Caleb

Chapter Nine - He Asked Me

CIERA'S POV

    Marcy squealed when I told her that Caleb had asked me to homecoming.

“I knew it! I knew it!” she kept saying.

“I knew he was going to ask you. I’m so jealous!” She said, time and time again. I didn’t know why, but I was extremely nervous. I was going to homecoming with Caleb. If you’d asked me last year if I thought I’d ever be going to a dance with Caleb Meyers, I’d have told you that you were crazy. That you must have had me mixed up with some other girl, though that was impossible. I wasn’t nearly pretty or smart or athletic enough for Celeb. I’d give you so, so many excuses as to why it should be somebody else. But, I would have one reason as to why it should have been me. My reason was this; out of the girls swooning over him, I was the one different one. I was the one girl who was in the plays, not volleyball or not doing anything at all. I was the one girl who noticed him not only because of his looks, but because he was smart, sweet, funny, clever, caring, passionate, even dorky sometimes. Sometimes in the hallway, Hailey and I would begin singing something from chorus the block before. Being both of us high sopranos, we’d hit the highest notes we could. Caleb would come up behind us and squeak out the highest sound he could. Most often, it would be about two octaves lower than either Hailey’s or my note. We’d giggle and he’d chuckle, his face becoming a little more pink than usual. One of the times he tried, his voice cracked. His eyes widened, and he covered his mouth with his hand.

“That was the most adorable thing I’ve heard in a while.” I said, before realizing it. Only after he turned to me, a brow raised and smirk resting on his lips, did I realize I had just called something he’d done adorable, thus calling him adorable. I could feel my ears burning, but he just chuckled like he always did and got into his spot next to me in line. That day in gym, I saw him smile at me. That was one of the first times he’d smiled at me before the accident. I didn’t expect to ever get any more attention from him than one of those rare smiles, but I craved it. Now that I had it, I didn’t know if I could handle it.

Getting ready for a dance has always been one of my favorite things. Though my family always rushes through it, because we’re late no matter what, it’s still fun. My mother and I get to actually talk for what seems like the first time in ages. She’ll do my hair and my nails and help me with some of my make-up. It’s not that I can’t do it on my own. It’s that I like being able to be girly for her, even if it’s just for a couple of hours.

        "There," she whispered, clipping the last part of my trademark up and sprinkling glitter all over it.

"All done. You look beautiful," She said, smiling.

"Thank you, Mom," I replied, wrapping my arms around her neck and hugging her tightly. I was nervous. Not the normal 'I hope I look good' nervous, the kind of nervous where your knees shake. Where your hands shake and sweat just a little, where you get a headache not from the hairspray but from overthinking everything. Even when I looked into the mirror, I didn't see myself as beautiful. I saw myself as a nervous wreck.