Page 58 of Operation Prom Date
I dug down deep, pushing the oars through the water as hard as I could, since apparently I was rowing solo the rest of the trip to shore. The burn felt good in a way; it distracted from the other parts of me that felt broken. “I told her we could go, but we’d just be going as friends.”
“How magical for her,” Jaden said.
“You wanna go with her, be my guest.”
“Careful what you say. I tend to take people at their word.”
I dropped the oars and turned to face him. “You like Amber?”
He shrugged. Then he ran a hand over his hair. “I like Amber.”
“You liked Kate, too, before I told you not to bother,” I pointed out.
“Wrong. I said Kate was cute, and you looked like you might rip my head off for it, so I knew something was going on between you. But I like Amber. She and I have been talking a lot during lunch while you stare at Kate and pretend you’re not staring at her.”
I wanted to deny it, but I figured at this point, it didn’t matter. “If you like Amber, and she wants to go with you, I won’t stand in your way. It’d be a relief actually.”
“I’ll ask.” Jaden leaned forward, forearms braced on his knees, making it clear he was about to go all intervention on me. “But you need to talk to your girl.”
“She’s not mine.”
“And whose fault is that? And don’t you dare say Pecker’s. Until you make a move, it’s yours. You have to decide if you can live with that.”
…
For the rest of the day, I couldn’t get Jaden’s words out of my head. I couldn’t help thinking it was too late to do anything now, but if I waited and Kate and I didn’t fix things before we graduated, I’d definitely lose her for good.
For some reason, that brought back one clear detail of Amber’s ranting—somewhere in the mix, she said she’d regretted how things had ended with Kate, because she was an awesome friend, but she didn’t realize how awesome until she was gone.
Mom walked into the kitchen, bringing me back to the present and making me realize water was spilling over the top of my glass, onto the floor. I quickly righted it and sipped at the top while kicking at the puddle to dissolve it—hopefully before Mom noticed.
“Why haven’t you brought Kate over again?” Mom asked as she reached for an apple in the fruit bowl. “I didn’t embarrass you that badly, did I?”
“Kate and I aren’t really…” I let the rest of the sentence drop. Not hanging out with her anymore was hard enough without having to say it.
“That’s too bad. I liked her. It does explain why you’ve been as testy as your father lately.”
“Low blow,” I said.
Mom flashed me her no-nonsense look. “I thought it might be more inspirational.”
Great. Evidently everyone in my life thought I should be with Kate.
If only they could convince her, then we could all be happy.
She’ll be at the race, I bet.
My mind started spinning on what I could say to her. On how to undo the crappy stuff and get back to the good—even if friends were all we could ever be.
I thought of when she’d first explained shipping people to me, and an idea started taking shape.
I just couldn’t decide if it was totally genius, or totally insane.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Kate
I debated skipping the race part of the festival and sticking to the tented booths with crafts, handmade jewelry, and artery-clogging food. The occasional glimpses of Cooper that I caught during school made it clear that seeing him inflicted pain, even if from afar.
