Sugarcane Chronicles Volume I: One and Lonely (ryden)

Kelly

Mom wouldn't stop talking about prom throughout dinner and was already planning where I would buy my suit. I was excited, of course, but it was months away. I didn't even know the week, but Mom was already planning what limo company we would use (I wondered if she was so excited because none of my sisters were really all that into prom and I turned out to be gay (she really liked planning things for some reason)).

Dad seemed indifferent, as he always did, and left us to go channel surf until he went to bed.

The next day, I checked the date of prom so I could give it to Mom and went over to the Ross-Smith-Stump house to listen one of Ryan's albums. I noticed he had changed the framed picture on his desk of him and Daniel to the blink tickets and the date looked too familiar.

I nudged Ryan, who was next to me, putting the record in.

He jumped and cursed under his breath. "You almost made me scratch the record!" he exclaimed, placing it delicately on the turntable.

"Sorry," I said. "But look at the date on this!" I pointed to the tickets.

"What about it?" he asked, pushing imaginary hair from his face (he had gotten in the habit of doing that when it was long (and it was adorable)).

"It's the same day as prom," I said. "And they're at the same time; we can't go to both."

"What are we gonna do?" he asked, leaning on his desk.

"That's what I was wondering," I sighed. "My mom is so excited for prom, I just..."

"But seeing blink is kind of like a once in a lifetime opportunity. For me at least."

"Yeah... And I spent a lot of money on those tickets..."

He locked his eyes on me. "So...?"

"We gotta go see blink," I said. "But I still feel bad about skipping out on prom. It like skipping out on Mom."

Ryan giggled. "That rhymed."

I rolled my eyes at him. "Turn it into a song later, Ryan. Let's listen to your album."

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A week(?) passed and I was still caught between making Ryan happy and making Mom happy. I'd already asked myself what would make me happy, and I decidedly would be equally unhappy doing either.

It was a Saturday morning and I was dreaming that blink preformed at prom and Ryan was crying because they pulled him up on stage to sing with them and he showed them his tattoo and it was great. I was woken up by a knock on my door. I grumbled and rolled over, pulling the covers over my head. I kind of regretted it because I had morning breath.

"Brenny-Bear, it's getting a little late," Mom said. It didn't really sound like Mom, but that may have been the sleepiness. I grumbled again and rubbed my eyes. The door closed and I knew that if I didn't get up, Dad would come up and pour ice water on me (no, seriously. He did that once (never again)).

I went into the bathroom (for bathroom reason) and rinsed with some mouthwash (because my mouth tasted horrible) and went down stairs (I had also slept in my pajamas pants (it got kind of cold that night)). There was someone sitting at the table across from Mom, facing away from me. This mysterious person had black, long-ish hair that looked really greasy. I furrowed my eyebrows and went to the fruit bowl to grab a banana or something (I didn't. I just got a bottle of water from the fridge (my throat was really dry)).

"Who's this?" I asked, taking a sip from my water then putting the cap back on it and setting it on the counter.

"I can't believe you, Brenny. Don't even remember you're old bestest friend of all time," they turned around and I gasped.