The Hidden

“And how many girls did you want to get to know?” “There were quite a few dances …” A mischievous smile tugged at his lips.

“And?”

“And … I don’t kiss and tell.” “Ooooooohhh.” I narrowed my eyes.

Caspian laughed. “I love when you get all grumpy, Astrid. It’s quite adorable.” He held a finger next to my cheek. “This number right here is the number of girls I’ve danced with that I wanted to get to know. One.” My heart melted a little. “Me?” I said hopefully.

He nodded. “You.”

I thought about what Caspian had said about the prom all weekend but was still undecided, and I found Beth and Ben standing next to the flagpole before school Monday morning, having a heated discussion about the best way to rig the pulley if you wanted to send something heavy up. Like a body.

“You guys have the weirdest ideas,” I said, joining in. “Like, seriously weird.” “Do you think it could be done?” Beth asked.

“It’s totally possible,” Ben replied. He launched into some long explanation that involved physics and weight and mass versus matter, as my eyes glazed over.

“Yes, but why would you do it?” I just shook my head at him.

Cyn walked over, smoking a cigarette and wrapped up in a long black coat. “How’s it hanging, peeps?” I didn’t know how to act around her. I wasn’t exactly mad at her, but I wasn’t entirely comfortable, either. “We’re analyzing the merits of hanging a body on the flagpole,” Ben said.

“Vertical or horizontal?” she asked.

“Vertical. Unless we’re talking a stiff stiff.”

“What would happen if the body didn’t have a head?” said Beth. “Ooh! That would be the coolest thing ever!” “Doable,” Ben said.

They all looked at each other and grinned.

I laughed loudly, and it echoed around us. My friends are really strange. The bell rang, and the group turned to go. I stood there for a moment, gazing after them as they walked. That thought sinking into my brain. My friends …

“Yo, you coming?” Beth yelled.

“Yeah.” I smiled down at the ground. “I’m coming.”

“All right, superstar.” Ben grinned at me as I walked out of English. “What color bow tie should I wear? I know you probably don’t have a dress yet because girls have to wait until the last minute for everything, right? I know the ‘girl rules.’ But just let me know when you know, so I can get the right one.” “The right color bow tie?” I gave him a confused look. “Um, what?” “For the Hollow Ball? I got your note. In my locker.” A suspicious feeling filled the pit of my stomach. “Can I see the note?” He dug into his pocket and pulled out a folded slip of paper. I recognized Caspian’s handwriting right away. He’d even taken the time to draw little hearts.

One word was all there was: YES.

Clearly all signs were pointing to yes.

Why fight it? I sighed. “Yup. It was about the Hollow Ball.” “I knew you couldn’t resist me.” He grinned, then said, “Beth’s going with Lewis, so do you want to rent a limo with them? We could take Candy Christine, but the limo is classier.” Ugh. This means dress shopping … “Um, yeah, sure. That’s fine with me.” “Okay. I’m on it. Oh, and what about the wrist flower thing?”

“Corsage?”

“Yeah.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

He looked relieved. “Okay. Great. Let me know about the bow tie, though. Gotta go.” “Will do,” I called as he walked away. I’ll get on that just as soon as I’m done chewing my boyfriend out.

* * *

When Caspian came to pick me up at the end of the day, I was waiting for him. Arms crossed. He read my face. “You found out about my note, didn’t you?” I glanced over at Cyn, who was rearranging her dead plant menagerie to make room for another one. “Not here,” I said quietly.

“All I wanted to do was-”

“Something that I didn’t want you to do,” I interrupted. “I told you I wanted to make my own decision. Why didn’t you respect that?” Cyn paused and glanced over her shoulder at me.

I moved away from her, away from Caspian, and started walking down the hall. We needed to finish this discussion somewhere private. Where no one could hear me. I didn’t let loose again until we were home, in the safety of my room.

“How could you do that?” I stormed, stalking around the bed. All of my words were pent up inside me and ready to burst out. “I just can’t believe it.” “I thought it would help.”

“Help? How is making the decision for me helping me? In what way, shape, or form is that ‘help’?” “I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t have-”

But I was too mad to listen. “Now I’m going to have to go. I told Ben yes, and I can’t back out. How is that fair to me?” “You’re right. I’m sorry. It was a stupid thing to do.”

I paced back and forth. “This also means that I’m going to have to go dress shopping. Most likely with my mother. Which is never fun, by the way.” I blew out an angry breath. “And now-” “Astrid.” He stood up, and came to face me. “Give me the note.” “What? Why?”

“Because I’m going to write a new one. I got you into this. I’ll get you out. Consider it already done.” I fished the note out of my pocket. It was crumpled around the edges from where Ben had been holding it. As I stared blindly down at it, all I could see was the expression on Ben’s face as he talked about his bow tie and the limo. Then I saw him giving me the tickets in case I said no.

Caspian reached for it.

“Wait.” I sighed, holding it back. “You can’t. I’ll feel bad.”

“He’ll get over it.”

“Yeah, but I won’t get over it.”

He paused, hand outstretched. “I don’t want to make you do anything you’ll regret.” “Other than the dress shopping with my mother, the only regret I have is that I won’t get to go with you.” I exhaled again and sat down. “Actually, I think that’s what I’m really mad about. Going with Ben is no big deal. It’s the fact that if I want to go at all, it has to be with someone other than you.” I glanced up at him and said softly, “I want to be there with you as my date.” “I know. I want that too. Believe me, I actually thought about …” He shook his head. “It’s selfish, but I actually thought about telling you not to go. To stay here with me.” As he said that, I realized how much it must have hurt him to push me to go with Ben. All so I wouldn’t miss out on my senior prom. “I’m not letting you off the hook for pretending to be me and writing that note,” I said. “But I understand why you did it.” He went over to my desk and opened up a drawer. “I, uh, have something for you. Something that I hope will act as a peace offering.” Reaching down into the drawer, his hand disappeared.

“Damn it,” he said a minute later. “Damn. I can’t …”

“What?” I got up and went over to him.

“I can’t pick it up.” He glanced at me, eyes wide with panic. “I can’t touch it.” Panic flared inside me too. “Try again. You can do it.”

He reached his hand down again. With the same result.

“One more time,” I pleaded, refusing to believe what was happening. Or almost happening. Refusing to believe that the loss of control over his sleeping, and now this, might mean he was fading away from me. “Try again. Please.” He did, and this time the results were different.

With a look of relief, he pulled out a small square item draped in a piece of blue cloth. He placed it down on the desk.

“It worked that time, see?” I said, trying to keep the edge of desperation out of my voice.

“Yeah.” He was doing the same thing too. Affecting a falsely happy tone. Nudging the item toward me, he said, “Open it.” I picked the object up and slowly peeled away the fabric. A small piece of wood was revealed. On closer inspection I could see that it was actually resting on top of a second piece of wood. The edges were smooth