Chapter Twenty-Eight

A few days later Shon came over to talk to Sydney. He had one objective, to ask Sydney to the prom and he wasn't taking no for an answer.

"Honey Shon's here to see you," William said through her door.

"Tell him I'm not home."

"I'm not lying for you, so come out and see what he wants."

"I can't, I'm not presentable," Sydney called back. She looked around her room wondering if she had time to change and fix her hair.

"Honey you look fine."

"No I don't. I'm all grubby from work."

"You're being silly. Now get out here and greet your visitor." William said walking away.

Sydney stood in her room debating whether she should take the time to change. She dashed to her dresser, grabbed some clothes, thinking Shon could wait since he showed up unannounced. Why couldn't he have called first? Then she would have had time to look nice. She asked herself whether he liked her, if he does than it doesn't matter what she looked like and if he doesn't it still didn't matter. She threw the clothes onto the floor and stormed out of her room.

She heard her Dad and Shon talking in the kitchen. She silently entered and crept up behind Shon and roared loudly behind him and pretended to be a ferocious beast attacking him. Shon turned and jumped bringing his hands to his heart. He scowled at Sydney saying "What's the big idea? You scared me half to death."

Sydney was holding her sides as she was laughing so hard.

"It's not funny," Shon said "I'm leaving."

"No wait," Sydney panted as she tried to catch her breath. "I'm sorry, really. I didn't think you'd scare so easily."

"I wasn't scared."

"You were. The look on your face was priceless. But I am sorry."

"Ok no biggie." Shon said wanting to drop the whole subject. The moment he had turned and seen her reaching out to him and roaring the way she had, brought him back to a time when he was six years old. 
 

 

He remembered his father had been drinking heavily and his parents had been arguing. His mother had ran out of the house after his father punched her

He had tried to stay out of the way and was playing by the basement stairs. On that particular night there had been a really bad storm, lots of thunder and lightening.

 

His father had peeled himself off the couch to go into the kitchen for another beer. His father must have seen him playing and decided to take his frustration out by trying to scare him.

There had been a terrible crash outside as lightening struck a nearby street light, sending the house into darkness. 
 

 

Shon sat in the darkness, heart pounding in sync with the thunder. Then from out of the darkness was a figure lunging at him and growling. He didn't recognize his father from the flashes of lightening coming through the half closed curtains. Shon screamed and jumped backwards, crashing down the basement stairs. He laid there for a couple of hours, until his mother came back to pick up her things. She found him where he had fallen.

She stayed for a few more years, enduring his father's drunken abuse until the night 5 years ago, when Shon was 12 years old.

Shon thought his father was going to kill her and ran to the neighbors begging them to call the police. That was the night his life was turned upside down. He was sent to foster care until they were able to locate his grandmother and eventually she was given full custody when his mother checked herself out of the hospital and disappeared and his father was sent to prison for aggravated assault with the intent to kill. They had moved to Auora Skies hoping to be able to start over.

"Penny for your thoughts," Sydney said breaking into his troubled thoughts.

"If I told ya, I'd have to kill ya."

Deciding not to pursue it, Sydney asked "Why did you come over?"

"Um no reason," Shon said losing confidence that she would go out with them. He stood shifting his weight from side to side, not able to meet her eyes.

Sydney watched him fidget for a while before asking "What has you so nervous? If you came over just to talk, then talk otherwise I've got better things to do."

Shon thought this wasn't going the way he imagined it would. What went wrong? He felt like he was suffocating with thoughts from the past and self doubts and feelings of being unworthy of someone like Sydney. "I think I'd better go."

Stunned Sydney watched him shuffle towards the door, head down. "Shon don't go. Just tell me why you came."

 

At the sound of Sydney's voice, Shon stopped with his hand on the door. "What did you just say?" his voice sounding harsher than he intended.

Put off by his harsh tone, Sydney asked to know why he came.

Shon turned from the door and walked towards Sydney, deciding to go through with his plans and put himself out of his misery. "Will you do me the honor of being my date for the prom?" Shon felt awkward using the line that Casey told him to use but judging from the twinkle in Sydney's eyes it was the right thing to say.

Sydney squealed in delight and jumped into Shon's arms in her excitement yelling yes.

"Darn girl that hurts the ears." Shon said grinning.

"Try and make me stop," Sydney challenged.

Shon pulled Sydney to him and kissed her and her squeals were replaced with a soft hum. "That did the trick," he said winking at her.

"Dare you to try that again."

"That's one dare I don't mind doing."

"Hate to break this up but it's time Shon went home."

"Ah Dad, can't he stay a little bit longer. Please." Sydney said turning puppy dog eyes on her Dad.

"It's late and you have school tomorrow. It's time to call it a night."

"Good night sir and I'll see you tomorrow babe," Shon said as he left.

"Hey Robert have you found a date yet for the prom?

"No I don't think I'll go."

"You have to," Evelyn said "I mean it'll be fun." She amended when she realized she was being demanding. Too late she could see she had already roused Roberts suspicions.

"What are you up to?" Robert asked crossing his arms and tapping his toes.

"Nothing, really," Evelyn said unable to look him in the eyes.

"You're not setting me up with the new girl."

"What if I am? She's pretty, she's nice and she doesn't know you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means you can be a real jerk sometimes."

"I'm not a ... well ok sometimes. But most of the girls in our class are dumber than rocks."

"Hey I resent that."

"I didn't mean you. But you know what I mean. I want someone I can talk to not down to."

"That's why you need to give the new girl a chance. She might surprise you and be smart as well as pretty. Come on say yes. I know you want to."

"Alright, alright anything to get you off my back." Robert said giving in to Evelyn. She was one person he could never say no to. He just hoped she was right about this girl.

The night of the prom arrived and the boys were ready in half the time it took the girls. Neither Casey or Robert had dates; although Evelyn was going to introduce Robert to the new girl at the dance. His stomach was tied up in knots and he thought butterflies were fighting to escape. He hoped this girl was everything Evelyn made her out to be and that he didn't make a fool of himself on the dance floor. Maybe he should have asked Casey to teach him a few dance moves.

Casey was anticipating the dance and was undaunted by the fact he didn't have a date. He knew there were going to be plenty of girls there without dates that would jump at a chance to dance with him. Why settle for just one girl, when there were so many?

While the boys were waiting for the girls they heard raised voices coming from Sydney's room.

"Mom my hair... it's just awful." Sydney said as she threw her brush across the room.

"Well what do you expect me to do about it?" Jessica said retrieving the brush in a vain attempt to remain calm.

"You're hopeless. This is exactly why I wanted to have my hair done at the salon."

"And I told you we couldn't afford it."

"We could have if you weren't some sort of baby making machine."

"Don't blame this on your brothers and sisters."

"Then why don't you get a job."

"You have a job. Why didn't you use your money to get your hair done?"

"I shouldn't have to you use my money to cover your inadequacies. Besides I got these shoes to go with my dress."

"If you had been willing to get a less expensive dress we may have had the money to get your hair done."

"Don't blame me because you can't provide the things I need."

"Your not the only person in this house."

"Don't remind me. It's their fault I look awful."

Jessica flung her hands up in defeat and stormed out of the room. Sydney was sobbing as her Mom left. She felt like screaming and kicking at the unfairness of it all. Why couldn't her mother understand she needed to look perfect? There was a soft knock on her door "Go away," she yelled.

Instead, Evelyn came into the room and quietly shut the door behind her.

"What do you want?"

"I want to help. Have you tried putting your hair up?"

Sniffling, Sydney shook her head.

"Let's give that a try. I bet you'll look beautiful," Evelyn said as she picked up the curling iron and started to curl Sydney's hair. She worked at it until it was all up and passed Sydney's inspection.

"Thank you, Evie. I don't know what I would have done without you," Sydney said smiling at her sister.

"You would have come up with something but your welcome."

"The limo's here," the boys called to them "let's go or we'll be late."