Promised by Prom

by Jessica Bucher

  Gray waited while I quickly made myself ready for another day of musical festival torture. He didn’t say a word on the walk over, except for when we almost reached the girls.

  He muttered, “It took guts. I’m sorry it didn’t pay off.” And it was quite possibly the most genuine thing Gray had ever said to me.

  “Yeah, me too.”

  Lucy and Simon were sitting on the picnic blanket at the edge of a large crowd listening to the Avett Brothers. Addy was standing alone near them, and my eyes immediately started scanning the crowd for Nora, but she was nowhere to be found, and I wasn’t about to ask around for her.

  The music was mostly soothing. There was one about murder in the city which was nice, but then the songs about love made me want to be the only guy in the history of music to boo and throw stuff at the Avett Brothers.

  Finally, after another thirty minutes, I heard her laughter approach from behind. Nora was walking up to the group with Andrew, and she had a smile that would have normally zapped my heart like lightning. Except now, it was just crushing it.

  Nora

  Beside me, Andrew was swaying to the Avett Brothers. He had his eyes squeezed shut and his face tilted toward the sun. He looked like a stock photo for music festival publications. Generically beautiful. I had to remind myself to admire him and stop thinking about Max.

  Especially since Andrew had asked me out first thing this morning. If we had kids we would have to tell them that Dad asked Mom out in front of the outhouse. How was that for romantic? He had been surprised I said yes. And why shouldn’t he be? I was surprised, to be honest. The word just tumbled out, like subconsciously I knew I had to get it out quick or I would overthink it to the point of malfunction.

  “And there’s nothing between you and the guy from last night? Your friend’s little brother?” He had asked as the line in front of us grew shorter.

  I cringed at the term little brother. I rarely thought of Max as Addy’s little anything, but I could see how an outsider might see it that way. In particular, if that outsider, like Andrew, was a full two years older. “I’m a sophomore in college,” he had said, puffing his chest out a little with pride. A sophmore meant he had managed to stick it out for almost two full years. That made him serious and serious was the sort of thing I needed if I really wanted to foster a relationship and not just add another bad date to my tally board.

  “Max, Addy’s brother,” I added to help put a little extra distance between us in his eyes, “is just a friend.” I watched relief sweep over him. I would never tell him this. Definitely not if things between us took off, but it was that momentary lapse in confidence that convinced me going out with him was going to be a good thing.

  The billboards and inspirational quotes all say confidence is your sexiest feature, but not to me. To me, the sexiest thing a person could do was bare their truth, even if their truth is that they get nervous or intimidated by other guys.

  We swapped numbers just in time for Andrew to reach the front of the potty line. Then, to be a gentleman, he offered to let me go first. I declined, not because I didn’t have to pee—we had been waiting in line for ten minutes, I definitely had to pee—but because I didn’t know what to do afterwards. Did I wait for him? Would that be weird?

  When I stepped out of the porta-potty, he was waiting by the antibacterial soap dispenser. There was a big admiring grin on his face which threw me for a loop.

  I tried to imagine it from his perspective. Could a person exiting a porta-potty ever be sexy? Like, if a young David Duchovany came out of a portable restroom, backlit by the sun, would I be able to overlook that he had just sat shivering with his pants down on the same metal toilet seat that hundreds had sat on before him? I decided it was best to not try and interpret Andrew’s thoughts. We made small talk on the way from the bathroom line to where the Avett Brothers were playing.

  When we caught up with the rest of our group, and I spotted the back of Max’s head, I caught myself laughing just a little harder than necessary when Andrew said something funny. Max turned back at the sound of my laugh but quickly returned his attention to the stage.

  I could feel the edges of a hole digging its way inside my heart, and I wasn’t about to stand there and watch it take Max’s shape. He could pretend not to see me, to only look at me through the corner of his eye when he thought I wasn’t paying attention, but I wasn’t going to let him ghost his way out of this friendship over one stupid, amazing, kiss.

  He could take his bitter sad boy moment and shove it. I was going to force him to return to normalcy. He had to want that, right? He saw Addy after our kiss. He felt the tension back at camp. If we went for it and things didn’t work out, it would be that times a thousand. Addy was right—it was too complicated. Someone would get hurt, maybe everyone would get hurt. I couldn’t be responsible for that. Even if I felt...it didn’t matter what I felt.

  I reached down and looped my hand through Andrew’s.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Max

  I was being held captive in my bedroom, and the aroma of pizza was weakening my convictions. The girls were in the living room watching Disney movies, and I hadn’t had the guts to face Nora since last week’s music festival. At school, I managed to avoid her by eating my lunch in Addy’s car or behind the auditorium. Easy peasy.

  Ignoring her texts was a little trickier.

  It was buzzing on my nightstand as we speak.

  Nora: What’s the code word for missing your friend? Chocolate malt?

  Nora: This pizza is getting cold.

  Nora: Addy’s bad singing isn’t going to make fun of itself.

  Nora: The couples are cuddling and kissing now. If you leave me out here with them, Max Altman, so help me…

  I let out a chuckle when I read that one. She got me at a weak moment.

  It didn’t take long before there was a knock on my door. Dangit. I should have known this would happen.

  “You can’t avoid me forever,” she called from the other side of the door.

  “Don’t you have a boyfriend now? Making me the lone third wheel now.”

  “Petty. This isn’t a good look for you, Max.” She was right. I hated the way I was reacting to this whole ordeal, but who could blame me? The only reason I couldn’t have the girl of my dreams was because she was also my sister’s best friend. And mine, for what it was worth.

  And because no emotional wound should be deprived its salt, I got to watch her waltz off into new-relationship bliss less than twenty-four hours after I made my move and was brutally rejected.

  So excuse me for pouting.

  “I have pizza…” she purred from the hallway.

  If I knew Nora—which I did, she was not going to go away anytime soon. Wasn’t all this as painfully for her as it was for me? Why was she chill about all of this?

  Finally, I got up and opened the door, reaching my hand out for the pizza. She had her long hair out of its braids and hanging over her shoulders. It looked like she had curled it or whatever girls did to make those perfect thick waves that framed her face. She looked especially pretty, which now only made me feel worse.

  “Thanks,” I muttered as she stepped in with a paper plate piled with pepperoni pizza.

  “I feel like I’m being punished,” she said. No beating around the bush for Nora.

  “Maybe we just don’t talk about it,” I answered with a grimace.

  “That seems healthy.” She plopped down on my bed cross-legged and grabbed a slice from my plate.

  “So, where’s your boyfriend?” I asked because I hated myself.

  She gave me a suspicious glare, like she thought I was testing her.

  “I’m being serious. It’s friday night. Why aren’t you on a hot date?” My questions came out playful, but my voice felt all wrong, like someone had a gun to my head and was making me say it.

  “First,” she said with her mouth full. “We aren’t technically dating yet. We haven’t even had a first date. That’s
tomorrow.”

  “My mistake,” I answered. “Where is he taking you? Please tell me it’s something ridiculous like the improv or an escape room.”

  “Hey, I love escape rooms,” she cried.

  “You would,” I teased back, and for a moment, it felt like us. Until I remembered that I loved her madly, and we were choosing to ignore that fact and move on with our lives.

  “I think we’re just going out to eat,” she answered.

  It got quiet as I considered my next words carefully. I wanted to go back to the way things were, no matter how impossible that would be.

  “Well...you know. My strawberry shake offer still stands.” I looked up at her with a neutral expression, and she gave me a tight-lipped smile.

  “Thanks, Max.”

  Then, I had a real what the heck moment and decided to blurt out, “I’m sorry for kissing you. I’m sorry if it ruined everything.”

  Which was almost true. I was sorry that everything was ruined. I wasn’t sorry for kissing her.

  She didn’t really respond, and I could tell she didn’t know how. She just bit her lip and looked like she wanted to say something. I was dying for her to say something—anything. Instead, she shrugged and stared at me across the bed. There were far too many things left unsaid between us, and I couldn’t help but wonder what it was she wasn’t saying.

  Nora

  I’m sorry for kissing you. Seriously, Max? It had been a full week of Max dodging me in the hallways at school, ignoring my texts, and hiding out in his bedroom. Then when the promise of pizza finally created a portal between his world and mine, he had to go and ruin it by bringing up that kiss.

  It was almost as if he knew I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Here is what you are not supposed to do when you are just friends with someone: remember the feel of their hands in your hair, fantasize about sharing a limo with them on the way to prom, watch them eating pizza and think there are better things they could be doing with those lips right now. I had gone from a tiny bit intrigued by the idea of Max and I together, to full on fixated and at the very worst time. All spring semester, Addy, Lucy, and I had been working toward my goal. Promised by Prom may have sounded stupid, but it served a purpose. I needed a serious guy. A guy who was made for my particular brand of crazy.

  How could that not be Andrew? Andrew who had a “The Truth is Out There” bumper sticker. A friggin college guy who was into me, Nora Henry, farm girl, self-designated weirdo. I wasn’t a Lucy. These things didn’t happen to me. He was the guy. But he wasn’t the guy I was thinking about, and I felt a whole lot of guilty knowing that.

  Nina rapped her knuckles against my open doorframe. “There’s a boy at the door to see you,” she said in a sing-song voice.

  I gave myself one last glance in the mirror. Unlike my dates with Dean and Freddy, I didn’t feel a need to un-Nora-ize myself. I was cowboy boots with a sundress tonight.

  I slung my denim jacket over my shoulder and winked at Nina. “Don’t wait up!”

  Like security to an underage pop star my dad flew out of his office and into the hallway.

  “What’s that you said, Nora?”

  I grinned at my dad, taking in the extra worry lines between his eyebrows and his I’ll fight him if he hurts you stance. “I said I’ll be home by ten. He’s taking me to a nice gathering for local God-fearing youth.”

  Dad shook his head, but the lines in his face began to ease. “Very funny. I do expect you back by ten though. And you can call me if you need anything,” he reminded.

  I stood on my tiptoes to plant a kiss on his cheek. “Got it.”

  “Maybe I should introduce myself, lay some ground rules,” he began, his eyes wandering toward the staircase.

  Andrew had never indicated that our age difference bothered him, but that didn’t mean I wanted my dad giving him the ‘what are your intentions’ with my high school daughter talk before our first date. I pretended to cough, turning to mouth a silent plea for help to Nina.

  “Hey Dad,” she called. “I need help with my homework.”

  “Sure thing, honey,” said Dad, “Just as soon as I walk Nora out.”

  “No, like now!” she cried, stamping her size 9, middle school foot like she was five and not fourteen. I had to hand it to her. Last summer’s drama camp had really paid off. If I didn’t know she was saving me, I would have thought I was witnessing an actual tantrum.

  Dad looked hesitantly toward the staircase before following Nina into her room. I would have to thank her later.

  Andrew stood in our foyer, a bouquet of yellow roses in one hand and his car keys dangling in the other. He smiled when our eyes met.

  “I realized when I got to the flower shop that I didn’t even know if you liked flowers,” said Andrew, extending the bouquet in my direction. “You could totally be the kind of girl who hates this sort of gesture, but I risked it anyway.”

  “Brave,” I replied, motioning him to follow me to the kitchen where we kept the vases.

  “Not really,” said Andrew with a nervous laugh. “I figured if you hated them, you would appreciate the effort, and if you liked them, then the payoff would be worth the risk.”

  I filled the vase with water and thanked him for the roses, before the two of us headed out to his car.

  It was a sweet thing to do, and I knew, later on when I told Addy and Lucy about it, they would say it was adorable. Because it was adorable. If we fell in love and had many many babies, they’d all tell that story. It was that cute, yet I was having trouble getting in the right mindset for our date.

  The two of us saw the new Stephen King movie, and afterwards we grabbed dinner at Delinki’s one and only food truck, “Taco Telepathy.” The food was average, but they sold T-shirts with awesome cartoon tacos reading one anothers minds on them, so it was nearly impossible not to love the place. It was a perfect night. Great weather, great guy, yet every time I excused myself to use the restroom, I had to fight off the urge to text “Strawberry Shake.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Max

  There was a minor league comic convention in Delinki this weekend, and while it was normally something I actually kind of enjoyed, it felt like the seventh level of hell this year. Nora and Andrew walked hand-in-hand ahead of me. I was literally surrounded by happy couples, and it took everything in me not to drive my head through the life-size Tardis on display.

  Who in their right mind would subject themselves to this? Good question.

  The answer was me.

  But in my defense, I hadn’t been in my right mind since...well, probably never.

  Nora texted me early this morning giving me no choice in the matter. It was a basic, get dressed and be ready by noon, command, and as already established, I was an idiot for that girl and would do whatever she commanded. She coyly left out the fact that I would be the sole third-wheel on this little outing.

  I honestly think she just didn’t want me to be left out, so I could hardly be mad, no matter how much I wanted to be.

  We walked slowly through the various booths, browsing and mostly just trying to pace ourselves since it wouldn’t take us more than an hour to see them all.

  There was a particular stand of artist drawings with an illustration of Wall-E that grabbed my attention.

  Out of habit, I turned to grab Nora to show her, knowing it was her favorite of all the Disney movies. She made me watch it with her no less than four hundred times. We had it memorized and quoted it daily in middle school.

  She didn’t hear me because Andrew was pulling her toward a comic book stand. I turned to the woman selling the prints and quickly ordered the one with Wall-E and Eve. I figured I’d give it to her for Christmas or something, but I just wanted her to have it.

  “Who’s that for?” I didn’t even realize Addy was right behind me.

  “Who do you think?” I answered.

  She got very quiet for a moment, and I could feel her eyes on me while I put my debit card back in my wallet. My
sister and I hadn’t spoken a single word about that night at the music festival. There was no doubt she could sense the sour mood I’d been in since. I just wanted to tell her that not being with Nora was supposed to save everyone a lot of heartbreak, but it was really resulting in my heartache.

  “She’ll love that,” Addy mumbled.

  “I know.” My voice came out a little harsh.

  “When are you going to start acting normal again?” She pulled me toward her, but I wouldn’t meet her eyes. I just shrugged.

  “Wall-E!” Nora shrieked from the other side of the aisle. Suddenly, she was standing between Addy and me, cutting the tension right down the middle like a lightsaber.

  She didn’t spot the print in the bag I was holding, but she pointed to the illustration hanging from the display. “Did you see that, Max?”

  “I did,” I smiled.

  “That was your favorite movie in middle school.” She jabbed me in the shoulder.

  My jaw fell open as I stared at her. “My favorite? You’re joking.”

  “What?” she asked, her smile creating little dimples in her cheeks that were impossible not to stare at.

  “That was totally your favorite movie, you liar. We watched it over and over all summer between seventh and eighth grade when I had my tonsils removed and you came over to keep me company.”

  “Yeah, you were so pitiful and sad, so I let you pick the movie, and you picked Wall-E!”

  I couldn’t hold back my laughter. I jabbed her back in the shoulder, and she grabbed my arm to shake me. The sudden contact made my skin break out in goosebumps. I didn’t want her to take her hand away.

  “No way!” I answered.

  “That was one of my favorite summers,” she said with a smile.

  “I hated that summer,” I lied. “I was stuck on the couch for weeks.”