24. Kourtney
Kourtney
Senior Year of High School
“Don’t break the zipper, Kourt!”
“Your ginormous tits are breaking the zipper, not me,” I grunt as I prop my foot on the dresser for leverage. “Suck it in.”
“If I suck it in any more, I’m going to turn myself inside out.” Celeste winces. “Fuck, I knew I shouldn’t have trusted that size conversion chart on Shein.”
I blow a strand of hair out of my face as I yank on the zipper again. “You also should’ve tried it on before the day of the prom.”
“I forgot, okay?”
“I think it’s stuck.” I step back and throw my hands in the air. “I can’t do this. I don’t want to break the zipper.”
Celeste stomps across my bedroom and yanks open the door. “Jay, get up here. We need your assistance.”
“Wait.” I tear the comforter off my bed and wrap it around my body. “I don’t want him to see me yet.”
Celeste rolls her eyes. “It’s prom, not your wedding day.”
“But I wanted to have my She’s All That moment. You know, when she walks downstairs in slow motion and he’s waiting for her at the bottom, and then he looks up at her and is stunned by how beautiful she looks.”
Celeste waves her hand. “Fine. You stay inside the blanket, and I’ll have Freddie Prinze Jr. here go back downstairs after he zips me up so you can have your moment.”
Jason taps his knuckles against the door. “What’s going on in here?”
My heart flutters as he steps into the room, and I suck in a sharp breath. “Wow.”
He grins as he adjusts his tie, a pale green to match my dress. “Not too bad, huh?”
“You look amazing.” My cheeks heat, and I wish I wasn’t inside a down comforter because it’s suddenly very hot in here.
Jason arches a dark brow as his emerald eyes meet mine. “What’s with the blanket?”
“I’m not ready for you to see me yet.” I tip my chin toward Celeste. “She needs help.”
Celeste gestures to her dress. “I need you to use your muscles to zip up this dress.”
“But you can’t rip it, because then the dress will be ruined,” I add.
“Let me guess.” He spins Celeste around by her shoulders so she’s facing the mirror. “You waited until the last minute to try on your dress.”
She hikes a shoulder. “I forgot.”
His eyes narrow. “You forgot, or you put it off because you didn’t want to come to prom in the first place, so you ignored it until you couldn’t ignore it anymore?”
Celeste glares at him in the mirror. “Look, I told you I didn’t want to go to prom. This is so stupid, everyone getting all dressed up to party with the people they literally ignore in the hallway every single day, acting like we’re all going to be so upset when high school is over.”
Sadness trickles into my heart like a slow leak. “I’ll be sad when it’s over. We won’t be together—the three—of us, anymore.”
Jason glances at me over his shoulder. “Hey, don’t think about that right now, baby.”
Jason got into the University of Michigan on a hockey scholarship, while Celeste and I will be attending Rutgers here in New Jersey.
Ten hours is just far enough to force a wedge between a young couple in love.
Add in a grueling hockey schedule and horny college girls, and I’m not na?ve enough to believe that Jason and I will have a future after high school is over.
Breaking up is inevitable. We might as well do it on good terms.
“No more sad faces. We’re going to forget about graduation for a little while, and we’re going to have fun tonight.” Jason digs his finger into Celeste’s rib. “Even you. You got me?”
She scrunches her nose. “You’re so bossy.”
Jason pulls on her zipper, bunching the material together at the top. “You look beautiful, by the way.”
Redness crawls into her cheeks. “I look like a busted can of biscuits.”
“I like biscuits.”
She laughs and clutches her stomach. “Don’t make me laugh, or I’ll pop a stitch.”
I glance at the time on my alarm clock. “What time did you tell your mother to meet us here?”
Celeste sighs and drops her gaze to the dresser. “Thirty minutes ago. Guess I’m not getting my corsage.”
“She’s probably just running late,” I tell her, even though we both know her mother likely forgot about prom night altogether.
In one swift tug, Jason somehow gets Celeste’s zipper to close without breaking it. “There you go. Problem solved.”
“You’re a lifesaver, Jay. This is why we keep you around.” Celeste twirls in front of the mirror. “Now go wait at the bottom of the stairs, and make sure you look like a literal angel is floating down those steps when Kourtney comes out. Otherwise, I’m going to kick you in the dick.”
He chuckles as she shoves him into the hallway. “Why do you always resort to violence?”
She slams the door in his face and spins around to face me. “Let’s take a few selfies before we go downstairs.”
We put the finishing touches on our makeup and have a mini-photoshoot in my bedroom.
My eyes trail down the slinky red material hugging Celeste’s curves. “A busted can of biscuits has never looked this good.”
She smiles as she smooths a rogue strand of my hair back into place. “You ready for your big night?”
“It’s our big night.” I lace our fingers together. “I know you’re only doing this for me, but I’m really glad you’re coming.”
She shrugs. “Anything for you, little mouse.”
My heart races in my chest as I gaze up into her blue eyes.
She gave me that nickname the first day we met during freshman year.
We were paired together in chemistry class when Mr. Barrister banned her from using the Bunsen burner after she set a strand of her own hair on fire.
I was the shy, quiet girl, and she was the unafraid loudmouth.
We were opposites in every way, yet somehow it felt like she completed parts of me that were missing.
I think that’s what a best friend does. She makes you feel whole.
She makes you feel comfortable being yourself.
She holds up a mirror and shows you who you are and who you want to be.
And you can’t picture your life without her.
Celeste fidgets under my stare. “What?”
“You look so incredibly beautiful.”
She huffs out a laugh, deflecting my compliment like she always does. “Yeah, too bad nobody’s waiting at the bottom of the stairs for me to have my movie moment.”
Several people at our school, male and female, asked Celeste to be their date to the prom.
She turned everyone down and told them she wasn’t going.
I knew I’d be able to convince her to come with me and Jason, and I’m selfishly glad she doesn’t have a date.
Tonight is a special night, and I want it to be just the three of us, like it always is.
I squeeze her hand. “You have me.”
“You have Jason.”
“We have each other.”
She holds my gaze, and the world around us fades away. Once we leave for college, a new chapter of our lives will begin. It’s scary and exciting all at once. And I’ll have my best friend by my side through it all.
Everything is about to change for us.
“Girls, the limo is here!”
“Shit. Coming, Mom!” I grab my clutch off the dresser and square my shoulders in front of the bedroom door. “I’ll go first.”
I step into the hallway and grip onto the railing as I make my way downstairs. Our parents ooh and ahh as they snap pictures, but the only person I notice in the room is Jason.
Those captivating eyes of his are locked on me as he takes in my form-fitting dress. I could be wearing a potato sack, and he’d still look at me the same way. He always makes me feel like the most beautiful girl in the room, giving me his undivided attention.
My heart aches in my chest. He’s the kindest, gentlest, most caring person I’ve ever known, and I’m going to miss him so much when we part ways for college.
He sweeps me into his arms when I reach the bottom step and spins me around in a circle. “You look stunning.”
I wrap my arms around his neck and press my lips against his. “I love you so much.”
“I love you.” He sets me on the ground and brushes his nose against mine. “No matter the distance.”
Guilt pricks my gut. Jason has made it clear that he wants to try the long-distance thing, but I’ve told him where I stand.
I don’t want either one of us to have to go through that kind of pain and heartache—missing each other’s calls, getting jealous when we see pictures posted at parties on social media, drunk dialing each other, and getting into fights. I don’t want to be that couple.
I push the thought out of my mind, and try to stay in the moment.
We turn our attention to the stairs again as Celeste comes out of the bedroom.
If they call blonds bombshells, then Celeste is a firecracker, surrounded by an explosion of thick, reddish-orange hair. She’s tall but appears even taller whenever she struts around with her head held high, making eye contact with anyone in her path, flashing them her megawatt smile.
Something in my heart twinges as I watch her come down each step, and it feels a lot like the way it does when I look at Jason.
It’s a deep yearning, a need that I can’t quite explain.
I suppose that’s what love is. Your insides twist and you can’t put it into words, because any word you come up with would just cheapen it.
There’s nothing that can describe the way I feel for these two.
Celeste flips her hair over her shoulder in a dramatic finish when she gets to the bottom landing. “Okay, I know I thought your movie moment was overrated, but I kind of enjoyed that.”
I laugh and wrap my arms around her, squeezing her tight. “Told you.”
My mom dabs the corner of her eye. “Look at you. My girls are all grown up.”
Jason’s mother hands her a tissue. “Panemorfi.”
Celeste leans in and whispers, “What does that mean?”
“It means beautiful.” I grin. “Jason says it to me when we’re making love.”
“Of course he does.” She shakes her head. “I’ve gotta find myself a Greek boy.”
Jason slips on my corsage while our parents take pictures. Then he disappears into the kitchen.
I reach out and take Celeste’s purse from her. “Let me hold this for you.”
“Why?”
Jason returns, holding a plastic container in his hand. He stops in front of Celeste and pops open the top, revealing a cluster of small red roses surrounded by a spray of baby’s breath.
Celeste’s eyes fly up to his. “What is this?”
“This is your corsage.” He slips it onto her wrist. “I wasn’t sure your mother would come through, so I got a backup just in case.”
Pride swells in my chest. Jason isn’t just my boyfriend. He’s Celeste’s best friend too, and it makes me happy to see the way he cares for her—the same way I care for her. Her parents have always treated her like she’s a nuisance, like she doesn’t matter. Jason and I are her real family.
Celeste’s bottom lip trembles. “Y-you didn’t have to do this.”
“I wanted to.” He leans down and presses a kiss to her cheek. “Now both of my girls are ready to go.”
I smile as I link elbows with each of them. “Let’s go to prom.”