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The Return of the Hairpin
By:
Amy Behrendt
As Tai struggled with his tie (no pun intended), Kari hovered behind him.
“Ahh,” she examined Tai’s suit as he desperately tried to straighten it out. “Prom night, huh? He he he… Who’s the ‘lucky’ girl?”
“Oh, it’s, ah… Oh what’s-her-face… Linsee,” Tai said pondered. “Some air head sophomore. She gets the hots for any good-looking guy. This week’s feature is Tai Kamia.”
“Ha,” Kari chuckled. “Good-looking… No wonder she’ll only have you for a week.”
Tai grumbled as he shoved Kari away. She ran back to her room and slammed the door but opened it again.
“Probably cause Sora’s going with Matt, right?”
“Don’t you have some pictures to T.K to ogle at?”
Kari stuck her tongue out at Tai and continued to slam the door. Tai grouched over his knot of a tie.
“Ugg, dad, can you help me?” He yelled into the living room. Tai’s father came out of the front room and took off Tai’s tie and proceeded to tie it correctly.
“You look so handsome,” Tai’s father said. “I remember when you wouldn’t be caught dead with a girl. Now you’re going to be dancing with one.”
“Uh huh, sure,” Tai stared ahead with sudden disinterest. Then, he pictured Matt and Sora doing a tango while he’s stumbling over Linsee. He scowled. “What ever… I bet girls are all the same any way…”
“Not your mother,” Tai’s dad sighed. “I met her at a cooking class in high school. It was true love…”
“Cooking class… Right…” Tai grinned with the picture of his mom and dad smooching while their food was bursting into flames.
“There you go, done,” Tai’s dad slipped the tie over Tai’s head.
“Thanks dad,” Tai hugged his father.
“Now be good, don’t stay out too late, and remember those dance steps I taught you,” Tai’s gave Tai the car keys.
“Bye,” Tai opened up the front door and left for the car.
Meanwhile, at Sora’s apartment, Sora’s mom was brushing Sora’s hair.
“You look so elegant tonight,” her mom said.
“Do you think so?” Sora swooshed her pale blue dress around.
“Yes, I truly do,” her mom replied.
“I know what I need, a necklace,” Sora stated. She rushed into her room and rooted through her jewelry box. As she pushed aside old rings and earrings, her hand brushed up against a spiky item. She pulled it out to further examine it.
“The hairpin…” she gasped.
The smiling sun seemed to be laughing at her. “Why would you do this to me?” It seemed to say. “Why would you do it to him? He didn’t mean to get you mad. I was a symbol of friendship. Now you go and betray him? No wonder you never wore me. You’re too much of a coward.”
Sora threw the hairpin on the floor, recoiling from its cutting remarks.
“No,” she said to herself. “It can’t be true… Can it?”
Sora picked the hairpin off of the floor. She squeezed it tightly, but the spikes dug into her palm, it seemed like the pin was biting her.
“Maybe I over reacted,” Sora stared at the hairpin. “… I did over react. I wish I could take all of those mean things back…”
Sora gazed at the pin for a minute. She pulled a chain out of her jewelry bow and hung the hairpin off of it.
I am no longer a coward, Sora thought. She went out of her room into the living room.
“Are you ready to go, Sora?” her mom asked.
“Yeah, let’s go,” Sora gleefully flew out of the apartment. I’m ready for anything or anyone now, she thought.
“Hello, Sora,” Matt said while holding Sora’s hand. “My, you look astounding. How are you this night?”
“Oh, Matt,” Sora giggled. “Stop trying to be romantic. I’m just here for the punch.”
Matt stared at her quizzically.
“Kidding!” Sora laughed. “Come on. Let’s see if you have two left feet or not.”
As Matt and Sora darted into the gym, Tai and Linsee were behind.
“Thanks for taking me, Tai. That skank Brittany took George and that left me with no one to go with,” Linsee gnashed her teeth.
“You’re welcome,” Tai answered half-heartedly. She’s only using me, he thought. So what? I knew that before we came here. Maybe I’ll get lucky and she’ll go and hang out with some other boy while I sip punch in a corner…
An hour passed, and a dance contest was almost over. Matt and Tai proved to be terrible dancers, so they weren’t in that last round.
“Sorry, Linsee,” Tai apologized. “I’m not a good dancer.”
“That’s ok,” Linsee was staring at a group of conversing boys. “Um… I need to go to… The bathroom. (Yeah, the bathroom.)”
Linsee walked over to the group of boys and immediately started to flirt with one.
“Hmm, that wasn’t even an hour and she ditched me,” Tai sighed. “Ah, who cares? Ok, I have the punch but were is the free corner?”
Tai scanned the gym and found that Matt and Sora were strolling over towards him.
“Hi, Tai,” Matt greeted Tai. “I see that your ‘date’ deserted you. Tough luck, going out with such a ditz like that…”
“Yeah…” Tai groaned. Just then, the group of boys called Matt over.
“Hey, I gotta go, kay?” Matt nodded at Tai and Sora and joined the group.
“What’s up, handsome?” Linsee eyed Matt.
Sora moaned and sat down next to Tai.
“Looks like both of us were dumped,” Sora half-laughed. “Bummer. I was having such a good time with Matt. Dang ‘im… He’s so romantic that he’s hopeless…”
Tai leaned over on to his knees. His face grew hot and his eyes watered.
“Damn. Not now…” his voice sounded broken up and he tried to keep from crying.
“I gotta go,” Tai jumped up and bolted out of the gym.
“Wait, Tai!” Sora watched helplessly as Tai ran outside.
Tai sat on a stair, hunched over weeping softly.
Why me? Why me? Tai kept asking himself that over and over. It’s no fair… All of a sudden he gets to have her before I even get to try…
“Tai, are you ok?” Sora leaned down next to Tai, her hairpin dangling next to his face.
“No. You know what, I’m not ok,” Tai jumped up. “I haven’t been ok this whole damn night!”
Tai suddenly stopped yelling as soon as he saw the hairpin Sora was wearing.
“You’re… You’re wearing that? But I thought you hated it…”
“No, Tai,” Sora cooed. “It wasn’t your fault. I… Over reacted…”
“I can’t believe that you’re wearing that… But you came here with Matt… WhatI mean is tha…”
“I understand, Tai. I’m wearing it now. That’s all that counts. I was afraid but now I’m not.”
Tai unhooked the necklace off of Sora and slid the hairpin into his hand. He pushed back some of Sora’s hair and put the pin into her hair.
“Now you look astounding…” Tai stated.
“Oh, Tai…” Sora hugged Tai tightly. “I’m so sorry…”
“It’s ok. The ‘thunderstorm’ is over between us now.”
Sora gazed into Tai’s eyes.
“I came with the wrong person tonight…”
Sora kissed Tai on the lips.
“I love you…”
“I love you, too…”
Did you like it? I wrote this story in the middle of the night, anyways.