Ransom (2 page)

I knew Mom well enough to understand that once she started working there was no stopping her. If she was deep enough into something she forgot to eat, drink, sleep and sometimes I think she even forgot to use the bathroom. The chances that she would actually follow through on her promise to keep a hawk eye on me were practically nil. And as far as I was concerned even if she did manage to remember, Mitch was more than worth the gamble.
 

Suddenly a window of opportunity had opened wide, all I needed to do was step through. Now reconciled to the fact that I was going to the party, with or without Mom’s approval, I smiled with satisfaction. Seconds later a jolt of anxiety hit my stomach because I had forgotten one important piece to the puzzle, transportation. My decision to break the rules would be pointless if I didn’t get in touch with Trinity soon.
 

I glanced down at my watch. It was a little after seven which meant that I would have to act quickly. As I punched in my best friend Trinity’s number, guilt nibbled at my insides. I had never directly defied Mom like I was about to, and though I felt like it was my only choice I was still unsettled. Knowing that if I allowed it, my conscience would take over and snowball into me bailing, I shut out the regret. Bad feeling or not, Mom was being irrational and I wasn’t about to let her sudden bout of weirdness screw my night up.

I punched in Trinity’s landline number. She and her family didn’t believe in cell phones and all the potential radiation that they emitted, so if I didn’t get a hold of her at home I was out of luck. The motel was off the bus route, so traveling by car was the only way that anybody could get there. Trinity was the only person I knew who had her own car.

The phone rang once, twice, then three times. Every second I didn’t hear her voice made me wonder if I was too late and she had already left. “Hey Lexie,” she said after the fourth ring. By her relaxed tone she clearly had no idea about the inner turmoil I was dealing with.
 

“Hey Trinity,” I said half-groaning, half-sighing.

“What’s wrong with you?”
 
she said, picking up my distress with ease.

“Apparently, according to Mom I can’t go to Dallas’s party.”
 

I hissed out a quick breath.

“You actually asked her if you could go?” Trinity said with a note of incredulity.
 

“Yeah I know it was dumb, but I couldn’t care less what she said, I’m going anyway,” I said. The statement left me feeling high with excitement.

“Won’t you get into a ton of trouble if you sneak away?”

I shook my head as if she could see me.
 

“Not if she doesn’t catch me,” I said.
 

My eyes grazed the closed door of my closet. I had already moved on and was working on my outfit for the night.

 
“She’s gone to the office and I have no idea when she’ll be back. Chances are the way she is with her cases, she’ll be buried in paperwork and whatever District Attorneys do.”

“Fine, I’ll pick you up in an hour,” Trinity said, immediately accepting my
 
deception as if I went against Mom’s orders every day. It was better that way because if she had asked too many questions I might have lost my courage and ended up staying home, too scared to incur the wrath of Mom.
 

“Be ready Lexie. I want to get there before the kegs are drained.”

“No prob, I’ll be ready. See you then,” I said.

 
I pressed the end button, tossed my phone on the bed and went directly to my closet. I flung the door wide and glanced in. I knew that if I was going to make any kind of impression on Mitch I had to do it just right. There was a fine line between sexy and slutty. I would have to make sure that I didn’t go too far into the latter. There was no doubt that sleazy got guys, but it never kept them for long, not to mention the reputation that followed you. Not that it mattered much now since I was soon going to be far away from the small world of high school.

I snickered, imagining what it would feel like to be considered the easy girl, since I was so far removed from that persona. I had been the exact opposite, the smart nerdy girl, the kind that the guys came to for help with their homework not for a date. It was part of the reason I was still a virgin and had never really had a regular boyfriend.
 

I blamed it on the curse of always being in the friend zone, good old Lexie, amazing in Trig, but not someone you would take to the prom. While everyone else had donned gorgeous gowns and had traveled via limousines to prom, Trinity and I had watched sappy movies and had worked our way through mounds of triple fudge ice cream with a side of salty potato chips. It had been that night that I had vowed that college was going to be different; I was going to be different. Whatever it took I was going to get on the radar and break my old trend. If that meant that I had to wear a skirt that Mom would consider a handkerchief posing as a piece of clothing, then so be it.
 

After a quick shower I blew dried my hair then pulled all the natural curls straight with the flat iron. Unlike Mom, whose hair was ruler straight and more times than not, perfect, I had been given Dad’s mousy brown hair that bordered on frizzy when the humidity was high. I had always hated the curls and more times than not, had fantasied about what it would be like to have straight hair, like all the pretty girls in school seemed to be gifted with. I could more than relate to Hermione from the Harry Potter books and her constant battle with her hair. When I had been younger I had wished that there actually was a potion to make your hair perfect.

With my hair as straight as I could get it, I moved to my makeup. I decided to go a little heavier than normal, especially around my greenish-blue eyes. My eyes did this cool thing, appearing to change color according to what I wore. If I wore greens they looked more turquoise and browns brought out the flecks of amber, and blues made them closer to, you guessed it, blue. I fluttered my lashes and hooded my lids, practicing a sexy stare. I was surprised that I kind of managed to pull it off.
 

With my makeup applied the last task was to get dressed. A thrill of enthusiasm, mixed with a touch of apprehension, sent tingles through me. The outfit that I was about to don was completely out of character for me. I lived in distressed jeans and colorful tees since, in my humble opinion, clothes were all about comfort. I tugged my new outfit from the closet and stared at it, quietly hoping that it might transform me from an ugly duckling into a beautiful swan. I shook my head disgusted with myself that I had even thought the cheesy line in my head.
 

The black leather skirt was the smallest piece of material that I had ever chanced to wear, but oddly one of the most expensive. It had actually physically hurt when I had passed over the wad of cash that I had saved from a full year working at the Crispy Pickle. The Pickle as I liked to call it was a fast food restaurant that specialized in what else, deep fried pickles. It was a job that I was thankful to be finished with. Smelling like old oil and vinegar got under your skin after a while.

When I slipped the skirt up over my hips, I was pleased at how it hugged my curves in a sexy way. I had to admit that I’d made the right choice getting it, even if it had drained my bank account. Next was a coral sleeveless blouse that was sheer enough that my flesh colored lacy bra was perfectly visible for viewing. I was pleased to see that my breasts filled the cups of my bra with a bit of cleavage to boot. I had been a late bloomer and had been one of the last of my friends to trade up from a training bra. For a while I had thought that I was destined to have the underdeveloped chest of a ten-year-old tween forever.
 

I drew in a quick breath when I realized just how much skin the low-dipping ruffled neckline exposed. Uncertainty pumped me full of adrenalin, accompanied by a healthy dose of fear. Suddenly, I didn’t know if I could go through with the whole night after all.

It
 
wasn’t the first time I had disobeyed Mom, yet it was definitely the most monumental act of defiance I had chanced to date. Couple that with the fact that I was about to go out dressed in what quite a few people, Mom included, would consider
ho
attire, and I was feeling less than confident. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to put everything I had at my disposal out for public viewing, just to get Mitch to notice me. I drew in a giant gulp of air, suddenly hyper-aware of how nuts it all seemed.

“You can do this Lexie,” I said.
 

I smiled stiffly at my reflection in the mirror, wishing that I had an ounce of the self-assured attitude that Trinity wore with ease.
 

I had met Trinity on the first day of kindergarten in what seemed a lifetime ago. She had been the only one wearing a colorful gem chakra balancing bracelet, a leather headband with a construction paper butterfly pasted to it and a one-piece flowing floral printed muumuu dress. There was no denying that she had been by far the oddest looking preschooler on the playground, and I had gravitated to her like a bee to sugar syrup. From that day on we had been inseparable. It didn’t matter that we were different in so many ways because we shared more common ground than either of us expected. Trinity was the sister I had always wanted, and no matter where our lives ended up, I knew that we would be friends forever.

With just fifteen minutes left before
take off,
I applied another sheen of lip gloss then took one last hard look at myself. What I saw left me nervous but also pumped. Gone was plain Lexie, left in her wake was someone who might just manage to fool the world into believing that I had finally become a woman. I wasn’t sure if I quite believed it myself, but for one night I would be that person, the one who had it all worked out. Or at least I would fake it. For one night I was going to believe the lie that said I was just as good as all the other popular girls in school.

I tried unsuccessfully to convince myself that it was possible to have brains, and an amazing boyfriend like Mitch too. A wave of nausea washed over me. It was one thing to imagine being with Mitch, it was quite another to dress in clothes that weren’t me and act like I really belonged in Mitch’s world. I instinctively twisted my face into a grimace. As soon as I did, all my fake bravado was lost and I was just me again. Good old Lexie, nothing more. I slumped and was just about to dial Trinity to tell her I was bailing when I heard the honk of the car horn outside. I flushed, knowing that I was already too late. Trinity was here and there was no way I could get out of it now.
 

Like it or not I was on my way to Dallas’s party.
 

As I walked out the front door of my house, I was oblivious to the fact that everything I had ever known in my life was about to change forever.

2. LEXIE

Trinity’s 2003 beat up electric blue VW bug was sputtering and coughing, like an old man who had choked on a glass of water. Right then I wanted it to finally do what it always threatened to, kick out for good, that way I wouldn’t have had to go to the party. My new persona now seemed ridiculous. It wasn’t possible to change years of school and my reputation in one night. Changing my clothes and slathering on extra makeup wouldn’t fool anyone into believing I was anyone other than who I had always been.
 

As I wobbled on my too-high heeled shoes toward the car I shook my head. The remaining dregs of elation had been siphoned away, and I felt like a complete poser. With no choice but to stay on track, I threw open the passenger side door of the bug. As it always did, it screeched like a banshee. I half expected the rust-pocked metal handle to come away in my hand.
 

I
 
slid into the passenger side of the car, going out of my way to avoid looking at Trinity. I didn’t have the stomach to see her expression of horror at my odd get-up. I focused on the Hawaiian hula dancer with its bobbling hips, at the center of the grey dashboard. Soon after Trinity had passed her license her father had gotten her the bug, trading it with a guy for a supply of medical marijuana. The retro-ornament had been there then. In my opinion the dancer carried a kind of cheesy charm that made it a keeper.

“What’s wrong with you?” Trinity said, shoving me a little.
 

I turned to face her. She stuck out her tongue and crossed her eyes. I immediately broke into riotous laughter. I could never maintain a pissy mood when Trinity was around. In fact she had that kind of
good mood
effect with just about everyone she met.
 

Our eyes locked and a small grin spread across her face.

“You seriously look like a painted ho,” she said.
 

My eyes widened with shock. Sure I had gone way out of my comfort zone, but I hadn’t thought that I had veered that far off the path.

Before I could respond she added. “I like it.”

“I…what?” I said.
 

My gloss-caked lips opened and closed as I searched for something to say.

“Just kidding,” she said, giving me yet another light elbow in the ribs. “You look stunning.”
 

She leaned over and pinched my cheeks hard enough that I wondered if it would leave a mark.
 

“My baby is all growed up,” she purred, winking at me.

“And here I was nervous that I’d gone a little overboard, thanks for completely stripping away what little courage I had to go to this party Trin…”
 

I shook my head.
 

She giggled and it sounded like the tinkle of wind chimes. Much like most things about her, I had always loved her laugh; it never failed to put a smile on my face.

“You worry too much,” she said, putting the car into gear. She accelerated and a spray of gravel tapped the windows.

“Maybe you worry too little,” I countered.
 

She shook her head. “You only live once Lexie my dear and I don’t plan on wasting one moment caring what anybody thinks about me. You shouldn’t either.”