A Prom to Remember(64)

“But we’re supposed to…” He trailed off.

“Are we supposed to?”

“I thought so. I think I’m in shock. Is this what being in shock feels like?” He shook out his hands at his sides.

“Maybe. I’m sorry,” she said.

“What the hell, Cora?”

“I’m sorry.”

“This really sucks. Couldn’t you have at least waited until, I don’t know, the prom was over?”

“I have waited!” she said. “I wanted to break up with you weeks ago. But it was always something. I thought I could make it through the prom. But I just couldn’t nod and smile through wedding talk. We’re eighteen, Jamie.”

“I know. I didn’t really think we’d get married. I don’t know. I like to say stuff like that sometimes.”

She crossed her arms.

“And I know how old we are,” he said when she didn’t respond.

“I need to be on my own. I’ve been Jamie’s girlfriend for too long.”

Jamie’s hurt expression made Cora want to soften the blow.

“I love you too much not to tell you that I don’t love you enough to stay with you forever,” she added.

“We could take a break?” he offered. “For the summer? Or even for next year or something?”

Fighting the urge to agree with him, to tell him that maybe someday they’d get back together, was far more difficult than she could have expected. She closed her eyes.

“I don’t want to make any promises that I’m not sure I can keep,” she said.

Perfect Boyfriend Jamie turned to her with tears in his eyes. He had actual, literal tears in his eyes, and Cora knew in that moment there was no better boyfriend in the world than Jamie. It was good that he was her first. She’d had a good experience.

She gave him a hug, but he didn’t hug back.

“I’m so sorry,” she said.

“Me too,” he whispered, pulling away. “I’m going to go, okay? I’m just. I’m gonna go. I’ll find a ride home or whatever. Don’t worry about me.”

“Okay.”

“Of course you won’t worry; you broke up with me,” he mumbled, shaking his head. He wiped his face. “I gotta go.” He was moving sideways so fast away from her that he almost tripped over his own two feet a few times before finally turning his back on her and jogging away toward the front lobby of the hotel.

The urge to follow him was almost as strong as the urge to tell him they could get back together. But she fought it.

She fought it hard.

Luckily Teagan and Josie were right there to stop her.

“We had a feeling something like this might happen,” Teagan said.

“So we were sort of lurking around, just in case,” Josie said, threading her arm through Cora’s.

Cora leaned her head on Josie’s shoulder.

“Let’s dance,” she said.

Otis

Otis was having the BEST NIGHT EVER.

It helped that he’d had quite a bit of Madison’s coconut rum. It was the perfect thing to cut the rising panic he felt in his throat every single time he thought about how pissed off his parents probably were. Though the fact that they hadn’t stormed the ballroom spoke volumes.

He had only checked his phone once since he left the house and found a single text from his mom. It said, “Have fun tonight. We’ll have plenty to talk about tomorrow.” He imagined that she had probably thrown his dad’s phone into the lake to keep him from yelling at Otis via text, voice mail, Facebook message, FaceTime, or whatever other means he could have come up with.

And really, all that text meant was that they were probably going to cut him off financially and disown him.

“Hey, what are you thinking about?” Luke asked when Otis had been quiet for too long.

“Oh, nothing much. The possibility of my parents disowning me, stuff like that,” Otis said as breezily as he could.

“Well, if they disown you, you can come live with me,” Luke said.

Otis nodded. Life with the Martinez family didn’t sound too bad. And Luke had a car. If they adopted Otis, maybe they would buy him a car, too.

“Are you having fun?” Otis asked.

“Hell, yes,” Luke said. “I honestly still can’t believe you’re here. All because I showed up at your house to throw pebbles and tell you I’d miss you.”

“It was too much. I couldn’t withstand the pull of prom night. Also I felt completely taunted by your white dinner jacket.”

“So fancy, right?” Luke said, brushing a hand down the crisp fabric.

“So fancy,” Otis agreed. “I can’t believe I’m here, either. I need to drink up these last few hours of freedom before I’m placed in solitary confinement for the foreseeable future.”

“Well, we better make this worth your while,” Luke said.

Otis danced.

Otis was happy.

Otis danced a lot.

And then he danced a little more.

The leather wing tips that he had stolen from his dad’s closet during his rush out of the house crushed his toes and nipped at his heels, but he did his best to ignore it. When they took a quick break for Otis to massage his feet, Luke sighed thoughtfully.