Unspoken│Roman Godfrey

iv. sorta ironic

"So? Are you going?" 

"I don't know, Rachel..." 

"Seriously? Stevie, you have to go. Everyone is. You don't wanna be that one girl who stays home the night of a school dance." 

"Someone just died, Jackie." I countered. Jackie and Rachel were definitely headstrong, but it was hard to believe they couldn't see where I was coming from. 

"That was weeks ago. You need this just as much as I do, trust me." Jackie replied, putting her warm hand over my cold one. I sighed as she held eye contact with me. In all honesty, the last thing I felt like doing was going to a school dance. 

"What are we talking about?" Jackson asked as he set his lunch tray on the cafeteria table beside mine. Mikey, Jonathan, and Tommy sat down in various empty seats at the table. 

"Just trying to convince your lover to come to the dance tonight." Jackie said with a smile. I grimaced. 

"Gross. Don't call me his 'lover.'" 

"You're not coming?" Jackson asked, turning to face me with a shocked expression. 

"Oh, she's coming." Rachel cut in. 

"I don't know, Jax. I'm just not feeling it tonight." I spoke. Jackson looked at me disapprovingly. 

"Come on, Stevie. It'll be fun. I'm sure Indie's going, you can watch her."

"Do it for me?" Rachel asked. "I did help plan it, after all." Recently, she'd made immense efforts to perfect her college resume, meaning she'd joined the planning committee and planned on running for school president. I glanced around at everyone's expectant faces, their eyebrows raised in anticipation. I sighed. 

"Fine. I'll go. But only because Indie's going." Jackie and Rachel squealed with excitement while Jackson, Tommy, Johnathan, and Mikey gave me nods of approval. 

"Great." Jackie said with a clap of her hands. "Since Rachel's set on going as Cruella De Vil, I was thinking you and I could go as a devil and angel." 

"Isn't that kind of simple?" I asked. Jackie was always the type to go all-out for holidays. 

"Not if we're the ones wearing it." She said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "I still have my costumes from when my sister and I went a few years ago, so we're all set." I forced a smile at her words, teeth and all. 

"Great. Can't wait." 

--------------------

Today marked our first official cheer practice without Brooke. Everyone on the team, including our coach, wore solemn expressions despite the point of cheerleading being to be cheerful. 

Jackie stood in front of me as we warmed up with our usual stretches, talking her head off about some guy in her pre-calculus class. 

"I'm telling you, Stevie. We had this moment, where he- oh my god." 

"What?" 

"Don't look now, but Roman Godfrey is looking directly over here." Of course, I turned my head around to see none other than Roman Godfrey walking alongside- Peter? 

It made no sense, I'd never seen the two so much as look at each other, but there they were, walking side-by-side as if they'd been best friends for years. And Jackie was one-hundred-percent correct because both Roman and Peter were looking directly at us.