Page 24 of Sam & Justin (Gomillion High Reunion #4)

Reunion - Saturday Evening

Booking in at the motel was looking like one of my better ideas as I slipped out of my room in my newly purchased old suit.

If I’d been at the hotel with my classmates, I’d have had to walk through a lobby full of people staring at me.

This way, I only had to pass a housekeeper who was too busy screaming at someone on her phone to pay me any mind.

Guess that was another check in the positives column, right alongside not having to spend time drinking at the hotel bar with people who looked right through me even though we’d known each other for most of our lives.

By the time I got to the school, I wasn’t feeling bothered by my suit.

Because I didn’t stand out at all in this crowd.

Most of the girls I went to school with were dressed to theme with their hair teased high.

I didn’t think I’d seen that much blue eye shadow in one place since the Drew Carey Show.

And the guys? Well, let’s just say that my gray suit was the least offensive thing in the parking lot.

It looked like the thrift stores in Gomillion had turned a good business on powder blue suits. Maybe I should’ve gone with that one. Might have stood out less.

No one paid me any attention as I joined the throng of people at the door and checked in with the students at the registration desk.

They were all dressed in crisp white shirts and black slacks or skirts.

Guess they weren’t supposed to dress to theme, or maybe they had another theme in mind.

Didn’t know enough about the 80s to know if they were dressed in what caterers wore back then.

Something told me a catering outfit was pretty universal no matter what decade we were in.

Once I got through the doors, I started looking around.

The planning committee had gone all out with this thing.

Every inch of the gym was decorated. I wondered if any of it was recycled from our actual prom, or if they’d made it all fresh.

I’d have to ask Justin about the giant Rubik’s Cubes and the DJ booth made to look like neon cassette tapes.

Something told me he had a hand in these decisions, whether they were new or old.

He’d been involved like that when we were younger, and I knew he was just as involved now.

Even the tables set up for the formal dinner were decorated to theme with a centerpiece.

I started looking around for Justin, trying to find him so I could congratulate him on a job well done.

I spotted Vanessa easily. She had a group of teens around her, and she looked like she was giving them instructions.

I was a bit surprised to see that she’d dressed up, given that she wasn’t a part of the graduating class.

I thought she’d dress in some kind of power suit to show off her status as queen of the help staff.

I kept looking around, and then I spotted him.

He wasn’t hard to miss. He had on a sparkling green jacket that shined like some kind of beacon, light reflecting off it in all directions.

He was talking to the same blonde guy he’d been with at Timbers and Tallboys the night before.

I was pretty sure I’d seen them together in the hallways when we were in high school, walking to class or talking at their lockers.

I wondered what they were talking about now, because the conversation was looking pretty deep from across the room.

And then Justin looked up.

I saw the moment he realized I was looking at him.

His face changed right before my eyes. I saw the way he smiled, the way he lit up, shining brighter than his jacket.

I watched as his friend gave him a little shove and a grin, and then he was on his way to me.

Well, I sure as hell wasn’t going to keep him waiting.

I half expected music to start playing, just so it could swell when we met in the middle.

Really give into the whole John Hughes fever dream he was going for with this prom.

It didn’t because this wasn’t a movie. This was the real world, and that shit didn’t happen.

Just like no one moved out of our way as we walked toward each other, so we had to weave around groups of people until we met about halfway across the room.

“You look amazing,” he said immediately, his eyes moving over the shitty suit I’d bought last minute. I wondered if he’d been drinking or something. “You brought a suit?”

“No,” I told him honestly. “Brought a nice shirt if I decided to come, but I knew what this meant to you. Went out and bought one on break.”

I didn’t think it was that big of a deal, but the way he smiled? I was starting to have my doubts. Maybe it meant something more than I thought it did.

“You bought a suit?”

“Wasn’t that big of a deal. Hit a thrift store.”

“You bought a suit,” he repeated, shaking his head in disbelief.

“I’m guessing you did too.” I was starting to feel a bit weird with the way he was looking at me.

He might have thought buying this suit was a big deal, but it wasn’t.

It was just a last-minute impulse buy because I knew how much this night meant to him.

I wanted to put the focus on him, on the way he looked like he had stepped out of some vintage clothes catalog.

The color looked damn good on him, too. I didn’t think I’d like that jacket on anyone else, but Justin? He could pull it off.

Justin tugged at the bottom of his jacket, like maybe he was starting to feel a bit weird as well. “It had matching pants,” he admitted after a beat.

I raised an eyebrow because he wasn’t wearing matching glittery green pants. I didn’t know much about fashion but even I could see that. “Why aren’t you wearing them?”

His face flushed. “Because I thought it might be too much.”

Too much? Did he not see what everyone else was wearing?

There was a girl walking by wearing a hot pink dress that looked like a Barbie reject.

Her hair was teased so high it was a wonder it didn’t hit the ceiling.

Yeah, his shirt might have been catching the light and shining like some kind of disco ball, but at least it drew the right kind of attention.

“Think it would’ve looked good anyway,” I told him with a shrug. “So, we gotta sit anywhere special during this thing or what?”

Justin gave me a look at the quick change in topic, but could he really blame me?

The most I knew about clothes were my sizes.

Pretty sure that day was the longest I’d spent in ages looking to buy anything.

Normally, I just went shopping at those big box stores.

It was always the same stuff too, packs of tee shirts, a few button-downs, and some pants if I needed them.

Why the hell would I want to sit and talk about clothes for much longer than telling him that he looked good?

He should’ve known he looked good anyway. I was pretty sure he had a mirror at home, and while I knew his eyesight wasn’t all that great, I figured it wasn’t so bad he couldn’t see himself.

“Open seating,” Justin answered after a few moments of silence. I guess he had to get his brain to catch up with the conversation.

“Sit with me?” I didn’t know why I was so nervous asking him the question, but the idea that I might have to be alone with a bunch of people I barely liked didn’t sit well with me.

But the nerves were there, like a heavy weight in my intestines.

Maybe I was a bit scared he’d say no, that all he wanted was a dance and he was counting down the hours until I hit the road in the morning.

But he wasn’t smiling like that was the case. “I was hoping we’d sit together,” he told me.

“Not one of your other friends?” Like the blond guy he’d been talking to when I came in?

“I’ve already told you; I can see most of them any time.

” And there was a ticking timer until I went home.

Somehow, that weight in my gut just got heavier at the thought of leaving Gomillion.

That was a real strange sensation. “Though, if you don’t mind, we could invite my friend, Gabe, to sit with us. ”

I didn’t remember who that was, but if Justin wanted him to sit with us, then I didn’t care. Might be at least one more friendly face at our table. “Good with me.”

I didn’t know that smile of his could get brighter, but it did.

Justin and I started walking around. Every once in a while, someone called Justin over to them, and I stood off behind him like a shadow.

I didn’t really add much to the conversations he was having, but the people he was talking to didn’t try to include me either.

But Justin did. Every damn time, he’d turn around and ask me if I remembered whatever incident they were talking about.

Most of the time, I didn’t have a damn clue.

I was hearing a lot of juicy gossip: stuff happening in Gomillion now, stuff I missed back in high school.

I tried not to get too entrapped by the gossip, because I knew the way mouths ran in Gomillion.

I was successful most of the time. What did I care if someone caught her husband hooking up with the neighbor or some shitty landlord was selling off his apartment buildings?

About five or six conversational pit stops in, someone said something that made me abandon post as his shadow and join the conversation.

It was the catch of my dad’s church’s name.

Sunday morning was about the only time my dad got sober.

He went to church, and he came back spewing shit that made my skin crawl.

Shit that made me feel like an outsider in my own home and led to him claiming he didn’t have a son when I finally told him I was gay.