My smile faded as she stared at me, and sudden flashbacks of us on my living room sofa watching movies while the rest of our friends went to the pool came flooding back. I was in a miserable amount of pain, but that summer still brought a smile to my face.
Suddenly, we both noticed that we had an audience standing around us, waiting for us to finish our little trip down memory lane. Addy’s eyes were on me, but she wasn’t as angry as she normally looked when I stole her friend away for a moment. Her lips were parted and her eyes looked almost sad, which wasn’t an easy task for my always-chipper sister.
Lucy and Simon were trying to look busy browsing through a few other booths, but Mr. Perfect himself had his eyes glued to his girlfriend. I still hated how much I didn’t hate that guy, so I just gave Nora a playful shove and turned to walk away. Maybe Andrew was better for her. I mean, what girl in her right mind would choose her best friend’s little brother over a good-looking college kid?
Then, again...Nora never really was in her right mind either, was she?
Nora
Most of the time I thought Delinki was akin to parmesan cheese. Do you hate it? No. Do you pick it over mozzarella? Also, no. But there was one weekend a year in which being a Delinkite was actually relatively cool. Comic-Con Weekend. And it was happening right now.
“You know,” said Andrew, his hand wrapped tightly around mine. “The year that Wil Wheaton came I had a front row seat to his panel. I got to ask a question. It might be the single greatest moment of my life.”
“Really?” I laughed, “What did you ask?”
Andrew blushed. “It’s kind of dumb.”
I wrinkled up my nose and looked up at him as we crossed the convention floor. “You can’t not tell me after that build up about it being the greatest moment of your life.”
Andrew shook his head and took a deep breath. “Alright, but you can’t judge me.”
I made a quick cross my heart signal, though I fully intended to judge him.
“I asked, ‘Do you think the inter-species romances within Voyager paved the way for the Spock and Uhura relationship in the most recent Star Trek movie adaptation?”
I laughed so hard I snorted.
“You promised not to judge me.”
“Did I though?” I asked, wagging a finger at him mischievously.
I was having a great time with Andrew, which was a much needed surprise. Up until this morning, I wasn’t sure I would go at all. Comic-Con was normally a thing I would drag Max to. And despite his offer to be my out-clause if things went sour with Andrew, things still felt shaky between us. Shaky mostly because despite my desire to be just friends, it was impossible to think of him as a friend anymore. Now when Addy said things like, we can’t do homework in the den because Max is playing Skyrim down there, my first thought was I wonder what he’s wearing and not, just kick him out! And if that wasn’t bad enough I had an actual make out dream about him.
Like seriously, I dreamed we were lip to lip, pulses racing, the whole shebang. If we hadn’t had wings in the dream, it would have felt far too real for comfort. Feeling guilty, I leaned closer to Andrew.
“Hey, there’s a Star Wars booth over there if you want to check it out?” asked Andrew.
I gave a tightlipped smile before following him toward the booth.
Star Wars was a thing that I knew I was supposed to like. Every sci-fi loving nerd loved Star Wars, but for some reason, it just didn’t do it for me. Han Solo was a jerk. Princess Leia in the bikini made me feel bad about myself, and I found it difficult to believe that Luke and Vader overcame their tumultuous father-son relationship over the course of three face-to-face meetings. That being said, Andrew had made no less than three bad Star Wars jokes in the short period of time we had known each other. Obviously the guy was a big fan, and I appreciate that.
Two men dressed as Imperial guards stepped in front of us, blocking our way to the merchandise table.
“Excuse me,” I barked when after awkwardly standing in front of them for a few long seconds, neither stepped aside.
“I’ll handle this,” said Andrew, and then—much to my mortification—he raised his hand and waved it ever so slightly in front of the guards’ faces.
“This is not the path you wish to block,” he said and then snickered as the guards obediently stepped aside.
I started to ask how long he had wanted to do that, when I saw it. Behind the path the men had just been blocking, stood a fully costumed Stormtrooper holding a sign that read, “Don’t make Andrew use the Force to get you to join his side at Prom.”
My mouth dropped. “Are you serious?”
Andrew nodded, reaching forward to grab my other hand. I felt like I was about to get proposed to on a reality show. “I know we have only been dating a few weeks, but I would love to be the guy who takes you out in that silver dress. What do you say?”
What do I say? Was he really asking that? Yes, of course I was going to say yes. This was what I had been working toward all year. Prom with a guy who was serious about me. What was more serious than a promposal planned down to the last detail?
“Of course,” I cried, wrapping my arms around his neck and planting a quick kiss on his lips.
I was happy, really happy, but that didn’t stop me from looking for Max over Andrew’s shoulder as he pulled me in for a celebratory hug. Complicated didn’t begin to explain how I felt these days.
Chapter Eighteen
Max
Well, that was painful. And not just because the girl my heart beats for said yes to prom with another guy. It was painful, as in, I just died from cringing.
Nora doesn’t even like Star Wars!
Of course, if he even knew her, he would know that. But he doesn’t.
I was standing by the food stand as I watched. In line for junk food, I suddenly lost my appetite. So, I stepped out and made my way toward the exit. I couldn’t just stand around and watch them celebrate. People were already gathering with their phones out like it was the greatest thing they’d ever seen.
Somewhere around the video game setup, which I had no desire to check out, I realized it was really over. Nora met her super special squad goal, for the first time ever. No thanks to me.
“Max,” a voice called from behind just before I crossed through the exit.
I turned and was surprised to find my sister standing alone, just staring at me.
Trying to escape whatever awkward thing she was trying to say, I answered, “The con is lame this year. I’ll be waiting outside whenever you’re ready—”
“I’m sorry.”
I stopped dead in my tracks. In my sixteen years, Addy had never once apologized to me, and I was not exaggerating. As the pesky little brother, I could never get away with anything. No matter what I did to torment her, our parents always made me apologize. Even when it wasn’t my fault. They failed to notice how they never made Addy apologize, and it had become a running joke between us. She could have poured Cheerios on my head, and they would have made me apologize for getting hair in her breakfast.
“For what?” I asked, my face twisted up in confusion.
“For being a crappy sister, I guess.”
At that, I rolled my eyes and continued my way out the doors.
She followed me outside to the brick patio outside the convention center. It was still chilly, but the spring frost was teasing us with ideas of going anywhere without layers. I sat down on the icy bench and put my head in my hands.
“Brothers aren’t supposed to date their sister’s friends. Those are the rules, Max.” She sat down next to me, and the tension between us was too serious for my comfort. It was like she was trying to convince herself that these arbitrary rules really mattered.
“Thank you for protecting your friend from me,” I answered dryly. I didn’t care about some stupid rules my sister wanted to enforce just because she could.
“Max,” she said, pity lacing her words. “I was just trying to be a good friend and a g
ood sister.”
“Then, let us make our own decisions.”
“Okay, so maybe the rules don’t have to be so strict, but I think Nora agrees with me. You two dating could end badly.”
Hearing my sister even mention the idea of Nora and I dating made my stomach flip. I hated feeling like the heartbroken loser, and I desperately wanted things to just go back to the way they were. “Just go inside, Addy. I’m fine. I don’t even like Nora like that.”
“Liar.”
Yeah, it was less than convincing.
“Well, even if I did, it doesn’t matter anymore. She seems very happy with Mr. Perfect.” I wasn’t great at hiding my emotions, so my tone was bitter, very bitter.
“Yeah, she does...” Her voice trailed. “I just didn’t want either of you to get hurt,” she muttered, and it was starting to sound like my sister regretted ruining things between Nora and me when she interrupted that earth-shattering kiss at the festival, and that thought really grated my nerves. She was the one who pulled us apart. Maybe if she hadn’t stopped us, we’d be together now. Nora and I would be walking hand-in-hand through the convention, and I’d be the one asking her to Prom, but with words instead of signs like a normal freaking human being.
“You’re right,” I barked at my sister. “It’s so much better this way.”
The car ride home was quiet. I shared the backseat with Andrew and Nora while Addy and Gray took the front. I should have caught a ride with Lucy and Simon, but being around those two wasn’t any less uncomfortable. Lucy had fully converted to nerdom, so her and Simon were high on whatever weird anime celebrity they got a picture with. They would no doubt be talking about it the whole way back to the house.
Nora was squeezed between me and Andrew, and I considered riding in the trunk or strapped to the roof. Either option would be more pleasant than this. Didn’t Mr. College have his own car?
Addy was biting her lip incessantly, a move I’d known to mean she was worried, and my sister didn’t handle anxiety well. She would want to talk more about this later until she felt everything was settled and all was right with the world. In the same way she couldn’t just let herself get dumped last fall without getting even, Addy wasn’t one to let things go.
Nora glanced at me for a moment, but I wouldn’t let my eyes wander over to her. I tried to remember how I would have acted in a moment like this, but our relationship felt so broken that I didn’t even recognize us anymore. Surely, I would have teased her for saying yes to such a lame flex or we would have chewed him out behind his back for his dated show of chivalry.
But this was a new Nora. Nora with a serious boyfriend.
So I kept my mouth shut and held the print from Wall-E on my lap, apparently my favorite movie.
Nora
There was a poster leaning against my bedroom wall that I would ordinarily make fun of. Only I couldn’t make fun of it because it was my official promposal, and in addition to the poster there was now a picture circulating on the Delinki comic-con site of Andrew and me posing with the sign, alongside a Stormtrooper and the two Imperial guards who had helped him pull the whole thing off.
It was such a sweet gesture. The perfect serious boyfriend sort of thing, really. There was just the whole, I hated Star Wars and my perfect boyfriend didn’t know that part that made it feel like less of a gift and more of a warning.
Nina stood in my room studying the poster. “So, it’s a joke. Like use the force, join the darkside?”
“Yes,” I answered, attempting to sound impressed.
“Why couldn’t he just ask if you wanted to go to the dance?” That was Nina for you. I had to hand it to my baby sister—she always asked whatever was on her mind. Even if the question was bound to tick the other person off.
I let out a deep breath, “I don’t know. He was trying to be sweet, I guess. Lots of girls like being asked to Prom in a big way.”
“Yeah,” she said. “Girls like Lucy.”
I nodded in painful agreement. Lucy would have been all over this sort of thing. In fact, when I spotted Simon after the big ask, I was pretty sure he was mentally beating himself up for not asking Lucy to prom in a special way. Sorry Simon, I didn’t know Andrew was going to do it either, I thought.
“I like Andrew,” said Nina, “but…” She let the end of her sentence trail off, leaving me wondering what Nina really thought.
“But what?” I asked, trying not to come off as too defensive.
Nina looked down at the carpet. “But I thought you might go with Max.”
You and me both.
“Max and I are just friends,” I said, fully aware that I was saying it as much to convince myself as I was Nina.
“Sure,” she said, “but don’t you ever wonder? Like if you guys could be more?”
I desperately wanted to tell her I wondered that all the time. It would have felt like having an anvil removed from my chest, just having the freedom to say it out loud. But I couldn’t say that. I could never say that, not while I had Andrew wrapping his hand in mine and going out of his way to do things he thought would make me feel special. Thinking about Max that way would be like telling Andrew thanks for applying but we’ve we’ve opted to go with an internal candidate. He had the perfect resume; it wasn’t fair to pick Max over him.
So instead of telling her what I really felt, I shrugged my shoulders and made up an excuse about needing to get some homework done. I knew she wasn’t buying it, but she left the room anyway. I was moments away from drowning my sorrows in a Netflix documentary about Mars when my phone pinged with a text from Max.
Max: Will you tell him you hate Star Wars before prom or after?
Nora: I was gonna go with, never.
I shot back, adding an embarrassed emoji.
I watched the little dots on my phone as he typed out a response.
Max: My New Hope is that he arrives dressed as Han Solo.
I smiled and then forced myself to wipe the grin off my face and put my phone away. I could text Max back and forth all night, but it would only make me feel worse. I had spent so much time focusing on finding someone to get serious with that I had ignored the obvious choice. Now I was kicking myself for not listening to my gut. I should have told Addy the truth. That kiss was not nothing. That kiss was everything.
Now I would never know what it would have been like if I had looked her in the eye and told her what I was really thinking, which was, screw the goals. I don’t need serious. I need the guy who makes me laugh.
I hit play on the Mars documentary. Maybe if I bored myself to death I could ignore the poster leaning up against my wall, and the uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach that grew larger every time I thought about Andrew.
Chapter Nineteen
Max
Nora: I’m swamped with photo editing in the yearbook room. If ONLY I had a friend who could help me…
Nevermind the fact that I was already halfway out to the parking lot. I spun around on my heels and rushed back inside, pretending like I was planning on helping her all along.
In fact, I helped Nora with the yearbook photos all the time, but since everything got awkward between us, the things that were normal before suddenly stopped being normal. But after three weeks of pouting, I was ready to accept things the way they were before the festival.
Besides, Nora and I were way closer as friends than her and Andrew were as boyfriend and girlfriend. Or at least that’s what I convinced myself.
When I walked into the lab, she was perched over her laptop while proofs printed nonstop in the corner.
“Grab those for me,” she ordered.
“Hi, Max. How are you, Max? Thanks for helping me, Max,” I mocked as I grabbed the printed yearbook proofs and brought them over to her table.
“Shut up, Max,” she answered without looking up. I caught the sly smile on her face.
I let out a satisfied sigh as I sat down next to her. Finally, we were starting to feel like us again. I could do this, I tho
ught. I could be her friend, and if that’s all I could get, I would take it.
But then she turned up toward me, and the look in her eye was different than before. Her eyes lingered too long on my face. Maybe she was just looking for signs that we were our old selves again and not thinking about me kissing her. Just before looking away, she started biting her lip.
Then my mind took me back to that night again. For the first time since our disaster-kiss, I truly thought about it and let myself relive it. Which was not a good idea, since it rendered me completely useless. Lost in a stupor, I thought about her lips against mine and the way she chose to pull me closer rather than push me away.
“Earth to Max.”
She was smiling from the table, clearly waiting for me to come over and help her trim down the proofs with the paper cutter.
“Sorry,” I muttered. As I approached her, I caught her smiling at me. My stupid boy brain was at it again, keeping me from basic functions as she handed me half the stack of pages to cut.
We stayed quiet as we worked. Normally, this was when we did our best trash talking about the people in the photos, but I couldn’t find anyone in these pages more pathetic than me at the current moment.
“Uh-oh,” Nora muttered just before slamming her hands down on a black and white picture.
“What?” I asked, watching her skeptically.
“I’ll edit this page before it goes to print.” She grabbed a sticky note and tried to cover the picture with it, but I was too quick for her. Curiosity got the best of me, and I snatched the page away before she could get rid of it.
“Max!” she shrieked as I stared at the pic. It was a full-page spread of “What we did over Summer Break.” There, right in the middle, was a large me and Nikki, at the pool and holding each other close. It was just a couple weeks before she blindsided me with a very public dumping.
Promised by Prom Page 11
