Of course, I said yes to Richie. I had only ever been to prom once, and I was actually glad that I would be going this year since it was my last chance. In all honesty hoping that Richie would ask me eventually, but I hadn’t expected it to be like that.
Spending the rest of my year in a sort of daze, I sort of regretted not getting more into the school year. It felt like one, big missed opportunity for me to make something out of my high school years. I had to admit that they were definitely not some of the greatest years of my life, as people often claimed them to be, and I only had myself to blame for that. I had seriously screwed everything up for myself, and there was nothing I could do to fix it.
But as I walked into the cheaply decorated gym for the last time in my life, wearing my dream dress with my head held high and Richie’s arm around my waist, I felt strangely content.
I couldn’t explain it. Just about everything had gone wrong these past four years, and yet I didn’t feel any resentment to it. Perhaps it was the fact that Richie, my best friend and school hottie, was my date tonight or the obnoxious smell of marker and cheap paint on the posters that made me feel like I was floating.
I could practically feel the spotlight on us that night. There was little doubt in my mind that we were the hottest couple at the dance and people made way for us. It was absolutely incredible. Richie looked more than just cute in his tux; he was hot. He was the smoothest dancer I had ever known and together, we owned the floor. A fast song played and we tore the place up. A slow song played and everyone’s eyes were on us. I wrapped my arms around his neck and he grabbed my waist and spun me around, my feet lifting right off the floor.
Everything was perfect. It was our night, and it was perfect.
But the problem was that it shouldn’t have been
Deep in my heart, I knew that it was all wrong. I shouldn’t have been having this much fun when I knew that I had failed so miserably at ending things right. It was my last day of high school, and I had failed in tying up all my loose ends. Alex had shown me the light and I had so many chances. I just turned my back and ran away. This night was too perfect. Richie was perfect in every way and the best date anyone could have asked for, but I didn’t deserve perfect. I didn’t want perfect. I wanted awkward. I wanted clumsy and shy. I wanted soft-spoken and flawed.
I wanted Nat.
I had never intended high school to turn out the way it did. I had always imagined that my senior prom date would be Nat and that all the guys would be pointing and laughing at us all night long. We would pretend to be annoyed by their teasing, but we’d actually enjoy it.
Instead, I was left with Richie, the perfect date, and an empty feeling in my gut. I was content, but not happy. I was having fun, but not having the time of my life. I wasn’t feeling nostalgic, like many of the other seniors there were; I was resigned and indifferent.
“Hey,” Richie whispered in my ear as we rocked gently to another slow song. “You still in there?”
“Sorry. I sort of just spaced out.”
“Is something wrong?”
“No. Nothing’s wrong. You’re a really great dancer.”
“I didn’t mean if there was something wrong with me. I meant with you.”
“To be honest, I’m not sure. This all feels like a dream right now.”
“A dream you want or one you don’t?”
“Am I that bad of a liar?”
“No,” he grinned, twirling me around and pulling me close. “I just know you better than that.”
I smiled back at him. He really was the smoothest boy in the world and any other girl would die to have him.
“Well now seems like a good time to tell you,” he said softly.
“Tell me what?”
“Remember that day I asked you to prom?”
“Yeah.”
“Remember that guy I was talking to?”
“The one that looked like Alex?”
“Yeah. It was Alex. Now go back to the beginning of the year. Remember how a bunch of us were stuck down south for about a week before school started because of that storm?”
“I remember.”
“Alright. So what happened was that when the roads were finally clear enough for us to leave, the Naked Brothers Band’s tour bus was caught in a ditch. Even Tuffy couldn’t get it out, so I helped them out. They all recognized me, and they actually had to think about it before accepting my help. After we got the bus out, Alex pulled me off to the side to thank me personally.”
“What happened then?”
“He punched me in the jaw.”
“What?” If it weren’t for Richie’s lead at that moment, then I probably would have fallen over in the middle of the dance floor.
“Alex has one mean right hook, and I guess you can say I deserved it after all the hell I caused everyone. After that, though, he asked for my help. We figured that neither you or Nat would have the guts to talk to each other again, so we’d have to make it happen. We stayed in touch all year long, trying to figure out a foolproof plan. This kid’s amazing. He’s six years younger than us and yet he’s a total genius. He basically designed all the traps. I was just the trigger.”
“Why would you even bother? I mean, we’re graduating, Richie. It’s not like we’re going to see them again.”
“Don’t think you’re going to get out of this that easily. We made sure that you guys weren’t getting away. You’re touring with me this summer, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, we’re signed for the Naked Brothers Band tour.”
Richie and Alex made a good team. They had covered all the fields. I knew that if they didn’t get me now, something else would be coming back at me seconds later.
“Alex and I were supposed to get Nat to ask you to prom, but last minute, Alex changed it up on me and told me to ask you. He said that being subtle wasn’t reliable enough, so we just had to take the direct approach.”
It was all starting to make sense, sort of. “What do you mean by the direct approach. I mean, how does you asking me to prom get me to talk to Nat?”
Richie didn’t say a thing. He flashed me a million-dollar smile and winked. “I hope you enjoyed the smooth ride so far, because it’s about to end.”
He spun me around again and let go, sending me flying in a deliberate path. Little did I know that Alex wasn’t too far away, shoving Nat straight into me.
Richie was right about one thing; their strategy was far from subtle.
“Hi,” Nat gasped, slightly winded from our collision.
“Hi.” This was unbearably awkward.
“Our work here is done.” Richie walked over to Alex and they gave each other a quick high-five before slinking away to some corner of the room, leaving Nat and me to ourselves.
There was a long, painful silence that stretched between us before I finally decided to speak up. “Nat, I think we’ve been set up.”
“Yeah,” he said, sounding exactly the same as he did two years ago. Nat hadn’t changed a bit. “But I’m glad they did it.”
“Look, Nat, I-“
“I want to start over,” he blurted out.
“What?”
“I want to start over. Don’t you miss the old days? Don’t you just want to go back and pretend none of this ever happened?”
“Well, I guess. I mean-“
“Can’t we just start over, Rosalina? Can’t we just go back to the beginning?”
What he was saying sounded so good to me, but I knew that it was impossible. “We can’t turn back time, Nat. We can’t just pretend nothing ever happened. That’s not what moving on means.”
I could see that he was disappointed. Maybe I had changed a lot these past few years, but he hadn’t. Nat Wolff would always be that shy boy with those sweet chocolate brown eyes trying so hard to be something in my eyes. If only he knew that he didn’t even have to try.
“Listen, Nat. I want nothing more than to forget it ever happened, but it’s too late for that. It already happened and we have to get over it. We may never be able to go back to the beginning, but you know what, Nat?”
“What?”
“We can still pick up the pieces were we left off.”
He smiled.
I had missed that big, goofy grin of his.
Neither of us had to say a word. The healing had already begun. It was going to be a long, slow process before we patched up all our wounds, but it was something we would be doing together. It was true that we could never go back to the start, but we could always find our way back to where had let it all go. We were going to start where we had left off, and I knew that everything was going to be okay.
We were going to be okay.
“Hey, Rosalina?”
“Yes?”
“Do you want to dance?”
“I thought you’d never ask.”
We tripped on the way to the dance floor. He was stiff and clumsy on his feet. We were laughing at ourselves the entire time, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
End.
