A Prom to Remember(61)

“Now, I don’t want to overwhelm you, but there are only three more steps. Walk back into the ballroom, get your crown, and dance with Amelia. Then we can go home. Exactly like you wanted to all night!” Paisley lifted her hands in a semi-sarcastic cheer. It was hard to be totally un-sarcastic.

Henry banged his forehead against the edge of the bathroom stall.

“Bro, you’re gonna hurt yourself, don’t do that.”

He looked back at Paisley. There was a pink line running down below his hairline. Paisley rubbed at it.

“I’m not good at this stuff, Paisley,” he said, walking to the sinks to wash his hands and face.

“You don’t have to be good at it; you just have to do it.”

“I’m not good at doing this stuff,” he amended pointedly.

“Look, I don’t know what else you need to hear in this moment, but don’t you think it’s way embarrassing for Amelia to be out there waiting for you in front of everyone? Ms. Huang started announcing the class court, but that’s not going to take all that long. And every minute that ticks by it looks like you ditched Amelia alone.”

“Ugh,” was all Henry said.

“And you know I hate making her look like a victim in all this, but it could potentially mess up her night if you don’t go dance with her. This one little dance.”

Henry stared at Paisley for a second and then shook his head.

“One dance,” Paisley said, holding up her finger for emphasis. “Then home.”

“One dance, then home,” Henry repeated as they walked out of the bathroom and back to the ballroom.

“You got this, big boy!” Paisley called after him as he walked toward the front of the room.

“Stop calling me big boy!” he shouted over his shoulder before the crowd swept him up and everyone started to clap for their newly elected prom king.





Chapter 29

Jacinta

While Cameron considered various ways to sneak into the prom venue, Jacinta tried to come up with a different plan.

She knew how excited Lizzie was about meeting Mystery Boy. She’d been there the whole year, watching Lizzie smile dreamily at her laptop screen. Jacinta needed to make this right for her friend. There had to be something she could do. They had tried reasoning with Mr. Muehler to no avail, and then tried to sneak in through the front doors of the hotel, but the front desk clerk told them they couldn’t get to the prom through the lobby and they had to see the teacher at the side entrance.

At the moment, she and Cameron were standing outside one of the fire exits around the back of the building. He seemed to be considering scaling the wall around the outdoor pool.

“Once you’re finished lurking,” Jacinta said, “meet me back by my car.”

She had a plan formulating, but she needed to get away from Cameron’s anxious energy for a few minutes to really think it through. Her mom was always asking if Jacinta wanted to have people over. She had even offered to have a post-prom pool party at their house. Jacinta always said no, believing that her friends had better things to do.

While that might be true sometimes, it wasn’t true tonight.

Tonight she could be the Boss Level Prom Savior just by putting in a call to her mom. She couldn’t save her own prom night, but she could damn well save Lizzie and Cameron’s night.

Jacinta took a deep breath and called home.

“Jacinta!” her mom said, answering the phone. “I didn’t know you still knew how to talk on the phone.”

“Very funny, Mom,” Jacinta said.

“What can I do for you?”

“Well, remember how you offered to have people over after the prom?”

“Yes, but I thought you were going to the city with Kelsey and your friends.”

“I was, but now I don’t want to anymore. So there are a few people I might invite over. If that’s okay. I know it’s last minute.”

“Of course it’s okay,” her mom said. “I’ll just go change out of my pajamas.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, Mom. I shouldn’t have asked. I don’t mean to put you out.”

“Jacinta! I said yes. Now, what time will your friends be over?”

“Well we’re, um, still at the prom,” Jacinta said. It wasn’t a lie. They were at the prom. It was just that she had never actually gone inside the prom. “So at least a half hour. Probably closer to an hour once we wrap everything up here.”

“Oh, that’s plenty of time. Don’t you worry about a thing. Are you inviting Henry Lai? How many people are you inviting?”

Jacinta took a quick count in her head. Cameron and Lizzie, maybe Madison since she seemed to be wherever Lizzie was. Maybe Jacinta should invite Cora, or maybe not. She probably had something awesome planned after the prom.

“Not too many. Four or five. I don’t think I’ll be inviting Henry.”

“Oh, too bad,” her mom said. “Okay, well, see you when you get here.”

Jacinta hung up with her mom just as Cameron returned to the car.

He leaned back against the headrest and looked thoroughly dejected. “This sucks.”

“It’s okay,” Jacinta said. “We’re going to find you-know-who, and then you guys can come back and hang out at my house. I have a pool.”