“Yeah, I have a, uh, mascara emergency that I need your help with.” I gave Cole an apologetic smile. “We’ll meet you in the cafeteria,” I told him before dragging Madi away. I wasn’t going to give her the opportunity to argue. This was too important.
“What exactly is a mascara emergency?” she asked, as I pulled her into the room.
“A very pathetic excuse to get you alone. I need to talk to you.”
“Oh.” She laughed. “You could have just said so. Cole would have understood.”
“I much prefer the whole cloak-and-dagger-type approach.”
She shook her head at me, amusement playing in her eyes. “So, what’s up?”
I glanced toward the toilet stalls. The doors were open so I knew we were alone. I took in a deep breath and blurted out my answer. “I want to go to prom with Owen.”
Madi started to smile. “So, you still like him?”
“That’s the understatement of the century.”
She looked surprised by my response. “You told me you got past your crush on him years ago.”
“Uh…” I fumbled for a response.
“It was right before the Sadie Hawkins dance in eighth grade,” she continued. “You came over to my house to get ready and said, and I quote, ‘I’m so over my crush on Owen Beck!’”
Madi was right. I had said that to her, but unfortunately, it wasn’t the truth. I’d been determined to ask Owen to go to the dance with me, only I chickened out at the last minute and Laurie had asked him instead. I was so embarrassed by my epic failure that I pretended I didn’t like him anymore.
My crush on Owen had remained a secret ever since, and I wasn’t sure my poor heart could handle watching him go to another dance with the wrong girl. This time, it needed to be me.
My cheeks warmed as I shook my head. “I saw him last night, and apparently, the crush has been reignited.”
“What about your rule of only dating older guys?”
“It’s not a strict rule,” I grumbled. It wasn’t a rule at all, rather an inconvenient corner I’d backed myself into. It was time to change that though. “And I think I’m over the whole older guy thing anyway. I’m definitely over it if Owen Beck is back in town. So, do you think I’m stupid for thinking I could go with him?”
“Of course not,” she immediately replied. “He’d be crazy not to want to go with you.”
“Obviously,” I said, making her laugh. “Problem is, boys are all crazy. How can I make this happen?”
“Well, for starters, don’t stress. The dance isn’t for weeks, and you’ve got plenty of time. He isn’t even at school yet, and no one else seems to know he’s coming back.”
I relaxed a little at her words. She was right; there were still weeks until the dance. I was probably worrying over nothing. Still, I always liked to have a game plan when it came to these things. It certainly wasn’t going to happen if I left everything up to fate.
“But once he’s back at school. What should I do?”
Madi smiled. “You don’t need to do anything other than be yourself around him and let him see how amazing you are. If he gets to know the real you, he’ll ask you to prom. I’m sure of it.”
I blew out a breath and nodded. Madi was always the voice of reason, and I trusted her, but this time, I felt like she might be wrong. Allowing Owen to get to know the real me was a nice thought, but I’d seen the way girls were eyeing him in the corridor earlier, and I knew this wasn’t going to be that simple. There would be lots of girls vying for his attention, and if I wanted to be the one he chose to go to prom with, I had to find some way to stand out and convince him to pick me. I just wished I knew how to make that happen.
4
Hayley
Prom dress shopping just wasn’t the same when you had an unwanted tagalong.
“What about this one, Madi?” Cole asked, lifting up a dress to show her. It had large revealing cutouts in it that Madi wouldn’t be caught dead in. Plus, it was neon orange.
Madi and I both scrunched up our noses. Cole might have been one of the hottest guys at school, but he clearly had zero taste when it came to picking out dresses. I quickly stole the hanger from him.
“I hate to break it to you, Cole, but your skills on a football field don’t seem to translate to fashion sense. How about you leave the dress selection up to Madi and me?” I placed the dress firmly back on the rack. “In fact, there’s an arcade a few doors down. Why don’t you go play some video games?”
Cole’s face brightened at the idea, and he turned to Madi. “You wouldn’t mind?”
“Go,” she answered, a little too quickly. She cleared her throat before she continued. “I mean, of course, I wouldn’t mind. You go have fun.”
He grinned and placed a kiss on her cheek before escaping the dress shop. Madi and I both let out a sigh of relief at the same time and started to laugh.
“Cole is the best boyfriend, but he is the absolute worst shopping companion,” she said.
“It’s like he has an inbuilt sensor for the most hideous clothes in the shop,” I agreed. “I’m pretty sure the first dress he picked up was actually a Halloween costume.”
“It was.” Madi grimaced as she shook her head. “I’m sorry he crashed our shopping expedition. When he offered to drive us today, I didn’t think he’d actually come into the shops.”
“It’s fine.” I waved away her apology. “If he hadn’t given us a ride, we probably wouldn’t be here.” Being carless sucked. There were only so many times I could ask my mom for a ride. Also, it was much easier if she didn’t know I was shopping for my prom dress. Mom had been a beauty queen when she was younger and was even more obsessed with clothing than I was. It sounded like a good thing until you actually experienced a shopping trip with the two of us. It turned into some kind of intense endurance sport that usually didn’t end until the shops closed for the night. Admittedly, I loved shopping with Mom, but I knew there was no way Madi could handle it.
“Any news on when your car will be fixed?”
“They’re still waiting on a part,” I said, as I started to look through the racks of dresses again. “It feels like it’s been gone forever though.”
“It’s only been a few days,” Madi said.
“Yeah, but I’ve had to share rides to school with Kitty, and I’m not sure how much more punishment I can take. Do you think Sheriff Daniels would consider driving me instead? Rocking up to school in a cop car feels like a better alternative right now.”
Madi shared a sympathetic look with me. She knew what a terror my sister was. I probably should have counted myself lucky that Kitty was still in middle school and her campus was on the other side of town. At least, I didn’t have to see her during the day.
“I’m sure your car will be fixed before you know it,” she said.
“Here’s hoping.” I was distracted from our conversation as a light-blue material caught my eye. I skipped the other dresses on the rack and moved straight toward it. I absolutely loved wearing blue, especially lighter shades. As I pulled out the dress, I only became more convinced it was the one for me.
“Hello, beautiful,” I said as I admired it. The material had a natural movement to it that I was sure would look incredible when I walked into prom. The shape was also perfect, so it would highlight all the right features on my body.
Madi came up beside me, smiling. “Blue is definitely your color.”
“That’s exactly what I was thinking,” I agreed. Blue was also the color of Owen’s eyes, not that I liked it because of that. I pulled the dress up against my body and looked at myself in the closest mirror. I was already in love with the dress, and I wasn’t even sure if it was my size.
“I’m trying this on,” I said, facing Madi once more. “Have you found anything?”
She bit her lower lip as she shook her head. “I can never imagine what these dresses will look like once they’re on.”
“Leave it to me.”
The shop ass
istant came over to take my dress to the fitting room, while I set to work on finding Madi some options. My best friend was so pretty she would look amazing in anything I picked, but I knew she looked incredible in deep colors, so I tried to focus on those. I also knew there was no way she’d even consider trying something on if she thought it was too revealing.
I ended up finding several outfits for Madi to try, and we both went to the fitting rooms. As I slipped on the blue dress and caught sight of myself in the mirror, I felt a wave of excitement. The dress hugged my waist, and the material floated elegantly around my legs. There was even a light shimmer to the material that I hadn’t noticed before. It was perfect. The only problem was, I didn’t have the date to go with it yet.
As I stared at myself in the mirror, I wondered if Owen would like the dress. It was probably stupid to hope he would. My chances of going to prom with him were just as slim now as they had been earlier in the week. My heart clearly hadn’t got the memo though, because it seemed to swell with anticipation as I imagined his reaction.
“You dressed?” Madi called out.
I tugged the fitting room curtain aside and grinned as I looked at my friend. She was wearing a glittering navy dress that was short at the front and flared out longer at the back. It was flirty and fun and perfect for the prom.
“Damn, Mads, Cole’s going to have a heart attack when he sees you in that.”
She smiled as she twirled around, glancing at herself in the mirror as she did so. “You think?”
“I know.”
“How did you find this? I swear I looked on every rack.” Her gaze dipped toward me, and her smile broadened. She let out a low whistle. “Speaking of heart attacks, that dress is perfect on you.”
I smoothed my hands down the side of my dress as I returned her smile. “Yeah, I think this is the one.”
“Definitely,” she agreed.
She looked back in the mirror, unable to stop herself from beaming as she admired her dress once more. She looked like a vision, and I was relieved we’d found something so perfect for her so quickly. Madi hadn’t been joking when she said she was allergic to shopping. The moment she walked into a clothing store, she almost always came down with a case of the grumps, and they only got worse the longer we took.
“And you thought shopping with me would be painful,” I said.
“Well, sometimes miracles happen,” she replied. “But remember, we haven’t started on shoes or accessories yet. Who knows how long that could take…”
She looked so genuinely terrified at the idea that I laughed. “I think I’ll let you off easy today. We’ve still got plenty of time before prom to figure out the rest.” Plus, we’d gotten this far without her getting grumpy, and I didn’t want to push my luck.
Madi’s jaw slackened with surprise. “You’re done with shopping?”
“I’m never done, but it’s probably not fair to Cole. We can’t exactly expect him to wait in a video arcade all day while we shop.”
“I suppose that might be a bit mean,” she agreed, completely failing to hide her jubilation at the thought of finishing for the day. Her face had lit up like a child’s on Christmas morning. She gestured toward our dresses. “So, are we buying these?”
“Well, I think it would be a crime to leave them behind, and I’ve already had one too many run-ins with the law this week.”
Madi shook her head at me but smiled. “I guess we better get them then.”
We both changed back into our normal clothes and met at the counter to pay for our dresses. I was excited we’d both found such great outfits for prom, but as the sales assistant zipped my dress into a garment bag, I felt a flutter of nerves in my stomach. From what I’d heard, Owen was coming back to school on Monday, and I still didn’t have a game plan for getting him to ask me to prom.
“Cole said he’d meet us by his truck,” Madi said, lifting her gaze from her phone as we left the store. Her expression dimmed as she looked at me. “What’s wrong?”
I didn’t want to ruin the mood, especially not when it came to shopping and definitely not when we’d both just found amazing dresses. I couldn’t deny the disappointment I felt over having no date to prom though.
“I’m still worrying about my prom date,” I said.
“Why would you be worrying about a prom date?” Cole asked, coming up behind us.
It felt like he had appeared out of nowhere, and I blanched, wishing he hadn’t overheard me. “I thought you were at the arcade…”
“Nah, I was hungry and went to get a burrito instead. Was just heading over to play some games when I got Madi’s text. So, why are you worried?”
“Oh, ah…” Seriously, why did Cole have to overhear that? “I haven’t been asked yet, so it’s natural to worry.”
“Tickets have only just gone on sale, and I’m sure plenty of guys would like to ask you,” Cole reassured me.
“Not the one she wants though,” Madi responded.
I shot her a hard look, and Madi winced. “Sorry,” she mouthed, quickly realizing she probably shouldn’t have revealed my secret in front of her boyfriend.
“Who are you interested in?” Cole had clearly missed Madi’s silent exchange with me.
I exhaled, and the minor flare of irritation I’d felt at Madi’s slip of the tongue disappeared. Cole wasn’t like most guys, and I didn’t think he’d go gossiping to his friends about me. Who knew, maybe he could even put in a good word for me with Owen once he was back.
“You can’t tell anyone,” I commanded.
Cole lifted his hand to his lips and pretended to lock them with an invisible key. “It’ll go straight in the vault.”
“It better,” I warned as I braced myself to tell him my secret. “I want to go with Owen Beck.”
“Oh, yeah?” Cole said as a slow smile formed on his lips. “Well, he’s back at school on Monday, and he’d be lucky to go with you. I don’t see the problem.”
“The problem is getting Owen to ask her to the prom…” Madi replied.
Cole was silent for several moments as he considered my impossible situation. “Why don’t you just ask him yourself?”
“She can’t do that,” Madi immediately responded.
“Why not?” Cole asked before focusing his full attention on me. “He’ll be impressed you took the initiative. Guys like a girl who goes after what she wants.”
Madi looked far from convinced, but I found myself warming to the idea. I’d been too scared to ask Owen to the Sadie Hawkins dance all those years ago; perhaps, it was fate I’d missed my chance then so I could ask him now. “You think that could work?” I asked Cole.
He shrugged. “If it doesn’t, then at least, you didn’t waste your time waiting around for him to ask you.”
It wasn’t the answer a girl would have given. Madi would have reassured me and told me that of course Owen would say yes. It would have given me more confidence to actually go through with it. I quite liked how direct and to the point Cole’s answer had been though. His whole approach was simple, and I couldn’t really fault it.
“So, if you and Madi weren’t dating, and she’d come up and asked you to go to a dance with her, you would have been down with that?” I asked.
“So down,” he said with a laugh. “Hell, I probably would have told her to ask me again so I could video the moment and keep it as a memento forever.”
Madi rolled her eyes but smiled at him. “You’re such a dork.”
He wrapped an arm over her shoulder and pulled her close before whispering in her ear. “When it comes to you, always.”
“And now, I officially need a bucket to throw up in,” I groaned. The two of them could really be too much sometimes. “Remember, guys, we’re a trike right now, not a bike. I do not want to be a spare wheel!”
“Okay, we’re a trike.” Cole laughed, lowering his arm from around Madi. “Seriously, though. You should just ask him. The worst that can happen is he says no.”
“And I’m
embarrassed forever,” I added.
Cole shook his head though. “There’s nothing to be embarrassed about. At the very least, he’ll be flattered and impressed by your confidence.”
“I guess so,” I replied before turning to Madi. “What do you think, Mads?”
“Cole makes some good points, but it’s up to you,” she said. “I think it would be quite scary to ask someone to prom if you’re not sure what the answer will be. I can understand if you don’t want to go through with it.”
“Well, I’m all for throwing gender stereotypes on their heads,” I replied. I’d been looking for a way to stand out from the crowd of girls who were after Owen, and this would certainly make him notice me. I liked that it was a proactive option too. I wasn’t really the kind of girl who liked to sit around and wait on other people.
“Who knows, perhaps, he’ll say yes,” I added
“I’m sure he will,” Madi reassured me.
I glanced at Cole to gauge his reaction, but he just shrugged. “I have no idea what he’ll say. I haven’t hung out with the guy in years.”
My nose crinkled as uncertainty wavered within me. I wasn’t exactly encouraged by Cole’s blasé response or Madi’s optimism. The truth was that neither of them could predict what Owen would say. I wasn’t in eighth grade anymore though, and I refused to let myself be scared off by uncertainty.
“Okay, I’m going to do it,” I said. “The next time I see Owen, I’ll walk right up to him and ask him to prom.”
It sounded simple enough. But even the thought kicked my heartbeat up a notch. I’d been obsessed with Owen Beck for years. Was I really just going to ask him to prom? And what would I do if he said no?
I huffed out a breath, brushing my concerns aside. I wasn’t going to let fear render me silent. I’d already spent far too long crushing on Owen, and it was time I did something about it. I was going to ask him to prom, and that was that.
It was a great idea in theory. I just didn’t realize I’d be seeing him again so soon.
5
The Wrong Prom Date Page 4
