Indecisive Heart

Chapter 27

I made sure we sat down at our table immediately after entering the building because I was already feeling faint in this atmosphere. I started questioning why I had even agreed to this in the first place. I literally look like a princess right now. Sadie Nolan is not a princess! She's an athlete! She wears sporty clothes, not pretty dresses!

Ugh, no. I have to do this for Finn. This night is about him. I knocked myself out of my funk and came to my senses.

We were waiting for our food to arrive when Finn asked if I wanted to go take some pictures in the photo booth.

"Absolutely!" I said with a smile. "Maybe we'll find the yearbook nerd on our way over there!" Rory hoped.

There was a long line for the photo booth, so while we waited in line, we scanned the area for a nerdy looking nobody with a camera. By the time we reached the front of the line, we had still not spotted our target.

"Okay, how do you want to pose? Do you want any props?" Finn asked me. "Let's smile, and then take a funny one." I grabbed a fake mustache from the pile of props.

The camera flashed as it took our pictures, then we walked away holding the finished product.

"They turned out nice!" Finn said. "Yeah, they did." I examined the photos of Finn and I smiling and having fun together, just two friends being themselves.

"Look that way! I saw a flash!" Rory pointed into the dark room where the dance floor was. We peered in, and in the center of the dance floor, where the lights were shining, I saw the cameraman.

"Is that?"

"Asher." I cut Rory off. The nerdy cameraman we were looking for was Asher.

There he was, standing so tall with the dim light reflecting off of his perfectly swooped back hair. He was not the definition of nerdy at all. He was wearing a tuxedo with a red bow tie. He looked so clean, so handsome.

"Wow." Rory gasped. Suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my stomach. "Rory, I need you in the bathroom." I grabbed her and ran, leaving our dates in the dust.

"What's the matter?"

"I can't do this."

"What do you mean?"

"I can't be here with Finn when Asher is here, and looking like that. I can't do it. I thought I could pull this off. I thought I was over it, but seeing him here... I can't feel my limbs." Feeling vomit threaten to come up, I grabbed Rory's shoulder for support.

"Woah there, calm down. Remember what you're here for. To give Finn a good time. Be the best prom date ever. You can't accomplish your mission in this condition. You're going to have to suck it up for the night."

"It just hurts, Rory. It hurts to know I could be having fun with him out there right now and instead I have to pretend I don't know him because, for reasons I don't know, he won't talk to me. I'm stuck here looking at him all night wondering what went wrong and if I did something to deserve this."

"Well stop wondering. We might not know why Asher is acting like this, but it shouldn't matter anyways. You have a perfectly good and handsome date waiting for you out there right now, ready to have the time of his life with you. Who cares what Asher thinks? He obviously can't see the girl that Finn sees, and that's his loss. So stop worrying about what could have been, and start worrying about what's right in front of you! I've been telling you this all along, Sadie. Finn likes you, and he's a perfectly fine boy. You tried with Asher and it didn't work out, now it's time to move on and try with someone else." As much as it hurts to know that my friendship with Asher has come to such an abrupt stop, Rory is right. It's done and there's not much I can do about it now. I tried. Instead of continuously thinking about what might have been, I need to focus on the here and now. Finn deserves a good night, and I need to do that for him. "Okay." I exhaled deeply.