Mom’s face softened and her lips formed into a slow smile. “So, I won.”
“No,” I snapped. “We are not going there.”
Dad chuckled as he closed the distance between himself and my mother. “Yeah, you won. We’ll settle up when you’re feeling better. Now, back to bed.”
She sidled past him and walked closer to me. “Flash, love, talk to Mummy.”
I smiled. I loved my mom, but she was currently a walking virus and I wanted none of it. “Mom, you’re sick. You really should go to bed.”
“I’m keeping my distance.” She crossed her arms and leaned against my dad who was now at her back. “Tell me about Tate. What happened?”
Knowing she wouldn’t leave until I filled her in, I spilled the beans. Well, most of them. I filtered quite a bit in my retelling.
“Okay, this ‘thing’ Tate saw and misunderstood, did it have something to do with Madison?”
“Unfortunately, yes. She thinks I slept with her.” I chose to leave out the ramming from behind detail. “But even if I did, I don’t get why she’d care.”
“Honey, she was in love with you.”
I dragged my hands down my face. “Why didn’t she tell me?”
Mom smiled gently, almost like she was staring at a child. “She tried, love.”
I fisted my hands at my side. “Jesus, what the fuck did I miss?”
“Prom,” Dad said.
“What?”
“She wanted you to take her to prom, love,” Mom said.
“She never told me that,” I argued.
“I’m pretty sure she tried, Parker,” Mom countered.
“I’m pretty sure she didn’t.”
“What exactly did she say, Flash?” Dad asked, pointedly.
I closed my eyes and tried not to hit something, remembering my conversation with Tate back in high school and suddenly seeing it through a completely different lens.
––––––––
“Prom’s coming up,”Tate said as we sat at McDonald’s during lunch.
Because we were seniors, we had off-campus privileges and just happened to have the same lunch period so spent pretty much every day eating together either at school or someplace close by.
“So?”
“You don’t want to go?” she asked.
“I honestly haven’t thought about it.”
“What if you found out someone really wanted you to ask them?”
I met her eyes and asked, “What do you mean?”
“What if you found out someone you know, really well, likes you more than a friend and really wants you to ask them to prom?” she pressed. “Like as a proper date.”
