“What are you staring at?” Addy asked as she dropped her popcorn bowl into the sink.
“Nothing.” I quickly turned away and gathered up my homework to take to my room. I’d probably stay up too late again because I wasted my evening on Skyrim instead of Spanish. Yo soy estúpido. This was what happened my parents assumed I was mature enough to handle school nights alone.
Recently, our parents had taken up the habits of a couple who just discovered their newfound independence. Addy was months shy of adulthood, and I was barely a year behind her. Mom and Dad could hardly wait before they started acting like new adults themselves. Tonight, it was spin class. Tomorrow, softball league.
They were in great shape. Wish I could say the same for my spanish.
“Hey,” Addy grabbed my attention before I could escape to my room. “Stop teasing Nora about her date. You’re going to kill her confidence.”
I could have put my head through the kitchen counter. “Ugh,” I sighed in disgust. “There’s nothing wrong with her confidence, Ad. Maybe if you guys stopped trying to change her…”
“I would never change her. She’s my friend.” My sister’s voice was gaining in octaves, like it always did whenever we started in on our fights.
“She’s mine too!” I howled back.
“Max, she’s just nice to you because that’s how she is.”
Well, dang. I let out a heavy sigh that felt like it was hiding somewhere in my shoulders. They dropped to the floor as Addy’s words sank in.
She was right, wasn’t she? Nora never gave me any real signs she liked me anymore than a friend, and even then...were we friends? We hung out alone sometimes, and she texted me as much as Addy, but was it possible she was just being nice? Did our relationship exist comfortably within the bounds of Addy’s company?
My sister’s words were biting, but not in a mean way. Addy couldn’t be mean if she tried, even to me. But being so close in age, we had a special language of insults that we speared each other with on a daily basis. None of them hurt because they were rarely true.
And as Addy’s eyes lingered uncomfortably on me for a moment too long, she seemed to realize that that one stung more than it was supposed to.
“Whatever,” I muttered as I turned to leave. I wasn’t going to stick around for any real conversation. “Nora’s the coolest friend you’ve got. Don’t ruin her with your goals.”
“Why don’t you go get your own girlfriend, Max? My friends are off-limits.”
“Gross. I don’t want your weird friends.”
I made jokes about everything. It did a pretty good job of keeping everyone around me either laughing or rolling their eyes. But sometimes, I did it because I could wear their laughter like camouflage. And today was definitely one of those days. I made Nora laugh a couple times, but I also felt like garbage on the inside.
Shutting the door to my room, I dropped my homework on the floor next to my bed. It would probably go unnoticed until it was time to cram into my backpack tomorrow. I had more important things to figure out, like how I was going to ruin this date with Freddy and how I was going to be the first one there to catch her after I did.
Nora
Friday night came a lot faster than I wanted it to. Before I knew it, I was standing in front of my mirror, pulling the elastic bands from the bottom of my braids. “Looks aren’t your problem,” Addy had said. But what teenage girl ever looked in the mirror and thought, looks great, no changes needed? I really hoped she was right because this date was making me second guess everything about myself.
Addy and Lucy had offered to come over and help me get ready, but I declined their assistance. I was already losing my mind trying to juggle all of their tips from the other day. Ask a lot of questions was easy. Show interest in his interests, no problem. But the list of things I wasn’t allowed to do, that was making me nervous.
Nina knocked on my bedroom door. “Come in,” I called. My geeky little sister probably wasn’t the best person to help me get ready for a date, seeing as how she had never been on one before. However, no one loved a good romantic comedy more than Nina, and right now my life kind of was one.
“Can I see what you are going to wear?” she asked, her lisp was getting better as she got used to her new braces, but she still had trouble with her S’s.
I pulled out my best pair of dark skinny jeans and laid them on the bed next to a cute pair of suede ankle boots and two form fitting sweaters I had borrowed from Lucy.
“I’m having trouble deciding between the blue and the pink,” I admitted, staring down at the two choices.
Nina scrunched her mouth to the side as she considered the options.
“Pink, I guess,” she said with a shrug.
“Why the guess?” I asked, narrowing my eyes in her direction. Nina had a terrible poker face, and right now it was pretty clear she didn’t like either.
“They’re fine,” she said. “I could see your friends wearing them.” She stroked the pale blue one as she spoke. “They just don’t really look like you.”
I sighed. “I know. That’s part of the point.”
Nina grabbed a seat on the end of my bed. “You always tell me it’s good to be my own person. That I shouldn’t compare myself to the other girls in my class.”
I smiled. She was making me sound like the inspiring big sister in a Nickelodeon sitcom when really I told her things like that because she was tall, awkward, and covered in freckles.
“Don’t worry,” I said pulling the pink sweater over my head. “I’m not planning to change anything to get him to like me. More like, hide my weird light under a bushel.”
Nina grinned, “Or you could like, just go out with someone who already knows all the weird stuff about you and likes it.”
I laughed. “Now, I know you have been watching too many movies.”
“Maybe,” she said, getting up to leave. “But that kind of movie always has a happy ending.”
Nina went back across the hall to her room. Within moments, Taylor Swift’s newest album was blaring from her computer. Every few lines or so she would forget she wasn’t alone and belt out a lyric. Her voice was next to perfect but like me, she was too paralyzed by stage fright to let anyone outside of our home hear it. What I wouldn’t give to have Lucy and Addy’s confidence. Heck, what I wouldn’t do to have Max’s confidence. He wasn’t movie-star hot like Gray or undercover gorgeous like Simon. He was just Max. Funny and sweet. Girls liked him for him. I wished it could be like that for me. But it was different when you were a girl. A guy might end up liking you for who you are, but it rarely ever started that way.
I finished getting dressed, pulled a brush through my long dirty blonde hair (permanently shaped like a braid my butt) and left the farmhouse.
Freddy and I were meeting at Joey’s Pizzeria. According to Gray, it was his favorite place, and therefore he might actually have something to say. I had my own reason for agreeing to meet at Joey’s. Lucy and Simon had basically had their first date there, and look how well things turned out for them. I really believed a place could have magic, but when I spotted Freddy in the parking lot of Joey’s Pizzeria, I was pretty sure I was going to need some of that magic.
Chapter Four
Max
It wasn’t hard to talk Gray into spilling the deets on Nora and Freddy’s first date. I only had to remind him what his double-dating life would look like if things really turned out between them. His face twisted into a grimace like he got a whiff of something fowl.
I did make him a promise that I wouldn’t aggressively ruin their night—which made sense. If Addy found out that I sabotaged her goals, Gray would be stuck standing next to me in the firing squad. So he only let a couple details slide and sternly ordered me to behave. And I would. I wasn’t going to Joey’s to ruin Nora’s night. I’d be fooling myself if I thought that it would be that easy. My plan was only to coincidentally run into her and maybe do a little recon on the date. It was hardly against the rules.
As I stood in the bathroom, getting ready to go, I started to feel like I was the one going on a date. My usual T-shirt, hoodie, and jeans was looking a little too lazy if I really wanted to make an impression. After flipping through my closet, deliberating the difference between the nice ratty Ts and the ratty-ratty ones, I realized that showing up in anything other than my signature look would be too obvious. So I ended up with the least ratty of shirts and ran a comb through my unruly black mop.
“Where are you going?” Addy asked from her bedroom door frame.
“Big event tonight,” I answered with a genuine smile.
“What kind of event?” She could hardly handle the thought of me having an actual life.
“It’s called none of your business.” I flashed her a toothy grin.
She rolled her eyes in return. Gray was stuck somewhere in the kitchen with my mom. Our parents just loved Gray, which sucked for him since it meant he was constantly being pulled into family events.
It was great for me. I was able to slip out easily, seeing as how Gray was occupying my parents. He did send me a stern face before I creeped out the front door. I directed a military salute in his direction. Then, I was in my car on my way to Joey’s, honestly wondering what the heck I was doing. It was for Nora, I reminded myself.
When I pulled up to the restaurant, I spotted Freddy’s stupid red Jeep parked out front, and I assumed they were inside already when I pulled into the space next to it. I quickly had to duck out of view when I saw the doors open and Freddy spill out. I pretended to look at my phone and pray he didn’t see me or recognize my car when Nora’s truck pulled into the spot just on the other side of Freddy. Hopping out of her truck, she straightened her pink sweater, took a deep breath and walked toward Freddy. She looked...nice...ish. Her normally braided hair was loose in kinky waves that draped across her shoulders. Instead of her usual flannel button-up, she had on a Pepto Bismol sweater that I had no doubt came from Miss Popularity’s closet. What were those girls doing to her?
Freddy and Nora shared an awkward smile before walking into the restaurant. He didn’t hold the door or take her by the hand. Not that Nora needed all that chivalry b.s., but it was the laziest approach to a date I’d ever seen.
Just by that two-second glimpse, I felt more and more justified in my mission. Nora needed rescuing and quick.
I gave it a good thirty minute buffer before I got out of my car. My plan was to slink in unnoticed and look casual enough that running into each other could not be mistaken for anything other than a coincidence.
When I walked into Joey’s, I made a beeline for the coin machine. I wasn’t here to eat. I was here to play. Joey’s had all the best vintage games, including a Ghostbusters pinball machine that I was determined to own if the owner of this place ever croaked. The best part of this plan was that it wasn’t all that unusual for me to come here alone. I’d brought a few girls on dates, but that’s as far as my social life went. It had been a few months since Nikki called it quits on our relationship.
It took me a while before I spotted the couple sitting at one of the booths toward the back of the restaurant. The reason it took me so long to find was because they sat in awkward silence while the rest of the place was busy with laughter and conversation. Nora was facing me, but I stayed out of sight and watched her through the glass of claw machine.
Every few seconds, she would say something that looked like a question. She’s nod along like she was listening and then return to biting her lip and glancing around the restaurant.
Yikes. This date looked brutal.
I busied myself with PacMan while keeping a close eye on them to make sure they didn’t leave or start making out, at which point I might be forced to pull a fire alarm.
An hour or so passed like that before I noticed they were done with their pizza, paying their tab, and starting to stir like they were ready to leave. What if he talked her into a drive to some makeout spot? Slashing his tires would be too extreme. Right?
My plan from this point out was less thought out. I just kinda figured we would bump into each other by now, but I also assumed that they would actually get out of that booth and have a little fun. I was on a skeeball lane, only a little bit closer to the couple, but I was running out of coins, and it was the cheapest game to play. I wasn’t even that good at skeeball, but in my flustered state, I must have hit the sweet spot because after another lazy launch, the machine started flashing and ringing. I looked down to see the machine spitting tickets at me and the people in my general vicinity staring at me like I was some kind of arcade god.
I turned to see if it caught anyone else’s attention, and just in time because Nora was staring up from her idle conversation. We locked eyes immediately. At first, her eyes widened like she was the one who just got caught.
I shrugged with a smirk while the machine continued its fire truck siren sounds. In return, Nora’s expression relaxed into a crooked smile.
Well, I had her attention. No turning back now.
Nora
Swimming, swimming, and swimming. Freddy liked swimming. How many questions could I possibly ask about that? I had already tried, “Will you swim next year in college?” Only to learn he hadn’t been asked to swim for the Huskers, and judging by the scowl that immediately turned his features sour, it was still a sore subject.
It was the first time in our conversation that I had any real interest in what he was saying. I was kind of an expert in failure and what it had taught me was, never let it bum you out. A closed door opens a window, or as I liked to think of it, the universe had other plans.
I opened my mouth to tell him that but bit my tongue. Addy and Lucy had made it clear that all space related talk was off the table. Freddy didn’t seem to mind the silence though. He scrolled through his phone, smiling politely at me every minute or so, as if he had just remembered I was there. The most excited he got all night was when the waitress came to take our order. He was perfectly nice and my prom photo would have been a real framer with him on my arm, but I was dying of boredom. There was no way I would make it through enough dates with Freddy to get him to ask me to prom.
By the time the pizza came, I was already brainstorming ways to get out of this date. I could always claim there was an emergency on the farm. I didn’t know much about Freddy, but his shoes were never caked in mud and his hands looked softer than a baby’s butt, so chances were, he didn’t know thing one about living on a farm. I could tell him the pigs escaped and were wreaking havoc, and he’d probably believe it. Honestly he would probably be relieved. He had barely spoken to me, and we were nearing the end of our date. Or so I hoped.
In the corner of the arcade, blue and red lights began flashing above the skeeball machine. People were clapping and laughing as ticket after ticket poured out of the machine. I expected to see a middle school kid with six inches of acne preparing to harvest the loot, but my eyes widened with surprise when I spotted Max grinning back at me.
“Addy’s brother, right?” asked Freddy, suddenly able to form sentences.
“Max,” I answered, giving Max a smile. I couldn’t help but be relieved to see him. He was like a knight in shining ...what was he wearing anyway? I gave Max’s outfit the once over, snickering when I realized he was wearing a Delinki High Band T-shirt.
“What’s so funny?” asked Freddy.
I pointed to Max’s shirt. “He’s not in band. Why would anyone buy a band T who didn’t have to?”
Freddy chuckled. “I love that guy. He makes every assembly ten times better.”
I smiled at Freddy. For the first time all night I wasn’t smiling because I was supposed to, but because I wanted to.
“We used to call them the wonder twins,” I said with a grin. “Because Max and Addy made everything so much more fun when we were kids.”
Freddy wiped his mouth with a napkin. “I bet.”
And just like that the conversation returned to it’s dry, two word maximum response ratio
. When the check came and Freddy suggested we go dutch, I knew that neither one of us was clueless enough to think a second date was on the horizon. Honestly I was okay with that. My goal wasn’t to get a prom date. My goal was to find someone real. I needed someone I could talk to, laugh with, be myself around ...eventually. Freddy clearly wasn’t that.
When the bill was resolved and Freddy had packed up the leftover pizza to go, I let him know I planned to stick around a little while, and he didn’t have to walk me to my car. I worried it would sound rude but he seemed to get it. Also, I couldn’t help but notice the giant smile and shy little wave he gave our waitress on the way out. Maybe Gray had missed the memo on why Joey’s was his favorite place.
Max wiggled into the booth beside me. “Aw, did Freddy leave? I was hoping for a formal introduction to your new boyfriend?”
I scrunched up my nose and gave him a playful glare. “He just had to run across the street and hit the ATM. We’re gonna grab pie to go before we hit lover’s lookout.”
Max’s face went white, his lips forming an O shape. “My bad,” he said hurrying to get out of the booth before Freddy returned.
“I was joking!” I cried. The color returned to Max’s cheeks as I tugged him back down into the booth, but his breath was coming faster than usual and that easy smile he always seemed to wear didn’t seem so easy at the moment.
I was probably misreading his aura, but for a split second, it felt like Max Altman was jealous.
Chapter Five
Max
Nora and I were chucking basketballs into a moving basketball hoop and legit making zero through the net, even on our third round of this game. We were both delirious with laughter after every shot that bounced off the rim and came flying back at us like a boomerang. Nora’s belly laughs filled my ears, and I would put another twenty bucks in if I could listen to it all night.
Promised by Prom Page 3