School dance wins out.

Your mind is practically made up. You’re going to see ‘The Weeknd’. There will be other school dances you can go to. Ones where you’re actually more organised and have remembered to buy a suit for it and not just said you did. You’ll tell Rebecca tomorrow that you weren’t feeling well and just stayed in. She’ll get over it. She can never stay mad at you. Katherine was acting really weird when you said that thing about jeans and a band shirt. What was up with that?

Mr. Walsh’s voice in Biology is enough to put you to sleep. You zone out and think about something more interesting than the structures within cells. The tune of Double Fantasy by ‘The Weeknd’ becomes an earworm in your mind. As you often do, you start to daydream about Rebecca. You’d gone out on the river in a boat with a bunch of friends. The guys had taken turns pulling an inflated car innertube behind the boat. Rebecca hadn’t been interested and wanted to get dropped off on one of the sandy banks by the ski area to sunbathe. You’d joined her, jumping out of the boat to follow her, ignoring the jeers of Lyndsay and Michael to get back in. Rebecca had smiled when you followed her and that made you happy.

The new swimsuit she’d worn that day also made you happy. After she laid out her towel, you’d tried not to be caught watching as Rebecca removed her flowy linen tunic blouse and denim shorts. It was a one-piece but it had two large cutouts that reached across the stomach area that made it practically a bikini. It was mostly black but with some splashes of lime green. You’d laid out next to Rebecca in the sand as she rested upon her towel sunbaking. Dark glasses protected her eyes from the sunshine.

“You know the dance is coming up,” Rebecca had said.

Nah! You did know about the dance after all. Why had you forgotten?

“Are you going with anyone?” Rebecca had turned onto her side to face you as she asked the question.

You’d been trying to sneak glances at her tits. That was why you’d forgotten.

“Yeah no one,” you told her.

“We could go together.”

“Yeah. We should all go together. You. Me. Lyndsay. Mike. Carla. Katherine.”

“Katherine doesn’t want to go without a date. Neither do I.” Rebecca had looked me straight in the eyes just then.

“I can take Katherine…”

FARK! That was it! You’d told Rebecca you would go with Katherine to the dance. She was expecting you to take her as your date. Urgh! You hadn’t even spoken to Katherine about it since. No wonder she was looking at you like such an idiot. If you cut out class as soon as this period was over that would give you enough time to ride home. Your Mom wouldn’t let you take her car to school as your sister Heather needed it for college, not that she even went most of the time. You had about 50 bucks. That might be enough to get a decent shirt and you could borrow one of your Dad’s ties. Just claim you weren’t comforming to the typical dress standard of **** outdated social rituals and that might be enough for Katherine not to be completely pissed off with you for underdressing.

As soon as the bell rang you were out of your seat. You wouldn’t see your buddies for lunch like you said. Pedalling as hard as you could, you were glad to see the spare car in the driveway for once. Heather was home and hadn’t gone to class like usual.

“Heather!” you yell as you let yourself inside and try and find your sister. She doesn’t answer but is inside her room with her earpods in, listening to music as she paints her toenails.

“Heather,” you call to her again, waving your hands in front of her face to get her attention.

“What is it, sweat stain?” she scowers at you like your pond scum. Your shirt is stuck to your body from your hurried ride home.

“I need you to take me to the mall.”

She ignores the request.

“And I need to borrow some money off.”

“Fat chance of that little bro,” Heather fobs you off.

“Come on. You’ve got to. I have the school dance tonight and I won’t have time to see Mom and Dad before then.”

“Why should I? There’s nothing in it for me.”

An idea comes to your mind with a flash. You fish into your back pocket for your wallet and pull it out. Opening it up you pull out the ticket and hold it in front of Heather’s face. She reads it.

“Where did you get that?” Heather tries to snatch it out of your hand but is too slow. “Trish is going to that and I don’t have tickets.”

“Three hundred bucks and it’s yours.”

Heather makes one more attempt at pinching from you.

“Three hundred and a lift to the shops.”

“Deal.”

Heather reseals the nail polish she’d been using, only seven of her toes painted, and goes to lie across her bed. She tells you to look away as she reaches down the far side of the bed where she keeps her secret weed stash. Pulling a fake book out, she moves the half bag of skunk weed aside and starts to collect together some notes.

“Two fifty is all I’ve got. You can have it now and I’ll owe you one.”

Having your sister in your debt is worth the fifty dollars right there.

“Alright. Now take me shopping.”