I slipped out of Mrs. Lane’s room and ran down the hall to the back stairwell, then jogged upstairs to meet Trent before he got to his history class. The moment I stepped into the hallway, he stepped up out of the front stairwell.
It felt like fate.
“How did you get here so fast?” he asked, his face lighting up when he saw me. We walked toward each other to meet right in the center of the hall. I could practically hear the movie music swelling in the background. “Is your headache gone already?”
“Actually, yeah,” I said with a smile. I’d never really had a headache, but I was feeling monumentally better now that I had finally made my decision. “Trent, I have something to ask you.”
“What’s that?”
“Would you like to go to the senior prom with me?” I said, tilting my head slightly.
Trent smiled. A huge, happy smile. It sent my heart twirling and whirling.
“Definitely,” he said. “I would be honored to be your date to your prom.”
I laughed at his formality—and from my giddiness. “Thank you, kind sir,” I joked. “Now, if you will excuse me, I must depart for class.”
Trent chuckled as I turned around. Then he grabbed me by the hand and spun me right back toward him. “Hang on a sec,” he said.
My breath caught as he leaned in to kiss me. Right there in the middle of the hallway. About two seconds in I had to force myself to pull away, or I would have melted in front of dozens of classmates and never lived it down.
“I’ll see you later,” he said, taking a step back.
I didn’t move. Mostly because I knew it would take another minute before my legs started working again. “Absolutely. See you later.”
I had definitely made the right choice. A girl couldn’t give up kisses like that. At least, not a sane girl.
“What a totally gorgeous day!” Aurora said, stepping out of my car in the parking lot on Wednesday morning.
“It’s almost a travesty to be in school,” I agreed.
I pushed the door’s lock and slammed it shut. The sweet morning breeze lifted my hair off my back. The sun warmed my face. A tingle of pleasure rushed over my bare arms.
“Look at you! You’re loving life, aren’t you?” Aurora said as we started across the parking lot.
“Why not? I made my decision, I have a date for the prom, and it’s a beautiful morning,” I said, a skip in my step. “And it’s a perfect day for tennis.”
“True. I must come to your match this afternoon and catch some rays,” she said.
“I thought you were all about skin protection,” I reminded her.
“I am! But I need a little color before the prom,” she told me. “Otherwise I’m just going to disappear in my dress.”
She had a point. Her mother had given her the beautiful, retro, strapless dress that she’d worn to her prom, but it was cream colored, almost the exact same tone of Aurora’s skin. She was going to need at least a slight tan to pull it off.
“Oh, hey! There’s your boyfriend!” Aurora teased as we approached the front door.
A ton of people were hanging out on the steps around the trees that fronted the school. Trent was over by a large oak with his usual posse. One of them strummed a guitar while the others talked. Trent was wearing a heather-gray T-shirt with a tree logo on the front, and a pair of baggy brown cords. He looked as adorable as ever.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” I told Aurora, stifling a smile.
“Yet,” she whispered. She raised her eyebrows as she approached the group.
“Ha-ha,” I said.
The question was, did I want Trent to be my boyfriend? Was I ready for another commitment already? The corpse of my relationship with Zach was barely cold. Maybe I should keep my options open a bit…
But then, what would really change? We were already going to the prom together. Trent kissed me almost every time he saw me. We held hands all the time. We just hadn’t said the b and g words to each other yet. Maybe it was about time to make it official.
I stopped next to Trent and slipped my hand into his. He grinned at me and kissed my cheek.
Yeah. This felt good. It felt right. Why shouldn’t he be my boyfriend?
“Hey. I have a question for you,” I said.
“What’s up?” Trent asked, his blue eyes soulful.
“Do you want to come to my match this afternoon?” I asked him. “It’s not a huge one, but I’d love it if you came to see me play.”
Zach had almost never missed one of my matches. Boyfriends came to see their girlfriends play all the time.
Trent grinned. “I’d love that, too!” he said. “Yes, definitely. I’ll be there.”
He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and gave me a squeeze. Behind him Aurora flashed me a teasing thumbs-up, winking elaborately.
I laughed and turned away. Aurora had hooked me up. Just like she always did, whether it was with RingPops or boys. The girl was good to have around.
“Forty-love,” the ref announced. “Match point!”
I pumped a fist and turned toward the bleachers as I walked back to serve. For the ten millionth time I scanned the faces in the crowd. A few parents and a couple of friends had shown for the match, but there was still no sign of Trent. Where was he? I was one point away from being done for the day.
“Come on, Noelle! Put this one away!” Coach Carney barked, clapping her hands.
I glanced at Aurora, who sat at the top of the bleachers. She shrugged and then pointedly looked to her right. I followed her gaze and nearly tripped. Zach was there, standing near the end of the benches, his arms crossed over his chest. He didn’t look too happy.
“Great,” I muttered under my breath, stopping at the back of the court. Just what I needed. I had been avoiding Zach all week. Why did he have to pick a match to finally corner me?
Don’t let it get to you, I told myself. You were going to have to deal with him eventually.
I took a deep breath and shut out my surroundings—Coach Carney, my teammates, the crowd, even Zach, faded away. None of it mattered. It was focus time.
I reached up and served.
Cora Richter, my opponent, grunted as she ran to make the shot. She returned it, but her shot was clearly wide. I didn’t even make a move. The ball landed a foot out of bounds.
“Yes!” Aurora shouted.
“Game! Set! Match! Bairstow!” the ref announced.
I grinned. After that loss to Melanie the week before, I had to admit it was nice to be back on the winning side of things.
I glanced at the stands one last time. Trent was nowhere in sight. Ugh. The relief faded. Was it wrong that I wanted Zach to see some other guy supporting me?
Why wasn’t he here to support me?
I strolled to the net to shake Cora’s hand, then walked to the fence, where Zach was waiting. I had a feeling this was not going to be pretty.
“Hey,” Zach said, pushing his hands into the front pockets of his jeans.
“Hey,” I replied. I avoided direct eye contact by shoving my racket into its bag and zipping it up.
“So, I heard you were going to the prom with that sop,” he said coolly.
I looked up at his derisive tone. Two seconds in his presence and I was already fed up. “Well, if you already heard it, then why are you even here?” I asked.
“Nice,” he said angrily. “I come over to your house and pour my heart out to you, and you treat me like crap.”
I sighed, and my shoulders slumped. “I’m sorry,” I told him. “I was going to tell you.”
“When? When I showed up at your front door with a corsage?”
“Zach, I never said I was going with you,” I reminded him. “I’m sorry, but I decided to move on, okay? You should, too.”
Zach smirked. “Don’t worry. I will.”
“I wasn’t worried,” I snapped back. This was so not the way I wanted to end things between us—snippy and mean—but if he wanted to be immature, there wasn’t much I could do about it.
“See ya ’round,” Zach said flatly. Then he turned and stalked away.
It was amazing how quickly things could change.
“You all right?” Aurora asked, jumping down from the bleachers.
“Fine,” I said, shouldering my bag. “Great, in fact. I am so glad I stuck with Trent.”
I just wished I knew where he was.
That night I sat on my bed and drew my phone into my lap. I hadn’t heard from Trent all afternoon. Every second I was expecting a phone call of apology, or at least an explanation, but nothing. Looked like I was going to have to call him.
Normally my pride might have stopped me from doing this, but I was actually kind of worried about him. He had been so psyched about coming to the match, I felt something might have happened. So part of my motivation was to make sure he was all right.
I held my breath, picked up the phone, and dialed.
“Hey, Noelle!” Trent said when he picked up on the first ring.
He sounded fine. Happy as always. No hint of apology or dread in his voice. It was just…Trent.
“Hi,” I said, confused.
There was a moment of silence.
“What’s up?” he said finally.
“Oh…uh…” Right. I had called him. I got up and paced around my room. “Hey, I was just wondering…what happened to you this afternoon?”
“This afternoon?” Trent asked blankly.
What the heck was going on here? Was this a joke?
“Yeah, you know…my match?” I said, pausing in front of my desk.
Another moment of silence. Then a huge intake of breath.
“Oh, my God! Noelle! I’m so sorry!” I imagined him slapping a hand to his forehead. “I spaced. I just spaced.”
I sat back on the surface of my desk, bummed. Okay, so I’d gotten my apology, but I was also offended. He spaced? I had reached out and asked him to come watch me play—one of the most important things in my life—and he’d spaced?
“At lunch Jamie Lindquist and I decided to call a special Save Our Planet meeting this afternoon to make signs for that rally at the college next weekend,” he said quickly. “Everyone was so excited, and I got caught up, and I guess I forgot…I’m really sorry.”
“Oh,” I said. Well, at least he hadn’t just forgotten for no reason and gone home to watch TV or something. “That’s okay.”
“Are you sure? I don’t want you to be mad at me,” he said openly. “I mean it. I messed up.”
I smiled. Could he be any sweeter? “It’s fine,” I replied, and I meant it, too. After all, one of the things I liked about Trent was how much he cared about the environment and his other causes. I wasn’t going to make him feel guilty for skipping one easy match of mine to help save the world.
“So, did you win?” he asked.
“Yep,” I said, dropping down onto my bed again and making the throw pillows bounce.
“Good. Congratulations,” he said. “I wish I had seen it. I really do.”
“I know. Don’t worry about it,” I told him. “How did the sign making go?” I settled in against my headboard for a long chat, crossing my legs at the ankles. I was proud of myself for not whining to him and also happy to have a boyfriend who cared about something other than himself. If he even was my boyfriend. But I supposed that was something we could figure out later.