A puzzled smile becomes a deep one as he walks toward the car, and he’s shaking his head. He knows it’s me now. And then he’s singing! Okay, that’s stealing my thunder a little, but let’s go with it.

I step out of the car and walk toward him, both of us singing now. Instinctively, we keep our voices soft, so they don’t float down the hill to campus, but we sound beautiful together. And then Chaz starts spinning, arms out, during the synthesizer bridge, and I do, too. We are laughing and singing, and the stars are shining, and it’s one of the most romantic moments of my entire existence and now is the time.

The music is fading, the last synth riff fading to a single note on the guitar. I take his hand. He looks so surprised (the benefit of never having heard of promposals).

“You light me up, Chaz. Will you go to prom with me?”

Crickets.

Literal crickets. Noisy, insistent, ignorant crickets heckling me as the silence stretches between us.

“Oh, I already said I was gonna go stag with Ernie.”

Leeza’s stupid plan has spread like wildfire before me. Does no one care about romance at all? What is wrong with everyone?

“Oh … okay …” I can feel my cheeks burning. Why can’t Chaz take advantage of the opportunity right in front of him?

He sees my face and does, swear to god, a pearl clutch. “No, Weese, don’t look that way. I … no one, no boy, has ever asked me before. I didn’t think anyone would dare.” His violet eyes are so tender. He reaches for my face, both soft hands cupping it. “You are so sweet.”

I’m so confused. Are we about to kiss? Or is he letting me down easy? (And if I’ve been doing this all for him, why are my feelings hurt?)

He drops the hands. “We can all just go together, and I’ll still know you asked. Is that okay? Or …”

I’m going to try and take comfort that he’s not rejecting me so much as honoring his word to Ernie, who has gone from Gale warning to Spoiler in less than a week, but this is so not how I expected things to go.

“Sure.” Do I sound convincingly chill? I can’t tell. “It’ll be fun.” Apparently, I am not selling this because he’s wearing a full “I’m sorry” face. I do a little spin. “But my look is going to crush both of yours.” He laughs, and I take my cue to turn off the car lights.

Of course, Buckman appears and ruins what’s left of the vibe. “What are you doing up here?”

Dammit, now I have to produce invisible decorations.