Chapter 9

That night I slept hard, thankful no dreams tried to remind me of prom.

School would be a good distraction, I thought as I jumped into the shower the next morning. I wasn’t sure how long I stood under the water and it was possible I’d conditioned my hair twice. I picked out an outfit carefully, knowing I’d be on the other end of a lot of staring today, and stood in front of the mirror to get ready.

By the time I looked at my phone, I realized I’d spent way too much time perfecting my look. I’d have to skip breakfast. On my way through the kitchen I grabbed a granola bar.

“Running late, Mom,” I called as her whole body turned to follow my path through the kitchen. Her wide eyes proved she was shocked I wasn’t eating breakfast with her like I normally did. “I’ll see you at five. We have a meeting after school.”

“Okay. Love you.”

“You too.” I let the door swing shut behind me and threw my backpack onto the floorboard of the passenger seat before climbing into the car after it.

“Wow, you look good.”

“Thanks.”

Claire pointed to my front porch where my mom waved good-bye to us. I smiled and waved back.

“I swear your family should be on some Perfect Family billboard or something. What’s it like to have the world’s best parents?”

“They are pretty great. They always seem to do everything by the book.”

“What book is that?”

“I don’t know, What to Say to Your Kids 101?” I took a deep breath and opened my granola bar.

“You didn’t eat breakfast?”

“No time.”

Claire backed out of my driveway. “You okay? I didn’t hear from you at all this weekend. I thought you’d want to go out last night.”

I shrugged. “No, I had homework to finish.”

“I’m sorry you didn’t win.”

“Win what?”

“Prom queen.”

I gave a little laugh. “You think me not wanting to go out had to do with not winning prom queen?”

“I don’t know, that or Tom. I’ve just never seen you upset over a guy before.”

I started to deny that staying home all weekend had to do with tom but in a weird way it did. Or at least with the person who’d filled in for him. He’d taken over my thoughts and was making it impossible to concentrate. Why was that the case when I hardly even knew him? Maybe that was the point—that he had saved me the other night without knowing me at all. And I wanted to know why. “You’re right. It does have to do with him.”

“Is it because he basically broke up with you first by cheating on you?”

“What?”

“You’re just always the breaker-upper. He beat you to it.”

“I . . .”

She playfully punched my arm. “Don’t deny it.”

Tom. He broke up with me. That tension in my chest was back at the thought of it. No, I was done with him. He’d left me in the parking lot at prom. He didn’t get to make me feel bad anymore.

Claire grabbed my hand. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to make light of it. He pulled a jerk move. You should be upset. I should’ve taken you out for a milk shake or something.” She squeezed my hand. “But you can’t let a boy ruin your carefully crafted image. Pull yourself together and we’ll mourn in private.”

“Right. We wouldn’t want that.” Was this how I’d comforted her after Peter last year? “Did you guys have fun Saturday night after leaving prom? What did you end up doing?”

“We went over to the park and hung out. Tyler surfed on the swings.”

“That sounds fun.”

“It was funny. He almost ruined his tux.”

I smiled. “So, Tyler? Are you feeling like you know him better now? He seemed nice.”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. He’s a solid B, but I still think I have a chance with Logan. He’s A material for sure. Don’t you think?”

Logan. I vaguely remembered telling her a month ago when no one had asked her to prom yet that Logan was someone she should aim for. He was a star on the football team plus did well in school. But then Tyler had asked her and she seemed to like him so I thought she’d forgotten about Logan. Apparently not. “Logan had his chance. I think if you had a good time with Tyler that you should go for it.”

“Not that it matters. We are leaving for college soon.” She bit her lip, containing a smile. “Then we will have our pick of college boys. College men. Ones that are way better than tom.”

“Right.” I finished my granola bar and shoved the wrapper in my backpack.

“Oh, speaking of, my mom bought us a doormat.”

“For our dorm?”

“Yes, I tried to tell her that our dorm was inside a building and it wasn’t like an apartment, but she insisted.”

“What does it look like?”

“Get this. It says, ‘I am not a doormat.’” She groaned.

I laughed. “Do you think she is trying to send a message to our future visitors or just trying to be funny?”

“I don’t think she gets the double meaning. I think she thinks the doormat is saying it’s not a doormat and she finds that amusing.”

“Your mom is funny.”

“My mom is annoying.”

“Between our two sets of parents, we’re not going to have to buy anything for our dorm room.