Chapter 33 #2
Astrid wasn’t anywhere near where she had been before.
I figured she had gone home already, and I decided to look for her in the morning.
The cops were putting us aside, talking to us one-on-one and trying to piece together the story of what had happened.
We were lucky they let us go without a penalty since they didn’t want to ruin our prom night more than it already had.
I caught Sam’s gaze as she got in a car with Carrie and her date. She glowered at me as they drove away.
At least I didn’t have to take her home.
My dad was outside with the lights in his truck as I pulled into the driveway.
“Going out?” I asked.
“I was going to go look for you. I heard what happened,” he told me.
“I’m all right.” I shrugged it off.
My dad pulled me into a hug.
“I’m sorry your prom night got ruined, kiddo.”
His words made me smile for the first time in the last hour.
“Nah, it wasn’t that big of a deal anyway. Astrid did the right thing.”
“She sure did. I’m glad she has you in her corner. Not everyone will see it that way. Kids can be cruel at this age.”
All I could do was nod in agreement.
“Are you stopping by her house tonight?” Dad asked as we reached our front door.
I looked at the car and back at my dad.
“I just broke up with Sam. I want to get my head on straight before I talk to Astrid.”
My dad didn’t say anything for a second, then he gave me a small smile.
“You can make things right tomorrow.”
He said it so confidently that I believed him.
Astrid
I didn’t anticipate how hard it would be to see Tyler with someone else tonight. You’d think I’d have had a lot of practice already, but seeing him tonight of all nights was a reminder that he was never going to be mine.
Prom was finally here. It marked the end of our childhood. The end of being in the same school with the same people. It was time to spread our wings and go our separate ways.
I would be going off to college, and Tyler would be staying here helping out his dad.
It was another thing that would be setting us apart.
The strain in our relationship had grown with each week he stayed with his current girlfriend.
I swallowed down the guilt I felt at the fact that I never came clean about the other college applications.
My plan had been to stay in town and attend community college so I could be close to Ty, but as senior year went by, I wondered why I was still doing that when I felt unwanted every time I hung out with Tyler and his friends.
Sam didn’t like me. I tried to be her friend.
I did my best to make the most of my situation.
My feelings for Tyler were mine to deal with all alone.
I never tried to make Sam jealous; I kept a respectful distance when we hung out as a group, but it didn’t matter how much I tried, she never accepted my olive branch of friendship.
Being in the friend zone never sucked as much as it did this past year.
Now the acceptance letter to the state university felt like the final straw to our friendship. Would Tyler understand? It’s not like he would have much time for me anyway—he rarely did nowadays.
I made my way around the field, holding on to the skirt of my dress.
Taking a deep breath, I promised myself I would make the most of tonight.
It was the first time in a long time that I felt pretty.
The dress, my hair, and the way my makeup exuded femininity…
it was something I had always struggled with.
Despite the unease I felt over what was to come, I still danced around with a group of my classmates, trying and failing to not look over at where Ty and Sam were seated.
It wasn’t until I saw Ty and Sam leaving to get a bit of privacy from the crowd that I left the makeshift dance floor. I found myself by a group who were a bit too cheerful.
Cops usually turned a blind eye on prom night, letting all the seniors have their last hoorah before real life set in, so no one got busted for underage drinking.
“Drink. Drink. Drink!”
My classmates were gathered in a circle, chanting at the person taking a beer bong hit.
Everyone was cheering and clapping, acting like swallowing too much beer down was a huge accomplishment. I was about to keep walking when I noticed the guy who had been drinking began to cough.
No one seemed to care since they began to chant for the next person. I made my way over to the guy and instantly recognized him. Collin. One of the shy kids who, despite all the years of being in this town, never formed a strong group of friends.
I mentally cringed at the thought since I was on the edge of losing my only friend as well.
“Hey, are you okay?” I leaned down to help him.
As soon as I got a good look at his face, I knew he was most certainly not okay. His face was red and splotchy, his eyes a bit swollen. Collin was hyperventilating as he held his throat.
“Hey, can you breathe?”
My question fell on deaf ears as he sat on the ground, trying and failing miserably to take a proper breath.
I began to panic. I looked around the field, but no one seemed to be paying attention to us.
What do I do? What do I do? I did another scan to see if I could find Tyler. He would probably know what steps to take, but no luck on that front either.
“Hey, can someone help us?” I yelled just as another chant began.
Collin didn’t look so good.
What if he had taken something? If it was an overdose, would he be foaming at the mouth? Would his eyes be rolling back?
Shit.
Shit.
Shit.
Fuck .
I pulled out my phone, and when the operator answered, I began to ask for help.
The 911 dispatcher had just ended the call when Sam screeched.
“Did you just call the cops?”
The chants immediately ceased at the mention of someone calling the cops. People began to look around the field before their eyes landed on me.
I ignored Sam and instead rubbed Collin’s back, praying he would get the help he needed.
“She called the cops!” Sam screeched this time, pointing at me.
The crowd that had been cheering began booing and hurling insults at me. Other people began to run away, alerting everyone else that the cops would be coming.
My lips trembled, and my eyes watered at the hate everyone was throwing my way.
“All he needed was some water,” someone else stated, throwing a water bottle toward me.
Sam began to spew more hate at me, and I did my best to block it all out. Instead, I focused on helping Collin take a sip of the water. Only when it seemed to be working did I let myself believe all would be okay.
“I-I-I’m fine,” Collin wheezed out, sounding anything but fine. “You didn’t h-have to be a m-m-meddlesome bitch.”
I flinched.
I had people screaming all this stuff at me, but now him too? I bit my lip to stop the trembling, and I blinked back tears.
All I wanted to do was help.
“Just because you couldn’t get a date, doesn’t mean you had to ruin our prom.” Sam’s words seemed to echo now that the noise had died down.
I couldn’t help but look at her. She never liked me, so I tried to tell myself her words shouldn’t hurt, but when I saw the other girls nod in agreement, that killed me.
“What the hell is going on?”
Tyler’s voice should have felt like a shield in that moment, but I was mortified that he heard what Sam said. The last thing I ever wanted was for my crush on him to bleed into his personal life.
“Astrid called the cops for a stupid prank,” someone else yelled out.
“Not surprising.” Carrie’s voice was full of the venom she barely contained when she spoke to me. “She’s ruining prom just like she’s ruined all of Ty’s relationships.
I briefly looked at Ty, but I couldn’t hold his stare because I was afraid of seeing the pity in his eyes. Instead, I looked around, hoping he would ignore the revelations and comments and come to my rescue like he had since we were kids.
At the end of the day, he was my best friend.
With that in mind, I forced myself to look at him, and when he took a step toward me, I felt relief sweep down to my bones.
He would make this better.
But then, he stopped, glancing at Sam, and he didn’t even hesitate to go toward her instead. When I blinked, a tear fell. I watched as he took Sam away from the chaos, and I finally realized that the only one holding on to this friendship like it was a holy vow had been me.
When the paramedics and police arrived, chaos broke out. I was too numb to care that all my peers were screaming obscenities at me. Prom was officially ruined, and it was all my fault.
The cops took me home because everyone was too mad at me to offer me a ride, and Ty had other things to worry about. As sad as I was, it cemented the fact that although he was still the center of my world, I had become nothing but a footnote in his.
“June bug, are you okay?” my dad asked once he opened the door for me, since I had been too distraught to put the key in.
In that moment, I broke.
I cried for all the broken promises that went to waste in that prom field.
“I-I-I want to g-go away,” I managed to choke out after what felt like minutes, but in all honesty could have been hours.
And in that moment, my parents promised me anything if it meant I would stop hurting.
I was glad to have a backup plan that allowed me to leave all of this behind.