A Prom to Remember(67)

“Thanks,” she said, grinning and touching the same spot he had.

“Why are you so wet?” he asked at the same time she said, “Why didn’t you come into the dance?”

“I’m going for a walk,” Jacinta said, taking off in the direction that Lizzie just came from. She locked the doors to her car with a surprising honk that made both Lizzie and Cameron jump.

“I didn’t go into the dance because I ran late at work and Jacinta happened to come in and she yelled at me and drove me here and said we should wait for you out in the parking lot so, now we’re here.”

“Like every pipe in the entire ballroom burst, and I had to rush into the water to get my purse and my phone,” she said, pulling a small black bag out of the top of her dress.

“Wow, that was like magic,” he said. “Are you okay? From the harrowing experience?”

“Yeah.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “I think I’ll recover.”

“So,” he said.

“What do we do now?” Lizzie asked.

“Um. Well. As it turns out”—he stumbled over his words and then cleared his throat—“Jacinta actually made plans for us. If you’re interested.”

“I think I am,” Lizzie said, a smile spreading across her face.

He smiled back. Maybe this would work out after all.





Chapter 32

Otis

Ms. Huang and Ms. Bishop were quickly ushering the students into the corner of the parking lot. There was still technically another hour and a half left of the dance, but that didn’t seem particularly important at the moment. Especially now that the power had gone out, it seemed like the prom was effectively over.

As the students stood in the parking lot, Ms. Huang tried to take a head count.

“Why?” Madison asked, coming from the other direction. “In case someone is drowning in there? Wouldn’t you notice something like that?”

Madison, Otis, and Luke stood in a group, unsure what to do.

“Where’s Lizzie?” Otis asked, but before Madison could answer a firefighter walked past and Luke got his attention.

“Sir, excuse me, I’m sorry to interrupt your work, but my boyfriend and I smelled gas or something right before the pipe burst.”

“Yeah,” Otis chimed in, not having anything to add but wanting to support Luke’s assertion.

The firefighter nodded. “Thanks for the information.”

Otis nearly swooned. There was something about firefighters.

As the firefighter walked away, Jacinta approached their little group.

“Hey, I don’t know if you guys heard, but I’m having a party,” she said. “Bring whoever. Everyone’s invited.”

“Your mom’s cool with having so many people over?” Otis asked.

“Well, I was having a couple people anyway. And then I called her after the whole flood thing to see if I could have more people over.” Jacinta shrugged. “I don’t know if she realizes just how many I mean this time. But anyway. Bring whoever. I’m going to go see who else is looking for somewhere to go.”

After she walked away, Luke turned to Otis.

This was the moment. The deciding moment, where Otis took door number one, a hotel room, or door number two, being a disappointing boyfriend.

He’d felt closer to Luke at the prom than he ever had, nearly saying I love you and being so physically close on the dance floor.

Maybe he could explain to Luke when they were alone what all his worries were about. Luke would listen. Luke loved him.

Before Otis could say anything, Luke took the reins.

“Do you maybe want to…” He paused, clearing his throat.

“If you still do,” Otis said before he could finish, feeling more confident in this decision by the second.

“We kind of have a hotel room,” Luke said, taking Otis’s hand and turning to Madison.

“Ohhh, right. I remember hearing something about that. I also remember being invited. But I’ll allow you to go alone together. If that’s what you want,” Madison said.

Otis raised an eyebrow at Luke and shook his head in faux exasperation.

“I can’t believe you invited Madison to our post-prom hotel room!” Maybe this wasn’t the intimate situation that Otis had been envisioning and worrying about all these weeks.

“Only when it seemed like you weren’t going to make it to prom! It was too late to cancel the room.”

“Well,” Otis said. “Sure you can still come if you want to. Obviously.”

“Guys!” Madison yelled. “I’m joking. I’m going to Jacinta’s. You need some alone time. Have fun, boys. Be careful. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. All that jizz. I mean jazz!”

Otis’s eyes went wide and he shook his head at Madison.

She cleared her throat and stifled a laugh. “But you just have to wait a hot second before running off. Because Lizzie and I both have stuff in your car.”

Madison followed them over to grab her and Lizzie’s things.

“Do you want us to wait until you find her?” Luke asked.

“Definitely not,” Madison said. “There’s literally a hundred people here who could drive me to Jacinta’s. I’m not even a little worried.”