April 27th

Chapter 10

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Ten

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Nathan, who had been drinking from a can coughed, sending the can he'd been holding to the floor, and the content of his mouth to the environment around him like a fountain. The classic spit take. "You what?!"

"It's two truths and a lie," she shrugged.

"Repeat that!"

She smiled smugly, loving his reaction to her statements. It wasn't predicted that Nathan would lose his marbles over it but she was there for it. "I've spent the night in Jail, I've smoked cannabis and I've tossed a ring off a mountain," she repeated.

"Cannabis," he said forcefully, as if forcing his guess to be true. "Say it's cannabis!"

She rolled her eyes. "But it's not. I smoked cannabis at a frat party back home."

He grimaced. "What the—Whose?!"

She was about to answer when another voice interrupted her.

"What ring did you toss?" Javier asked.

"Yeah, I was thinking that too. Prom night, right?" Paige waved her finger in front of her. "I remember."

April raised her brow in feigned surprise, flashing a very innocent smile afterward. In her peripheral vision, she struggled to see Javier's face but meanwhile, she could let memories rule. "Oh yeah! You called us the em-"

"Havisham girls!" She supplied.

"What'd you guys do?" Malia asked, transferring Nathan's hand from one of hers to the other.

"I got ditched by Freddy before prom started. Like he, right out of the hotel had to leave in a limo with his Dad," Paige explained. "I named myself Ms. Havisham for the night because of that." She was smiling like it was a sweet, 'walk-down-the-aisle' moment.

"Plus, you were in a white dress," April chipped in, still fighting the urge to turn her head.

"Yeah! A bunch of other girls joined me and we became the Havishams. Manda refused to join us."

"Because I had a date," Amanda defended herself, dusting imaginary particles off her dress.

"Yeah right, some amazing prom date you had!" April retorted, casting a glare at Nathan, who had ditched Amanda halfway through the prom.

"So it's the ring toss?" Malia asked, going unheard.

"Before you judge her, why don't you tell everyone who you took to prom?" Nathan fired back.

April inhaled. He had asked the only prom question she didn't want tonight. Prom for her was as complicated as it was interesting. "Doesn't matter."

"Doesn't it now? Who else wants to know who my little sister had as a prom date?"
He raised his hand, followed by Malia, then to her surprise, Javier.

"Who was it again? Pretty sure I was drunk the entire night," Paige whispered. Amanda audibly sighed and put her hand on her chin.

April clenched her jaw, ignoring her stepsister and focusing on the staring contest she was having with Nathan. The fire cackled along with her mood, and together, they threatened to explode into bits of hot temper and soot.