Lana's Ex Prom Date

by Amy Sparling

  She eats salads most of the time, claiming cafeteria food is gross, but then she always eats half of my food, so it’s whatever. Bennet lifts an eyebrow. He’s eating pizza and sitting across from us at our usual table.

  “All you got was fries?”

  “And cheese sauce,” I say, pointing to the cup of nacho cheese I got from the nacho dispenser.

  “That’s not nutrition,” Bennet says, frowning. “You should get a vegetable or something to go with that.”

  “Says the guy eating pizza?” I say with a snort.

  “Hey, there’s bread, tomatoes, cheese, and meat. It’s a balanced meal,” he shoots back.

  “Um, Lana?” Ashlyn says.

  I follow her gaze to where Toby Fitzgerald is walking toward us from across the cafeteria. He’s far enough away to be walking anywhere, but his eyes are staring straight at me. He’s wearing black jeans and a maroon V-neck shirt that looks so soft I want to press my face against it.

  Bennet turns around to see what the fuss is about, and then he quickly turns back to his food.

  “He’s coming over here!” Ashlyn whisper-yells at me.

  “I see that,” I say back, my knees suddenly weak.

  “Hey,” Toby says, giving me that crooked grin of perfection as he approaches. He holds up a bag from the nearby McDonald’s. “Mind if I sit with you?”

  I love how he says it, all confidently and self-assured. He just asks it, like he didn’t spend an hour obsessing over it beforehand like I would have done.

  “Of course,” Ashlyn says, sliding over on the bench seat. “There’s plenty of room.”

  But Toby is looking at me, not her. I nod dumbly and kick my backpack out of the way. “Have a seat.”

  “Cool.” He sets his bag on the table next to me and then looks at my friends. “I’m Toby,” he says, sounding totally fine with being around strangers. I would personally be freaking out to sit with his friends, but I guess that’s why he’s the popular one and I’m the loser.

  “Bennet,” Bennet mutters at an almost unrecognizable level while he shoves a bite of pizza in his mouth.

  “Ashlyn.” She reaches across me to shake Toby’s hand. “We kind of know each other,” she adds.

  Toby nods. “Yeah, we’ve had a few classes over the years together.”

  We settle into a comfortable conversation while we eat. Ashlyn really helps a lot because she keeps the topics flowing, filling in when I can’t think of anything to say. Bennet doesn’t really say much but I get the feeling he doesn’t like Toby, probably because he’s from a rich family and we’re not.

  Still, I guess Toby and I are friends now, so Bennet will have to come around eventually. It’s not very often that the three of us add a new member to the group, but when we do, they never stick around for long. We all end up accepting whatever new friend joins us because we know it won’t last long.

  When the bell rings, we gather our trash to throw away. Ashlyn stands up first. “Hey Bennet, I have to show you something in my locker,” she says in the kind of voice that only we would know is a lie. I look over, confused, but then she winks at me and pulls Bennet away, leaving me and Toby alone.

  Ah-ha. That was her plan all along. She probably thinks she’s the best wing woman ever right about now. Little does she know, I’m totally nervous and might throw up now that I’m alone with him.

  “So, do you have any plans after school?” Toby asks while we head out of the cafeteria.

  “Not really,” I say with a shrug. “I might go help out my aunt at work, but I’m not scheduled to be there today.”

  His lips quirk up in the corners. “I have enough chemistry homework to make me want to cry myself to sleep tonight, but I was thinking maybe we could get coffee and ice cream after school?”

  “Coffee and ice cream?” I say. “Don’t you mean or?”

  He grins, shaking his head. “Nah, I mean and. That café on Hildebrandt Street serves homemade ice cream and they have awesome coffee. I like them both at the same time. So, are you in?”

  “Um, I guess,” I say, as I mentally count how much cash I have on me right now. Although Toby might offer to pay for all I know. “When should I meet you there?”

  “I could drive us after school?” he says, shoving his hands his pockets while we doge other students in the hallway.

  My heart does this little flutter thing. “Sure,” I say. Ashlyn is going to lose her mind when I tell her I won’t be riding home with her after school. She might even be more excited than I am.

  “Cool.” Toby flashes me that smile of his and then ducks into his classroom, leaving me weak-kneed and blushing in the middle of the science hallway.

  Chapter 9

  20 days until prom

  Toby eats lunch again with us on Wednesday, and even though I’ve only known him a short while, this is the most nervous he’s ever been. He seems fidgety, almost like he’s hoping he won’t get in trouble.

  Ashlyn keeps the conversation up enough that we don’t fall into awkward silences, but things are weird and I don’t think I’m the only one who notices it.

  Toby has McDonald’s again for lunch, and he’s barely eating any of it after five minutes of stilted lunch table conversation.

  “If you don’t want that, I’ll eat it,” I say jokingly. Today I got the cafeteria pizza and they only had sausage left and I hate sausage. After picking all the pieces off (which Bennet promptly ate) the cheese part of the pizza still tasted like sausage so it wasn’t very good.

  Toby slides his carton of fries my way. “It’s all yours.”

  “You okay?” Ashlyn asks, looking past me at Toby. “You look sick.”

  “I might be,” he says, breaking into a crooked smile. “I don’t feel all that great.”

  Bennet sits straighter on the other side of the table. “Don’t hurl on me, dude.”

  Toby chuckles. “I don’t think I’m feeling that bad, but if I puke I’ll aim it at Lana instead.”

  Bennet flicks his eyes toward the ceiling in what looks like a boyish version of rolling his eyes. Toby doesn’t see to see it as he picks at his chicken nuggets.

  “How do you get McDonald’s?” I ask, reaching for a fry and trying not to think about how cool it is to be sharing food with him. The only other people I’ve shared food with are my two best friends, so this is new territory for me. It feels like such a girlfriend/boyfriend thing to do, even though we aren’t there yet. “We’re not allowed to leave for lunch.”

  “My older brother drops it off,” he says. “He works at the auto body shop down the street.”

  “Someone’s spoiled,” Bennet says.

  Toby nods. “I earned it though. He lost a bet last summer and the loser had to bring the other one lunch every day for a year.”

  “Nice,” I say. “What kind of bet was it?”

  Toby peers at me for a second and then shakes his head. “No way. It’s too embarrassing to talk about. All you guys need to know is that I won and I get free food all year.”

  Bennet meets my gaze for a second, and I’m pretty sure I know what he’s thinking. That it must be nice to be so well off financially that you can buy six bucks worth of food every day. We certainly don’t have that luxury.

  “So what’s up with your Instagram, dude?” Ashlyn says. “You’ve got a million followers.”

  “Half that,” Toby says, exhaling. “It’s not that big of a deal.”

  “Seems like a big deal,” she says, pushing the subject. I’m not sure if he wants to talk about it though because he’s kind of shifting in his seat and staring at this ketchup like it’s suddenly very important.

  He lifts one shoulder. “I take photographs. I mean, I wouldn’t call myself a photographer because that’s kind of arrogant, but I like photos of beautiful things. I really don’t know how it happened, but a lot of people follow me. I’ve had my photos in two magazines.”

  We talk some more about his Instagram and photography hobby and he seems to loosen up and
lose whatever nervousness or sick feeling he had earlier. Bennet still acts like he’s annoyed to have a fourth person sit with us at lunch, but after a while he joins in with some of the conversation. And eventually, some of Bennet’s words aren’t full of sarcasm, either. That’s progress I can get behind. I hope he’ll finally realize that Toby is pretty nice and he seems cool, even though he’s totally on a different level than we are on the scale of high school popularity.

  ***

  Toby doesn’t wait for the seventh period bell to ring before he looks over at me. Nope, this time he walks right up to me when he gets to homeroom. I’d arrived here early and taken my seat so I could text Ashlyn before Mr. Robertson starts in on his lecture. The rules about cell phones are pretty lenient here, and most teachers don’t mind unless you’re texting and walking at the same time, so I’d high tailed it to class so I could text her while safely sitting down.

  I’m waiting for her reply when Toby’s citrusy delicious scent floats by me. I look him and see him standing by my desk, close enough to reach out and touch. “Ready for another fascinating lecture in homeroom?” he says in flawless sarcasm.

  I can’t help but smile up at him. “Kill me.”

  He laughs. “Can I text you instead?” he says, motioning toward my phone.

  “Sounds good.”

  The bell rings soon after and Toby goes back to his seat. Mr. Robertson keeps a strict seating chart so we couldn’t sit together even if we wanted. And I’m pretty sure we both want to. It’s totally not my imagination that Toby is into me. I mean why else would he talk to me and hang out with me and take me out for ice cream?

  My heart flutters again. My phone lights up with a text.

  Toby: How about a murder suicide type thing?

  Me: Huh?

  Toby: To put us both out of our misery from Mr. Robertson’s lectures… lol

  Me: HA! Don’t tempt me.

  Toby: I guess the better option would be to run away screaming and have ourselves committed for being insane.

  Me: And it wouldn’t even be a lie because he’s making us insane with these stupid lectures!

  Our conversation goes on like this and the entire half hour of class flies by. I’m sad when it’s time to head to my athletics class, but Ashlyn always says to leave a guy hanging and wanting more from you, not to give him too much of your time. Apparently, that’s advice straight from her mother and it also works on girls if that’s who you happen to be attracted to. Mystery is supposed to keep a person guessing, making them want to reach out to you so they can get to know you better. It’s because of this advice that I put my phone away and grab my things and start heading out of the classroom without waiting for Toby.

  Luckily, he catches up to me. “Can I give you a ride home today?”

  He says it all casual like his very nearness to me isn’t slowly sending me into shock. I know I’m making this goofy grin, but I nod stupidly and tell him yes.

  He beams and the expression makes his whole beautiful face even more attractive. “Cool, I’ll see you after school.”

  Athletics class takes for-freaking-ever. Finally, it’s over and I rush out of the locker room and crash into Ashlyn.

  “Riding home with lover boy again?” she asks, bumping into me with her shoulder.

  “How’d you know?”

  She wrinkles her nose. “Because you doused yourself in perfume before walking out of here.”

  I frown. “Is it that obvious?”

  “Nah, I’m just messing with you.”

  I exhale slowly because now I’m all nervous to see Toby again. I’m really starting to like this guy.

  He meets me at the doors to the parking lot, and I almost think he might hold my hand. It kind of feels like he wants to, but he doesn’t. He just walks close to me, keeping in step with me, and he’s got that nervous vibe to him again.

  We hardly talk at all on the drive home, and it’s so weird I think I might throw up. When he turns onto Fourth Street, Toby slows down and looks at me. “Can you close your eyes?”

  “What?”

  He bites on his bottom lip. “Just…please?”

  “Ohhh-kay,” I say slowly, but I close my eyes anyway.

  We roll to a stop a short while later and Toby touches my arm. “Just wait here and I’ll come get you.”

  I hear his door open and close and then my passenger door opens. “Take my hand but don’t open your eyes yet,” he says.

  I reach out and Toby’s hand finds mine. He pulls me out of the car and walks me up crunchy gravel that feels like our driveway. “Okay,” he says, squeezing my hand just before letting go. “You can look.”

  I am suddenly very nervous. My eyes slowly open and the first thing I see is my house, looking normal. Then, I notice the rose petals.

  All over the front yard. Beautiful red rose petals spell out the word: PROM?

  My jaw falls open.

  “I can explain,” Toby says quickly. “I talked to Ashlyn and she said you’d rather not have some stupid promposal at school where it’ll embarrass you. She said I should do it privately.”

  My mouth is still open. I can’t believe what I’m seeing. Toby continues, “But I wanted to do something special for you, so I chose to do it at your house. Ashlyn helped and your mom said it was okay.”

  “You talked to my mom?” I say, my voice high like a mouse.

  He nods. “Um, there’s more.”

  It’s only now that I realize he’s holding a white cake box behind his back. He brings it around and opens the lid, holding it toward me. Inside are eight gourmet cupcakes, each with pink frosting and little sparkles that look like glitter.

  In white icing, with one word elegantly piped on each cupcake, it says: Lana, will you go to prom with me?

  “Yes,” I say, looking up at him. “I will.”

  His smile grows twice as big. “Yeah?”

  I nod eagerly as he sets the cupcakes on the roof of his car and then wraps me in a hug. He is tall and a little lanky, but it’s a good hug. He smells amazing and my toes are tingly and I can’t believe a guy likes me. A guy just asked me to prom.

  Me, Lana Clarke. It’s like a freaking prom miracle.

  Chapter 10

  18 days until prom

  On Fridays, the Book Attic closes at seven because Aunt Shawna has a book club meeting with her friends in the living room of the store once a week. It works out well for me because I always have my Friday nights free unlike the other people at my school who work in retail and are stuck there until ten p.m. most nights.

  Bennet and Ashlyn pick me up after work. “It’s totally your turn,” I tell Ashlyn when she climbs out of the passenger seat of Bennet’s Mustang.

  “Fine,” she says with a huff as she ducks into the tiny backseat.

  I slide in the passenger seat and buckle my seatbelt. “What’s for dinner?”

  Bennet shrugs. “I was thinking pizza?”

  “Magic Mark’s?” I ask.

  “Mmm,” Ashlyn says, leaning forward between the seats so her head is level with ours. “Let’s get the cheese bread, too.”

  “Magic Mark’s Pizza it is,” Bennet says as he pulls onto the highway.

  Even though our town is small, it has a dozen pizza places, some chains and some are small family owned restaurants. Magic Mark’s is the best. Sometimes we go to Marco’s pizza because it’s the cheapest, but the crappy taste of their pizza doesn’t really make up for the cheap price.

  We order a large pepperoni and cheese bread and take our usual table at the back of the restaurant. All the tables are bar style with tall stools, and there’s a little tray in the center of the table to hold the pizza.

  “So we should talk about prom,” Ashlyn says as soon as our pizza arrives. “Now that our suddenly very popular Lana has a date, we’ll have to coordinate when we meet you there. I don’t know about Bennet, but I can’t be at a prom if you aren’t there yet.”

  “Same,” Bennet says. “Or we could just not go
since Lana will be busy.”

  “I won’t be busy,” I say, rolling my eyes as I peel off a pepperoni and eat it. “Toby will be fine with hanging out with you guys.”

  “Except for during the slow songs,” Ashlyn says, nudging my shoulder and wiggling her eyebrows.

  “Oh my God, shut up. It’s not like that.”

  Bennet looks up at me, a weird expression on his face. I glare at him. “It’s not! Toby is nice and all but he hasn’t made a move on me.”

  “I always thought he was gay,” Bennet says.

  “Why’s that?”

  He shrugs. “The guy dresses really nice.”

  “Shut your face,” Ashlyn says. There’s a thwack sound and Bennet grimaces, so I’m guessing she just kicked him under the table. “Don’t judge someone based on stereotypes.”

  Bennet holds up his hands. “You’re right. Maybe the guy is just really well dressed. But I don’t remember seeing him have a girlfriend, like ever. Do you?”

  I consider it for a while. “I guess not,” I say as I stare at my pizza. “But that doesn’t make him gay.”

  “Maybe he’s just ultra-picky and wanted to wait until the found the perfect girl,” Ashlyn says. She winks at me. “He finally found her!”

  “I would be careful if I were you,” Bennet tells me. He meets my gaze and there’s a sincerity in his eyes, replacing his usual laid back or sarcastic self.

  “There’s nothing to be careful about,” I say casually. “Toby is nice.”

  “And now he’s your prom date.” Bennet reaches for a piece of cheesy bread. “You do know what happens at prom, right? What guys expect?”

  My heart races. I know what he’s talking about, but Toby can’t possibly be that type of guy. He hasn’t even held my hand yet, except when he was guiding me with my eyes closed, and that wasn’t even romantic, it was to make sure I didn’t trip and fall.

  “I don’t think he’ll do anything inappropriate,” I say after a while.