Tag You're Mine

by Catherine Charles

  “Man, Liv would be so proud of you,” Trey says as he pretends to wipe tears from his eyes. “You know she was crazy enough to think you two were going to prom together.”

  “I completely forgot about prom. Did I ask someone?”

  Marcus and Trey look hesitantly at each other.

  “I asked Presley, didn’t I?”

  They both sit stoically, not giving anything away.

  “Will you two quit being pussys and fucking give me a god damn answer? Liv’s not here. Presley’s not here, and I’ve fucked up enough shit in the last few weeks with having Heather around my neck to last a lifetime. Now give me an answer.”

  “Jesus, man. All you had to do was ask nicely.”

  “Yeah. No reason to turn into the fucking Hulk over this.”

  “Do you think she expects me to take her to prom?”

  “Well, considering prom’s in a week, and you haven’t talked to her, I’d say you’re off the hook.”

  Shit. I wasn’t looking to get out of taking her to prom; I honestly didn’t know—just another thing which should have been a big fucking trigger. I didn’t remember prom, which should have automatically told me I asked her.

  “How did I ask her?”

  “Dude. It was over the top. Liv was pissed at me for a few days.”

  “How?”

  “You filled her entire house with roses, spent a fortune on it, and then came down the hall carrying another bouquet with a baseball stuffed inside—the word prom was written with a question mark behind it.”

  “That’s it? I can recreate that.”

  “Not that you could have planned it, but she also found out her dad was alive and was coming home as well.”

  “Alive?”

  “He’s Special Ops, man. He went missing before Christmas. Besides, I don’t think Presley would appreciate you just recreating something. It wouldn’t mean anything to you.”

  “But it would make her happy.”

  “But you don’t know her. She’s a stranger to you. She’s not like Heather who’s superficial. Presley is—” Marcus stops his train of thought and trails off.

  “She’s what?”

  “She’s one in a million.”

  “God, she is. In fact, when she first met you, she didn’t give two shits about your status here at this school. I was in love with her from day one.”

  “You really don’t know how good you had, have, I don’t know exactly what y’all are, but she was good for you. Liv called you two mommy and daddy, and hashtaged everything as relationship goals.”

  I listen while Thing One and Thing Two finally open up and give me some of the answers I was searching for. I knew I still need to talk to her, but now I’m not in the dark anymore. I had a place to start, and though I don’t remember everything the guys were telling me, I felt secure, like I was hearing the truth for the first time. I wasn’t questioning anything, and it felt good to finally feel normal.

  -April 17th-

  Presley was back at school today. She smiled at me in the hall between second and third period, not knowing what it did for my confidence. Heather had called me last night, but I rejected her calls and left her text messages unread. I told her it was over yesterday, and I didn’t need to give myself a reason to go back there.

  I call Liv and ask her about prom. It’s surprising how much she and the guys talk when Presley’s not around. It’s as if they are all afraid of her, but I don’t see it, she doesn’t have an intimidating bone in her body.

  Liv told me Presley had agreed to coordinate dresses with her but refused to go dress shopping. Apparently, matching with your best friend is a thing in the girl world. Then she went on to tell me Presley mentioned not even going to prom. I could hear the disappointment in her voice. When I reassure her everything would be okay, her pitch rose an octave and caused me to pull the phone away. After hearing that squeal, I knew it would be safer for all if I told her about Heather in a wide-open field, about fifty feet away from her.

  At lunch, the four of us are sitting around the table. Presley walks by, stops briefly and looks at the spot Heather used to sit in. She offers a smile and heads outside. I see Liv move to swat at me, but I’m up before her hand connects, following Presley outside.

  She sits at her usual table and looks up at me before she pulls her notebook out.

  “Come eat with us,” I blurt out.

  “Why?” Her tone is quiet and sweet but sad at the same time.

  “Because honestly, I’m getting tired of being hit in the back of the head by Liv.” And because I’m completely drawn to you and need to be near you, but she doesn’t need to know the last part.

  She giggles, tilting her head and resting it on her hand as if she’s considering my request.

  “Please, Presley. If you don’t, the chances of me sustaining another head injury are incredibly high.” Presley. Her name rolls off my tongue with ease, doing something to my heart. Can a name feel like home? Can a person be home? She feels right. Don’t fuck this up idiot, you might only get one chance at this. Mess it up and you’ll probably wish you were dead after Liv gets done with you.

  “I don’t know if you would survive another head injury,” Is she flirting back? Of course she is you idiot. She blushes as she cast a downward glance before looking back up at me through her eyelashes. She hasn’t said no yet so maybe theirs’s still a chance for me.

  “I’m almost positive I wouldn’t.”

  She smiles, zips up her backpack and stands up.

  I’m shocked and I know she can hear it in my voice. “Oh, you’re coming? I wasn’t expecting you to say yes.” I thought she would have put up more of a fight, would have made me beg her to come eat with us, but she didn’t, as the smile from her face fell I continued to make an ass of myself.

  “If you didn’t want me to join you, then why ask me to have lunch with you and your friends?”

  I can tell she’s hurt, the playfulness in her is gone, but instead of sitting back down, she grabs her lunch and heads for the opposite door. Shit, maybe I’m not ready to do this.

  “Presley, wait!” I say loudly as I fist the top of my hair.

  She turns around.

  “I’m sorry. I don’t know how to do this?”

  “Do what? Be a decent human being? You’re not the only one trying to figure this whole dynamic out, Robert. The only difference is you have your friends, and I spend the majority of my day feeling as if I have no one!”

  “I never asked you to do that, Presley!” Damn, she’s good at getting under my skin.

  “No. You didn’t. You didn’t have too. The look of fear on your face the first time you saw me made it clear as day I scared you. You can't heal if you’re scared, Robert. It’s why I stepped back, so that you would feel safe. But apparently those traitors in there don’t know how to leave things alone and now you’re out here, standing in front of me, clueless as to what you want.”

  We’re standing quite a few feet apart from one another and the courtyard has fallen silent. She’s not this timid little thing I thought she was. Instead, she’s called me out on my crap, and has managed to make me feel about two feet tall, before going inside the building.

  I’m standing there with a good half of the school staring at me. Students hold the doors open from the inside so they could hear everything being said. Our first fight was now public knowledge and those inside the cafeteria are now lined at the glass walls, staring at me as though I was a caged animal in a terrarium. It seems people are invested in what happens between the two of us. Clue number two hundred and seventy-three…people give a shit about our relationship. How long have they been watching us? Watching to see how this crazy story plays out, and yet no one cared enough to come and talk to me. To help remind me of things, it’s like she’s running the whole damn school. God what have I done?

  “Well done,” Liv says, sarcasm dripping, as I make my way back to the table.

  “Shut up. All three of you sung like cana
ries about us when she wasn’t around, and all three of you failed to mention how she doesn’t take crap. You fucking set me up for failure.”

  “You did that all by yourself, dude,” Marcus muttered under his breath.

  “We didn’t tell you, because we didn’t know, idiot, you’ve never messed up that big before,” as Liv’s hand connects with the back of my head. I definitely deserved that.

  *****

  I was thankful for the weekend. Robert had a game an hour and a half away, so I didn’t feel too bad about staying home tonight.

  I thought today when he asked me to sit with them at lunch, maybe he was ready to be around me, but then he sounded shocked when I agreed to join him. I don’t know if I was more mad or sad at his reaction. But it felt as if he didn’t actually want me there. It was hard enough watching him and Heather together, becoming the butt of life’s evil joke.

  I sat on my bed, three college acceptance letters waiting for a response, and I was hours away from needing to claim my scholarship offered by two out of the three schools. I could do this. I needed to pick a school and go for it. South Carolina. Ole Miss. Arizona University. I couldn’t wait on Robert any longer. This was a decision I had to make on my own and deal with the consequences later.

  My phone rang, and I answered it without even looking at the caller ID.

  “Presley, hey.”

  “Marcus?” Well color me shocked.

  “Yea. Hey, I wanted to call you and see how you were doing after everything that happened today.”

  “I’m existing.”

  “Don’t give up on him, Pres. He’ll come around. We all know he will.”

  I let off a deep sigh. Everyone keeps saying that, but when? When do I get to live again?

  “What did you want, Marcus?”

  “I know, I’ve messed up in the past, but you’re still a friend, Presley. I know it hasn’t been easy on you these last few weeks, but I wanted to offer to take you to prom. You should be there.”

  “I’m not going, Marcus. But thank you for the offer.”

  He lets out a defeated sigh as I choke back my tears, I refuse to be seen as a charity case.

  “But hey, y’all have fun, okay?”

  “Yeah. Guess I’ll see ya around school then.”

  “Yeah. Good night Marcus.”

  I get off the phone and reach for the baseball on my nightstand, the one Robert proposed with. Kringle’s tail starts wagging as I toss it back and forth between my hands, he whimpers begging me to play.

  “Sorry, boy. Not this one.”

  I mark my acceptance, quickly before I change my mind, and take Kringle outside once more. I say my goodnights and go to sleep eager to put today behind me. I have a month and a half left in high school. I wanted to be invisible, and now I finally can be.

  *****

  The week goes by quickly, the school is buzzing with prom excitement, but I haven’t seen Presley, not in the halls, nor at lunch. I waited where the buses load and unload, and she’s not there. It’s as if she’s vanished and I’m beginning to go insane.

  Liv, Trey, and Marcus won't even mention her name. I go out to the ranch and she isn’t there either. The only thing Mr. Keller tells me is that she went to visit the school she decided to attend. I don’t even know which schools she was interested in.

  My plan on asking her to prom was falling apart by the second. She didn’t need some grand gesture, all she needed was for me not to be a dick, but I was failing miserably. I had everything for her, the shoes, the dress, it was navy like Liv told me it needed to be, and now the box was sitting on my bed, the contents inside more than likely would go unworn.

  Trey barges into my room, completely out of breath. “She’s. Back.”

  I look up at him in astonishment. “If I find out you’re messin’ with me I’ll kick your ass.”

  “I’m not. Just dropped Liv off at the ranch, and she said to pick her up at five.”

  “And Presley’s there?”

  “I saw her with my own eyes.”

  Hell, yes. Maybe I still have a shot. This is it, though. One chance to not blow what I feel like could be the rest of my life.

  Chapter Thirty

  Trey and I are dressed in our tux’s. He’s cool as a cucumber, while I’m a bucket of nerves, Trey drives my truck as I shake uncontrollably in the passenger seat.

  “You alright, man? You look like you’re gonna be sick. You know we don’t get the deposits back on these things if they’re dirty.”

  I nod and run my hands across the metallic gold box, tied with a velvet ribbon sitting in my lap.

  The clock reads four-fifty-six as we pull up the drive.

  “Give me a minute before we go in.”

  Trey nods, pops a piece of gum in his mouth and starts chewing like a cow does its cud. How he managed to trap Liv is still a question, and not because I don’t remember, but it’s a genuine question. He’s about a million times out of her league.

  The clock hits five and I open my door, making my way to the front door. Trey is behind me but rings the doorbell. Apparently, I forgot what to do when you go over to someone’s house.

  A lady about the same age as Mom answers the door, and I can see the resemblance. She must be Presley’s mom.

  “Well, don’t you boys clean up nice. Robert, it’s nice to see you. I didn’t know if I would ever have this opportunity again.”

  “I’m sorry, ma’am.”

  “Trey, Liv’s about ready.”

  A door opens at the end of the hallway and a rather large cotton ball barrels down the hallway towards me, tongue out and tail wagging. I squat down and start rubbing the dog behind his ears.

  “Trey, you better appreciate the amount of time Liv took getting ready for you.”

  I look up at Presley, who is still standing in her doorway looking back at Liv. A pair of black cheer shorts and my practice jersey adorn her body, her dirty blond hair pulled loosely up on top of her head. Her glasses frame the most beautiful green eyes. She used to be mine, or maybe she still was mine, I didn’t know where we stood, but one thing was certain, I was definitely attracted to her if the twitch in my pants was any indication.

  “Liv, let’s go.”

  She huffed and looked absolutely adorable as she attempted to be in control. I’d seen her in control, and this little thing didn’t even come close to scaring a mouse, whereas a week ago, she could have caused a grown man to think twice before speaking back to her.

  I stood there with the cotton ball by my side and scratched behind his ears. She finally began to make her way down the hall.

  “Kringle leave…Robert?” Her voice drops along with her gaze as she stops a few feet shy of us. “Robert, what are you doing here?”

  “Hi Presley.”

  She shifts her stance as she crosses her arms over her chest, a somber expression written across her face.

  “I figured out I asked you to prom, and you deserve to go. I’m sorry I don’t remember any of it, but I’d still like to take you if you’re alright with that.”

  “Wow. Olivia.” Trey’s voice was unhurried and passionate, as though he’d seen the most beautiful thing on the planet, and to him, Liv probably looked like a goddess. Her solid navy gown with bateau neckline and open back, barely covered her side boob and puddled in a pool at her feet. It hugged her curves in all the right places. While her beach styled waves cascade down her back mimicking the small train attached to her dress.

  But I couldn’t take my eyes off Presley. She was absolutely breathtaking the way she stood there, wearing my clothes.

  “Shhh, Trey,” she says while swatting at his arm.

  I realize for the first time that not only are Trey and Liv standing there, but Presley’s mother and grandparents are now watching us.

  “Robert,” her voice is small and fragile, “I’m not going to prom.”

  “Oh, yes you are!” God, they have a perfect friendship; Liv knows precisely when to push hard and right now he
r persuasiveness is working in my favor.”

  “Liv, will you shut up.” And there’s the fire that sits dangerously close to her surface.

  “Presley, please. Let me do this.”

  “Are you sure you want to? I mean you asked me to sit with you at lunch and then sounded completely shocked at my willingness to join you.”

  Fuck, she’s probably the kind of girl that won't let things go.

  “Why?”

  “Why what?”

  “Presley, don’t be so closed off,” Liv whispers. “He’s trying. Give him a chance.”

  Presley rolls her eyes at Liv. Eye rolling is one thing I won't let her get away with, but I notice her body soften after Liv’s scolding.

  “Why do you want to go with me? What about Heather?”

  “Oh, Jesus fucking tits on a fucking hog!” Liv throws her hands in the air. “Robert I swear on all that is good and pure in this world if you are still with that devil skank I will filet you right here and now. She is evil in its purest form, and none of us can figure out why we kept her around as long as we did.”

  “Liv, calm down.”

  “Don’t tell me to calm down, Trey. If you and Marcus had done your jobs correctly, Heather wouldn’t have even been a part of this conversation.”

  “Don’t blame me. He was the one who dated her for a hot second this summer.”

  Somewhere between Liv’s outburst and Trey’s scolding, there’s so much going on I barely catch Presley slipping out the front door behind the dog. I follow her and find her sitting on the porch swing, cotton ball lying at her feet. He lifts his head and wags his tail, and as the swing moves forward I sit down next to her.

  “I ended things with Heather.”

  “When?”

  “A week ago. Actually, a week and two days ago. You were at your choir competition.”

  She sits there swinging, looking down at the dog in front of us. “His name’s Kringle. You gave him to me for Christmas, and we trained him together.”

  I look down at the pile of fur, now resting his head on my shoes. I must have been a pretty amazing guy. A dog for Christmas, roses for a prom proposal, I need to remember my life with her. I feel complete when I’m around her, and I’ve made her suffer. I don’t know if I can ever make it up to her, but I want to try. I need to try.