i can see you - tsitp

twelve.

[MAY]

NATE HAD gone to prom with some girl he'd hardly known. He remembers the night like it was yesterday, because it practically was.

He remembers the way Belly had been so frustrated— a lot of things had begun to pile up for her. Conrad had been inexplicably complicated and silent, Milo and Taylor had broken up the day before the dance and she had to scramble to find a new date, and Steven was... Steven.

"She's going to give me a stroke, I swear," Belly huffs as Nate walks her down the hallway to her class, "She doesn't know who to go with. And prom is, you know, the dance you have to have a date for."

"Yeah," says Nate, trying to keep quiet, because he knows that if he keeps talking, he'll inevitably offer to be her date. He can't ignore the way that he wants to be her date, and he can't ignore the way that Taylor's new date maybe looks a little too much like him for his liking.

In fact, they're on the lacrosse team together. His name is Jake, and Nate doesn't know him that well, but well enough to know that he won't be as good of a date for Taylor as Nate would be.

"How did you and Jake meet?" he demands, leaning up against Taylor's locker as she's gathering her stuff to leave. She looks over at him out of the corner of her eye, raising a brow.

"He needed a date and so did I." she mutters, shoving her laptop into her backpack. "He didn't make me a poster or anything. Could've spared a few seconds, don't you think? Did you make Nailea a poster?"

"Yeah. Did Milo make you a poster?"

Taylor doesn't respond right away, and that's the only answer Nate needs. He exhales sharply, shaking his head. "Taylor, I could've taken you if you actually needed a date."

Taylor fully turns to him, a frown pulling at her face. She doesn't look like she fully trusts the words coming out of his mouth, and he doesn't either, honestly, but he can't take it back now. She looks like she wants to say something, opts not to, and turns back to her locker. "It'd be weird for exes to go to prom together. Especially since Milo and I are just on a break."

"Right." Nate nods monotonously, making Taylor look over at him again.

"Don't ditch Nailea like that, Nathaniel." she commands sternly. "She's the nicest cheerleader I know."

"Whatever you say, TJ." he salutes her, grinning as he walks away from her locker. She watches him go, words dying in her throat when Nailea appears out of a classroom and quickly joins Nate's side.

The night of prom is somehow worse. Conrad forgets Belly's corsage, making what was an already awkward reconciliation even worse. Nate watches Conrad the entire night; something is definitely off, he knows that much.

Nailea, Nate, Taylor, and Jake are all dancing near each other. Both Nailea and Jake seem to notice the way that Nate and Taylor can't keep their eyes off each other— until Conrad and Belly stumble over, dancing and muttering in hushed tones.

Nate knows something is wrong— he knows based on Belly's creased brows, the veins in Conrad's forehead, the way they're both standing so close but so far. Up until this moment, Nate has never really noticed how good he's gotten at reading the body language between the couple.