Spooky

Chapter 52

-Rouge's POV-

"I just dunno what to do, Rouge," my best friend confesses, pacing back and forth on my bedroom floor. I watch him from my seat on my bed, comic book in hand and a look of mild amusement on my face. Shadow's been stressing about Prom for a week now, wrestling with himself, and I'm apparently the only person he can talk to. It's a bit silly, given Prom is half a month away—I mean, spring has just started, it's still obnoxiously chilly outside, for heavens' sake—but he's my best friend. I'm legally obligated to listen to his ramblings.

"I thought you always hated those cheesy Prom-posal things," I point out a little teasingly.

He groans. "Yeah, I know, and I still do, but, I just... I just." Frustrated, he stops pacing, and I stifle a laugh.

"If you hate it, why do you wanna—?" I start, but he interrupts me.

"I dunno!" He blurts, turning around and around as he talks. "I dunno, it just, it feels like, like it's important, and I should, I should do it. And," he runs a hand through his quills, "and I wanna see the look on his face when I surprise him with, with, uhh," he strains for a moment, trying to come up with something on the spot before giving up and carrying on much louder than before, "fuck, I dunno, some dumb romantical bullshit."

"You're a hopeless romantic," I chastise facetiously, putting my comic book down.

"Am not!" He rounds on me, blushing with embarrassment.

"Are too!" I grin.

"Am not!" Shadow stubbornly insists, and I tip my head to one side.

"And yet," I tease, "you wanna have a cute prom-posal and get a cute li'l stereotypical corsage for your boyfriend and go to prom together and slow-dance in fancy-shmancy clothes and probably take those tacky prom photos, too—"

"Shut uuuuuup," he wails, flailing at me, and I laugh gleefully. If he were close enough to me, he'd smack me with the ends of his sleeves, but he's gone back to pacing at the foot of my bed again. "Ugh," he growls, "I hate it for all its tackiness but at the same time it, it's such a quintessential high school experience..."

"Then do it," I shrug.

He sighs. "It's not that easy—" He starts calmly but as he continues he grows more flustered, speaking faster—"I mean, okay, sure, he's suggested coming out to the school, but, I don't wanna get harassed again and I definitely don't want him to be harassed, and I dunno, I dunno, it's just not so simple!"

I think carefully for a minute. I know how he feels; Amy and I are in roughly the same boat. The only difference is, we're out to her parents, and they're in our corner here—and they're those hyper-involved parents. Super supportive, but thankfully, not nosy. Our relationship is too new for anything drastic; we're keeping it undercover until we're sure it'll last, so nobody outside her family and our little friend group knows. Plus, we aren't roommates, so we don't have to worry about the school reassigning us, like they probably would for Scourge and Shadow. "I know it isn't," I finally reply in what I hope is a soothing tone. He stops pacing again, and just gives me a tired look. "I think...you should just do what'll make you happy." I grin at him. "Fuck everybody else. You know?"

"Yeah, I know." He sighs again, sitting down on the foot of my bed. I scoot towards him, looping an arm around his shoulder. He leans into it with a little smile. "Thanks, Rouge."