I don't know what gets in to me, but I suddenly turn to Lucas. "Lucas, will you-"
"Go to the dance with me, will you, Lukey?" Missy interjects.
I stare, gaping. She puts on a sugary-sweet, smug little smile. I glare.
Lucas looks from one of us to the other.
"Yes, I will go."
"With who?" Missy asks.
"With-"
(END OF CH. NINE)
"Maya."
Missy gasps. I gasp. We turn to each other. Missy reaches out and hugs me.
Wait, what?
She pulls away. "Good job, Lucas!" She cheers, and they high five.
Once again, what?
"What's going on here?" I ask.
Missy laughs some more. Lucas looks so happy he could explode.
"Maya, Missy never wanted to go with the dance with me! I wanted to go with you, but since it's girls ask guys, I couldn't do anything about it. I was sitting in front of you and Phyllis on the subway, and I heard what you said about me. I knew I had to show you how I felt somehow. So, I asked Riley to do her big ask here and now, so maybe you'd get confidence from her. And Missy-"
Missy grins.
"She was just backup in case Riley didn't show up. She'd ask me, and hopefully that would make you so jealous that you would ask too."
I blush. And smile like a maniac. And, in my head, I do a Riley scream of "Yay!"
"Lucas, I-"
He silences me with a huge hug. I wrap my arms around his strong back, feeling the same comfort and warmth as I did that day walking home in the snow.
"Everything you did," I say, my voice slightly muffled by his jacket. "It was all because you wanted me to ask you. Well, thank you. Thank you so much."
"You're welcome so much," he replies matter-of-fact-ly.
Ten football players leap over the Harley Keiner's janitor bucket as they head to the locker rooms.
"They sure are treated like lords at this school," Lucas whispers to me.
It takes me a second, but I realize that he's talking about the song we first sang "together." It's weird how it keeps coming up in everything these past few days. Almost as if someone wrote it out that way...
I tell Lucas this, and he laughs at the prospect. We laugh and laugh and hug, caught up in the wonderful winter wonderland of just the two of us.
A/N: SO SORRYYYYY GUYS! This was supposed to be up on the 20th, but I didn't finish in time. So, today you get two chapters!
