Chapter Forty

Bailey

The store is packed and loud, and then everything goes silent. I’m behind the coffee machine making a triple shot dark chocolate latte, no foam, when I look up to see what the heck is going on.

I almost drop the cup.

“Holy crap,” Jax whispers from the register.

It’s Alex. He’s covered in mud, still in his lacrosse uniform, holding a million balloons. The crowd parts for him.

It feels like a scene; the can light shines right above him, and the camera follows as he moves forward. My eyes are latched onto his as I’m swept with all the feelings.

“What are you doing?” I manage to ask as he reaches the counter.

Straight-faced, he holds out the balloons. So many rabbit balloons. He thrusts them toward me, and I take them.

“What are you doing?” I ask again.

He shakes his head, but one corner of his mouth lifts in a half-smile.

What is happening here?

He’s holding a white plastic bag from Publix and dumps it onto the counter. He piles up like fifteen boxes of Sno Caps.

My heart is in my throat. “Alex?”

“Wait,” he says. He lifts a finger to his mouth, his smile smaller now, his eyebrows pulled together. He bends down and picks something off the floor. The crowd parts once again as he walks toward the chalkboard wall. There’s a big blank spot in the center. He peels open the tub in his hands and pulls out a thick piece of sidewalk chalk.

My chest constricts. What is happening? My mind’s not working. He’s writing something on the wall. He makes a letter P, about three feet tall. It takes him forever. Then he moves on to an R. His face is serious, concentrating on forming the letters. He stands back, checks out his work, turns to me, doesn’t smile, doesn’t wink, just looks at me, then goes back to writing. Oh my God, hurry up!

O

M

?

I swallow hard and glance around the shop. Cell phones are everywhere. There’s his friend Eli, phone up, grinning widely.

“Go. Out. There,” Jax whispers out of the corner of his mouth.

Alex walks back over to the counter, bends and picks something else on the floor, and holds out a plant? It’s a beautiful pale blue hydrangea, in a pot. He’s framed by the PROM? behind him.

“Go,” Jax says, more forceful this time.

“Stop it,” I snap at him out of the corner of my mouth.

I stare at Alex, at his handsome face that is so open and his smile that seems to be saying, “I don’t care that everyone in here is watching me.” But it’s not that easy, and I don’t know what to do. I believe in goals, not dreams. This? Feels like a dream.

I shake my head and turn my back to him. I need to organize my thoughts. As different as we are, as heartbreaking as the last week has been, I’ve never wanted anything so much as I want to kiss him again and say yes. I wipe my hands down the front of my apron, and I realize the problem is this: I can’t go back to being friends. I want more.

How do I explain that? I can’t think of the right words. I can’t breathe, even from my toes. But then Jax walks away, and Alex is in front of me. He drops to a knee, holds out the plant.

“Please?”

“Alex.” I shake my head.

“I lied to you. I know. I did. I’m sorry. I was desperate. Like out of my mind. I didn’t want you to go with him.” He’s a mess with dried mud and dirt all over his face. It’s still the most perfect face, I think as I stare down at it.

Even though he might look perfect, I know his flaws. He knows mine, too. I know I’ve got them. I take the plant, put it down on the counter, and shake my head. “I can’t,” I say. “Alex, I can’t be friends with you. I’m sorry.”

“Me either,” he says, and I’m stunned.

“Well, then, what do you want?” I ask.

He swallows so hard I hear the gulp. “I don’t want to be friends.” His voice cracks. “Well, I want to be friends, but I want more. I want to be…” He blinks slowly. “Yours?”

I point to myself, in case he’s confused. “Mine?”

He nods. “Since day one. In the express lane. I’m sorry I pretended I didn’t want more. I did. I do. I want to go to prom, but only if it’s with you. I want to do everything only with you.” He reaches out and takes my hands in his. “Please say yes.”

My heart beats a strong and steady cadence. Everything? With me? I pull a hand out of his grasp and touch his cheek. I’m scared, I’m not going to lie, unsure of what all this means, but then he lets go and reaches for my hips. I let him pull me closer, until we’re so close that all I need to do is bend down and kiss him.

I swipe at a speck of dirt near his mouth.

“You’ve got a little something…” I whisper, and then I lean in and he tilts up and slowly, softly, our lips touch. Just before we get down to the business of really kissing, I whisper, “Yes,” and then it happens, like in the movies, except this is not a movie, and it’s not a dream. It’s real.

The shot pulls in tight. The crowd claps, but then they fade away, and it’s just the two of us. Me. And my prom date. Me and Alex. Kissing.

When he stands up, he digs in one of the bags. “Oh shit, I almost forgot.” He pulls out a small tube, flips off the cap and dumps something into his hand.

I grimace. “Is that—?”

His eyes meet mine. They’re crinkled up at the edges. “Most important ingredient of a successful promposal.”

He tosses it into the air, and glitter flies everywhere, catching the light, and everything is sparkling and magic, and he’s holding me tight and now I know it’s true.

No one can resist glitter.

No one.