by RH Tucker
“There you are!” I hear a screech behind me, and recoil, instantly growing annoyed. “Why have you been ignoring my texts?”
Sam, pulling out a couple books from his locker, shuts the door and looks past me at Emily.
“Because I have nothing to say to you,” I reply matter-of-factly, staring at Sam as I say it.
She grabs my arm and spins me around. “Seriously? After all we’ve been through? Nat, I told you, I’m sorry. It’s not like I meant for this to happen.”
“You’re sorry? You’re sorry?!”
“Yes, okay? I’m sorry. I know you liked Dustin, but what was I going to do? He made a move, and I wasn’t going to turn him down.”
“That!” I put a finger in her face. “That right there is exactly why you can take all of your sorries and shove ‘em. You weren’t going to turn him down? Are you kidding me? Mia would’ve told him that I liked him. I mean, it’s not like he can’t know that by now anyway, but she would’ve. And if the roles were reversed, and you liked him and wanted him to ask you to prom, do you think I would’ve done that to you? No! I wouldn’t have. You keep your sorries. They’re worthless.”
“Please, Natalie!” She grabs ahold of my arm. “Don’t throw away our friendship over a guy.”
“You did that already.” I yank my arm away from her.
As soon as I pull my arm away, her apologetic demeanor morphs into apathy, and she sneers. “Fine. Whatever. Have fun being solo at prom. Or maybe you can dance with the chess nerd.” She lets out a snicker. “Stupid geek.”
“Yup, you really got me with that one,” Sam yells back at her, and she flips him off, before turning and walking away.
“Sorry about that,” I say to him.
“Don’t worry about me,” he replies. He grabs my arm, giving me a soothing rub. “Are you okay?”
The guy I wanted to go to prom with is gone. One of my best friends is gone. And here I am, left with nothing more than hurt feelings and a guy I made fun of almost all year, consoling me. I called Emily a bitch, and she is, but I feel like a huge one myself now.
“I’m fine.”
Chapter 7
Sam
Grabbing my bag, I leave my first class Friday morning with Quinton next to me.
“Did you hear him in there?” he murmurs next to me as we walk down the hallway.
“I told you, I know already,” I respond. “Her friend blew up on her when I was at my locker yesterday.”
He’s talking about Dustin not going to prom with Natalie. We have our first class with Dustin. We both heard him talking to his friends about how hot of a hookup session he had with Emily and how he’s positive prom night is going to be even better. It feels like I have a headache from how many times I rolled my eyes listening to him.
“Yeah,” Quinton continues. “I know that’s what you said, but who knows what could’ve happened overnight. But now, it’s like, official. She’s free. She’s not going to prom with anyone.”
“And you think I can just go up to her and be all, ‘Hey, Natalie. Want to go to prom with a chess nerd?’ Come on, Q. Get real.”
“You get real.” He punches my arm. “You told me you saw Izzy making out with Matt yesterday.”
“Yeah, so?”
“So stop being lame. Make a move. I’m not saying to ask her out on a date or play seven minutes in heaven with her.” I shake my head at him as he laughs. “All I’m saying is tell her you’ll go to prom with her if she wants. Why wouldn’t she?”
“Why wouldn’t she?” I stop to look him in the eyes. “Q, I’m the joke vote. I’m the guy they put on the ballot so every other senior in our class could make fun of. Yeah, who wouldn’t want to go to prom with that?”
“Stop thinking of it like that, man! Look, if it helps, think of yourself like Clark Kent.”
“Clark Kent?”
“You’re swooping in to save the day. Do you really think a girl like Natalie wants to go to prom alone? Hell no. And you guys already have a rapport. And you told Kelsey and me yesterday you guys actually had a pleasant conversation for once. Sure, you might not be friends, but she doesn’t hate you. She’s not disgusted by you.”
“Oh my God.” I pinch the bridge of my nose. “You know, you should team up with her actually because your endorsements sound as good as hers.”
“What?”
“Never mind.”
“Just … think about it, that’s all.”
“Yeah, yeah.” I wave him off as I turn the corner and head to my next class.
I try not to, but I do think about it. And not because of the reasons Quinton gave me, even though the more I think about it, the more they start making sense. I think about it because I already let my imagination run away with me last Friday when I found out we’d be a court couple. Then, as this week started, and we did all of the prom-week events, I still thought about it. It was a far-off wish that I’d let myself think, Wouldn’t it be cool if I went to prom with Natalie?
But I never let it go further than that because I knew exactly what this week was. This wasn’t a setup of any kind. This was a means to an end. Prom week is a high school tradition. Schools everywhere did the same sort of things we did this week, and none of it meant anything to the people who participated in it. It didn’t matter if I thought she looked hot on pajama day, or we wore the same color shirt on twin day. It meant nothing that she seemed to put up with me during the whipped cream pie eating contest or that she felt almost like a real friend after the scavenger hunt yesterday. Because I knew we were just playing our roles.
And then I was there for the argument between her and her friend.
That argument is the only reason Quinton’s words still tumble through my mind during my next few classes. Knowing that her friend hooked up with the guy she had a crush on. That she had hoped he would ask her to prom, and now she was pretty much guaranteed to go without a date. It’s the only reason I’m still thinking about his words. That and the class I have right before lunch is calculus. Kelsey’s in the class with me, but it’s also the other class I have with Dustin.
“So, you gonna do it?” she whispers, nudging my arm as we leave the class.
“You guys need to stop texting each other so much.”
“He is my boyfriend, Sam.”
“Yeah, you don’t need to remind me,” I laugh. “These last couple of months of all your PDA has been reminder enough.” She quiets up, and when I look at her, I can see her blushing. “It’s cool, Kelsey. I’ll take your guys’ PDA any day over how awkward this year was between you and Quinton before he finally asked you out.”
“You know, we were talking about that last week. As scared as we both were that it might mess up our friendship, he said he waited so long because of you.”
“Me?”
“Yeah. He said if things got awkward between us, he didn’t want you to feel like you had to pick a side.”
“Aw,” I sigh and wrap an arm around her. “My two best friends, looking out for little old me. I’m touched.”
“Shut up,” she giggles, giving me a light punch in the ribs.
Dustin has been walking in front of us and suddenly shouts, “Hey, Natalie.”
I can see her stop and turn to look at him. Both Kelsey and I come to a stop, watching. One of Dustin’s friends stands next to him. A few others stop to see what’s going on, but most just walk by, keeping their eyes on Natalie as they do. I’m not sure if she sees me since her eyes never leave Dustin. She grips her backpack over her shoulder. Me and Kelsey stay where we are. It feels like a showdown, a light breeze pushing her hair across her face. If I didn’t know better, I’d think a tumbleweed would roll by.
“What do you want?” she snaps, looking annoyed.
“Why you gotta be like that, Nat? Look, Em told me everything yesterday.”
“Okay?”
“That’s messed up.”
“Wait, what’s messed up?”
“How was I supposed to know you liked m
e? I’m not a mind reader. Don’t take it out on your friend though.”
“Seriously?” She frowns at him. “I have no problem with you, other than you think you know what you’re talking about. And as embarrassing as this is to admit now, fine. Whatever. I did like you. But Emily knew that. I told her yesterday if she was the one that liked you I wouldn’t have done that to her.”
I can’t see his face since he’s facing away from us, but his tone comes out completely arrogant. “You sure about that?”
As he says the words, he takes a step closer to her. A few more students have stopped to watch the encounter and I’m not sure if she’s going to yell at him or slap him. Or both.
“Wow, you conceited ass.”
“It’s not conceited when it’s the truth.”
“Whatever,” she says and turns to leave.
She only takes a step, before he grabs her arm and turns her back around. “Just so you know, I probably would’ve asked you to prom, if you hadn’t been paired up with the nerd.”
Kelsey curls her lips, looking at me with a scowl.
“Oh, man. You really are a dick. So what if Sam is a nerd or a dork or whatever. He’s nice. And definitely not a shallow douchebag like yourself.”
“Psh,” Dustin laughs. “Right. Yeah, I’m sure Mr. Four Eyes is a regular Prince Charming.”
“He is!”
“If he’s so great then why are you so pissed off? If he’s so awesome, that means you don’t have to be a dateless nerd yourself, Ms. Valedictorian. He’s your court couple anyway.”
“I’m pissed off because my friend was a bitch. And don’t worry, I’m not dateless. He did ask me. Last night, okay? So why don’t you just shut up about things you know nothing about. Pretty much like every class you’re in, you stupid idiot.”
Staring at me, Kelsey raises her eyebrows and her jaw drops. ‘You did?’ she mouths to me. I shake my head no.
“What are you guys doing?” Quinton calls out to us, walking behind Dustin.
Dustin turns around and sees us standing there. Natalie looks over, now that Dustin is out of her field of vision, and sees us. I give her an uncomfortable wave.
Dustin rolls his eyes and looks back at Natalie. “Yeah, have fun with that.”
He starts walking again, leaving Natalie standing there. I cautiously look over at Kelsey and Quinton, who’s now standing next to us, and then back at her.
She approaches us like a gazelle, and we’re a pack of lions. The irony instantly hits me because most of this year, her and her friends were the lions and we’ve been the gazelles.
“How much of that did you hear?” she asks.
“What do you think?” Kelsey speaks up before I can answer.
Natalie doesn’t answer, still keeping her eyes on me. “Sam, I’m so sorry. I-I … I didn’t know what else to say. I’m sorry. Don’t worry about it, it doesn’t have anything to do with you.”
“It has a little bit to do with me.”
“I just didn’t want to come off as some lame, dateless—”
“Joke?”
“No!” She steps closer. “Please, no, I didn’t mean it like that.”
“It’s fine, Nat. You didn’t want to seem lame in front of a douchebag, who couldn’t care less. To each their own.”
I don’t want her to apologize anymore. And in actuality, I’m not all that mad. Even if my name was the first one to come up, she could’ve said anyone else. Because I am a nerd. I am the joke vote. She could’ve said any other name, and that would’ve been that. But she didn’t. She played along with his accusation and, weirdly, that makes me feel a little better. Just a little.
“Sam, I’m not gonna repeat it. Just do it.”
Quinton has been urging me the rest of the day to ask Natalie to prom still. He didn’t catch most of the show, but Kelsey and I caught him up. And once he heard the whole thing, he shrugged his shoulders like it was no big deal, and said, “There’s your in.”
It’s such a weird dichotomy. I should be annoyed or even embarrassed that I’m the joke vote, and at the same time, I should have a bit of an ego boost, because Natalie defended me against Dustin The Douche. But I don’t feel any of that. I don’t want to be looked down on or made fun of, but I don’t want to be looked at like some hero, coming to the rescue. I just want to be me.
We’re walking toward the student parking lot. “Q, what’s the point? It’d just be a stupid date that she doesn’t even really want.”
“Stop being an idiot. She wants a date. You want a date. Neither of you have a date. Problem solved.”
“She wants a date, she just doesn’t want me as a date.”
Kelsey honks from her car. Quinton looks over at her and waves, before turning back to me. “Dude, she might’ve cared about being paired up with the joke vote in the beginning, but from everything you’ve said, I don’t think she cares now. And I don’t mean that like, oh, she’ll just go with anyone, even the chess nerd. I mean, she likes you.” I give him an incredulous stare. “I don’t mean like like, but she thinks you’re cool. At least, cool enough to drop your name and tell Dustin you were her prom date.”
“Yeah …”
“Just, I don’t know … think about it.”
“Sure.”
“You still going to the orthodontist right now?”
“Yeah.” I tap my braces. “Finally getting these freaking things off. At least I’ll get prom pictures without braces.”
He chuckles. “Yeah. All right, text me tomorrow before you head over. I told Kels we’d pick her up about an hour before it starts and go eat.”
“Okay, cool.”
We perform our handshake ritual before he walks away. Turning around, I head to my Vespa and go over everything he’s been telling me today, yet again. Should I ask her? Quinton’s right, neither of us have dates. It’s not like I was planning on asking someone, but she was. Would she even have fun if she came with us? Would I?
Putting my backpack under my seat, I turn around and see her standing near the fence of the parking lot. Her eyes are locked on her phone, as she scrolls through something. I take a deep breath.
This is so stupid, but maybe Quinton’s right. He was right about Izzy and Matt after all. And he did have the guts to put it all out there for Kelsey. That means he actually might know what he’s talking about when it comes to girls. Oh God. I’m giving Quinton credit about knowing how to deal with girls. What has the world come to?
Walking over to Natalie, she still has her head down, looking at her phone. “Hey, Nat.”
She looks up and sees me. “Oh, hey.”
“Miss your bus?”
She glances over at the last bus leaving and lets out a huff. “No. I always got a ride with Emily, but …” Her eyes meet mine for a second, only to look down at the ground. “Well, you know.”
“Yeah.”
“My mom drops me off, but she doesn’t get off work until thirty minutes after school’s out. So, I just have to wait for her.”
“Oh.” I scan the dwindling cars in the parking lot, finding my scooter. “Uh, want a ride home?”
She looks over at the Vespa then back at me, a worried expression taking over her. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah,” I say with a smile. “I’ve got an extra helmet that’s only been used once, I think. I mean …” I avert my gaze from her. “If you don’t mind riding home with a joke.”
Her worried demeanor changes to an embarrassed one. “Sam, don’t say it like that.” She takes another look at the scooter, then pushes herself off the fence. “You know what? Okay. Let’s do it.”
I grin at her. “All right.”
We walk back over to the scooter, and I pull out the extra helmet and hand it to her.
“Um, so how do I do this?” she asks, turning the silver helmet this way and that.
“Put on a helmet? Just like you would any other one.”
“I’ve never put one on before.”
“What?” My face
drops and she averts her eyes. I can see her cheeks blushing. “You’ve never put on a helmet? Not even when you were learning to ride a bike?”
“I, uh … I don’t know how to ride a bike.”
“You’re kidding?” I don’t mean to sound so surprised, but I am. She gives me an embarrassed shake. “Wow, um, okay.” I loosen the chin strap and slide the helmet over her head. Her eyes seem to follow my hands as I tighten the straps. “There you go.”
“Okay, now I feel lame because that seemed super simple.”
“It was.” I laugh then tap her helmet. “Gotta keep the goods safe.” She gives me a bashful smile as I slide my own helmet on and get on. “You can hold onto the little rail behind you if you want, or hold onto me. It’s not as powerful as a crotch rocket, but it can still be a little unnerving if you’re not used to it. I’ll try to not go too fast.”
“Okay.”
I start up the engine and begin to pull away, pleasantly surprised that she’s decided to wrap her arms around me, and bite my lip to keep myself from smiling too much. “Which way?”
“Left out of the parking lot and then down Highway One-Eleven.”
“As you wish.”
“Did you just quote The Princess Bride?”
I turn to the side and smirk. “I certainly did, Your Highness.”
Chapter 8
Natalie
I didn’t plan on riding on the back of Sam’s scooter home, but I still feel horrible about what happened at lunch. About the whole week, as a matter of fact. So, when he offered me a ride I figured why not. Of course, the worry shot through me as soon as we started driving. The only thing I’ve been in or on that has wheels, has had four of them, been enclosed, and has proper safety belts. But the ride is actually kind of fun.
I decide to hold onto him instead of the little handle that’s behind me, and now I know for sure he’s not boney at all. He’s not busting out of his shirt like Dustin or any of the guys that play sports, but he’s got some muscle there. And as we slow down at a stop light, I’m leaning so close to him I can smell him, too. It’s some kind of woodsy, forest scent, and I like it.
