A Prom to Remember(40)

But his parents would be suspicious if he didn’t say anything at all, hence how he ended up in the garage with his dad on a Saturday afternoon.

His dad sucked in a breath and rubbed the stubble on his chin.

“I understand that, but I don’t need to hear your case, Otis. If you were so worried about the prom, you should have thought about that before you snuck out in the middle of the night.”

“I wasn’t thinking about the consequences.” Lies! the little angel voice in Otis’s head said.

“I know. I’m quite sure you weren’t, and that’s why we need to make sure that you really feel the consequences.”

“But what am I going to learn if you take this away? That keeping a promise to Luke isn’t important? Are you really setting the right example?” This argument was so weak, and yet his dad seemed to be buying it.

His dad rolled his eyes and chuckled. “I do feel bad for Luke. I’m not going to lie.”

“So don’t punish Luke for something dumb that I did!” Otis threw his arms up in the air to punctuate this sentiment. He might as well give the performance of a lifetime.

“Otis, it isn’t just that you went out past your curfew; it’s that you made your mother worry.”

“She was so worried she fell asleep.”

His dad gave him a warning look. “She’s always exhausted, especially in the wee hours of the morning. Her sleeping is not what’s on trial here.”

“I didn’t think she would even notice,” he said. His excuses were sounding worse and worse. His dad was going to realize this was a farce soon enough. Better to start wrapping things up.

“She always notices. She called me in the middle of the night, frantic that you weren’t home. She checked where your phone was and realized you were at the movies and that you were probably safe. But you gave her a good scare, not being where you were supposed to be.”

“But she saw me leave! How scared could she be?”

“This is also not a debate or discussion about what emotions your mother did or did not experience.”

“I know.” Otis crossed his arms and leaned against the garage wall. This was actually going better than he had hoped.

“You’re almost an adult, Otis,” he said. “This close.” He held his fingers a half an inch apart. “But you need to remember your actions have consequences, and from now on when you’re off on your own, you’ll keep this experience in mind and think twice.”

“But—”

“No buts.”

Otis frowned, but there was a little bubble of hope rising in his chest. He had put up a decent fight, and he was still not allowed to go. So this really was fate keeping him away from the prom and whatever was going to happen in Luke’s hotel room.

For a split second he thought about talking to his dad about that, about what to do about that. His parents had been remarkably cool when he came out to them, and they both were pretty fond of Luke, but did any parent really want to talk about sex with their kid? Any kind of sex?

Otis had to assume the answer was no.

He walked back into the house, relieved that at least if nothing else, there’d been no discussion of confiscating his cell phone.

He shot off a text to Madison.




He was really hoping that if he mentioned this to Madison it would eventually get back to Luke and solidify his case.



Otis sighed. No matter how relieved he felt, he was going to carry this guilt around with him for a long time. He’d give it one more try next week. Maybe there would be a change of heart in the Sorenson house.

Maybe Otis would have a change of heart himself. Anything was possible.





Chapter 19

Lizzie

How Lizzie had made it to the week before prom without realizing that she needed a prom dress was beyond her comprehension.

Subconsciously, she’d hoped something would have miraculously appeared in her closet just in the nick of time. But that wasn’t going to happen. And every possible dress she tried on from her closet and her mom’s closet definitely didn’t fit and definitely didn’t give her the confidence to meet Mystery Boy.

She even gave in and called her cousin. She was a few years older than Lizzie, but maybe she’d have something Lizzie could borrow. Unfortunately, none of her clothes fit Lizzie right, either. Some of it was too big, but none of it was going to work.

What was worse was Lizzie had no idea how she was going to get money for a dress. She’d used up whatever money she had from her most recent paycheck on her prom ticket, and she wanted to make sure she had enough for whatever they might do after prom. She was definitely cash flow poor. She had a savings account, but there wasn’t even that much in it, and she was going to need it next year to buy books for college way more than she needed a prom dress.

She finally had to give in and talk to her mom about it. She got up early before school Tuesday morning, much earlier than she had to, so she could see her mom before she left for work.

“Good morning, honey,” her mom said, punctuating the greeting with a big yawn while she poured coffee into a thermos.

“Hey, Mom.”

“What’s up? This is pretty early for you to be awake.”

“I kind of decided to go to the prom.”