Yesterday's You |18+|

Chapter 18

'SENIOR PROM: Run For The Roses'

I knew that the advertisement for this year's prom had been adhering all around the school and I wasn't going to lie that everyone had begun to go crazy about it. This included my circle especially Barbara because she would always excited about prom. Phoebe said that she couldn't come to this year's prom because her father insisted her to go German with him for his business. Otherwise, she wouldn't get funded for her college.

"Meh, it isn't that bad that I missed the prom, is it?" Phoebe looked at Barbara.

"That's not a big deal. I mean, yeah, you will miss the best part of high school but it's really not a big deal," Barbara convinced her.

"Do you have any plan to go with whom?" Phoebe asked me.

"I don't know, Phoebe," I chuckled.

"You should go with my friend then," she exclaimed which really gave me a huge shock.

"Your friend?" I stammered.

"You mean the guy that you've been hanging out with?" Eleanor asked.

"Yah! I mean I won't say that I am dating him because I don't do date. But, I think you will like him as a dating partner," she explained.

"Who is that guy, exactly? You don't really want a psycho killer or a stalker, aren't you, Katie?" Barbara was really curious. I could tell that.

"Of course, I don't want that!" I agreed with her.

"If you agreed to go with him, then I will tell you who is he," I nodded but still in doubt. I wanted to refuse to go with whoever Phoebe was suggesting but I wouldn't want to hurt her feeling. She seemed so excited to introduce the guy to me.

"Okay, so back to our real story," Barbara clapped her hands so our focus was set on her.

"I should really arrange my sleep schedule," Phoebe sighed. Perhaps, she was sleepy.

"How much sleeping pills did you take?" Eleanor jokingly said.

"You just saw it," Phoebe replied and then, she laughed.

"Phoebe, you gotta shut your mouth because we are going to proceed with our discussion," Barbara exclaimed. And then, three of us fix our position because we were alerted by the behavioural changes of Barbara. "El, you've got to start proceeding with the research and slides," Barbara said.

"No, I'm sorry, I couldn't. My laptop was broken last Monday so I was unable to do it," Eleanor answered.

"Well, if you can't do it, then someone else needs to take El's role," Barbara uttered.

"I think, Kate should take my role," Eleanor looked at me. She knew I was having another plan about our final project so that's why she was pointing me.

"Yeah, Katie would be excellent," Phoebe added.

"Well, Katie wouldn't want to take that role, so..." Barbara said out of sudden.

I frowned. "I would be glad to do it if I got to pick a new topic for us and do some modifications on our content," I argued.

"Well, that's not how I run things here," she insisted.

"Barb, maybe Katie has a point. Maybe we could try something new," Phoebe added.

"Excuse me?" Barbara increased her voice. Everyone went silent. "We chose to fight for the struggle of students and that's the last I wanna hear of this," she added and smiled wryly.

"That topic is tired. We're not gonna get good mark with it," I told her and my voice came out soft but firm. "If we took something extraordinary like military life or Greek myths and layer them with our current life, we could make some..."

I was cut off by Barbara. "Okay, let me explain something to you because you still don't seem to get it," I knew she was fed up. "Our goal is to get the attention of Andre and this topic will help us," I didn't argue. "So excuse me if I don't take advice from some peculiar girl with her nerd mind because she's never even been in Andre's class before. Have I made myself clear?" she asked.

I nodded. "Crystal! I won't do research or slide," I said.

"Fine. Phoebe?" Barb called her name.

"Yes?" she replied.

"You will take El's role," Barbara said.

-

Today, Rayhawks would be departed to the Lexington, Kentucky for a big tournament. That was meant that Chris would leave me for four days. The car honked as it was after dusk and the sun escaped from the horizon. I craned my neck to the window, it was Chris. My heart palpitated to see him and I felt heavy to let him go. I tidied up my messy hair and I put on my grey cardigan. Then, I stepped outside. Chris was leaning against his car, scrolling through his phone. When I was approaching, he put up his neck and looked at me, approaching me too. When I stood in front of him, I couldn't say a word. In lieu of silent, I gazed at his action like gazing up to the sky, avoiding my eye contact.

"It is actually so difficult for me to leave you," he initiated to break the silence.

"It's okay, it's only for four days, right?" My eyes started to tear up. "For the sake of your future, you must do what's best," I continued. I held his hand and I looked at his eyes. "Promise me, you will do your best to get the scholarship and enter that freaking university," I chuckled and he laughed too.

"I will do my best, Grace," He looked at me in my eyes. And then, he took out something from his car. He gave me a piece of glossy paper. It was our photo when we were having lunch.

"Our first-ever picture," I exclaimed and sighed heavily.

"Take care of it, I printed mine too," he said.

"Okay," I said. "I wonder how heavy I will feel to let you go if this was the last time I saw you before you enter college," I laughed and he joined me.

"I think I must go," he pulled his gaze away from me. "I will message you if I have arrived," he said and I just nodded. We looked into each other's eyes but no one actually said anything. "I will go," he waved at me and then, he started to walk away to his car.

I still stunned, holding my tear and heavily sighing. I could see at the corner of my eyes, he stopped pacing. He returned to me and then, he stood in front of me. I looked into his eyes. In a split second, he pulled me into his embrace and I put my left hand to his back under his arm while my right hand was on his chest. He hugged me tightly but I covered my face on his chest. He kissed me on my forehead before letting me go. I waved at him one last time before his car disappeared.