just wish it would slow down a little bit so I can enjoy it better." Beth looked out the window and sighed.

"Yeah," Megan agreed. "Nothing much we can do to slow it down, though."

"That's for sure."

The light turned green and they were on their way once again. Nothing more was said and Beth was thankful for the silence. She didn't want to talk about only two more dances until graduation and she didn't want to think about perhaps losing her best friend once college started. It was weighing heavily on her mind and she didn't like it one bit. Earlier in the school year, she was able to push it aside and not think much about it, but now it was right in front of her, mocking her, and she could do nothing but think about it.