Free Midnight Ballerina by Cori Williams

spun around and opened my closet doors, shuffling through the contents before she spotted whatever she was looking for. Amelia didn’t normally borrow much from me, so I wasn’t sure what she was doing. She was more of a frills and lace kind of girl where I was good with just about anything. “Found it! Here, go in and get this on.”
    “Found what exactly?” I looked down at what she had shoved into my hands, seeing that it was the ridiculously expensive dress she had bought for me. “Why do I need to put this on?”
    “Quit asking questions.” She shoved me into my bathroom. “I’ll get dressed in here while you’re changing. A little bit of hair and makeup and we should be good to go.”
    “Amelia,” I whined. “I thought we were just staying in tonight. I don’t want to go anywhere.”
    “I don’t care,” she answered stubbornly, pointing toward the bathroom. “I bought you that dress, remember? So now you’re going to wear it and we’re going to have fun. We’ve barely gotten to hang out lately, so let’s go out. We can do movies some other night. I promise.”
    I sighed loudly but didn’t argue anymore and instead headed into the bathroom to change. Then I let her fuss with my makeup and hair, not as long as she normally would because she seemed to be in a hurry to get somewhere, and then we headed out to her car.
    When reached our destination, I mentally chastised myself, deciding I would try to have some fun since Amelia and I really hadn’t spent much time together lately. Well, aside from yesterday’s shopping trip. At least I’d been able to get a quick nap in after classes. I still hoped it would be an early night though.
    “Amelia, I can’t believe you’re doing this to me,” I hissed, teeth clenched, while trying to force a smile onto my face.
    If it wasn’t bad enough that she coerced me into going out, my idea of it possibly being fun was quickly squashed as soon as we entered the restaurant. She ignored me, nudging my back with her elbow, causing me to lurch forward into Carleton, who was apparently my date for the evening.
    I couldn’t believe she set me up, knowing that I was totally against dating, especially someone like Carleton. No, I wasn’t one of those poor girls that hated all rich people or something. Usually, I did give people a chance, even though I joked with Amelia about guys named Franklin or Carleton, but ninety percent of the time, they lived up to their names. Judging by his slicked back hair, pressed khakis, and pink polo with the collar flipped up, I was pretty certain I was right about him. Too bad I wasn’t the type of person to leave their best friend hanging. Even when their best friend set them up on a blind date that they had already refused to go on.
    We were going to have a serious talk about it later.
    “A pleasure to meet you, Monroe.” Carleton’s hand lingered on mine longer than necessary until I finally pulled it away and let out a nervous laugh. He looked offended. Oh, I could tell it would be a fun night. I suddenly felt relieved that Amelia insisted on buying me this dress. The place was probably the fanciest restaurant I had ever been to in my life. I mean, there was a valet that parked Amelia’s car. That was considered fancy to me.
    The four of us made small talk until a young woman led us to our table, and I about kicked Amelia when she headed to the other side, leaving me to sit right next to Carleton. I decided to take one for the team because she obviously really liked Franklin and he seemed genuinely nice. I would just have to suck it up.
    The night went on in slow motion. Amelia insisted that we have a bottle of wine, so I made sure my glass stayed full to the very tippy top and I tried to always have some kind of food in my mouth to avoid contributing to any discussion. Really, it wasn’t necessary because Carleton loved to talk about himself and I probably wouldn’t have gotten a word in even if I wanted to speak.
    Just