A Prom to Remember(30)

The next day when Tyler Lewis approached her in the hallway, all she had to do was unzip her sweatshirt and point to the phrase. He turned on his heel and booked it in the other direction.

Paisley was smug with joy over her idea.

But this meant she was either going to have to make another T-shirt tomorrow or wash this one tonight. It honestly seemed easier to make another T-shirt. Especially when Madison came up to her after school.

“Um, that T-shirt is awesome and where did you get it?”

“I made it,” Paisley said.

“Any chance you’d be willing to make me one?”

“Get me a plain T-shirt and I definitely will.”

“I’ll bring it by later; we could have a T-shirt-making party.”

Paisley grinned. Maybe she should start an anti-prom T-shirt Etsy store.

The next day was sort of a letdown. Not one guy from the baseball team approached her. It was kind of annoying, seeing as how she spent all that time last night making Tshirts with Madison.

At least she had a few new shirts and some fun ideas for making money off other people who didn’t care about the prom.

When she went outside after school, Derek Rodriguez was standing there with a single yellow rose, like his whole life was an episode of The Bachelor.

“Hey, there,” he said.

“Hey,” she said.

“How about we go to the prom together?” he asked. There was something unsettlingly smooth about Derek.

Paisley lifted the sweater she’d put on over her T-shirt.

“It’s not you, it’s prom,” Derek read. He looked her in the eye. “So that’s a no, then?”

Paisley nodded.

“Dammit,” he said, and walked away, still holding the yellow rose.

She pulled out her phone and texted Henry.





She slid her phone in her back pocket and threaded her way to Madison’s car, finding solace in the back seat while Madison drove her and Lizzie to their respective homes.

Thursday and Friday were quiet. It seemed that the message was out there.

Paisley Turner was not going to the prom with anyone.

Jacinta

Kelsey and Mike picked up Jacinta at 6:30 p.m. on the nose. They drove over to the Olive Garden, where Brian met them out front. For some reason Kelsey loved the Olive Garden no matter how much other people made fun of it. She was not one to be swayed by the opinion of others.

Brian was definitely cuter than Jacinta had expected, even cuter than Kelsey had described. And much cuter than any of the pictures that Jacinta had found of him on social media. Apparently the camera was not his friend.

He had the kind of smile where you could tell he still wore his retainer every night. Which reminded Jacinta, she needed to start wearing her retainer every night. It’d be worth it if her teeth looked as good as Brian’s.

Another plus for Brian was that he held the door open for her. Jacinta was easily impressed by even the most basic manners. She really did believe it was the little things in life that sometimes meant the most.

The four of them got seated pretty quickly in a booth, and their waitress brought over bread sticks that Kelsey immediately attacked as if they were her last meal.

Brian smiled and offered the bread stick bowl to Jacinta before taking one for himself. Another point for him.

Sadly, things plateaued after that and Jacinta couldn’t find anything else to give him points for.

He was okay. He didn’t have much to say, which wasn’t really a bad thing, but Jacinta was having a hard time imagining spending a lot of time with him. He wasn’t exactly making an impression with his quiet politeness.

She sighed inwardly and hoped no one noticed her eye roll. Why couldn’t she be the kind of person who was lucky enough to have a date from their class? Why did everyone else get to go to their prom with someone from school, while Jacinta had to scramble to find someone, anyone, willing to spend an evening with her?

It wasn’t doing great things for her confidence.

Focus on Brian, she told herself.

The food arrived and truth be told, Jacinta’s meal was better than she expected, so at least the night had something going for it.

Kelsey dragged her to the bathroom before they ordered dessert.

“So, what do you think?” she asked.

“He’s not really doing much?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, he’s barely said a word.”

“He’s shy!” Kelsey insisted. “You need to get to know him. You’re shy, too.”

“Okay. Yes. But like he needs to do something to make me want to get to know him. Like leave some kind of impression. Right now I’m imagining being at the prom with him and neither of us saying a word for four hours.”

“Well, I’ll be at the prom, too, and Mike, of course, and we can help keep the conversation going.”

“I appreciate your optimism, but I’m honestly not sure this is going to work out,” Jacinta said, placing a hand on Kelsey’s arm.

Kelsey frowned dramatically. “Come on. Give him one more chance. Ask him a question.”

“I can’t ask him a question when you’re sitting there staring at us like we’re about to do a song-and-dance number. That’s probably not helping his shyness, either.”

“Okay, fine, I’ll have a conversation with Mike, and you have one with Brian.”