Social Norms

Chapter 7

It's March 15, the Ides of March, the day Julius Caesar was stabbed in the back by his best friend. 

Promposals have been going on all week. No one has promposed to me, although I wouldn't want anyone to anyway because the prom is on the same night as the Twenty One Pilots concert. What happens next is something that I absolutely should have predicted would happen, but for some reason, I did not. 

Ryder comes by my locker with a huge smile on his face. "Guess what? Taylor just promposed to me! It was so sick! She had the whole dance team come to first period and do a dance. They wore their uniforms and everything." Then, he shows me the whole thing on his phone. 

It's actually very cute, but I just can't be happy.

He looks at me, "What's the matter?" I say, "Ryder, the prom is on the same night as the Twenty One Pilots show. You said you would go with me." He looks earnest, "I'm sorry, Pepple. I'm really sorry. I want to go with you. I do. But, this is prom. It's the only chance I will ever have to go to prom, and I'm going with Taylor Buchanna! We'll go see Twenty One Pilots another time, okay?" 

I shrug, "I guess." He says, "I think Parker and Annie are going. You can just go with them." I just shrug again. I know that's true, and they won't care if I go with them, but I also don't want to feel like a third wheel on their date. Ryder puts his hand on my shoulder, "Please don't be mad at me, Pepple. I won't be able to live with myself." I smile weakly, "I'm not mad, Ryder. I hope you guys have a great time at prom. Don't worry about me. I'll figure it out."

***

After school, Riley comes by my locker and says, "Hey, Kristina, I'm getting a ride over to Laken Jones's house today from her mom. We're going to test out some new cookie recipes we found." I look at her suspiciously, "Does Mom know about this?" She gets out her phone and shows me the text from Mom telling her that she can go to Laken's house. 

Logan walks up to us just then. "Okay," I say to her. She smiles at Logan, "You'll have to do without my awesome company today, Logan. I've got plans." He smiles at her, "Oh my! How will I ever live without your awesome company?" She shrugs, "I don't know, you probably won't," and leaves.

Ever since the conversation I had with Ryder in my room the day after the poker party, I've tried to distance myself from Logan. I still give him rides every day, but I just make sure to avoid doing anything flirty with him. I can tell that he knows what I'm doing because he doesn't try to flirt with me anymore either. We have officially friendzoned each other, and it makes me so sad. 

As we're walking out to the parking lot, he says, "Hey, do you want to come over to my house to work on the project?" I shrug, "Yeah, okay." I've finished the survey. All he has to do is look it over, give his stamp of approval, and email it to all of the seniors.

***

When we get to his house, I realize that it's been forever since I've actually been inside. It looks like I remember, small but very neat and tidy, with lots of Ikea furniture everywhere. He says, "Shall I give you the grand tour?" I smile, "Sure." 

He waves to the kitchen. "This is the galley. You can see that it's elegantly outfitted with a quaint breakfast nook." Then he points to the living room, "Here, we have the great room, which is just perfect for cozying up with a good book on a long winter's night." I'm laughing now. Then, he shows me the bathroom. "Here, we have the lavatory. As you can see, we had the bidet removed. We don't want to live like filthy French people, after all." 

He leads me down the hall. "This is the first bedroom, belonging to the young lady of the house. She is currently off at Stanford, pursuing her studies in macroeconomics. Next, we have the bedroom belonging to the matriarch of the house, and last, we have the bedroom belonging to the man of the house."