Where There's Light | ✔

55. The Prom Wars (1)

Saturday morning me, Bee and Gia grabbed breakfast at The Olive Badger. Then, as a surprise to no one but me, Nolan showed up. He slid into the booth next to me. We exchanged polite smiles and nothing more. He actually spoke to Bee and Gia.

Sorry, I wanted to say, I take it back. I miss you. But I continued to bit my tongue like I had been the past couple days.

"You two are going to lose today," Gia said.

Blunt. No beating around the bush. Just cold hard truth. The pit of nervousness in my stomach deepened.

"Unless," she continued. "You can fix whatever is happening between you two. I know couples have rough patches, but you gotta suck it up. Your crowns depend on it!"

Suck it up? Gia definitely didn't know the whole story. If she knew Nolan and I were broken up she wouldn't be calling it a "rough patch".

Nolan noticed that too, his brow creased as he stared at her from across the table.

"What G is trying to say," Bee cut in. "Is that, to win The Prom Wars, you two need to communicate."

She directed that last word at me. I started to regret confiding in her about the text I almost sent Nolan the other night.

"She right," Gia agreed. "A lack of communication can be a huge set back today. I've seen the list of competitions and they'll really test your strength as a couple. And with the way you two have been acting recently it's clear you're not on the same page."

Bee gave me a pointed look. She didn't have to say anything for me to she was right. The miscommunication was coming from my end. All I had to do was tell him how I felt.

The fear of making the wrong decision was paralyzing, though. When I was with Nolan everything felt right. But there was an annoyingly loud voice in the back of my mind reminding me that Mom thought things between her and Dad felt right. Then they weren't.

"Jade," Bee said, kicking me under the table.

I came back to reality, the three of them stared at me. Well, four, if you counted the waitress who came to take our orders. It was the same waitress I stole the tip from.

After breakfast we all began to file out of the restaurant. I lagged behind so I could slip an extra ten with the waitresses tip. Making that right was easy. Why couldn't everything be that simple?

"Shit," Bee exclaimed, digging through her bag. "I think I forgot my phone at home."

"But—" Gia started.

Bee grabbed her girlfriend's hand and dragged her to the car. "We have to go back and get it. We'll meet you at the school."

I knew she was lying. She texted me to let me know they were outside when they picked me up. And if that wasn't enough evidence, her mouthing talk to him was.

Maybe being alone with Nolan would give me some perspective. Was I dead to him or was he willing to work things out? A ten minute drive to school should tell me, right?

Wrong. He said nothing. I said nothing. Then we were at the school.

I was surprised to see how many people were already there, claiming their spots on the grass or in the bleachers. The soccer field was currently being transformed into a giant obstacle course.

There were six obstacle stations being set up hurriedly by students and faculty members. The only one I could make out was the large, colorful inflated obstacle course that had tunnels to crawl through and walls to climb.

"Sign-in is over there." Nolan said his first words to me then stalked off towards the booth.

We ducked under the tarp that shielded two faculty members from the sun. Mr. Coin passed us a clipboard to sign and Ms. O'toole handed us each a red track suit.