Page 39 of The Lookback

Thomas Collins, wearing a suit, his dark hair combed carefully back so he almost looks like Elvis, is stronger, more handsome, and more heart-racingly debonaire than Clyde ever was. I can’t help noticing that my mom and dad are standing in the front window, even though they promised they wouldn’t, watching. Mom’s smiling and her hand is pressed against the window wistfully, like she’s worried she won’t see me again or something.

If she had come outside, I might have died of embarrassment. She’d have been sure to make some dumb comment about mydate.

In that moment, I remind myself how stupid I’m being. Tommy’s my friend, and he asked me out today from of a sense of loyalty. There’s a reason I wouldn’t let Mom and Dad come out and gush and take photos. There’s a reason I’m keeping things low-key. I can still hear his voice echoing through my brain.

“I do not like Mandy!” He had been yelling it. And then he’d said, “She sings like an angel, and that’s about all I care about.”

He appreciates my singing voice, and that’s that.

“Everything okay?” Tommy’s dark brows draw together. “Should I slow down?”

Yes. I’ll fob off my moment of idiocy on his unusual speed. “It’s definitely faster than our bikes.” I force a smile.

“That’s true.” He’s smiling, and his hair’s blowing softly because he cracked the windows, but moments later, we’re stopping.

In the wrong place.

“The dance is?—”

“I know where the dance is,” he says. “But we have to eat something first, right? And you can’t show uprighton time. What kind of princess does that?”

“But you don’t have to?—”

He’s already opening my door. “I do, though. The least I can do is get you some food at the Hub. It’s hardly fine dining.”

“Tommy.”

He holds out his hand, lifting both his eyebrows and shrugging. “Mandy, stop arguing and get your cute, fluffy self out here.”

Fluffy. I ignore his hand and climb out myself, shoving him to the side. He’s calling me fluffy, which is a word reserved for cute, bouncy baby chicks and like, fuzzy little lambs, so clearly any romance I was hallucinating existed exclusively in my head. “Aye, aye, captain.” I salute.

“Careful with that hand.” He reaches for my wrist, and again, my heart stutters at his casual touch.

But he’s just checking on the flowers. “They look just fine. I swear, that lady said she had used a whole spool of thread putting them together, but I didn’t believe her.”

“Wait, your mom didn’t make this?” I take a closer look.

“Where would we get roses this early?” he asks. “I drove into Green River for it. That big yellow florist shop.”

Why would he drive all that way? And pay so much?

“Let’s go.” Instead of releasing my hand, he slides his fingers down, lacing them between mine and drags me along behind him. The clicking of my heels just after the clomping of his dark dress shoes sounds. . .almostright, in a strange way.

I don’t have long to obsess, though. Teri’s waiting for us when we walk through the door. “Two prime rib dinners, ready to go.” She bobs her head at Tommy, and I realize he must have talked to her in advance. They don’t have anything but burgers, chicken fingers, french fries, and hot dogs on their menu, usually.

“Are you sure?—”

But he tightens his fingers on mine and pulls me further along. “Stop kicking at all the pricks, and just come eat some nice food, prom princess.”

I can’t help rolling my eyes, but I’m also a little bit in awe. When we reach the booth in the corner, there’s a tiny vase with little pink roses that just match my corsage. “Whoa,” I say. “This is—did you get these, too?”

The lighting isn’t that great in the corner, but it almost looks like Tommy’s blushing. “They had some leftover roses when they finished, and the lady said I could have them.” But that means he came by here earlier to drop them off. It was a lot of work.

He slides into one side of the booth and points at the other, but in the process, our hands separate.

My hand feels lonely, now.

I never realized how lonely my hand has been my entire life. Not until it was mourning the loss of Tommy’s fingers did I fully comprehend it. It’s strange, missing something you didn’t even know you wanted until moments before.

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