A Prom to Remember(36)

“You should ask Landon!”

“Landon has a girlfriend in Canada.” Also, Jacinta added silently, it would feel like taking your castoffs, Kelsey, not to mention that she didn’t particularly like him.

“She’s in Texas actually.”

“Same difference. Texas, Canada, they’re far, but not that far.”

Kelsey paused. “I think Texas is actually farther than Canada. Like it definitely is. We could drive to Canada in like six or seven hours.”

“Yes, thank you for this geography lesson. But you know what I mean. Also there’s no way Landon would want to go with me anyway. And this situation doesn’t exactly scream ‘dream date.’ If anything, it screams ‘Jacinta Ramos: Girlfriend Placeholder.’”

“Oh, come on. I think he would be cool with it. He wants to go, but Emma can’t come from Texas to go to the prom. He doesn’t want to go alone. It would just be about having someone to hang out with, you know?”

“You didn’t already talk to him about this, did you?”

“Of course not. I had the idea and came right to you.”

Jacinta rolled the idea around in her head for a minute. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, going with Landon. It would solve a lot of Jacinta’s issues. And it wasn’t so much that she didn’t like Landon, she just had a lot of opinions about him. But he and Kelsey had broken up amicably, and he wasn’t a complete douchebag.

“You know what? I think I will ask him.”

“Yay!” Kelsey cried, hugging Jacinta tight.

“But I think I should run it past Emma.”

“I think that’s totally respectful of you.”

Henry was walking down the hall ahead of them. Jacinta grabbed Kelsey’s arm and pulled her to a stop. “I’m still having trouble believing he’s really going to the prom with Amelia. I heard they might be dating.”

“Maybe it’s a rumor,” Kelsey said. “I swear the gossip mill has gone into overdrive lately. I’ve heard some of the weirdest things.”

“Like what?”

“Something about Ms. Huang dating one of the other teachers.”

“I hadn’t heard,” Jacinta said with a shrug.

On her way to the final class cabinet meeting of the year, Jacinta sent Emma a Facebook message basically requesting her permission to ask Landon to the prom, even though Jacinta had never met Emma in real life. Landon and Emma had met last year at Harvard Model United Nations, and almost immediately thereafter, Emma had followed all of Landon’s friends on social media.

When the meeting was over, Jacinta checked her phone and Emma had said yes. She said she was happy that Jacinta checked with her first, though, and really appreciated her thoughtfulness and would she mind exchanging numbers in case they needed to be in contact in the future.

Jacinta rolled her eyes a bit at that. She would never understand why people took high school relationships so seriously. It was high school. There was nothing serious about it.

Since she was on her way home and would pass Landon’s house anyway, Jacinta decided to pop in and ask him face-to-face.

As soon as she rang the doorbell she knew it was a bad idea.

Not just going to his house to ask him, but asking him at all. It was a really bad, really weird idea and she hated how she felt. She was about to turn and leave since no one had answered the door, much to her relief, when a vaguely familiar figure walked out from the side of the house.

It was Landon’s stepbrother, Cameron.

“Oh, hey,” Jacinta said.

“Hey, hi, sorry, I was looking for the cat. I don’t think anyone else is home.”

He was empty handed. “Did you find the cat?”

“Yeah, but she didn’t want to go inside anyway.”

“Okay,” Jacinta said. “I forgot that you lived with Landon.”

“Or does Landon live with me?” he asked seriously.

It was like a logic puzzle that Jacinta had no idea how to answer.

“Ha,” was all she said.

Cameron seemed okay with her weak laugh and smiled at her. He moved to open the front door.

“Do you want to come in? Why are you here?” He shook his head. “Sorry, that’s kind of rude. I just meant, like, are you here to see Landon or are you selling magazine subscriptions or something?”

Jacinta couldn’t quite keep up with this kid. He was all over the map.

“Um, yes, I’m here to see Landon.”

“Like I said, he’s not here right now, but he should be home soon, if you want to wait.”

“Okay, I think I’ll wait.”

Cameron plopped down on the top step. “I’m locked out anyway. Damn cat.”

Jacinta sat down next to him. “I’ll keep you company.”

For as weird as Cameron was, there was something sort of interesting about him. She’d heard a lot of rumors about him at school, but she had no idea if any of them were true or who to believe.

“So,” Cameron said, nodding his head.

“So.”

“What do you need Landon for?”

“Well, I was thinking I might ask him to the prom? I know he has a girlfriend, but I actually already talked to Emma and she said since she couldn’t make it that it would be okay to ask him.”