He walked by me and opened my bedroom door for me before ushering me out.
“Holy shit!” Those were the first words from Adam’s mouth when he saw me step into the living room.
Aaron turned around, and you would have thought the world had stopped spinning for him.
“You look… beautiful!” he said, wrapping his arms around me, and kissing me on the cheek.
“You look pretty amazing yourself,” I replied, smiling, and kissing him briefly before looking back at Adam, who was still gawking. “Nadine should be out any moment.”
A moment later Nadine came in, wearing her green gown.
“You look great!” Adam said, admiringly.
I couldn’t help noticing that there was no spark in his eyes as there had been when I entered. I frowned. He said and did all the right things with her, but I knew he still hadn’t fallen in love with her.
“You look great too,” Nadine replied, kissing him on the cheek.
Adam handed her the corsage he had in his hand. Aaron seemed to take note of this and grabbed my arm to place a three-rose corsage on my wrist.
“Where’s Kim?” I asked Shawn.
He looked at his watch. “She should be here shortly. She got held up at the salon.” He smiled at me. It was uncanny how much he looked like our father.
We waited for twenty minutes before we heard Kim’s clunker coming up the driveway. You couldn’t miss the backfires as she pulled in and parked. When she entered, however, she looked amazing. She was wearing a silver dress that came to her knees. Her brown hair was pulled up in ringlets on the top of her head, and her makeup was faint but beautiful. Shawn instantly took her hand and kissed it.
“My lady, you look enchanting,” he said.
A smile spread across her lips, but I could tell at once that she didn’t feel comfortable. Her eyes kept darting around the room. I understood her nervousness among these people she barely knew.
I don’t know why he asked me. He could have asked any other girl.
I shivered. It was happening again. I was hearing her thoughts. Please, God, don’t let her be one of the possessed! However, there was no darkness in her smile. No sign that she was not herself. She was human; I could sense it. There was nothing sinister inhabiting her body.
“You look beautiful,” I said, giving her a smile that was as genuine as I could muster.
“Dawn? Is that you?” she asked softly as if her eyes were deceiving her.
I laughed. “Yes, it’s me under all the makeup and hairspray.”
“You look amazing!”
“Pictures!” My mother had entered the room with her digital camera.
I stuck out my tongue in disgust. I should have seen this coming. I swear she took several hundred pictures of us. Just when I thought it was over, she pulled out her phone.
“Shawn, Dawn. Get together. I want to send a picture to your father,” she said, positioning us side by side.
Shawn put his arm around me protectively. By the way my mother smiled, I could see that she was enjoying this. She texted our father the pictures and showed us the note she added.
Mom: Look at our children — all grown up.
I glanced at her and saw that her eyes were brimming with unshed tears. I finally understood what Shawn was saying about her being the only mother he had known. She loved him as much as she loved me. Having both of us in the house had given her some hope that everything was going to turn out all right.
“We need to go if we’re going to get there in time,” Adam said, looking at his watch.
Shawn and I both hugged my mother, and I kissed her on the cheek before leaving the house and climbing into the limo with two of the three most important people in my life.
****
We arrived at the dance shortly after eight-thirty. The place was already packed. Aaron immediately led me to the dance floor, and we started bouncing around to the music. After a couple of hours or more of this, I realized I was having fun, something I wasn’t expecting to happen, with all the horrible things that were happening in Midvale.
“How did I get so lucky?” Aaron asked as the music slowed in the latter half of the evening and he wrapped his arms around me, pulling me close. He smelled magnificent.
“I think you just played your cards right.” I smiled at him and put my head on his shoulder. I couldn’t tell him the truth. That would just be too much.
“Every day that I see you I fall deeper and deeper in love with you,” he whispered.
I felt my heart give a lurch. He was such an amazing boy; he had so much to offer. Yet there I was, pining over a lost love, while this opportunity was given to me. I looked up at him and kissed his jaw. He gave me a warm smile and planted his lips on mine. I felt the dark yearning return to the forefront, and I fought to keep it under control. His kiss was sparking something that I was trying to keep at bay. My eyes began to burn, and my fingers started to tingle. I pulled back and looked at him. His face was flushed, his cheeks pink, and he looked amazing.
“I need some air,” he said. “Come with me.”
He led me outside, where he leaned up against the wall, resting his head on the bricks.
“You okay?” I asked.
“I’m fine. It’s just a little crowded in there.” He smiled at me, then reached for me and pulled me to him. “Besides, I just wanted a little alone time with you.”
He gave me a long, slow kiss, far hotter than the one we had inside. The dark urge inside me started to scream for the darkness to consume me. It wanted him. I already had a claim on
