Make My Way

Chapter Fifty-Two

Aria's POV

It was 5 a.m. Aurora pulled up in front of my house and I grabbed my backpack before jumping in. On our way to the school, we stopped by Starbucks and picked up some coffees for Willow, Stella, and ourselves. The charter bus was already pulled up beside the school and running, ready to take us to the speech meet. We made our way towards the back of the bus where we always say. Aurora sat down next to Stella because they needed to work on their duo and I handed her her coffee. Across the aisle, Merrick and Laine were already sitting together and I sat down behind them. When Blake and Easton came, they sat in front of Stella and Aurora, and Everly and Willow sat across from them. The last person to show up, as usual, was Xavier, who sat directly across from me.

We got to the meet and got ourselves situated. It was only the second meet Xavier and I had done our duo at and the last one had been HUGE. I was crossing my fingers he wouldn't forget his script. We all talked about all kinds of things on the way there and decided to do something together afterwards.

We all split us inside the school and got our schedules. Xavier and I walked around together for a while and found our rooms before returning to the gym. I had to go to my serious round so I left him alone in the gym, but not before reminding him what room to meet me in for our round. When I finished and went to meet him at the room we stood outside the door waiting together. He leaned over and whispered in my ear, "I really need to go pee but I purposely didn't go before because that way if I need an excuse to leave I have one." I laughed softly and the door opened.

We went into the room and set our stuff down on one of the tables in the science room. The judge told us that we were going next and I grabbed my script. I turned to Xavier to walk up to the front to see him staring at something off in the corner. It was one of those contraptions that keeps moving because of kinetic energy or something. I waved my hand in front of his face and he snapped out of it. "Oh, are we next?" he asked when he saw the script in my hand. I rolled my eyes and nodded.

We performed and I had to go draw for EPR. When I had finished all of my events, I went back to the gym and before long, awards were starting. Both Stella and Aurora, and Xavier and I had made it to finals. Everly state qualified in EPR and everyone started screaming and clapping for her. We went through the rest of the awards and Xavier almost missed his state qualifying entertain award because he was at a vending machine getting an Encrustables PB&J.

When humorous duo finally went up I was more nervous than when we performed. All four of us linked arms and listened to all of the names get called. They called third place and all four of us were still up there. We all came together in a group hug and I saw tears of happiness forming in both the other girls eyes already. The announcer started again, "In second place we have Lark and Stenson."

It took me a second, but as my friends walked up to receive their awards, I realized what was going on. I threw my arms around Xavier's neck and I felt his close around my waist and my feet left the ground. He set me down and before the announcer could start talking again, he was down in one knee. The only thought going through my head was, What the hell are you doing you idiot. His hand disappeared into his pocket and when he pulled it out he was holding a ring box. He opened it and inside was a gold, wire ring, twisted so that it formed the letters p-r-o-m. "Aria, will you go to prom with me?"

I took a second to register what was happening before breathing, "Yes." The crowd erupted in cheers around us as we hugged again and accepted our awards. The meet was finally over and we were about to get back on the bus, but of course we couldn't do that with out taking at least thirty pictures.

Xavier and I sat together on the bus so that we could read through our ballots together, and of course, Xavier was making inappropriate jokes the entire time. Let's just say that there was a hole in the leather covering the seat in front of us and he wanted to see how many fingers he could fit in.

About ten minutes away from the school, we started deciding on what we were doing. After a little bit of debate, we finally decided on Merrick's house. His parents were ordering pizza and everything was set to go.

The bus pulled up at the school and everyone started to get up. I was in the seat closest to the window and had to wait for Xavier to get all his crap together. He looked around for his entertain trophy for a good five minutes before realizing he left it at the school when he set it down to take a picture with me. When we finally made it off the bus, the only people left were there two of us and Blake, who needed a ride from Xavier and apparently now so did I.

I climbed into the back seat of Xavier's car and on the car ride to Merrick's house, I mentally prepared myself for the inevitable game of truth or dare that I knew was coming.