Old Soul

Chapter Twenty-Two: Broken Prom-ises

"And then Alice painted my nails." I tell Jessica and Angela, who have me cornered by my car on Monday. Jess takes my hand, inspect the French-tips Alice delicately painted on.

"She did this freehanded?" She asks incredulously. I take my hand back and shrug.

"She's very artsy."

"I wish I had been invited." Angela groans.

"Nah, I felt kinda like a third best friend wheel."

"How? Rosalie invited you."

"Rosalie only invited me because I'm dating her adoptive brother." I tell them truthfully.

"Speaking of, where is your boyfriend? And his family, for that matter?" Jess asks, looking around the parking lot. Both the Volvo and Jeep are surreptitiously parked in their usual spots, but none of the vampires are surrounding them.
"I have no clue." I say as the three of us begin to make our way to English.

"Maybe he's setting up his prom-posal!" Jess squeals.

"Oh my God, that's so cute!" Angela says, and the two of them begin lamenting how neither of their boyfriends would do such a thing.

"I told him not to, and I have no qualms about rejecting him if he does something dramatic." I reply as we stop outside of Angela's and my English classroom.

"You say that now, but it's so romantic. Come on, Raquel, you know you'd say yes. Who doesn't want to be swept off her feet by one of the most handsome guys in school. And those arms? You know he'd just—"

"Okay!" I interrupt, shoving Angela into the room before Jess can get even more graphic. "Bye, Jess, we'll see you at lunch!" I wave, hastily making my way to my seat.

"Jess again?" Bella asks, smirking, her face in a book.

"This time it's about how I should want to be swept off my feet in the most extravagant way possible." I sigh.

"And you don't?"

"Not publicly. It's embarrassing. It puts way too much pressure on the person being asked."

"I guess I'm lucky that Edward isn't interested in prom."

Oh, how wrong you are. I think to myself.

"You'd tell me if you knew something I didn't, right?" I ask Bella.

"Of course." She says, smiling. I nod and smile back, but she answered too fast. She either knows something, and is attempting to lie to me, or she's really empathizing with me here.

I catch up to Jess and Bella at lunch, but something's off. Jess is practically vibrating with excitement, and Bella has an uncharacteristically large grin on her face.

"What?" I ask, stopping dead in my tracks.

"Oh, nothing." Jess sing-songs, looping her arm in mine.

"Mike asked Jessica to the prom." Bella informs me.

"That's great, Jess! How did he do it?"

"He just asked. I mean, would it have killed him to do a little something? Like donuts or chocolate?"

"Well, I'm happy for you." I tell her. The three of us make our way to the cafeteria, but there are students all gathered in a crowd outside, all clamoring for a look to whatever spectacle is within.

"Don't tell me there's a food fight." I groan.

"Probably a prom-posal. Come on, let's go!" Jess says animatedly, tugging me along behind her. The second we get inside, she drops my hand and steps aside. I look at her in confusion until she points in front of me.