I stand at the picture window in our living room and watch as Kookie escorts Melody outside to my van. Then my chivalrous son opens the car door for her before climbing behind the steering wheel. He starts the vehicle, and they head off to the homecoming dance.
I turn back towards my beautiful daughter. She’s wearing the most gorgeous purple gown, her dark gold hair flowing down her back like a waterfall. If the look on his face is any indication, Lyric is quite taken with her and finds her breathtaking tonight. I smile as I notice the dark purple rose corsage that she’s now wearing around her wrist. A gift from Lyric.
“Can I take another picture of you three?” I ask.
Emmie is riding with Lyric and Janna. Janna told me Eric, a cute boy at school, invited Emmie to homecoming, but she still had eyes only for Kookie. Gently, she had turned down the nice, young man. Janna had felt sorry for him. She reported that he had looked totally crushed. Kookie, of course, hadn’t even noticed this little drama being enacted right outside his locker.
As Emmie steps up next to Janna, who is flanked on her right side by Lyric, I can’t help but feel sorry for the young girl who is like a second daughter to me. I’m a little broken-hearted for her tonight. I shake my head as I think of how I believe Kookie is missing it. Melody is a nice girl, but I don’t believe she is a good match for my fun-loving son. This girl, on the other hand, has always had the very best sense of humor. She makes me laugh out loud on a regular basis.
I snap three more pictures of the lovely group before they head out to Lyric’s car. Does this eighteen-year-old boy realize that I’m trusting him with the lives of the two most precious girls in the world to me? Right now, I’m glad Janna won’t be alone with him. I’m grateful that Emmie is going with her. There’s safety in numbers, right?
—
Since I remain at home while the teenagers in my household head off to the homecoming dance, I must admit that the following accounts were compiled from various eyewitness testimonies I received at a later date. For your reading pleasure, I will report them as though I observed them myself. I have added a few details to increase the dramatic presence of the participants.
—
Homecoming progresses very similarly to a million other such dances. Kids sip punch and munch on snacks as boys work up the nerve to ask their favorite girls to dance. Young ladies stand along the walls chatting with friends to avoid the sad truth that no boy has yet asked them to dance. Some of them give up on the boys and dance together, enjoying the beat of the music and the freedom of the night.
Lyric is an amazing date and asks Janna to dance to every single song, except the ones they agree to skip so they can partake of the necessary refreshments. To keep their energy up and stay hydrated.
As they are taking one of these breaks to sip punch and munch on cookies, Lyric turns to Janna and comments, “My sister seems to really like your brother. Do you think he’s into her?”
Janna looks up at her incredibly handsome date. She’s still over the moon that he asked her to homecoming. Sometimes she finds it hard to breathe when she looks at him. His eyes are so gorgeous! Dark, intense, exotic. But it’s his grin that tugs on the strings of her heart so often. She’s wondering what it would feel like to kiss that beautiful mouth. (Disclaimer: Janna did not share this information with me. But I remember what it’s like to be sixteen!).
Janna focuses her attention back on his question. Does Kookie like Melody? Hmm. It appears so. But Janna doesn’t believe he’s as immune to Emmie as he seems. She has too many memories that are witnesses to the contrary.
Kookie sharing his favorite lunchbox treats with Emmie for three years running. Emmie still believes that he likes her Twinkies better than his own Swiss Rolls. But he only traded with her because he loved her. He has always preferred chocolate over vanilla sponge cake. What a sacrifice he has made for a girl he considers to be only his friend! He went three whole years without his beloved chocolate rolls. To this day, Emmie still doesn’t know the truth.
Then there was the day that a very rude boy decided to pick on Emmie in the lunchroom at school. He’d shoved her tray, making it fall to the floor, sending Emmie’s lunch flying every which way. Some of it had even splattered her legs. Janna can still see the spaghetti sauce on Emmie’s white socks. And her brother coming to Emmie’s rescue. Kookie had strode across the lunchroom to confront the jerk that had broken Emmie’s lunch.
“Hey! You will apologize to Emmie and buy her a new lunch!” Kookie had informed the rude guy. “And you’ll clean up the mess you made too!”
Kookie had been undeterred by the other boy’s superior height and age. Said guy towered over Kookie. He was a senior the year Kookie was a freshman. It was before Kookie’s growth spurt. Still, Kookie had stood his ground.
“Says who?”
Kookie had stood there, unflinching, staring up at the guy as he responded, “Says I. You will make it right.”
And he had. He had backed down before Kookie’s confident defense of Emmie.
“Earth to Janna.” Lyric is waving his hand in Janna’s face. Her dazed eyes finally focus on him once more. His question of a few seconds ago echoes back to her, “Do you think he’s into her?”
“Uh. Well, he invited her to homecoming, right? I think that implies that he likes her.”
“Actually, he didn’t.”
“What?” Janna’s mouth pops open in confused surprise.
“Melody asked him…And he keeps staring at your friend in the corner.” Lyric now draws her attention to Emmie.
Poor Emmie. Janna should be hanging out with her more. Just then a boy walks up to Emmie and starts talking to her. She shakes her head, and he walks away. Emmie has just rejected another suitor, it seems. How many boys will she turn away in the hopes that one day Kookie will finally look her way?
Janna turns to look for her brother. She finds him and his date completing a slow dance in the middle of the gym. Lyric is right. Kookie is watching Emmie. Well, now, this is interesting.
Janna’s eyes peruse her best friend’s appearance. Emmie looks like a million bucks tonight. Never mind that she knew she was coming to this dance alone. Apparently, she prepared to make Kookie eat his heart out with longing. And disappointment in himself for not inviting her. She had chosen a stunning, ivory gown to wear. It has a fitted bodice and flows from her waist all the way to her ankles, and when she spins around, the pleated skirt billows out around her. She manages to look like both an innocent, little girl and a Disney Princess all at the same time.
Janna has French braided her hair into the shape of a heart on the crown of her head. The bottom half of her honeyed hair has been left to flow down her back in a series of straight lines. And then Emmie has masterfully let several strands of her hair fall to softly frame her face. She is still wearing her glasses, but Janna had watched her apply some mascara to her eyelashes, so her eyes are more noticeable than usual. She has also applied a subtle rose lipstick to her mouth. Is she hoping to be kissed tonight? Janna knows that Emmie has recently celebrated her birthday, and now she is sweet sixteen yet has never been kissed.
Janna sighs. She hopes her friend isn’t about to get her heart broken again. Janna glances from Kookie to Emmie and back again. For the briefest of moments, their eyes collide before Emmie breaks the contact to look across the room. Kookie looks…disappointed? But how can that be? He has another girl in his arms. The one who asked him to homecoming.
—
Kookie dances several times with Melody. She seems to prefer the slow songs, when she can wrap her arms around his neck as his hands encircle her waist. She likes staring into his beautiful eyes. Kookie is enjoying the ballads too. He likes the feel of Melody in his arms.
But something has been niggling at him all night. As he sways back and forth with Melody, a movement in the corner of the gym catches his eye. He looks up to see Emmie standing there, clothed in brilliant white, forlornly staring at him. Something flickers in his heart. He smiles faintly at her before she turns her gaze towards the other side of the room. Strangely disappointed, he finds himself looking back down into Melody’s dark eyes. All the while he is gazing into her pretty face, another face floats before his consciousness. A bespectacled girl with honey hair and hazel eyes. One with a quick wit and an ironic sense of humor. She makes him laugh out loud often. As he locks eyes with Melody, he tries to recall one time she has made him laugh. He can’t. But a thousand memories surrounding Emmie’s smiling eyes and biting wit surface in his mind, and he grudgingly admits that he adores her sense of humor.
He pushes such thoughts away as he tightens his hold on Melody. She’s the girl he likes. She’s the girl who invited him to homecoming. She’s the girl he’ll be taking home tonight. He smiles down at her, determined to dance the night away in her arms.
Melody spends the whole evening noticing how often Kookie’s eyes travel to Emmie’s face. It appears he escorted the wrong girl to homecoming. The lone girl stands by herself along the wall. Melody watches as she rejects several possible suitors. One by one, four boys gather their courage to invite Emmie to dance with them. Unequivocally, she turns down each one. Her eyes remain on Kookie the entire evening.
Towards the end of the dance, Kookie and Melody slip into the hallway to be alone. He has a plan to erase Emmie from his mind. Kookie wants to kiss Melody. He’s staring down into her dark eyes. She’s gazing wide-eyed back up at him. Her face is vulnerable in the pale hall light. Surely, if he kisses Melody, he’ll stop noticing how beautiful Emmie looks tonight. As Kookie bends towards Melody, he hears someone behind him gasp. Arrested, he turns around to see Emmie, her face a shocked mask as her eyes communicate the depth of her pain. And Kookie feels something rip away from his heart and float towards Emmie. Suddenly, she turns away from him and flies towards the door to the outside world. She flings it open and runs out into the pouring rain. Kookie stands for a moment, staring after her, before turning towards Melody.
Melody is anything but dumb. She recognizes Kookie’s true feelings before he does. She smiles faintly at him as she commands him firmly, “Go! Go after her!”
Kookie doesn’t need any more encouragement than that. He smiles at her, making her heart melt, before he turns around and chases after Emmie.
—
The instant Kookie passes through the doorway, he is enveloped by a cold wind and soaked to the skin by the vicious downpour. It’s raining so hard that he can hardly see. He pauses a moment to peer into the darkness beyond the parking lot. He can just see Emmie, her white dress a blur as she exits the parking lot for the sidewalk leading into his neighborhood. Thank God, he doesn’t live too far from school! She appears to be headed for his house. She is, after all, staying the night with Janna.
He takes off, running, pursuing the girl he’s known since kindergarten. The girl who has always been his best friend in the whole wide world. It’s something he and Nana have in common. This one faithful friend.
A thousand memories assault his consciousness as he runs through the pouring rain, his dark suit plastered to his body along with his white button-down shirt. As he glances down, he can see his whole, fit torso clearly outlined under the streetlamp. He nearly slips on the wet asphalt, so he slows down momentarily before overtaking Emmie a few houses from his own.
“Emmie!” he shouts just as a loud crack of thunder resounds.
Emmie jumps but not from his voice. She didn’t hear him. She’s gazing up at the sky as a sudden burst of lightning snakes across the heavens. She cringes, drawing back towards him.
“Emmie!” he cries again.
She spins around to find him right behind her. Her eyes grow wide.
“Come on!” He grabs her hand and pulls her towards home.
