The Last Time We Met

30

Cedric carried his laptop downstairs. It was infuriating that I couldn't see what he was seeing, but he stopped when he saw his dad. "Dad? What's going on?"

"Nothing," his dad said, giggling. He had been thrilled to be in on the surprise, and my shoulders shook as I silently laughed at his delight, and the confounded look on Cedric's face.

"Weirdo," Cedric said, then opened the front door. "Uh. What?"

I hit the play button on the song I had queued up. Our song. "Only You." As the opening notes played, I told him, "Follow the balloons."

Behind Cedric, which was all I could see, Nic and Maggie were standing in the hallway, curiously looking on. Then Mr. McKinney leaned into the frame, giving me two thumbs up.

Cedric stepped outside, and the sun flashed behind him. "Okay, I'm trusting you." He paused, and read the note on the first balloon.

"This is the only life." Another step.

"Where I can ask you." Step.

"This very important question." Cedric stopped.

"Keep going," I told him.

As he started walking, I tried to imagine what he was seeing. Balloons leading him around the house. "What is happening? What is the question? Okay, I'm gonna hold it together. I am trusting you because you are my boyfriend and I love y—"

Cedric cut himself off with a shriek as he rounded the house, where he would see even more balloons, as well as some tiki torches, guiding his gaze to the cardboard standup, now with my face pasted over Peeta's. I had also painted an outfit more my style onto the cardboard and completed the look with real suspenders. In my cardboard hands was a glitter-covered invitation. "No fucking way. No fucking way!"

The landscape over Cedric's shoulder bounced nauseatingly. "No?" I asked, worried.

"No, I mean, yes. Yes!" Cedric laughed and held the laptop out so he could see me. "Yes, I will go to prom with you!"

I smiled so hard my face hurt. I put my hands on my cheeks because it felt like they were going to split open.

"Where are you?" Cedric looked around. "Where are you hiding? I'm going to kiss you. I don't care about corona. I'm kissing you and that's it."

My smile faded. "Oh, uh. Sorry, I'm not... actually there."

"What?" Cedric peered back at the screen. "But how did you...?"

"Eli helped. And your dad. I was the only one who could keep you distracted for that long." I tried to smile again, but it hurt a little. I wished I had been there. It had been six weeks since the last time I had kissed Cedric. My mouth sorely missed him.

"Oh. Well, that's okay. Wait—was the whole doctor's appointment just something you made up to distract me?"

The warning note of betrayal in his voice had me scrambling. "No! No, that was real. Mom only told me about the appointment this morning, but I had planned all this before that. I almost didn't do it. I swear. If you had been really upset about all that I wouldn't have gone through with it."

Cedric sat down on the grass and tilted the laptop to talk to me. Behind him, the cardboard cutout loomed. "I mean, I'm still worried."

"I'm, uh, kinda worried too. I don't know. Maybe it was stupid to ask you to a prom that isn't happening."

"Oh, there isn't a prom?" Cedric reached up and snatched the cartoonishly large invitation from the cardboard cutout's hand and read it aloud: "Mr. James Greer formally requests the accompaniment of Mr. Cedric McKinney to a private Senior Prom, to be held in the backyard of the Greer estate on Saturday, May the 30th, 2020. Formal attire required. Dinner to be provided."