Fast Car | Escapes #1

Chapter 4

"You're ready," Mr. Milton said as I reached the open door to his office. "I think you're ready to try to run this store under me."

I covered my mouth as my eyes widened. "Finally," Brayden huffed. "I've been trying to tell you I'm ready since last year! What made you think this was the time?" I could hear some suspicion leaking into his voice. 

"You just have to do a couple of things first." A chair made noise followed by footsteps. It was too late for me to act like I wasn't eavesdropping. Still, I tried to make it look like I was just walking up to the office. "Ah, Jenny!" Mr. Milton said when he saw me. "Just the person I wanted to see. Come here for a minute, step into my office."

I followed him inside. Brayden was seated in a chair and he looked up at me curiously. "What did you need, sir?" I asked, watching as he walked back around and sat in his desk chair. 

"I know you've heard me talk about him a lot, but this here is my son," he said, gesturing to the man sitting in the chair next to me. I looked down to find him smiling hesitantly up at me, seeming a bit confused and bracing himself for something. "Brayden, this here is Jenny Herrington. She's one of my best employees and, I dare say, like a daughter to me."

"Nice to meet you," he said. His eyes were scanning my face, as if they were trying to find something there. 

"Likewise," I said, turning back to Mr. Milton. "What's going on?"

He smiled at us. "Brayden, in order to put you in charge, I want you to be her date to her homecoming and her prom."

Brayden sat forward in his chair. "Wait, hold on, I'm not going to a high school anything. I had my day for all of that, and it's not happening again. Prom is just a cover for doing other stuff. It isn't just a dance. Besides, are you sure no one else will ask her to one of them? I don't want to take the fun out of it for her." I could tell by the tone in his voice that he was just backtracking to keep his dad from getting upset.

It didn't really work, though. Mr. Milton's expression hardened. "If you want a chance to prove to me you can run this store, you're going with her to those dances."

"But-"

"Keep it up and you're going to the football game with her, too."

He sighed and looked up at me. "When are these dances?"

I cleared my throat nervously. "Homecoming was back in February when the renovations finished on the gym, but prom is in a month."

Mr. Milton shook his head. "Sorry I didn't think of this sooner, then. At least you won't miss prom."

I glanced at Brayden out the corner of my eye. He looked mildly horrified. "Prom is important, you know," he said, leaning forward, schooling his face into a serious look. "Who you go with will determine how other kids see you. Going with a band geek will brand you as one of them, but if you're popular enough, it can raise them up to your level and upset the balance."

"You're going with her," Mr. Milton said sternly. Brayden seemed to instantly deflate. 

He wasn't wrong. But if I brought him, it would be like I won the lottery. Even I could tell he was the type of handsome everyone fawned over. Plus he was older. The only problem for me was that he was a stranger who drank a lot and I'd never hear the end of it from my friends if we walked into that place together. 

Well, classmates. Not friends. 

The point is, if we went together, it would cause a huge thing, and I didn't want anyone mistakenly thinking we were together. Not any more than it seemed he wanted them to.