At A Game of Chess

I

May 27th. that was the day. 

It was almost time for prom. This was our year. I will ask her to prom and everything will be resolved. All of the silent tension and lingering feelings. 

My plan

To make the biggest prom poster I've ever seen and hang it on the third floor of the school so everyone can see that Melanie is mine. 

Execution

I paid close to a hundred dollars for the student body to make the biggest, most beautiful starry prom poster. My heart skipped a beat when I told them my text, "Melanie, can you be mine for even just one night at prom?" 

My level of desperation soared. The torturous cycle of progressing closer but regressing farther made me like this. For even just one night, I wanted her to acknowledge me. Or even just a few hours, entertain me and make me believe that it was all an illusion. That it wasn't just me. Even if it was at the cost of my pride, dignity, or body. I can put that aside if it was for her.

I took into consideration the poster's extravagance. Hence, I wanted to ask her the day before prom so that it would be the ending show out of all the other pathetic prom proposals. I want it to be marked down in our academic history as the most memorable prom proposal. I want it to stain everyone's minds and bleed into their egos as to how pitiful their proposal was compared to mine. 

Laughable, truly laughable. 

The plan was ready. Everything was put into place. It was all a matter of time now. 

A menace hindered the plan. 

The plan that I meticulously strategized had missed the unaccounted variable. That rook. 

On the day before I planned to ask Melanie, Elsa held out the poster on the third floor of the school asking me in front of everyone, "Hey-arry, Prom would be very boring without you and me. Prom?" 

Melanie was there. Absolutely revolting. 

Without any thoughts, just a blank mind operating in the color red, I stormed out of the building as Elsa held out a bouquet of flowers and a box of chocolates. 

The crowd began booing me down, but I know clear as day that Elsa was pressuring me to agree. I know that she knew it too. 

I ran to the student body room to ask about my poster. I need to propose today. No matter what. 

I saw Mark, a familiar face that worked with the student body. 

He informed me that Elsa found the poster in the student body room. She out-paid the student body to make sure the poster will not be ready. She further paid to make a poster for me that exactly resembled my poster for Melanie. Sickening. 

Infuriated. 

I shouted at them for being imbeciles who were blinded by money. Their corruption had costed me everything. I had lost again. This time, the blow was irreversible, the loss was my king.