The Payback or The Adventures and Pranks of Zachary O'Connor

Chapter Nineteen: Prom

Prom was on Saturday, May the 9th, but I didn't even remember that until two days after Meghan's birthday, when we returned to school. That meant that I had exactly 20 days to come up with a plan and ask her to prom. But a lot of people were already starting to get dates, and asking her on the week of the dance would be, as my mother would say, "tacky." Idealistically, I had around ten days.

My brain did not focus on schoolwork for these ten days, and sure enough, on the tenth day I conducted my plan. It was a Wednesday, and I dropped Meghan off at home where she found a note on her door saying "I've left something for you on your bed- Mom." I had conducted this idea with some assistance from Meghan's parents. Considering that I had planned this entire thing, I don't know the exact details of everything, but I get the general idea. What I do know for sure is that I didn't leave her driveway at all. Instead, I laid out a white paper outline in the shape of a heart on the hood of my ugly-ass red Corolla. I also put some letters inside the heart. Then I grabbed a bouquet of roses from my trunk.

So, Meghan entered her room and found a stuffed giraffe, her favorite animal, on her bed. Attached to the giraffe was a note, this time from her dad. "I have something for you in the garage..." Naturally, she would be excited by this because potentially, there could be a car in the garage. (SPOILER ALERT: There wasn't.) In the garage, another note was lying on the ground. This one said, in my handwriting, "Open the garage door." She opened the garage door, looking very confused and saw me sitting on the hood of my car with roses in hand. On the hood was spelled out: "PROM?" Meghan looked super-surprised and instead of answering my proposal, she walked up and kissed me.

"AHEM!" Meghan's dad cleared his throat loudly from an upstairs window.

I broke away from Meghan and looked up at her dad. He had his phone out, filming the whole thing.

"Shoot me a copy of that video, please," I requested.

"Will do, Zach," he said.

Meghan was shaking her head.

"So that was a yes, then?" I asked her.

She punched me in the arm.

"You can sure pack a bit of a punch." I winced.

"I try," she said and kissed me lightly again.

The remaining 10 days before Prom were crazy with anticipation. Not only did everyone have a date (except Anti ☹), but the people who had said: "Prom is stupid," were now asking people as well. This was a regular affair each year as upperclassmen started going batshit around Prom. When the night finally rolled around, I picked up Meghan at 4:30 and was astonished at how amazing she looked. She wore a navy blue dress that went to her knees. Everything about her had me nervous immediately. I got out of the car for her parents to take pictures of us. Her parents followed us to a nearby park, where we were taking pictures and meeting up with the others. When we turned up, John and Gabby were back to back sitting on a rock while their parents took their pictures and Anti was holding his tux jacket, looking solemn but composed. I came up behind him and clapped him on the shoulder. He turned and gave me a smile. The five of us mounted a boulder and took pictures. John, Anti, and I took pictures just of the three of us, and we looked pretty badass. But when Gabby and Meghan took their pictures, we were astonished at how much better they looked. Gabby was wearing a red dress that looked really good on her.

Anyway, we proceeded to eat dinner at an Italian restaurant and arrived at the dance around 7:05, hosted at an arena in the county. Prom ended at midnight, and let me tell you, the five of us danced for almost five hours straight. The slow songs came on at 11, and Meghan and I fell into step. I looked into her eyes and was lost for multiple songs. A few faster songs then a very slow song, at which point Meghan just put her head in my chest, and we slowly swayed.