A Prom to Remember(10)

“Do you need money? For anything? A dress or a limo with your friends? Did you buy a ticket?”

This was far more attention than Jacinta had received in years, or at least that’s how it felt.

“I don’t need money. I didn’t buy a ticket. I’ll let you know when and if I do. I don’t really have anyone to go with at the moment.”

“I was thinking,” her mom said, placing her fork down on her plate. “I bet Henry Lai doesn’t have a date. He flies under the radar like you do. You could go with him. I could talk to his mom about it at work tomorrow.”

“Oh my god, Mother,” Jacinta said. But before she could argue the point further, the front and back doors opened simultaneously and most of her immediate family poured in, including her dad, her sister, her sister’s fiancé, and two of her brothers.

Her conversation with her mother was definitely over.

Her family was loud, and Jacinta had never learned to be loud enough to be heard over everyone else’s din. She never minded getting talked over, but she hated trying to compete for her mother’s attention. She’d rather not even try than to lose out to her older siblings, which was pretty much what always happened.

Jacinta took the opportunity to slip out of her mother’s focus and let the rest of her family take over the spotlight. It was in fact one of her greatest talents.

The next morning in school she approached Henry at his locker.

Henry Lai was an interesting person, in Jacinta’s mind, made less interesting by the fact that their moms seemed to constantly want to push them together. When they were kids their moms wanted them to be friends and as teenagers it had been implied on more than one occasion that they should date.

It left things between Jacinta and Henry awkward and weird.

Not to mention that he’d had a surge in popularity during their senior year that made Jacinta feel like he was out of her league.

“Hey,” Jacinta said as she got close to him.

Henry looked up and smiled when he saw her. “Morning,” he said.

“Um, so I think you need to be aware that my mother is likely going to talk to your mother about the prom today at work.”

“Oh god, it’s so embarrassing when this happens,” he said, squeezing the bridge of his nose like this whole concept gave him an instant ice-cream headache.

“This is completely my fault. I take full responsibility this time,” Jacinta said.

He put his hand on her shoulder. “You really don’t have to. It’s our meddling moms’ fault.”

“All I did was say the word prom, and she was offering to set us up.” Jacinta bit her lip and looked down. “But listen, just in case this, you know, keeps going on with our moms, I was thinking I should have your number. I could have texted you last night to warn you.”

“Good idea,” Henry said, pulling his phone out of his backpack.

They exchanged numbers and set off in the direction of homeroom

“It’s actually so weird that I don’t have your number,” Henry said. “We could have been presenting a more united front against our moms for all these years.”

“At least we finally came to our senses,” Jacinta said as she turned to go into her homeroom.

“Yeah, it was about time. See you later,” Henry said with a grin as he continued on down the hall.

“See you,” Jacinta said.

Maybe Henry wouldn’t be a terrible prom date, Jacinta thought as she walked away. But if she ended up at the prom with him, she would do it on her own terms and not her mother’s.

It was definitely worth considering.





Chapter 5

Otis

Otis bounced on his toes as he and Luke walked into school Monday morning, that’s how excited he was for Luke to get to his locker.

He could barely speak for fear that he’d give away the surprise he’d left for his boyfriend on Friday. He’d worried that after Luke’s promposal that all the fun would have gone out of his own gesture, but now he couldn’t wait for Luke to see it.

“I’ll meet you back here after homeroom,” Luke said, pausing to give Otis a quick kiss on the cheek, but he came up with nothing but air because Otis had continued on in the direction of Luke’s locker.

“Nah,” Otis said casually as he kept going.

“Are you being weird?” Luke asked, catching up with him. “I feel like you’re being weird.”

Otis shrugged and did a little shoulder shimmy when they got to Luke’s locker.

“Okay, I’ve never seen you do anything like that before. You’re being totally weird, and I am totally weirded out by your weird,” Luke said with a hand on his hip.

Otis gestured toward Luke’s locker.

“What?”

He gestured more emphatically.

“I guess I should open my locker?” Luke asked.

Luke took his time going through his combination as if he knew every second Otis had to wait was pure torture. When he finally popped it open, several containers of orange Tic Tacs popped out and an avalanche of them waited inside Luke’s locker.

Luke picked one of the containers up off the ground. It said on the side, “You + Me = Prom?”

Luke laughed so loud he shocked the freshman girl who was passing at that moment.