A Prom to Remember(11)

“Oh my god,” Luke said. “Did you Juno me?”

Otis smiled.

“Ugh, I’m so mad at you for doing this.”

“I put them in on Friday after baseball, but then you scooped me with the invite yesterday. I figured there was no reason to come get them all out of your locker early this morning, though. It would have been such a waste. Also because Madison would have killed me since she’s the one who helped me write on all of them.” Otis knew he was babbling, but Luke wasn’t saying enough so he needed to fill the void.

Luke stared at one of the containers and grinned. “This is really so fantastic.”

“Thanks,” Otis said, feeling a little shy. “I figured I owed you since up until now my grandest gesture was surprising you with your favorite Slurpee.”

“A Slurpee I cherished,” Luke said, putting his hand on Otis’s arm. “And mango isn’t always available in this area of New Jersey, so it was extra thoughtful.”

Otis shrugged, still sheepish.

“Although you realize I’m going to have to eat all of these myself, right? Because if I give them to people they’re going to think I’m asking them to prom.”

“You definitely have to eat every single one yourself,” Otis said. “It’s like a demonstration of your commitment to us.”

Luke studied his locker, counting the containers with his eyes. “My god, how much did you spend on these? I mean really, except I don’t mean that at all and please don’t tell me.”

“You can buy them in bulk on the Internet. It wasn’t too much, I promise.”

“But still! There’s like a hundred boxes.”

“A hundred and twenty, technically.”

It was Otis’s turn to laugh loudly. “I’m glad we’re going to prom.”

“Me too,” Luke said.

“I just really appreciate you.”

“Aw, I love it when you’re sincere.” Luke closed his locker. “We should probably go get your stuff now.”

Otis nodded as they turned to walk down the hall. He made quick work of grabbing what he needed for his morning classes, and soon they were off to homeroom. “We should go on a date soon. Like a good date,” he said.

“I am always up for a good date,” Luke said, waving at someone as he passed. “Or a bad date, even. Let’s go to McDonald’s.”

“That sounds like the perfect plan,” Otis said, threading his arm through Luke’s as they continued on their way.

“Or, you know, I was going to surprise you, but I talked to my cousin and he works at the Holiday Inn Express. And he said he could get us a room for prom night.” Luke raised his eyebrows and grinned.

“Wow,” was all Otis managed to say as the shock of the statement settled in.

A hotel room.

With Luke.

On prom night.

He had to think about each of these concepts individually before he could handle considering them together.

“Should be awesome,” Luke said, squeezing his arm in a wordless goodbye as Luke entered his homeroom.

Should be awesome, Otis thought to himself, standing in the hallway stunned. But there was also something vaguely terrifying about the idea.

He continued on to homeroom by himself, thinking about what a hotel room, one with Luke, on prom night entailed.

He should be totally psyched, right?

Someone would need to tell that to the pit of anxiety that was growing in his stomach.

Cora

Tuesday night and Cora was doing her best to avoid her homework. At this point in her senior year, was there really any reason to do it?

The answer was of course yes, but that didn’t exactly motivate her to get her work done. When her phone chimed from her bed she leaped for it, as gracefully as one can leap from sitting cross-legged on the floor up and onto a bed.




Technically Cora wasn’t allowed out after dinner on school nights unless it was for a school-related event or responsibility. But maybe if she spun a quick little lie and breezed out the door before her parents caught on she might be able to make a run for her car. She grabbed her keys and shoved her wallet in her backpack along with a random book that she could use as a cover story.

Her mom and dad were in the living room watching the news.

“I need to run over to Jamie’s for a second. We accidentally switched textbooks at lunch,” she said, patting her backpack for extra emphasis.

Her dad’s eyebrows knitted together, and Cora could tell he was about to say no, but her mom pressed a hand to his chest.

“You have an hour on the dot, and you better be careful driving my car,” she said.

Cora grinned and raced out of the house before her dad could start lining up his arguments. As Cora had recently pointed out to them, sooner than later they were going to have to get used to the idea that she was an autonomous person. That she certainly wasn’t going to be calling them from college to ask about going out.

She dropped into the driver’s seat of her mom’s sedan, and put on her seat belt before carefully pulling out of the driveway. She couldn’t see her parents watching, but she could feel them, so it was worth it to be on her best behavior behind the wheel.

She pulled onto the main street and realized that this was kind of an odd request from Jamie. There was a spontaneity to the situation that should excite her.