Timing Is Everything

Chapter 16

   "Do you think that pump will look good in the prom?" I said putting my phone back in the locker.
"What?" Asked Joe staring at me under his giant glasses.
"It's Chris, Joe"
"Oh shit.. Something must've gone wrong"
"Obviously"
"You can't go like this, it's prom after all"
"Seriously, Joe? Am I going to worry about how I look in that stupid party?"
"Of course, not" said Joe raising his hands in surrender.
"Wait a second.. You said (you can't go). What do you mean (you)? It's we, you're coming with me"
"Nah na man. I don't know her as much as you do and it will be more awkward than it already is"
"Well, at least you'll come with to prom and wait for me till I'm done with them"
"Okay, fair enough"

We changed and wore the clothes we came in. Luckily they were decent enough for a prom, each of us had a shirt and pants, nothing much but will do better than it would've been shorts and tees.

We arrived at school, there were lights everywhere, DJ heard from about 2 blocks away. It was pretty cool, but nothing special.

I called Chris to know where he is, but of course because of the DJ he couldn't hear it.

"He's not answering! I'm gonna go look for him"
I shouted in Joe's ear so that he could hear me.
"What?!"
"Wait here" I shouted.
"Okay"

I went through the gates and saw the stage with the school band rocking on it.
Just after passing the gates and away from the stage there were some tables, on one I saw a brown-haired girl with an -over the knees- black dress with some yellow drawings on front, summarily beautiful.
I walked slowly till I was behind her ear.
"Why's my lovely lady sitting all alone?" I said in her ear.
"NICK!" She shouted laughing. "What are you doing here? You told me you're not coming.. Unless-"
"Unless something goes wrong, Soph" I completed.
"Oh.. Answering your question, my friend left me here and went to meet her boyfriend, so here I am sitting forever alone"
"And unfortunately you'll stay alone cause I'm in a middle of something right now"
"I hate you"
"Sorry darling" I giggled "I'll talk to you later"
"Later" she said.

I thought, if Chris was having with Nora a fight then he would probably be somewhere a little bit quieter, so I went to the building behind the stage and voila!
There he was standing with Nora and Amanda and another guy that recognized his face, but couldn't remember where I saw him.

I didn't want to barge in out of nowhere in the middle of their argument so I waved at him, but he didn't see me.
I kept calling him so he could turn around.
Finally he saw me.

"What took you so damn long?" Shouted Chris.
"Easy there, big guy. Check your phone, I've been calling you for 30 minutes now"
"Dammit this girl will drive me crazy"
"What now?"
"We were cool, right? Here I was, standing with a couple of guys and I saw her coming from the back of the stage with that motherfucker so called friend of hers"
"And?"
"So, I kept together and went to ask her what was that all about"
"So far so good"
"Not very far, she says *non of your business*"
"I beg your pardon?"
"Exactly what I said"
"You're joking?"
"Do I look like I'm joking?"
"Anyways. What happened?"
"Nothing, all hell broke loose"
"And the you started shouting and Amanda and that guy came then you texted me"
"Yes, and that guy Amanda's cousin by the way and is a very good friend of mine"
"Yeah yeah, he was the one with you on the trip"
"Yes"
"Okay, so where are you now in the process of the fight?"
"As you can see, she's crying and I said it's over"
"Did she tell you what she was doing with that guy?"
"Lies"
"How can you tell?"
"I know her, I know she's lying"
"What about Amanda? What's she doing now? Which side did she take?"
"None, she's switzerland on this one"
"Even better, so what're you gonna do?"
"I'm thinking of coming with you and leave all that shit"
"Great! Joe's waiting outside, let's go"

We were about to leave when I heard a rather unpleasant voice "Nick!"
"I'm not staying for this one, Nick. I knew she'd do this" said Chris as he saw Nora approaching us.
"Why didn't you tell me that Nick's coming, Chris?" Said Nora wiping her blacked tears from the liner.
Chris didn't answer so I quickly responded "He didn't want to spoil the surprise, how're you, girl? You're glowing tonight" I said with the worst fake smile made in ages.
"Thank you, Nick. You're adorable" she said smiling.
"I'm sorry, Nora, but we gotta get going and Joe's waiting outside" I said checking my phone as if I got a text.
"What?! You just got here"
"The game's about to begin and if Joe missed it, he'd kill us all and turn this thing to a bloody massacre worse than Carrie. See you later" I laughed shaking her hand and headed straight out"

"Wow Nick. You're adorable" said Chris in a squeaky voice.
"Shut up, I deserve a freakin Oscar for my performance back there"
"Yeah, you certainly do. Where's that idiot?"
"Here" said Joe from behind us "so? What hap.." Knowing how straightforward Joe is, I knew he'd go for the details and ask a lot of questions, so I quickly interrupted shouting and running to Chris's car "C'MON  GUYS WE'RE GONNA MISS THE GAME!!"
On the mere mention of the game Joe went mad and was the first to reach the car, and yelling to drive faster to reach his place where we'll watch the game.
That was enough to distract him off the fight conversation. Wasn't it?  Such a genius bastard I am.

Well, the whole summer went this way..
Me, Chris and Joe chilling from time to time, go to the gym, watch the World Cup which was probably the highlight of the entire summer.
Me and Sophie with our same old daily conversations.
I had a constant routine basically, but it was kinda fun.

Then by the end of August, everything, everyone went mad preparing for college and their accommodation.

Luckily, the three of us; me, Chris and Joe were accepted at the same university, but different faculties of course. We all had pre-courses, so we would finish by the same time. Although we wouldn't see each other much like before because of the different schedules and all, it's better than being in different states.
We all stayed in the dorm, and each on of us had some company from school buddies accepted at the same faculty, the least was me, but anything would be just fine.

By the beginning of the semester, everybody was settled except for one unfortunate bastard. Guess who?
Nickolas Owen.

As I went to get the schedule, they told me I'm not registered in dentistry.
After a huge argument I went to the dean's office, there I found out that bad luck never left my side.
They say that my tuition fees came late and my registration was after the deadline.

So I was left with only one option.