Surviving High School by M. Doty Page B

would feel like to confront Cameron Clark, to ask him if he and Sara had secretly dated. A shiver went through her as she turned back to the computer.
    “Let’s talk about something else,” she added after a few seconds. “Something fun.”
    Kimi flipped onto her back and let her head roll over the edge of the bed. Her hair hung down like thin black icicles as she arched her back like a contented cat and looked expectantly at Emily.
    “Okay,” she said. “Ask me about my night.”
    “Huh? What about it?”
    “Emily! Try to keep up with me on this,” she said. “I mean, I disappear from a party with one of the hottest, most popular guys in school, who also happens to be totally nice and who also has an awesome car, and you’re not even curious ?”
    “Okay, so, what happened?” asked Emily, swiveling her chair to look at Kimi.
    “Oh, I don’t know,” Kimi said. “I’m not one to kiss and tell.”
    Emily shrugged and turned her attention back to the computer.
    “What are you doing?!” asked Kimi. “Don’t you want to know about me and Phil?”
    Emily turned back to her. “But you just said—”
    “I can’t just tell you what happened. It would be—unladylike. But maybe if you begged me a little, and promised never to tell anyone, and offered to reveal all your darkest secrets, and threatened to torture the information out of me—”
    “Fine,” said Emily. “Tell me what happened or I’ll—I’ll tell everyone at school that you have lice. And a fake leg. And that you have an entire wall of Justin Bieber posters in your room.”
    Kimi put a hand over her mouth in mock horror.
    “You wouldn’t,” she said.
    “Oh, I would.”
    “Well, then, I guess I’ll have to confess,” said Kimi. “But Iwant it noted that anything I tell you is entirely off the record, and that I shared it with you under duress.”
    “Noted.”
    “So maybe Phil drove me to the lake, and maybe he and I kind of sort of made out in his car. For four hours.”
    “What?!”
    “Yes!”
    “For four hours?” asked Emily.
    Kimi nodded, then grabbed Emily’s pillow and fell back on the bed, screaming gleefully into it.
    “ Four hours,” said Emily.
    Kimi removed the pillow just long enough to say, “I know! I know!”
    “Was it—good?”
    “Well, yeah,” said Kimi. “Except now my lips are really chapped. But I haven’t even told you the best part yet!”
    “What?”
    “He totally asked me to homecoming!”
    “What?!”
    “So maybe we could make it a double date?” asked Kimi. “Like—with me and Phil. And you and Ben.”
    Kimi looked hopefully at Emily, who was sitting, mouth open, trying to process this request. A week ago, the whole scenario would have seemed impossible—the two of them heading to homecoming with a couple of the most popular guys at school. Now it all seemed suddenly real, tangible even, as if the Ben that Emily had dreamed about holding at night could reach out and wrap his arms around her.
    “Kimi—you know I can’t.”
    “I do?” Kimi asked. She sat on the edge of the bed, coyly crossing her legs, and put her elbow on her knee. Then she leaned forward, put her chin on her fist, and looked at Emily with a puzzled expression on her face. “Explain.”
    “Well, for one, there’s my dad. Never in a million years would he let me go to a dance. And then there’s Ben Kale. He hasn’t exactly asked me.”
    “Em, you’re killing me.”
    Kimi flopped back down on the bed and covered her face with her hands.
    “There’s no way I can go,” said Emily.
    Kimi started to make hacking noises as if she were gasping her last breaths.
    “I’m—dying here. Don’t—do this—to me!” She rolled to one side and looked up pleadingly. “You do want to go, right?”
    For a moment, Emily closed her eyes and pictured Ben in a suit, roses cleverly hidden behind his back, ringing her doorbell to pick her up for the dance. She imagined him offering her an arm, walking her out to his car, and