Prom Night

Merci didn’t know what to do next. A cute jock had asked her out. Parker wasn’t just Highmount High School’s best soccer player, but one of the state’s top wrestlers as well. Merci could just feel Parker’s strong arms around her now. She smiled.

Parker had asked her to go to prom, which was tonight. What should she do? How should she behave? What would be expected of Merci in the wee hours after prom was over? Had she been asked at the last minute because she wasn’t cute enough, feminine enough to have been asked by others first? Merci had just learned that Parker had broken up with another girl. Was Merci only an afterthought? The thought troubled her. After all, no one else had invited her, and now to have the reputed “love machine” invite her was a little overwhelming. Maybe Parker’s rep was just that, a rep. Merci decided to put her misgivings aside and just enjoy the evening.

Actually, Merci had been asked to prom by one boy, but when she politely declined, he got sore and told her he only asked her because no one else word. It was a pity invite, he’d snarked at her.

Now it was prom night. Merci stood before her cheval mirror, inherited from her grandmother, and looked at her reflection. She had chosen an A-line dress, in a pastel shade of blue. She hoped it would go alright with her date’s sequined black tuxedo. Merci’s father had told her that it made her look older, more adult-like, and she had beamed at the compliment. She fleetingly longed for her mother to have lived to see her attend prom.

“Merci,” shouted Dad from downstairs. “Your prom date is here.”

Merci drew a deep breath, released it and eased nervously down the staircase, careful not to trip. At the foot of the stairs she observed Parker, resplendent in tuxedo and vest and bow tie. As the two came together and held hands, Merci’s father said, “You take care of my girl, now, Parker.”

“I will,” she promised, and the two slipped through the door and to the car, where Parker drove them to Highmount’s first-ever LGBTQ prom.