Damien Carmichael leads a double life. By day he's a high school senior at an elite prep school, just trying to get through his last year without any trouble. He has a girlfriend and up until this year, he was the star player of the lacrosse team.
...
The Westlake Senior Prom was held, every year at a country club that was roughly halfway between the school and Manhattan, on the third Saturday in May.
Finals were to be administered exactly one week prior to Prom, giving the students ample time to study. Of course, by that time most of the seniors had already largely checked out for the year. Prom was the last official school function before graduation, and after that, they would pack up their belongings and head back to their respective homes to await graduation.
Damien had planned to skip the ceremony this year, but that had been before he had met Oliver, and like his plans to skip prom, everything had changed because of Oliver, and always for the better. The thought of Oliver getting cheered on by Damien's parents during graduation as he walked to get his diploma made Damien's heart swell with pride. He only hoped Oliver would decide to invite his friends from his father's garage along as well. They deserved to see this moment as much as anyone, Damien thought.
Finals were grueling, and by the time it was over, Damien's brain was fried. He had only hoped he hadn't somehow managed to screw up anything and tank his GPA at the last moment.
For his part, Oliver looked rather happy as he left his final class of the day, and his very last final for the year, Damien had noted.
"You look cheerful," Carrie said solemnly as they all met up for dinner that night.
Oliver grinned, "I think I did great," he said proudly.
"Well that's the kiss of death," Phi retorted.
"What?" Oliver asked, clearly confused.
Damien sighed, "We're just a little superstitious," he said.
"Oh?" Oliver didn't seem to know what to make of that. Not that Damien could exactly blame him.
"We never speculate on how well we did on our finals before we know," Damien said.
"Best not to tempt fate," Carrie added, to which everyone nodded in agreement. Oliver merely eyed the group.
"I'm surprised. I never pegged you all for the superstitious type."
Damien merely shrugged, even Maddie had nodded in agreement to all of this. Damien looked over at her, things were still rather awkward between them. Even with Phi and him now friends, it seemed that Maddie wasn't entirely sure what to do with herself. Even after all this time. Whether or not she forgave him, didn't matter, what mattered was that she still seemed to be uncomfortable around him, as if they hadn't been friends for years before all of this had happened.
Damien sighed, it was his last chance to talk to her about it, he decided. After dinner, Damien pulled Maddie aside to speak with her privately, much to Phi's general suspicion. "Don't go trying to steal my girlfriend away now," she teased.
Damien laughed, "Would dream of it Phi," he assured her.
For her part, Maddie looked entirely unamused, and not altogether pleased at being pulled aside by Damien. "I know that we haven't spoken for a while," he said. "Not since... well--" they had spoken a little at the Winter Ball, but beyond that she had remained silent. "I know things have been awkward between us. And I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt you," he said. Cliche as it was, it was true.
"I know," Maddie replied quietly. "I do know that. But you did. And I can't just sit here and pretend as though everything is normal now because you have a boyfriend and I have a girlfriend. I can't pretend as though all of that didn't effect me. I can't pretend as though I didn't spend at least the last six months of our relationship completely second-guessing myself. Wondering if I was doing something wrong. Wondering if maybe there was something wrong with me. Because I couldn't be what you wanted. I can't pretend as though after we broke up I didn't spend months wondering if everything in our entire relationshp was a lie. And then when I found out..." she shook her head, tears already in her eyes. "When I found out that it was because you were gay, I thought... wow, he really used me just to protect himself. I loved you, and that completely broke my heart and my trust." The weight of her words hit Damien like an icy slap across the face.
"I know what I did was wrong," he said. "And I don't expect you to forgive me, because I know that nothing I could possibly say will make that okay. But please don't ever think for a second that I didn't care for you very deeply. You were my best friend."
"That just makes it so much worse," she cried. "If we were such great friends why did you decide to fuck up my life?" Damien swallowed, nothing he could say could possibly make up for it, even if he did know the answer to her question. He had always just felt as though he could trust her. She scoffed. "You know the funny thing is, we were friends. And if you had just been honest with me from the get-go I would have happily played your beard."
Damien frowned at that, as difficult as it was, Damien believed her. How could he not?
"I'm sorry I screwed things up so badly," he said quietly.
Maddie merely nodded, and before Damien could say another word, she turned on her heel and left for the very last time.
Damien sighed watching her go, then turned the other way and made his way back into the Dining Hall.
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