Capstone

Chapter 10 - May

By mid-May, prom was behind us; finals were ahead of us; and Cale, Sophie, Chris, and I found ourselves sprawled across the hood of Chris' car in the local Dairy Giant parking lot, sipping shakes.

"I think we did it wrong," Cale said out of the blue before taking another sip of his shake.

"Did what wrong?" Sophie sighed as she absently brushed the hair from his eyes.

"Prom. I mean, this year was epic, and the prom was just..."

"Prom." We all said with a universal sigh.

"Actually, I don't think we did it wrong," Cale reconsidered, breaking the quiet again. "I think it's just not us. We're not epic prom people; we're legendary Tuesday people. Anyone can talk up prom, but who has a life-changing experience at a bake sale?" He hugged Sophie closer as he spoke.

"Or finds a best friend at a roller-skating rink?" I offered.

"That's what I'm talking about." Cale lifted his fist to me for a pound, to which I obliged.

"Or learns their crush likes them from a hyper-organized binder dropped off by a shady character?" Chris let out a laugh.

"Dude, you had me until shady character; not cool." Cale's voice was low and severe, but he couldn't hold it as a laugh erupted from his chest.

"Prom was a bit boring," Sophie agreed. "We dressed up. We took pictures. We danced, we left. That was the prom experience. I'm not sure why prom is made out to be some pivotal moment in high school. Maybe it was because it was just our junior prom, but there was really nothing very memorable about the evening."

"Come on," Cale said as he popped up from the hood.

"Oh, no," I groaned. "Do you ever not have a plan?"

"You love my plans," he tossed back at me as he opened the door to his truck and ushered Sophie inside. "You two follow us."

Chris and I followed Cale; of course, we followed Cale. We were moths to his flame of fun.

"Where do you think we'll end up? The zoo, the beach, Mexico?"

"Honestly, with Cale, who knows?" I smiled before adding, "but that's the fun of it, right?"

"Yeah, it is," Chris agreed with a smile as I slipped under his arm.

We arrived at the gazebo. The vibrant green of the spring grass set it off like it was out of a movie.

"What are we doing here?" I asked as I pulled myself out of the car.

"As Sophie said, our legendary prom isn't some high school cliché. Our high school prom is at a retirement home gazebo on a Thursday," Cale said with a flutter of his hands around the scene.

"What does that even mean?" Chris laughed.

"Come on," Cale prodded as he crouched a bit, and Sophie jumped on him for a piggyback.

I grasped Chris' hand as we crossed the lawn to the gazebo. Cale let Sophie slip from his back as he pulled out his phone. The two of them murmured to each other over his screen for a few moments before they parted in agreement.

"Our prom," Cale announced as Don't You by Simple Minds, blared from his phone. "Sophie, may I have this dance?"

"You may," she said with a giggle.

"The way I see it, we have two options: join them or mock them." Chris looked down at my face with a smile.

"Join them; whatever Cale is doing, you always join him," I nodded.