Another big thank you to blackrandl1958 for the invitation to
this special event
and for editing my story. I can honestly say this tale would never have seen the light of day without a big push from Randi as I rarely do romance and I have never before done anything even remotely approaching sci-fi.
Scottie Jorgensen had never felt quite like this before. She had been drunk a couple of times, but never high. Unlike when she was drunk, this feeling was more... calming, laid back. She felt like everything was in soft focus, and she was just on the edge of being giggly. Although nobody was telling any jokes, almost everything she heard seemed... hysterical.
The 18-year-old redhead took another hit on the joint that her date, Joey Fasano, had handed her while the pair and five other couples sat around a campfire several hours after the prom they had attended. The dozen teenagers had attended the prom, then had changed clothes to spend the evening sitting around a makeshift campground drinking, getting high and maybe... maybe having sex in one of the tents sent up near the pond at the back of the old Travers place. Scottie was nervous and excited about the possibility of losing her virginity, especially with her handsome date, a well-built young man with dark brown hair, blue eyes and dimples.
She was more than a little surprised when Joey, firmly established as a member of the cool crowd at Harry S Truman High School, asked her, on her best day a second or third tier social crowd student, to the prom. Scottie knew who she was, and what she looked like. She was considered pretty but not beautiful, with green eyes, average sized breasts and nice legs, and her thick, wavy red hair hung down to a couple of inches past her shoulders.
She wasn't sure exactly what Joey's motive was in asking her to the prom, but she wasn't going to pass up the chance to go to the social event of the high school year with a hunk. Her best friend, Wanda, had warned her that all Joey wanted was her virginity, but Scottie wasn't so sure she wanted to keep that intact anymore. After all, she was 18, and most girls her age had already experienced sex. Having a hunk like Joey as her first would be something she would remember for the rest of her life, she told her friend.
The Travers place was an old homestead. The house by the road was built in the early 1920s, but by 1970 it had been abandoned for at least a half-dozen years. Teenagers used to sneak out to the pond behind the house to have impromptu parties because the house and the woods behind it made the site almost invisible from the road.
Scottie had been sipping on a Budweiser and taking hits on the joints as they were passed around. She was running the prom back in her mind. Joey looked so handsome in his powder blue tuxedo, and she thought she looked good in her dark blue gown. The evening was fantastic, magical, she thought. She hoped the rest of the night was also going to be magical. She and her parents had negotiated for her to have a curfew of 3 AM this night.
Scottie got up from her spot and walked toward the area in the woods that the girls were using as a restroom. She shook her head, trying to clear the fog that was building. She got a little off the path the other girls had used, and didn't see the large puddle until she sunk in halfway to her right knee. She squeaked and fell forward, striking her head on a small tree and submerging it in another puddle. She felt the warmth of the water as she drifted off into a comfortable... sleep, from which she would never awaken.
******
Arnold "Dusty" Dustwicz was crushed. The girl of his dreams, Tori Jahn, had just turned him down for the upcoming prom.
"You're a great guy, Dusty, but I don't like you like that. You're a friend, but nothing more. I don't want you to spend that kind of money on me if we're just friends," Tori said.
"Thanks for being honest with me, Tori," Dusty said. "I can't say I'm not disappointed, but I appreciate the honesty."
Dusty sighed heavily, then slowly walked away with his head down. Tori knew she did the right thing by being honest, but she also knew that she might have just lost a good friend.
Dusty had been working up the courage for a month to ask Tori to the prom. He knew she was out of his league, but if he was going to spend the kind of money guys usually spent on prom and the whole weekend, he wanted to ask out the girl he considered his top choice. Tori was not only beautiful but had a curvy body, bright blue eyes and was a good friend. There were probably girls who were prettier, but not to him.
"Ooh. I can see by that look on your face that she said no," Dusty's best friend, Gary Scatini, said a few minutes later in the cafeteria during lunch hour. "But there's still plenty of time to ask somebody else. I'm sure there's a lot of girls who would want to go to prom with you."
"Nah. I'm not going," Dusty said. "I've already been turned down by the only girl I really want to go with. I don't have a 'Plan B.'"
"Don't be that way, Dusty."
A couple of weeks later, Gary grabbed Dusty by the arm in the hallway between classes at Truman High School and moved him to an unoccupied spot.
"Hey, Joanne Gurney really wants to go to the prom, but she doesn't have a date," Gary said quietly. "Opportunity is knocking, my friend. All you have to do is turn the door handle and go into the room."
Dusty knew Joanne well and considered her a friend. They had been in several classes together throughout their high school years. She was a good-looking blonde with large breasts and somewhat discriminating taste. She hadn't had a boyfriend for several months.
"I like Joanne. I really do. She's a great kid. If I just wanted to go to the prom, she'd probably be a fun date. But I asked the one girl I wanted to go with," Dusty said.
"Big mistake, Dust-man," Gary said. "You do know that prom is like the ultimate aphrodisiac for teenage girls. You know there's a lot of guys who would be lining up for a night with Joanne's primo pussy."
Dusty had to admit to himself that he hadn't thought out the whole scenario. Losing his virginity to Joanne would be life-altering. He actually thought about that for a couple of days before he decided that keeping his integrity was worth more than losing his virginity.
A week later as Dusty was putting his books in his locker to end the day, Susie McGuire stopped and asked if he had a minute. He answered affirmatively.
"Dusty, you know Joanne and you like her. You'd really be making her day if you asked her to the prom," Susie said.
"I get it, Suze. I really do. But I asked the one person I wanted to go with, and she turned me down. I don't really feel like going with anyone else. It's just that simple," Dusty said.
"You know someday you're going to regret not going to your prom," Susie said. "And you could be doing a good thing here, but you're just going to pass on that as well."
Dusty's close friends spent the weeks leading up to prom trying their best to convince him he needed to go. He continued to resist until it was almost too late to make plans. Then he got an unexpected visitor at his home one evening.
Joanne Gurney's mother was sitting in the living room with Dusty's mother when the young man came in from mowing the yard late one afternoon after school. Dusty knew his mother and Donna Gurney were friends, but it wasn't usual for the pair to be sitting in the Dustwicz' living room sipping tea.
"Dusty, could you come in here for a minute," his mother said when he came into the house from the garage.
Ever the obedient son, Dusty walked into the living room and acknowledged both women.
"Uh... Dusty... we've got a bit of a situation here, and I think you can help us out... and get something out of it yourself," his mother said. "Mrs. Gurney would like to ask you for a favor of sorts."
Donna Gurney was still a pretty woman in her 40s. Dusty briefly thought of the old adage that says if you want to see what a woman will look like in 20 years, take a good look at her mother. He thought that whoever married Joanne Gurney would still be pleased in the future with how she looked.
"Dusty, Joanne is absolutely devastated that she is going to miss her prom. It's every girl's dream to go to prom, to get dressed up for the biggest night of her high school career. But for some reason, nobody has asked Joanne to go. She hasn't had a boyfriend since she broke up with Bobby Petrillo a few months ago.
"I know you and Joanne are friends. Could you take Joanne to the prom, just as friends, as a favor to me. She deserves a special night, and I know that you are a good guy and would treat her right. Her father and I would pay all the expenses for the night..."
"You wouldn't have to do that, Donna," Dusty's mother interrupted. "We would gladly pay for Dusty to go to the prom."
