Chapters (44)
- Cover
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Books by Julie Murphy
- Back Ad
- About the Publisher
“Oh, hell,” I mutter, because that’s when I know exactly what I have to do. I have to put my money where my mouth is. I have to make these last two weeks of high school the best weeks of high school, and that starts now. I’m going to ask Tucker Watson to prom the moment we get off this stage. I’m not waiting for him to ask me. I’m taking the plunge. I’ll show up in my own damn pumpkin carriage and pick him up. Honestly, I’d do it now with a full audience, but I don’t know who Tucker is out to or if he is at all, so my grand gesture will just have to be 10 percent less grand.
Next is Bekah Cotter, and with a giggle, she says, “I’m going with the best dates a girl could ask for—my best friends, Lilly, Bethany, and Mia.”
“We love you, Bekah!” a small chorus of girls sings from the center of the auditorium.
Beside me Melissa takes the mic as she wipes a sweaty palm down the front of her skirt. “I, uh, wanted to take someone who I’m close with and means a lot to me, so my date for prom is . . .” She gulps so loudly you can hear it in the mic. “Tucker Watson.”
There are a few gasps and awws, but mostly all I can hear is a sudden ringing in my ears.
“I knew it! I knew they would get back together,” someone seated near the stage says.
“That’s what I’m talking about, Tuck!” some guy shouts.
I breathe in. I breathe out. You’re on a stage in front of tons of classmates. This is not the time to freak out. This is not the time to panic. Even though you just found out that the stupid, cute, smart lumberjack boy who’s been leading you on for weeks is going to prom with his ex-girlfriend. Delightful, really.
I allow myself a brief glance over my shoulder, expecting to find Tucker giving me some kind of sign that Melissa has it wrong and that he meant to ask me to prom. He hadn’t gotten around to it yet. There has to be an explanation.
But instead Tucker is looking at Melissa and Melissa is looking at Tucker. He gives her the boyish grin I’ve come to fall so hard for, except this time it’s not meant for me. This time I’m on the outside looking in.
Twenty-Eight
The moment Principal Armstrong takes the stage to dismiss us, I push past the other contestants to get the hell out of there. I had managed to give a quick answer to Millie’s question, saying that I planned to be free and single at prom. Woot.