by Sandy Hall
When Ms. Huang handed him his crown, she said, “Nice of you to join us, Henry.” But he could tell she was teasing him. Maybe she thought he had explosive diarrhea; somehow that would be less embarrassing than anyone finding out that he was really just panicking in the men’s room.
The room burst into applause as he was crowned. It’s a phrase you hear all the time, but that was the only description for the moment, Henry thought.
The DJ queued up the official prom song, and the first few chords of “Sign of the Times” by Harry Styles filled the ballroom. Henry took Amelia’s hand and led her to the middle of the floor.
“Sorry I kind of ran off,” Henry said, not looking at her. “I’m not really great with attention.”
“Paisley explained that to me,” Amelia said.
“What? When?”
“I may have cornered her in the bathroom. She never told you?”
“Definitely not,” Henry said. He was going to give her a talking-to later.
“Don’t be mad at Paisley. I pretty much threatened her not to talk to you about it. But I shouldn’t have done that. I’m sorry this whole thing isn’t fun for you. I should have noticed sooner that you weren’t into it.”
“Thanks,” Henry said, even though it felt like a weird response to Amelia’s sentiment.
“I can tell this is super uncomfortable for you.”
She wasn’t wrong. Henry felt like his entire body was vibrating with pins and needles.
Amelia rubbed at his arms. “It’ll be over in no time.”
Henry and Amelia made small talk for a full minute, giving Henry a spurt of confidence. He surprised Amelia with Paisley’s twirl move, but her arm went in an awkward direction and the spaghetti strap of her dress popped.
“Oh man,” Henry said. “Oh no. I am so sorry!”
She held it together with her fingers and ran from the dance floor with Henry close behind her.
“Come on,” Henry said, grabbing her hand. “Ms. Huang has a sewing kit.”
“How do you know that Ms. Huang has a sewing kit?” she asked.
“Because I got a big rip in my gym shorts and Coach Stevens sent me to Ms. Huang for help. And she fixed those shorts in no time.”
“You had a gym shorts emergency?”
“Well, yeah, I didn’t want to miss out on badminton day in gym class.”
“Boys are so weird.”
Amelia and Henry walked down a short hallway. “I know I saw her come this way,” Henry said. “She went in this direction after announcing the winners.”
They took a left, and there was Ms. Huang, totally making out with the algebra teacher, Ms. Bishop.
“Holy crap!” Amelia said, slapping her hand over her mouth.
“Oh,” Ms. Huang said.
“Hey there,” Ms. Bishop said.
Henry and Amelia could barely keep it together. Laughter was starting to bubble up in their throats.
“Um,” Henry said.
“Um, yes, um,” Amelia said.
“Do you need help with something?”
“Oh, we, um, I mean, Amelia, um.” Henry snorted. He couldn’t keep it in a second longer. “You’re like the worst chaperones,” he said before doubling over at the waist and bursting into a fit of giggles.
“We really are,” agreed Ms. Huang. “Now what can we help you with?”
Amelia showed Ms. Huang her dress strap, and it was fixed in no time thanks to the sewing kit she had in her purse.
“Good as new,” Ms. Huang said. She and Ms. Bishop turned around and scurried away from them, probably in search of a new make-out spot.
Amelia turned away and Henry grabbed her hand.
“I have to say.” He paused, clearing his throat. “I want to tell you, that I’m sorry about what happened with the prom.”
“I get it. You don’t have to feel bad.”
“But I wanted to thank you for even asking me to the prom.”
“You’re welcome.”
He and Amelia headed back out to the dance floor, but before they got there Amelia started laughing again. “Ms. Huang’s face when she saw us.”
And then neither of them could stop giggling.
“Oh god, I know we shouldn’t tell anyone, but I have to tell someone,” Amelia said.
“Maybe we should wait until after graduation at least,” Henry said.
“They didn’t say we couldn’t tell anyone.”
“I feel like it’s implied when you walk in on the English teacher and the algebra teacher making out.”
“Guess I better get back to Drew now,” Amelia said with a shrug. “Thanks for the dance, Henry Lai.”
“You’re welcome, Amelia Vaughn.”
Henry practically jogged back to Paisley’s side
“Well, that was … something,” Paisley said.
“It was,” Henry agreed. “Maybe not even an entirely bad something.” Henry looked around the room, taking in his classmates. A lot of them were slow dancing, but there was a group of girls in the corner belting out the last few lines of the song.
Henry grinned.
“You ready to go, buckaroo?” Paisley asked.
She slipped her arm through his and they moseyed out.
Chapter 30
Cora
On the dance floor, Cora was going through a checklist in her head.
The food had been good. People seemed to enjoy their dinners; no one was complaining.
The DJ was excellent, taking everyone’s requests but not talking too much over the music or anything annoying like that.
The coronation drama had people buzzing. Henry Lai never made a scene, so it made the prom just that much more interesting to find that he’d fled elsewhere rather than be crowned prom king. When he came back ten minutes later with his head held high everyone was shocked. They cheered and applauded as he walked up to get his crown. There was just something about an underdog story.
Cora did another scan of the room. The box of keepsake champagne flutes still needed to be unpacked and put out for people to take. That meant that Henry and Paisley didn’t get theirs, so she’d have to be sure to give them to them on Monday.
She nodded to herself, feeling like things were pretty good.
A slow song started, and Jamie came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist. “Hey, there. You got time for a dance?”
His mouth brushed against her ear. Not long ago that would have sent shivers down her spine, in a good way. But now. Now it did nothing for her.
She did in fact have time for a dance, though, so she took his hand and they made their way to the center of the floor.
Cora had put her class court crown jauntily on her head.
“It’s a good look for you,” Jamie said, gesturing with his chin toward the gaudy bejeweled plastic crown.
“Thanks,” she said distractedly. She was watching Madison dance in her sparkly jumpsuit on the other side of the room.
“For the record, I didn’t really think I’d win king. And good for Henry for winning. He deserved it.”
“I agree,” she said, moving her hand from one place to another on Jamie’s chest. He pulled her in closer.
“You did such an awesome job on prom. Imagine how amazing our wedding is going to be someday.”
Cora stopped dancing. “No.”
She shook her head and sighed, walking toward the bright lights of the hallway, in need of somewhere to hide. If she didn’t get away from him there was no telling what she might do.
Ms. Huang and Ms. Bishop were out there, whispering. For some reason that was a last straw for Cora.
“Who’s in the prom chaperoning?” she asked the adults.
They both turned to her, shocked.
“Um, Mr. Muehler?” Ms. Bishop said.
“No one!” Cora said. “No one is in there.”
The two women scurried back into the ballroom, and Cora honestly couldn’t believe they’d listened to her or that she’d just yelled at her two favorite teachers. Thi
s night was something else.
When she turned, Jamie was there. Of course.
“What is it, Cora?” he asked, grabbing her hand as he stepped toward her.
“I love you, Jamie,” she said, squeezing his fingers.
He looked so relieved that she almost couldn’t finish. “I love you, too.”
“But I just…” She paused, shaking her head and dropping his hand. “I’m not in love with you. And I want to break up with you.”
Her relief was immediate, like all the worry and anxiety she’d been carrying around with her was swept away by saying it out loud to Jamie.
Jamie was shocked; it was etched in the lines of his face. He moved away from her so fast he almost fell over backward.
“You’re breaking up with me?” he asked, his eyes flashing with an emotion Cora couldn’t quite identify.
“Yes.”
“But we’re going to the same college. We’re going to get married and have kids and open up a little general store in New England.”
“We’re not getting married, Jamie. I’m so sorry to do this to you here. But I want to break up with you, and I have for a while, and the idea of standing there and agreeing with you about wedding plans felt too much like lying.”
“But we’re supposed to…” He trailed off.
“Are we supposed to?”
“I thought so. I think I’m in shock. Is this what being in shock feels like?” He shook out his hands at his sides.
“Maybe. I’m sorry,” she said.
“What the hell, Cora?”
“I’m sorry.”
“This really sucks. Couldn’t you have at least waited until, I don’t know, the prom was over?”
“I have waited!” she said. “I wanted to break up with you weeks ago. But it was always something. I thought I could make it through the prom. But I just couldn’t nod and smile through wedding talk. We’re eighteen, Jamie.”
“I know. I didn’t really think we’d get married. I don’t know. I like to say stuff like that sometimes.”
She crossed her arms.
“And I know how old we are,” he said when she didn’t respond.
“I need to be on my own. I’ve been Jamie’s girlfriend for too long.”
Jamie’s hurt expression made Cora want to soften the blow.
“I love you too much not to tell you that I don’t love you enough to stay with you forever,” she added.
“We could take a break?” he offered. “For the summer? Or even for next year or something?”
Fighting the urge to agree with him, to tell him that maybe someday they’d get back together, was far more difficult than she could have expected. She closed her eyes.
“I don’t want to make any promises that I’m not sure I can keep,” she said.
Perfect Boyfriend Jamie turned to her with tears in his eyes. He had actual, literal tears in his eyes, and Cora knew in that moment there was no better boyfriend in the world than Jamie. It was good that he was her first. She’d had a good experience.
She gave him a hug, but he didn’t hug back.
“I’m so sorry,” she said.
“Me too,” he whispered, pulling away. “I’m going to go, okay? I’m just. I’m gonna go. I’ll find a ride home or whatever. Don’t worry about me.”
“Okay.”
“Of course you won’t worry; you broke up with me,” he mumbled, shaking his head. He wiped his face. “I gotta go.” He was moving sideways so fast away from her that he almost tripped over his own two feet a few times before finally turning his back on her and jogging away toward the front lobby of the hotel.
The urge to follow him was almost as strong as the urge to tell him they could get back together. But she fought it.
She fought it hard.
Luckily Teagan and Josie were right there to stop her.
“We had a feeling something like this might happen,” Teagan said.
“So we were sort of lurking around, just in case,” Josie said, threading her arm through Cora’s.
Cora leaned her head on Josie’s shoulder.
“Let’s dance,” she said.
Otis
Otis was having the BEST NIGHT EVER.
It helped that he’d had quite a bit of Madison’s coconut rum. It was the perfect thing to cut the rising panic he felt in his throat every single time he thought about how pissed off his parents probably were. Though the fact that they hadn’t stormed the ballroom spoke volumes.
He had only checked his phone once since he left the house and found a single text from his mom. It said, “Have fun tonight. We’ll have plenty to talk about tomorrow.” He imagined that she had probably thrown his dad’s phone into the lake to keep him from yelling at Otis via text, voice mail, Facebook message, FaceTime, or whatever other means he could have come up with.
And really, all that text meant was that they were probably going to cut him off financially and disown him.
“Hey, what are you thinking about?” Luke asked when Otis had been quiet for too long.
“Oh, nothing much. The possibility of my parents disowning me, stuff like that,” Otis said as breezily as he could.
“Well, if they disown you, you can come live with me,” Luke said.
Otis nodded. Life with the Martinez family didn’t sound too bad. And Luke had a car. If they adopted Otis, maybe they would buy him a car, too.
“Are you having fun?” Otis asked.
“Hell, yes,” Luke said. “I honestly still can’t believe you’re here. All because I showed up at your house to throw pebbles and tell you I’d miss you.”
“It was too much. I couldn’t withstand the pull of prom night. Also I felt completely taunted by your white dinner jacket.”
“So fancy, right?” Luke said, brushing a hand down the crisp fabric.
“So fancy,” Otis agreed. “I can’t believe I’m here, either. I need to drink up these last few hours of freedom before I’m placed in solitary confinement for the foreseeable future.”
“Well, we better make this worth your while,” Luke said.
Otis danced.
Otis was happy.
Otis danced a lot.
And then he danced a little more.
The leather wing tips that he had stolen from his dad’s closet during his rush out of the house crushed his toes and nipped at his heels, but he did his best to ignore it. When they took a quick break for Otis to massage his feet, Luke sighed thoughtfully.
“What are you thinking?” Otis asked.
Luke propped his head in his hand on the edge of the table. “I thought maybe you didn’t want to come to this with me, but I guess I was wrong. And I was just thinking that I still don’t understand why you were hesitating. Why you seemed like you didn’t really want to come when you were willing to totally go against your parents tonight.”
Luke didn’t look him in the eyes.
“It’s kind of a long explanation, but I promise I always wanted to go to the prom with you. We have all night to talk about the other stuff. I promise.”
Luke looked as happy to be sitting there at the table with Otis as he had all night on the dance floor. There was something about how Luke could literally be happy anywhere, anytime that made Otis lean over and kiss him.
“What was that for?” Luke asked.
“Oh, you know, just because,” Otis said. Before he could say more, Luke’s face wrinkled. He sniffed.
“Do you smell something?” Luke asked.
Otis inhaled sharply, trying to figure out what Luke smelled and doing his best not to make a he-who-smelt-it-dealt-it joke, considering mere seconds ago he was about to maybe tell his boyfriend he loved him.
“Mostly I smell too much cologne and a lot of carpet cleaner. And sweat.”
“There’s something else,” Luke said.
Otis stood up. Now he did smell something, but he couldn’t place it.
While he was standing he heard a crack, followed by a whooshing sound from b
ehind him. When he turned back, water was gushing from the wall next to one of the tables. And then another hole opened up, and another, and another, until water was coming from everywhere. Someone started to scream.
“Oh my god,” Luke said, standing when he saw the deluge. “What is that?”
“A broken pipe?” Otis offered.
“Why is Amelia Vaughn sitting there screaming instead of getting out of the way?” Luke asked.
Otis hadn’t noticed who the screaming person was, but Luke was correct. Amelia sat beneath the spray of water, screaming her head off.
Otis stepped into action, abandoning his shoes under the table and jogging over to Amelia.
He held his hand out. “Come on,” he said to her.
“My dress is stuck on the table!” she cried. “This is literally the worst prom ever.”
“Oh, for the love,” he said, ducking down and finding that yes, her dress was stuck to the table, on a screw, more specifically. He worked the material back around the screw and then yanked.
She stood up and Otis joined her.
“Oh my god, thank you so much!” She grabbed her tiara from the table and ran.
At that point other people, hotel workers and even a police officer, had arrived on the scene and the ballroom was being evacuated.
Otis followed the crowd out of the room and into the parking lot in search of Luke. It was rough seeing as how he was barefoot and he forgot to look for his dad’s shoes on the way out the door. He’d just add losing those shoes to the list of reasons he was in big trouble with his parents.
Luke waited for him at the edge of the crowd outside, with the shoes tied together and thrown casually around his neck.
“My hero!” Luke said, giving Otis a kiss on the lips.
“You’re my hero for saving those shoes,” Otis said, taking them from Luke and sliding them onto his feet.
Chapter 31
Lizzie
Lizzie leaned in to shout-whisper to Madison. “Where are Otis and Luke?”
Madison shrugged and kept dancing. Thank god for Madison. Through the majority of the prom she’d kept Lizzie laughing and dancing and thinking about things besides getting stood up.
She would shake and shimmy her blues away until she got some concrete information about what happened with Mystery Boy. She’d keep dancing for the rest of her life if she had to, just to keep the sad thoughts at bay.
