My Sister's Keeper

Tonight was the prom. And she was doing it for Johnny, who should be arriving shortly. Not only did she feel beautiful, she felt sexy. She could only hope that Johnny would feel the same. Until this year she had hung out with the nerdy kids, sitting with them at lunch, and staying after school to study. Maybe now she could hang with the cool kids. If Mom will just let me out of the house. The little dress violated the school dress code for sure, and maybe worse, her mother’s views about what was appropriate for a sixteen-year-old child. But I’m not a child anymore. Bella carefully finished applying her lipstick before stepping back from the mirror hanging on the inside of her bedroom door to take herself in. She could hardly believe it was her. Her hair and makeup were perfect, her black stilettos ideal, and her dress, well, she was so in love with it she didn’t ever want to take it off. She adjusted the pendant on the necklace her dad’s friend, Mia, had lent her for the night, which featured an ornate silver ring circling a jet-black center. I wonder why Mia told me to wear this and not to take it off? Her phone buzzed. A text from Johnny. “I’m here.” Bella dropped the lipstick and texted back. “Wait!” Then she added, “Don’t knock on the door. I’ll come 2 U.” Bella slipped her phone into the red mini purse she had selected to go with the dress and pulled the thin strap over her shoulder as she hurried out her bedroom door. Unfortunately, she had underestimated the difficulty of tiptoeing down the wooden stairs and to the front door in stilettos. She made it all the way down to the last step but stumbled on the rug. It was only a matter of moments before she heard, “Excuse me young lady. Where do you think you’re going dressed like that?” She sighed, cursed in her head, and turned to face her mother. “To the prom,” Bella said as innocently as she could muster. Her mother put her hands on her hips and scrunched her eyebrows together. Bella recognized this pose all too well and braced herself for a lecture. “You really thought you could sneak out without me noticing?” Bella fumbled for a response. “Dad said it was okay.” Her mother gave her a hard look. “Your father, huh?” Bella tried to keep her face neutral, but she could feel her prom slipping away from her as her mother said, “And did your father see this dress? Because I have a hard time believing he’d approve of it any more than I do.” Bella wasn’t about to go down without a fight. She had been dreaming about this night for weeks and no way was she going to end up spending it in her bedroom alone. “Well, I mean he bought it for me, didn’t he?” Her mother raised an eyebrow. “So, you’re saying you went shopping with him and not his new little girlfriend?” Bella had no idea how her mother knew that she’d gone shopping with Mia, but Mia was kind of a sore subject and Bella knew she had to answer the question carefully if she had any hopes of finally kissing Johnny tonight. Bella hoped to avoid confessing that she had gone shopping without her father. “I really don’t think they’re even dating, Mom.” Her mother rolled her eyes and said, “That’s not the point, Bella. The point is that whoever she is, she let you pick out an incredibly inappropriate dress.” Peering through the windowpane on the side of the door Bella saw Johnny leaning against a shiny black sedan in the driveway. She looked back at her mother with desperation. “Mom, please. I’m sorry about the dress but it’s too late to get another one and Johnny is waiting for me. You know how important this is to me. And I promise to take lots of pictures and next year you can take me dress shopping for my senior prom.” Her mother was quiet for a moment. Bella felt her heart pounding in her chest. Then finally, after what felt like forever, her mother said, “Fine, but that doesn’t mean you’re off the hook, young lady.” Bella squealed and rushed to give her mom a hug, “Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!” Her mother couldn’t help but break into a smile. “Alright, now go on before I change my mind. Just be careful and have fun.” Bella giggled and hurried out the door. Johnny pushed himself off the car and grinned at her as she approached. Once again, Bella found herself trying to control her facial expressions. Seeing him all dressed up, leaning on the car like that made him somehow even more irresistible to her than he had been before. He stared at her in awe with those big brown eyes and bit his lip before running a hand through his gorgeous thick, black hair. Bella was somehow managing to appear calm and collected but her stomach was doing flips. She had been hardcore crushing on Johnny since middle school. Like most infatuated middle school girls, she used to figure out his class schedule just by noticing which times she saw him in the halls. She even used to walk different routes in the hopes of him noticing her and going up to talk to her, because of course she could never just go up to him. He was popular and always had half the grade crushing on him at once, and she was, well, kind of a nerd. But that was then. Now here he was, parked in her driveway. He had picked her to take her to his senior prom even though she was just a junior. She excitedly hurried towards him. The awkward jog made her alarmingly aware of just how little support her minimal plunge bra provided, so she switched to a less bouncy speed walk. Johnny opened the passenger door for her, and Bella instinctively glanced back at the house. She found herself hoping her mother was watching from the window to see what a gentleman he was being. Maybe if her mom was watching she would mention it to Bella’s father and then, if the night went well, he might be okay with her dating Johnny. She knew it was a longshot. He was her dad, and she knew it was highly likely that he would never approve of any guy she might want to date. Not only was he an overprotective father, he was also a defense attorney, which certainly didn’t help how suspicious he was of everyone who came near his only daughter; well, his only child. He had always done his best to prepare her for the darkness of the world. Of course, he had signed her up for martial arts starting when she was only six years old and constantly told Bella about the survival tips he had gleaned from his line of work. And she had taken it to heart. She had earned a black belt and heard enough horror stories for a lifetime. But now she also considered herself to be basically all grown up; she was, after all, only two years short of becoming a legal adult. She was old enough to decide if she thought a guy was dangerous or not, and she didn’t think Johnny was. “You look…fantastic,” Johnny said once they were both in the car. She noticed him stare at her breasts and exposed legs brazenly before he started to pull away from the curb. “You know, that’s a super sexy dress.” Bella’s face flushed with heat, but she smiled. She really wasn’t used to getting that kind of compliment. Physically, she had been slower to mature than her classmates, and this gave her a bit of an inferiority complex. While the other girls, including sophomores, wore short skirts and revealing tops to flaunt what Mother Nature had bestowed upon them, Bella had donned jeans and oversized tops to hide what Mother Nature seemed to have forgotten to give her. Her mother had told her not to worry, that she was just a late bloomer—showing herself as an example of what Bella could expect. How right she was! In the last year, Bella started filling out, even more than she had expected. Now, all the boys at school turned their heads when she strolled down the hallway. Even Johnny. She really liked hearing him call her sexy. She had barely been able to sleep the night before, unable to stop fantasizing about Johnny kissing her on the dance floor, in front of everyone. Maybe tonight her fantasy would become a reality. “We’re meeting two other couples at Olive Garden for dinner before going to the dance,” he announced. Bella snapped back to reality and nodded, pleased with the selection. She worked at Olive Garden as a server last summer. She would have stayed, but her father wanted her to focus on classes and extracurriculars once school started up again, even promising to pay for anything she needed so she wouldn’t have to worry. Other teenagers may have protested, but Bella recognized how fortunate she was to be able to focus solely on school and her grades. Especially since her goal was to go to medical school and maintaining her GPA was important given how competitive the admission process was. When they got to the restaurant, they saw that the two other couples they were meeting had already been seated. They took the two remaining seats, and a server hurried over. Bella recognized her. “Sandy!” Bella’s smile was huge. “Bella,” Sandy replied, “you look absolutely fabulous!” Bella beamed and giggled. “Thank you.” “We miss you here,” Sandy said. “I’ll be back this summer. Hopefully, I’ll have the same schedule as you again.” Sandy shot a glance at Johnny and then gave Bella a look only she would understand meant she wanted the details on what was going on with her and Johnny.