A Prom to Remember(51)
“I don’t think that’s part of my grounding,” Otis said. “I don’t know how long I’m grounded for, mostly because I’m afraid to ask, but I promise I’ll make this up to you.”
Luke sighed. “The prom is a one-time thing. There’s no way to make it up to me, not really. We either go to the prom or we don’t. And we’re not. So there’s sort of no way to make it up to me.”
“Yeah, I know, I’m sorry,” Otis said, fiddling with the dial of the lock on the locker next to Luke’s. “I owe you a grand romantic gesture when I’m finally not grounded.”
“You know, I just … I wish you hadn’t gone to the movies with Madison. Was it really that important to sneak out and ruin this?” Luke asked.
“It wasn’t. There’s no way it was. But I wasn’t really thinking like that. Who could have guessed that the punishment for sneaking out would be no prom? This isn’t the way my parents usually handle these things.”
LIES! the angel voice in Otis’s head screamed. It seemed to be the only word it knew.
“You know. This is like the one time in high school I thought I was going to have this, like, perfect high school moment that I’d actually want to remember. Us in our tuxes, taking a limo, slow dancing, getting a hotel room. I know some of that stuff didn’t work out, because limos are ridiculously expensive, but it was still mostly going to go as planned. It was still going to be this whole memorable event.”
Otis frowned; he really didn’t know what to say. Although he was kind of relieved that Luke seemed to be getting angrier the longer this monologue went on. Angry Luke made sense in this situation.
“I thought after like a couple years of homophobic garbage my boyfriend and I were going to have this awesome prom experience. But no. And like, you kept telling me everything would be fine, so I kept my hopes up. But you must have known you were in such bad trouble, and it took you a week to finally admit it to me.”
“I don’t know what else to say besides I’m sorry.”
Luke’s nostrils flared. “Yeah, whatever.” And with that he stormed off.
Luke didn’t look back.
Which made Otis feel even worse. The pit in his stomach grew larger. He couldn’t believe how terrible he felt about disappointing Luke. It was beyond anything he could have imagined.
Everything would be fine. Otis didn’t have to go to prom and he would totally make this up to Luke someday.
Someday he’d come up with the perfect grand romantic gesture.
He promised himself he would find a way.
There had to be a way.
Chapter 24
Paisley
Paisley heard the buzzer for her condo go off several hours earlier than Henry had said he’d be there. She figured it was the mail carrier getting confused about unit numbers again. Luckily, Paisley’s mom was home to get the door and she didn’t have to pause what she could only describe as “Hair Jenga.”
Paisley was using bobby pins to create what she hoped was a stunning updo, but it might actually have been the world’s tiniest bun. It was impossible to create an updo from a growing-out pixie cut. On the other hand, it’d be great if the prom got attacked and she could just yank out a couple of bobby pins to use as weapons. That seemed like something that could feasibly happen at prom.
Paisley could hear Henry and her mom exchange pleasantries in the living room, followed by Henry’s plodding steps down the hall before he stopped and knocked on her bedroom door.
“Come in,” she said, realizing in that moment that she didn’t have anything like an appropriate bag or purse for a formal event.
When Henry walked in, her head was stuck in her closet, where she was looking for a small canvas bag that she bought on the Internet a while ago. It had a rainbow unicorn on it and would have to do for a clutch.
After thinking about it for a minute, she decided it was kind of the perfect clutch.
She leaned out of the closet.
“Hey!” she said. “You’re like three hours early and you’re not even dressed.”
He threw himself down on her bed. “Maybe we don’t have to go?”
“Henry, come on, we’ve been over this.”
She stood up and dusted herself off, holding the canvas bag.
“You look nice,” he said. “Especially your hair.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Don’t lie to me, Henry Lai.”
“I’m not lying!” he said, holding up his hands defensively.
“Well, fine. Your hair looks nice, too. More formal or something.”
He touched it, as if he forgot he’d gelled it back. “Yeah, I thought it would look fancier this way. I don’t know if I really like it, though.”
“So why so early?”
“I’m nervous.”
“Aw, poor buckaroo,” Paisley said. “Where’s your tux?”
“Hanging in the living room,” he said.
“So you’re gonna watch me get ready? ’Cause that’s not creepy.”
“I didn’t think I’d watch you get dressed,” Henry said. “But I couldn’t stay in my house for another thirty seconds. I kept pacing around. My mom was way too enthusiastic, and my brother kept asking stupid questions. I had to get out of there.”