Abundant gratitude to my editor, Privates1stClass, for his patience with my refusal to properly use commas. This is a better story (and not just grammatically) thanks to your involvement. If you're looking for a cute love story with some sexy moments, look no further. Feel free to leave me comments. I love feedback! -MC
*****
-2008-
"Tatum Wu? You think I should take Tatum Wu to prom? Is this some kind of joke? She's got the body of a 12 year old boy, for fuck's sake. What kind of prom night would that make for?" Eli Cunningham said with a smirk on his ridiculously handsome face to some of his football buddies who were standing near him, a group of jocks who waited for Eli's ok before breathing.
He was having this conversation with my best friend Channing Matthieson. She was everything I wasn't in high school, hell, still. She was tall, blond, athletic and had The. Biggest. Boobs. that have ever graced the body of someone so thin. Come to think of it, she looked a bit like Barbie. Whenever people get all up in arms about Barbie being unrealistically proportioned and ruining the girls of our nation's self esteem, I think of Channing Matthieson, then, now, hell probably always. If I swung that way, which I don't, I would have in love with her... just like everyone else.
We became friends because, like a bad stereotype, I was a total math and science whiz. I swear, I wasn't just trying to suck up to my incredibly strict Asian family. Of course, that was totally part of it, but the other part was that I just liked numbers and equations and things that logically made sense. Channing was in all of my honors and AP classes with me, but she was struggling. I don't think the fact that she always had swim practice or volleyball practice or soccer, etc etc after school really helped. When we got paired up for a big science project sophomore year and I saved her grade/ass, she decided to make it her personal mission to help me fit in better at our school.
For starters my name is really Ming-Na, it means enlightenment in Chinese, which is beautiful and all, but doesn't really help you blend in to white suburban anywhere. Channing decided to call me Tatum (after the actor Channing Tatum, because she was slightly obsessed with him and the movie Step Up, plus she thought it was hysterical when people referred to us together and had to say Channing and Tatum). Since everyone was so enamored with her (or her boobs, tough to say) people followed along. Ming-Na Chan was in my freshman yearbook, with braces, glasses, bad hair and the worst possible clothing, but by sophomore year she had been replaced by Tatum, a girl with perfect makeup, straight teeth and incredibly cute clothes, usually picked out by Channing. She often bought me stuff and called it her payment for tutoring. Teaching me to flat iron my ridiculously frizzy hair is probably still her greatest gift to me.
By senior year, I was reasonably popular... nothing like Channing but enough that people like Eli at least knew my "name" instead of just calling me "that Chinese girl". My dream was to have him take me to prom and get nominated to the prom court. I knew better than to dream I'd be queen, not with Channing around, but the rest of it seemed fairly plausible, and I'd unwisely shared this dream with Channing one night, taking shots of whiskey (god awful stuff!) in her room since her parents were out of town.
"You know what, Eli, you're an ass. Tatum's smart, pretty, and funny. In ten years, when you're fat and still working some minimum wage job your dad could find for you, she'll be working for some major think tank, coming up with solutions for cancer or world peace. I hope your prom date gives you herpes, you fucktard."
Channing, while having the face of an angel, had quite the sharp tongue. I cringed as she relayed all of the details to me later over the phone, since I'd had to go home right after class, like always. My parents were huge on studying. Huge.
"Oh my god, you did not say that!" I was touched at her defense but mortified that it had been needed. I guess shooting stars can only rise so far before they have to fall back to earth.
"He's a waste of space, Tay. I told you that before, but you had your heart set on him. I still think you and Jay should go to prom together."
"Ugh, Channing, I've told you a thousand times, it's just not like that with him."
Jay was my other best friend, an exceptionally tall, skinny, computer nerd with dirty blond hair and thick glasses who was probably the only person I'd ever met whose brain worked faster than mine. We had a single class together freshman year, in which I decided that I absolutely hated him. While I was smart and super dedicated, things just came to him without trying.
We finally decided to become friends by the middle of sophomore year because we were both on our school's robotics team. The competition between us was just too intense otherwise. He had the world's biggest crush on Channing (shocker), so between the verbal sparring he could engage in with me and the attempt to get closer to her, we had plenty to talk about when Channing was busy attending to the business of ruling high school.
"He's kind of cute... in that nerd cute sort of way. I know he's super thin, but it's not like you're gonna get him naked after prom, prissy pants." Channing was always giving me a hard time for still being a virgin when she'd been sleeping with her boyfriend since sophomore year. I'd explained many times that my parents wouldn't allow me to date, but she insisted that I should be sneaking behind their backs like a normal teenager. The most I'd ever been able to muster up the courage to do was make out with a few guys at parties she took me to.
"He'd look perfectly presentable in a tux and at least you'd know you'd have a date who could keep up with you mentally, which of course is just my way of getting in another 'I told you so' about Eli. Though how tall is he, 6'5? Even in heels you're only 5'4, unless we get you six-inch stripper heels - which I can't see your parents going for... You're going to look like a midget!"
"Gee, thanks. We can't all be tall blond amazon princesses, you bitch," I laughed good-naturedly.
"Oh, Tay, you know I meant to say that you'll be a very exotically beautiful midget."
I wasn't really sure if Channing put him up to it or not, but later that week, Jay asked me to prom. Seeing as I was unsure that I was likely to get another offer (if Eli thought I was useless, most of the other guys in school probably did too) I accepted. It was a little embarrassing to have a "friend" date to prom, but since I wasn't allowed to date anyway, it seemed rather par for the course. At least my parents already knew Jay. He and I had spent countless hours working on my science fair research.
Even though Jay was crazy smart, he was also completely apathetic about school. He had a perfect GPA, but had intentionally passed on the opportunity to be in any AP or Honors classes. I also had straight A's but my classes were weighted to account for the increased work, so I was a shoo-in for class valedictorian. My parents couldn't understand why Jay had purposely eliminated himself from the running, but were happy that I was going to come out on top, nonetheless, especially since he got a perfect score on his SAT's and I didn't.
"So, I'm like supposed to buy you a corsage or something, right?" Jay asked after class on Friday. Seeing as prom was the following night, it was clear he was procrastinating like always.
"Pretty sure you're supposed to order one ahead of time, but don't worry about it. My favorite flowers are lotuses and I'm pretty sure that would make an awkward corsage anyway."
"Yeah, maybe I'll just get a carnation from the grocery store, break the stem and put a rubber band around it," he joked.
I was actually completely surprised the following night when Jay showed up (on time!) looking really handsome in his tux, holding the most beautiful corsage with mini Chinese roses and a lotus in the center. It could not have been more perfect and I suspected that he'd probably gotten help from my mother, but just the fact that he'd put in the effort made my heart skip a beat.
I found myself giving him a once over in a way that I'd never really done. Had Channing been right? Did I totally belong with Jay and I was just too slow to catch on? Then I remembered his long-standing crush on Channing and realized that while I might be coming around to considering Jay, he was just being a good prom date. He'd never been into me like that.
"This is really beautiful, Jay. I know I'm half obliged to pretend I hate it since we give each other so much shit, but really... it's perfect. Thank you," I said quietly as he put it on my wrist. With my parents hovering, taking pictures every 5 seconds, it was anything but a private moment. The forced pictures with his arm around me did give me a good chance to smell his cologne, though. I don't know what it was, but it smelled amazing.
"Ming-Na, you look so pretty. Isn't she so pretty, Jay?" my mom prompted. I blushed, mortified that my mom was intent on putting words into his mouth.
In truth, I did look really cute. While most of the girls in my school had picked out bright, short, flouncy dresses, I'd happily gone with a beautiful deep purple Chinese qipao dress, complete with a mandarin collar and frog buttons, that my mother picked out from her favorite store back in Hong Kong. She'd special ordered it over a month ago, the second that I agreed.
It was quite form fitting with a skin tone mesh fabric from the collar down to the low neckline, with purple and gold embroidered flowers to keep it from being immodest. Well, immodest in the world of my parents. I was sure many girls would be baring cleavage full stop, not that I had any to show off. Even with a pushup bra and without standing next to Channing, my A cups weren't much to take in.
The slit on the side showed an embarrassing amount of my thigh and I thought for sure that my father would throw a fit, but he was just thrilled that I'd agreed to forgo the lime green monstrosity that Channing had brought over for me to try on (just to make whatever I did choose seem like a reasonable choice - the girl was diabolical).
"She looks absolutely stunning," I heard Jay agree. My breath caught in my throat and I almost made a most unladylike choking sound. His tone didn't sound like he was just mouthing words to humor my mother. My stomach fluttered as his glance slid up and down my body, slowly over my exposed leg and taking note of my bright red lipstick and hair done up like my mother's had been for her wedding, with combs supporting its weight. The resulting tingle I felt from his perusal caused me to blush for the hundredth time and it was still so early in the night.
I decided to pull Jay out of there before they could embarrass me further. Mouthing that it was time to go, Jay picked up on his cue and led me to his car, opening the door for me. To add to my shock, he'd actually cleaned it out. There were no cds cluttering the seat and passenger floorboards like usual. Jay wasn't that in to music, but he usually had tons of computer software and games floating around, not to mention random pieces of computer hardware. He was always putting something together, usually after having first taken it apart.
