A Night in the Fairytale

Tiffany picked at her corsage as she waited in the backseat of the idling car. Her sister's encouraging smile flashed across her face, only making her queasier. The doubt she'd managed to avoid so far was now creeping in like a spider crawling up the drain, just waiting for her usual confidence to wash it away.

"I'm so proud of you," her sister had said. "You don't need a date. You're stronger than most of the girls you'll be sharing the dance floor with tonight."

At the time, these words and her sister's homemade corsage had filled her with light and strength, but the awkward drive had disoriented her. Usually, Charlie was easy-going, and third-wheeling felt perfectly natural. Left to her thoughts, she recalled that every moment she'd spent with Charlie, her best friend Sadie had also been there. She and Sadie had been friends since third grade when Tiffany had fallen off the monkey bars at recess and Sadie had run to her aid. She had only known Charlie for about a year, for as long as he'd been dating Sadie. She knew they spent their own private time together as a couple, but she'd been too consumed with her own plight (as a girl unlikely to catch anyone's eye in time for Prom) to think that she might be intruding on what should have been a special night for the two lovebirds.

She heard footsteps crunching on the gravel outside and shrank back into the shadows. The passenger door opened with a ding, ding, ding, and Sadie giggled as she sank into the leather seat.

"Why, thank you, kind sir," she said.

The door closed gently and Charlie's form briefly flashed across the headlights. Sadie's hand appeared, palm up on the back of the seat, fingertips stretching toward Tiffany, though she didn't turn her head. Tiffany hesitated, then grasped her hand firmly.

"This is it, Tiff," she whispered. "The night we've been waiting for."

Tiffany sighed. "You look beautiful, Sadie."

Sadie squeezed her hand, then released it as Charlie climbed into the driver's seat.

Tiffany sat still and silent, trying to pretend she wasn't there, and signaling to her friends to do likewise. She had expected their easiness to resume with Sadie's arrival, but Charlie didn't say a word as he put the car in drive and pulled out of Sadie's driveway. Sadie hummed and tapped a rhythm on the window glass, which made Tiffany feel slightly more comfortable. Still, she had to admit that Charlie's half-hearted, yet polite, attempt at conversation on the way to Sadie's house was better than his reticence. Her rocky relationship with her parents had taught her that silence was dangerous. Silence revealed little about a person's thoughts, feelings, or upcoming behavior. It was much safer when there was noise. She wondered if Sadie could sense it too, or if her perfect family had made her oblivious to this law of nature.

They could hear the music from the parking lot, where Charlie's green Jetta took its place among the vehicles of the other students, just like they soon would among their peers. Multicolored light poured out of a side door, propped open to admit students to "A Night in the Fairytale," which beamed at them from a banner over the door. From the outside, the school gym looked as smelly and inviting as ever, but it was the blaring sound of Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" and the melodramatic lighting that made Tiffany reluctant to enter. She no longer doubted her decision to attend Prom. She lamented it.

"Hey, Tiff?"

"Yeah?"

Sadie turned her head and smiled at Tiffany. "Could you leave us alone for a second? We'll catch up with you inside."

Tiffany blushed, a deep red filling her cheeks and spreading down her neck. They hadn't even entered the dance, and already she was in the way. Her guilt quickly overcame any apprehension about walking into the gym completely alone.

"Of course. See you later."

The car sang her a lonely goodbye. Ding, ding, ding. Sadie was already facing Charlie as it closed behind her. She approached the door tentatively, poking her head into the room to make sure she had the right entrance. A table, and the three giggling junior girls who sat behind it, were all that stood between her and certain embarrassment. One of the girls took her ticket without even looking at her, a small mercy that Tiffany hoped would repeat itself throughout the night. She wished to float noiselessly into the dance and fade entirely from existence for the whole evening. Her luck ran out before she stepped around the table. A classmate who was hurriedly exiting immediately ran into her, knocking her to the floor. Her heels flew off, missing his head by mere inches, and she lay there, stunned, immobile, and shoeless until his face appeared in her sightline. She could hear the junior girls shouting in surprise and concern, but they were just background noise.

"I am so sorry."

She recognized Hugh Jameson from her U.S. Government & Politics class. He looked upset, but she couldn't tell if his normally pleasant features were distorted in response to their collision or if they hinted at its cause.

"I got your shoes," he blustered. "Are you okay?"

Tiffany nodded and let him help her up and into a chair procured by the juniors.

"Can I get you anything? It's Tiffany, right?"

"Yeah. I mean, no, I'm fine, but my name is Tiffany."

"Oh, thank the Lord! You're not concussed at least. But still, I'm sorry. I should have been paying more attention."

"It's okay, really. I was just a little surprised, I guess. Sorry about my shoes."

Hugh's attempt to wave away her apology was interrupted as Charlie clambered into the room, pausing to orient himself. He noticed Tiffany seated awkwardly in the narrow entryway between wall and table, and Hugh standing over her. He stared at them as he handed his ticket to the onlooking juniors.

"What happened to you?" he asked Tiffany, ignoring apologetic explanations from Hugh and all three of the girls behind the table.

"Charlie!"

Sadie's voice from outside startled all of them, and without waiting for Tiffany to answer his first question, Charlie quickly posed another and ushered Tiffany off her chair and onto the dance floor. Tiffany was so surprised by this turn of events that Charlie practically had to drag her.

"Charlie! What are you doing?"

"I'm sorry, I thought you said yes."

"I would have if it had been another time, but you didn't give me a chance to say anything."

"I'm glad to know you aren't completely opposed to dancing with me."

Charlie stopped on the far side of the room, placing one hand gently on her waist and using the other to steer her hand through the crowd of dancing students.

"What's going on?" Tiffany asked settling her hand on his shoulder automatically.

Charlie shrugged. "Nothing. We're dancing."

"This isn't even a song people slow dance to. Where's Sadie?"

Charlie turned his head this and that, then seeming unsatisfied with something he'd spotted over Tiffany's right shoulder, he guided her into a cluster of people who were dancing like they were high (and they probably were) to Justin Beiber's "Baby."

"I don't really want to talk to Sadie right now."

"Please do not put me in the middle of any drama you two are having as a couple. Can't it wait? Sadie has been dreaming of Prom since we were about ten. Can't you just be her knight in shining armor for a little bit? You usually seem to be pretty good in that role."

"I wouldn't say that. Sadie takes care of herself just fine without me, doesn't she?"

Tiffany was shocked to hear the venom in his voice.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"She didn't tell me, Tiffany. She didn't say a word about her dad. And then tonight, when we were posing for pictures, her mom said that he would love it if we'd go up and see him."

Tiffany stepped back and forth, following Charlie's lead, but her movements were mechanical and her brain was slowly going numb. She could sense something wrong, something that didn't quite make sense in what Charlie was saying to her.

"Sadie tried to rush out the door. She said you were in the car waiting for us and we needed to go. We could see him another time. But something about the way her mom said it--"

He broke off, letting his silence fill her imagination with all of the dreadful things that could have befallen Sadie's kind father and her perfect, loving family. But she already knew what it was before he said it.

"Cancer," he said, his voice hollow. "Apparently, he's been sick for months and Sadie hasn't said a word."

He shook his head and smiled wryly at her. "I'm surprised you didn't give it away in all this time. A few minutes with her mother and it was out of the bag. I suspect you were sworn to secrecy, but it's okay. I don't blame you at all. It wasn't yours to tell, and you have no allegiance to me. The best friend and the boyfriend. We're little more than acquaintances, aren't we?"

Tiffany could barely hear him now over the sound of her world collapsing. She had believed her friendship with Sadie to be as solid as a brick wall, but now the bricks were tumbling, the mortar eroded in an instant. Or had the process been months long, somehow going undetected until now?

"Anyway," Charlie said, relinquishing his gentle hold of her, letting her hands drop, ignored, to her sides, "I just wanted to talk about it with someone who would understand how much it would hurt. I'm sure you can imagine how you would feel if she kept a secret like that from you. Maybe you have imagined it."

Tiffany didn't really see Charlie as he slipped out of the dancing crowd. She was trying to wrap her mind around how someone she felt so close to could keep such a big secret from her for so long. Had their friendship meant nothing? It wouldn't be the first time that bubble of delusion had popped. Tiffany was used to her relationships, her love, and the trust she bestowed now so carefully being meaningless in the eyes of their recipients. She could understand that Sadie was hurt and confused by her family's tragedy, but confused enough to lie and fabricate in the face of true friendship? This, Tiffany could not fathom.

Sadie appeared in front of her, pushing through the tight throng of students. She paused for a moment, breathing heavily.

"Oh, Tiffany. Have you seen Charlie?" she asked.

Tiffany pointed in the direction she thought Charlie had gone when he left her. She looked down as she did so and didn't say a word. She didn't want to give anything away with her words. Her own silence was safety. And even as Sadie thanked her and pushed back through the dancers in a new direction, Tiffany would not meet her eyes. She was too afraid she'd see just how insignificant she was in them. None of her sister's words could keep her from wishing she wasn't on this dance floor at all. And that she had never believed in herself long enough to let someone break her again.