45. Promposal
forty-five
Promposal
I don’t have the poster-making skills that Jasmine acquired in three years of cheerleading, but I do my best to make it look nice–lots of color, even a little glitter. I buy flowers and her favorite candy, and wait for her on her front porch after she gets home from cheer practice.
I’m stupidly nervous, even though it’s not like I’m asking her on an actual date–I haven’t changed that much. I’ve been out of it for a while, and Jasmine has never had any shortage of guys waiting in the wings. Still, I think I would have heard if she had a date for Prom.
She laughs when she sees the poster and gives me a big hug. “Me and you, Prom huh? Sounds enchanting. She bats her eyes. “I’d be honored.” Then she stops. “How would you feel about a three-some?”
My heart falls; she has a date. I force myself to smile. “Sure, if you don’t mind a tag-along. Who is the lucky guy?”
“Taryn,” she says.
“Taryn? What about Ryder?” I’m confused; Taryn and Ryder have been an item since New Year's. Why wouldn’t they be going to Prom together?
“They broke up last Friday. Poor thing cried on my bed for two hours,” Jasmine says. She doesn’t point out that I was out with Brad, making an idiot out of myself that night. Or that it’s been ages since I spent time with Jasmine or Taryn. She doesn’t have to.
“So, girls' night out?” I ask.
“Definitely, babe. Who needs a man anyway?” Jasmine hugs me again, and I do my best to ignore the empty ache in my chest.
“Jess?” The voice on the other end of the line isn’t familiar, but she sounds desperate and slightly terrified. “Jessica Roberts?”
The whole situation feels off, so I hesitate for a minute before I answer. “Yeah, I’m Jess.”
There are a few long seconds of silence before she speaks again. “You don’t know me, but a friend of yours said you might help me.”
“What friend?” I’m suspicious. It would be just like Brad to put someone up to this.
Her voice wavers. “I told her I wouldn’t say.”
“Who is this?” I’m ready to hang up.
“Just listen, please. Something bad happened to me, the same bad thing that almost happened to you. And it’s the same guy.
” She takes in a shaky breath. “I can’t change what he did to me, but I want to make sure it doesn’t happen to anyone else.
I need your help. Are you willing to tell someone what he tried to do? ”
My chest aches. She can only mean Brad. She can only mean what happened at the party. If it happened again, then it was all him. He was lying about Lexie’s part in it, something I’ve suspected all along.
I breathe out. “I don’t have any proof. I can’t–”
“I don’t have much either, but if we all stand together, maybe we can take him down. Think about it, please. I’ll call you back.”
The phone goes dead before I can say anything else. I close my eyes and try to breathe.
“Forget graduation, forget college. I’m going to find a sugar daddy and live like this for the rest of my life,” Jasmine crosses her arms on the massage table and lies back down. Her mom treated us all to a pre-prom spa day at an expensive salon.
“I could get used to this,” I admit. I glance at my phone.
“Don’t worry,” Jasmine says. “I’m sure Taryn has a good excuse for being late. But she is seriously missing out.”
“You’d think she’d at least text us.” I slip my phone into the pocket of my silk robe and try to relax. I am wondering where Taryn is. She’s never been late in her life, but I keep looking at my phone because my mind is still on the phone call I got last night.
The girl hasn’t called back, and I haven’t figured out what my answer is going to be.
A big part of me wants to leave my whole senior year in the past and just head to college–forget about Brad, and the party, all of it.
Another part of me is consumed by guilt.
If the girl who called me is telling the truth, what happened to her is at least partially my fault.
She said, “all of us.” My guess is she means Lexie, the only one who really knows the truth about what Brad tried to do to me.
“Glad you made it,” Jasmine raises her head as Taryn walks in. Her face is pale, her eyes are red, and I can tell she’s been crying.
I sit up. “What’s wrong?”
She just shakes her head, fighting back more tears.
“Ryder?” Jasmine guesses.
Taryn nods, and then the tears flow. “He came over last night, and we talked for a long time. I think...” one of the spa ladies hands her a tissue, and she blows her nose.
"I think we were both scared about graduating and trying to do the long-distance thing. It probably won’t work, but…
" she sniffles and a watery smile breaks through, “I think we’re going to give it a shot.”
Jasmine looks at me and rolls her eyes. “I take it you don’t want to do Prom with us anymore?”
Taryn shreds a second tissue between her fingers. “I’ll still be there for pictures, and maybe we could have dinner with you guys, but... if it’s okay, I’d really like to go with Ryder.”
“Fine,” Jasmine closes her eyes and lies back down like the matter is closed.
“Jess?” Taryn says.
She has this innocent, hopeful, little-girl look on her face, as if she really believes I might tell her no.
As if it matters if I tell her no. Her expression takes me back to grade school and her bookish insecurity.
It strikes me how much Taryn has changed since the beginning of the year and how much I’ve missed her.
I hand her another tissue. “Of course you can go with Prince Charming. One of us should get out of high school with some kind of successful relationship.”
Jasmine raises up on one arm. “They have the perfect eye treatment to get rid of the red, but with as puffy as your eyes are now, you should probably get started. And stop crying.”
Taryn throws herself at me, the tears flowing freely. “I love you both so much! I couldn’t have survived high school without you. I can’t believe we only have a few weeks left together.”
“And yet you want to spend prom night with some dude,” Jasmine says, but she sits up to hug Taryn. Her eyes are shiny, and I wonder if all of us might need some of that eye treatment.