Chapter 44
My plan was supposed to be smooth and discreet. I put a note inside the plastic egg that there’s an extra graduation ticket for Seph if he wants it.
Step one: Leave plastic egg outside Seph’s door.
Step two: Walk away to the elevator and message Seph that I left something for him.
Step three: Seph finds the egg, then decides what to do with it.
Just having completed step one, I’m backing away from the King unit when the door creaks open.
Seph is wearing another one of his shirts that’s only buttoned halfway. His brow furrows when he sees me scrambling with a plastic egg on the rug outside the door. It’s all very awkward as hell.
“Heeeeeey, you.” I stand, not really sure what to do with my hands, squeezing the egg with my fingers. “Long time.”
He’s still looking at me like I’m a weirdo with an egg. “Aren’t you graduating today?”
I nod and smooth out my dress. “Yeah, I was about to head out. Achi and Ma took forever, so I’m about…” I check the watch on my phone. Shit. “Thirty minutes late.”
“… Do you need a ride?”
“Oh, no. My family’s actually waiting downstairs,” I explain, my free hand continuing to flail.
Seph is about to go back inside when I blurt out, “Did you wanna go?
“To graduation,” I clarify. “You’ve done a lot for the Saint Agnes community with all your performances. Didn’t you volunteer for one of the game booths at the fair too?”
His face looks so lost right now. “I’m not a student at Saint Agnes…”
“I want you there,” I say more clearly, and offer him the plastic egg. “I didn’t know what was inside, so I had no idea you asked me to your prom.”
Seph just stares at my hand.
“You have the right to say no, Nika,” he says with a shrug.
It’s like a punch to the gut every time he doesn’t call me Ilagan.
“Like, you don’t owe me anything, really,” he adds. “You don’t have to feel sorry for me anymore.”
He averts his eyes from me then, blinking hard.
I keep turning the plastic egg in my hands. “I didn’t think I was going to make it to graduation,” I admit, then take a deep breath. “When I lost my dad, I thought that was it, you know? That it was all downhill from there.
“I—I thought I could never be happy anymore. How could I when I lost my favorite person?”
Seph’s face softens at that.
“Then when I spent more time with you, it got scary because there were times that I forgot I was sad or angry,” I say, trying to make sense of what I want to tell Seph.
“You remind me of what being happy feels like.”
His gaze still lingers on the floor, leaving what I just said hanging in the air.
“And I’m trying out this new thing now, where I don’t give up on all the good things going on for me … So I’d rather not give up on you.” I pause and sigh. “And I really hope you haven’t given up on me … yet.”
A beat passes and I consider aborting my mission, giving up and doing the walk of shame to graduation from the sting of Seph’s rejection.
Until the sides of his eyes crinkle when the smile I’ve missed so much appears.
“Wow.” He puffs out the air in his cheeks. “So you really liked my promposal, huh?”
I groan and shake my head, trying to play it cool and hold in how relieved I am. “I give it an F-minus.”
“Please. Easy A-plus. The way I reused the ‘My heart is yours’ catchphrase? Kahit ako kinilig eh.”
My voice remains cool and unbothered when I ask, “The Saint Francis prom is next week, right?”
He nods.
“… Maybe you can find a date at the Saint Agnes graduation?”
Still totally being cool and unbothered.
Seph juts out his lip. “Well, the girl I wanted to go with never got back to me…,” he says. “Not sure how she feels since she ran off after we were supposed to dance too…”
“Sorry we didn’t get to dance.”
I hope Seph can hear all the other sorrys that are laced in that apology.
All he does is shrug. “You can make it up to me during my prom.”
“Yeah?” I ask, feeling my whole face lighting up.
“Just to clarify … you’re offering not asking, right? Because you can’t ask someone to their prom. That’s not how it works, Ilagan.”
He tells me he’ll change super quickly when I warn him that I’m very close to missing the entire graduation ceremony.
“And, Seph?” I say before he goes back inside to his bedroom.
He turns around, his face carrying the smile that’s in my top-ten favorite things to look at. It belongs to Moseph King, my neighbor, my first crush, the boy I’m pretty sure I’ve been falling in love with.
“My heart’s always been yours too.”