“So, Violet.”
“So, River.”
“Since we’re both secretly dorks in disguise, how about we go to prom together?”
A laugh burst out of her. “Oh sure. Why not?” She glanced at me, and her smile fell. “You’re serious?”
“As the plague. We’d just go as friends.”
“Don’t you have a gaggle of girls waiting for you to ask them out?”
I nearly laughed out loud at how Holden would react to that question.
“Ha, no. Honestly, I don’t even want to go—”
“Way to sell it to me, Whitmore.”
I laughed. “Sorry. I mean, Idowant to go, for my parents’ sake. Dad keeps asking which girl I’m bringing, and Mom loves you. We should go. It’s our senior year.”
Violet pretended to think. “I seem to remember a certain other dance that you were supposed to take me to and thendidn’t.”
“I know. I’m so sorry. But this is how I make it up to you.”
“I suppose,” she said and was quiet for a moment. “I’ll go to the prom with you. But only as friends.”
Of course only as friends. Our awkward tumble in my bed made it painfully clear I had nothing else to give, and I wasn’t about to toy with Violet’s heart. My douchebaggery had its limits.
“Just friends.” I grinned and touched a small cut on my lip. “Safer for me that way.”
Violet rolled her eyes. “I’m never going to live this down, am I?”
I nudged her arm. “It’s already forgotten.”
A short, comfortable silence settled between us, and I felt the integrity and honesty of this girl. Violet was smart. Kind. She wanted to be a doctor. You could tell things to a doctor, and they couldn’t repeat them. Like a priest. When I told her my football secret, I felt it in my bones that she’d keep it safe.
If I told her about Holden…
“Violet?”
“Yeah?”
“About homecoming…”
“What about it?”
The words were there, ready to fall. I sighed them out instead. There was nothing left between Holden and me except the constant ache of missing him. Like a low-grade fever that never went away. He’d kicked me out of his life, and mine was on track with iron rails, no way to change course.
“I’m sorry I ditched you, Violet.”
She frowned. “You’ve already apologized a hundred times.”
“I know. I just… I kind of miss you.”
“You do?”
“I know we never talked much, but when we did, it was…good. Do you think we could keep talking? Now and then?”
She smiled. “I’d like that.”
