Elizabeth Eulberg: Prom and Prejudice

When the train pulled up to the first stop at Christopher Street, we all got out. Darcy flagged down a taxi and put Georgie into it. "Have fun!" she exclaimed as the cab pulled away.

"What exactly did you tell her we were doing?" I asked.

Darcy hesitated. "I don't think you will be happy to hear this, but I figured the only thing I could think of that wouldn't have made her want to come along or get her suspicious was to tell her that we were going on a date." He flagged down another cab and we got inside.

As we headed toward Jane's family's apartment in Tribeca, I studied him. He was so tense. I could tell that anger was bubbling up inside of him.

"I'm so sorry," I said. "Darcy, I'm so sorry that I've brought him into your life again. I didn't know...."

He stared straight ahead. "How could you know? I should have done something. It isn't your fault."

"But I believed him. I thought he was like me. I was so stubborn and thought that we were similar, with the whole scholarship thing."

Darcy handed the taxi driver the fare as we arrived at Jane's. Before he got out, he looked at me.

"Lizzie," he said, "you are nothing like George Wickham."

JANE WAS IN HYSTERICS WHEN SHE OPENED THE DOOR. BUT IT didn't take her that long to realize that I came with a guest. "Darcy?" she said in between sobs, glancing between the two of us.

Darcy took over, asking Jane where Lydia was last, what she had said, where she liked to hang out. Then he did probably the hardest thing -- he told Jane the truth about Wick.

I looked down at the floor when he recounted the story he had e-mailed me. He kept control of his voice, but the one time I dared to look up, his hands were balled up in fists.

"I'm sorry that I didn't tell you this sooner," he said to Jane. "But the only reason I'm telling you this now is not to make you feel worse, but for you to understand what we have to do next."

Jane and I were both confused.

"We have to call around to hotels to see if they checked in anywhere."

"What?" Jane exclaimed. "She's fourteen years old!"

"Does she have a credit card?"

"Of course."

He studied me for a second. "Lizzie, I need you to start calling hotels."

"Like the Waldorf?" I had never stayed at a hotel in the city in my life. There were thousands of hotels, and I had no idea where to start.

"No, Wick would want the trendiest hotels." He thought for a second and then rattled off about a dozen hotel names to me. I grabbed a pen and paper out of my purse and started writing them down.

"I have a phone call to make, excuse me." Darcy exited to the kitchen.

I got the phone numbers for the hotels and started calling them one by one. First asking for Lydia, then Wick. Nothing. I was distracted watching Jane repeatedly try to call Lydia. When the fourth hotel operator said, "One moment, please," and then the line started to ring, it took me a second to realize what was happening.

"Darcy!"

Darcy came running out of the kitchen right when Wick picked up the phone.

"This better be about why our room service is taking so long," Wick slurred on the other end of my phone, loud enough for all of us to hear it.

Darcy grabbed the receiver. "I'm just calling to confirm the room number, sir," he said in an unrecognizable voice.

"What? Didn't you just call the room? How can you call a room and not know the room number? Didn't you have to dial room four two seven?"

Darcy quickly hung up. "I don't think you guys should come," he told us. "I can handle this on my own."

Of course, Jane and I ignored him and followed him out the door. Darcy didn't protest, he just sat in the front of the taxi and was on his cell phone the entire time.

Jane was practically shaking. "I can't believe how irresponsible Lydia is. They are clearly drunk, and she has the nerve to use her credit card to get an expensive hotel room to do who knows what. I'm the worst sister on earth!"

"Jane, how is any of this your fault? Lydia should know better."

She leaned back in the seat and put her hands over her face. "And here I thought everything was going to be okay, now that I was with Charles. Of course I couldn't be that lucky." I'm sure it didn't help that Charles was away with his family in Greece for the break.

We pulled up to the hotel and none of us waited for the bellman to open up the door. We hurried inside and a tall, muscular gentleman in all black approached Darcy.

"We can't gain access to the guest room floors without a key card. I didn't want to call security until you arrived."

"Security?" Jane was panicked.

"I'll handle this," Darcy assured us. He walked to the front counter and spoke to a manager. The guy stood guard near us, but didn't speak a word.

"Let's go." Darcy motioned us toward the elevator. He slid a room key into the elevator and pressed the button for the fourth floor.

"How did you get a key?" Jane asked.

Darcy ignored her. I could tell that he was trying to control himself. When the door opened to the fourth floor, he blocked the elevator door with his arm.

"We need to do this my way. You guys stay outside and I'll get Lydia to you. Let me handle Wick."

We approached room 427 and could hear blaring music coming from inside before we even rounded the corner. The man in black leaned against the wall next to the door and folded his arms. Darcy guided me and Jane to the other side of the door.

He tapped on the door. "Room service," he called out.

There was giggling coming from inside.

Wick's voice came from the other side of the door. "Did you forget something, because you were just here...." The door swung open and Wick stopped in his tracks when he came face-to-face with Darcy. Wick's shirt was unbuttoned, his face unshaven, his hair a complete mess. His eyes were bloodshot and swollen.

Darcy pushed Wick to the side and entered the room. I instinctively followed him, even though he'd told me not to.

The room was in shambles. There was an empty champagne bottle on the coffee table and an open, nearly empty bottle of wine next to it.

"What the hell do you want, Will?" Wick stumbled as he backed into a couch.

"Lydia?" Darcy called out.

Jane ran into the room and grabbed her stomach as she took in the scene.

We heard moaning from the side of the couch. Jane ran over and found Lydia nearly passed out on the floor. It looked like she was about to be sick.

When Lydia looked up to see what the noise was about she smirked at her sister. "You're not the only one with a boyfriend." She hiccuped. "You think I'm such a child, but look at me. Fancy hotel room, hot boyfriend, champagne."

"See." Wick moved toward Lydia. "She's fine. We were just having some fun, blowing off some steam. No need to call the trust-fund police --"

It all happened so fast that I didn't even realize what was going on at first. Darcy grabbed Wick by his shirt and threw him up against the wall.

The man in black entered the room and stood at attention. I wanted him to get between the two of them. I was scared for Darcy.

"Get off me, Will." Wick tried to push Darcy off him, but he wasn't moving.

"Jane," Darcy said evenly. "Get Lydia out of here. Take her to my room."

The man in black handed Jane a key. I helped Jane pull Lydia up from the floor. Her body was limp and she smelled of alcohol. Lydia groaned and tried to push us away, but she didn't have the strength or motor skills to fight us off. "I don't want to leave. I want to party. Why do you have to ruin everything for me?"

"Shut up, Lydia!" Jane screamed at her.

Lydia, shocked from Jane raising her voice, stood up, and tried to gather herself. (Even I was a little frightened in that moment -- Jane yelling was more jarring than Darcy having Wick pinned against a wall.)