Page 33 of The Promposal

A few minutes later, he came back out with several bags filled with junk food. He got out his cell phone and started doing something on it.

“Is he texting me?” I asked Ella. “To apologize for his earlier behavior?”

She checked my cell. “Nope. Tilly, he could be doing a thousand things. Watching a video where men injure themselves deliberately. Counting up all the calories in that massive amount of food he just bought. Maybe he’s looking for an address on Google Maps so he knows where to go next.”

“I’ll tell him where he can go,” I muttered. “Because that’s more snacks than just Jake can eat. I’ve seen him when he’s hungry, and it was a little like a starving hippo at the zoo during feeding time, but what he has now seems excessive even for him.”

Jake drove out to the street, and I continued stalking him. Er, vigorously verifying his whereabouts. I gripped the steering wheel tightly. Even though the bigger part of my brain kept reassuring me that he wouldn’t cheat, some smaller panicky part tried to prepare me in case it turned out to be true.

Ella announced, “I’m not really going to prom.”

“What do you mean?” I asked her. “Of course you’re going. You’re head of the prom committee.”

“No, I mean, I am going. Somebody has to make sure everything is perfect. I meant I’m not going to have that going with your boyfriend magical night that I’d always dreamed about.”

My heart squeezed hard inside my chest. I wanted that for her. “But you’ll be there with people who care about you, and that’s better than going with someone who kisses pretentious losers in steak houses.”

“I know. It’s just hard when life happens, and you have to alter your plans. When you realize that things aren’t going to be what you’d hoped they would be.” She seemed a little sad, but definitely more mellow. The candy must have done the trick.

“If we find out Jake is cheating on me, we’ll go together and be each other’s dates.”

“Sounds like an excellent plan B. For now, I just have to keep prom and carry on.”

That made me laugh, something I hadn’t been able to do for a few days what with all my worry and concern and anxiety.

Jake pulled into a parking lot, and I realized that it was for a hospital. I found a parking spot not too far off and watched as he got out of his car and headed to the main entrance, still carrying enough snacks to feed a small country.

“That’s a weird place to meet up with someone,” Ella commented.

Should I follow him inside? How would I explain it if we accidentally ran into him? “Maybe he’s dating a nurse. Or one of those candy strippers in those skank outfits.”

“Candy stripers,” she corrected me. “Not strippers.”

“Same difference.”

“Uh, no. I used to be a candy striper, remember?”

It was probably during that time period where I saw Ella as my stepsister and my enemy, since I was deeply envious of her life. Not so much the volunteering and cleaning parts, but the boy she dated part. “You’re not helping. Jake used to date you. Which means he has a type, and he’s gone back to their spawning ground to find another one, and I’m going to walk in on them kissing in a family restaurant, and then I’ll hyperventilate, and then my panic attack will turn into something worse, and I don’t want to die of a heart attack before I turn nineteen.”

She made a thoughtful face. “If Jake is dating a candy striper, at least she’ll be able to help you when that happens.”

I smacked her on the upper arm and she said “Ow!” and I could tell she was trying not to smile. “Maybe he’s here to see a patient.”

Who would Jake be seeing in the hospital? He would have told me if anyone he knew was sick. “Or date one.” A terrible thought occurred to me. “OMB. What if she’s one of those people dying and her Make-A-Wish dream was to date Jake?”

“Then she won’t be competition for very long.”

“Ella!”

“I’m just saying.”

She took out her phone, which finally had enough juice for her to log on. I sat and pondered my next move. Maybe her earlier suggestion of getting him chipped wasn’t so off base. It had some definite merit.

“What the—”

“What? Do you see Jake with someone?” I looked everywhere, even checking behind me, but he wasn’t anywhere visible.

Then I noticed that Ella was shaking. “Someone ... someone sent Trent a text. They pretended to be me and broke up with him.”

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