She stood in confusion for a moment and then she saw the pile of empty beer cans next to the couch and smelled the aroma of beer like a little fog around him. No, no, she thought, he’s drunk. No, he can’t be. Not tonight.

She poked him hard this time but he didn’t wake up and she began to cry. Even if he did wake up he couldn’t drive her, drunk as he was. It was already seven o’clock. Davy was going to wonder where she was. He was going to stand there waiting and she wouldn’t show up and he wouldn’t know why. What would he think? How long would he wait in front of the school for her? Could she bike there and tell him what had happened? She started to sob consumed by injured merit, all the tension and the disappointment and the nagging fears of that year suddenly washing over her at this final unexpected disappointment.

“It’s not fair!” she shouted in an incoherent tangle of frustration at the snoring Al. “I let Miss Webster go without complaining. I didn’t mind worrying about money or doing the books or avoiding Mr. Pennypacker because I had this one thing to look forward to!”

She screamed the last two words so loudly it frightened her and caused Al to roll over and look at her confusedly through one partially opened eye.

“Fiona?” he murmured.

“You were supposed to drive me!” she yelled. “To the DANCE! I should have known you’d never come through for me. I knew I’d never get this.” She was choking so hard on her sobs that she could hardly think straight or get her words out. “I tried so hard to do everything right this year. For Marlin and Nat and Charlie. I didn’t even BUY A DRESS!” She turned midsob and fled.

When Fiona got back home she ran up and locked herself into the bathroom, where she continued to sob brokenheartedly. The girls, who had followed behind her, knocked on the bathroom door.

“What happened?” called Marlin.

“What do you think?” yelled Fiona. “He was DRUNK. He was passed out.”

“Oh, no. But what about Davy?” asked Marlin.

“I was going…” Fiona’s sentences broke up as she gulped between sobs, “bike up…tell him…couldn’t go. Ride fell through…can’t bike home in the dark. But…can’t go now. All red and blotchy…can’t go like this.” She kept sobbing and hiccupping.

“I’ll go,” said Marlin. “I’ll go and tell him you got sick and couldn’t come and sent me to tell him.”

“Okay,” sobbed Fiona. “Thanks.”

“But come out of there, you’re scaring Charlie and Nat,” said Marlin.

“I don’t want to,” sobbed Fiona. “I just want to sit in the bathtub and wait for eternity to claim me. Just leave me alone.”

The sisters tiptoed downstairs.

“She’s okay,” said Marlin. “She’s not really going to wait for eternity to claim her, whatever that means. Listen, you two, I’m going to bike to the school. I’ll be about an hour. It will still be light when I come back. Don’t worry. Just watch TV or something.”