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Chapter 15

Jake swung into the driveway and came to a screeching halt. He flung the door open just in time for Hannah to throw herself into the passenger seat and slam the door shut. The air was tense, and Jake hadn't been able to go far which he took as indicative of how well her talk with Tomas had gone.

He knew what her answer would be before he could even ask, but he had to try anyway. That's what family is for, "Wanna talk about it?"

She stared straight ahead, her only focus was the road ahead of them, "No."

"You have to and we both know it," Jake and Hannah had been through this many times, although their roles were usually switched.That's because Jake was always falling over the edge of a small cliff while Hannah constantly teetered on the verge of falling off a larger one. "Nothing good will come from keeping it in."

"Shut up."

"I deal with my problems with a few too many drinks and you like keep all of it inside. It's the way we cope, the way we try to numb our problems," He glanced at her through the mirror, knowing she was looking at it. "We both know it doesn't work. No matter how much we try, we need to deal with our shit the right way."

"Jake, I don't feel like talking about it."

"No, you need to talk about it now. If I give you an hour, a day, or a week you'll have pushed the problem so far down that you're numb to it. You do that you know," He pulled onto their grandmother's street, parking on the curb.

Before Hannah could get out of the car, Jake locked the doors, "What are you doing?"

"Tell me what happened. Now."

~~~~~~

Olivia's painting continued to be a source of stress for her. No matter what she tried, nothing was right. Her latest assignment was a piece of her choice and while most of her class had chosen to work on their computers, she wanted to work on a canvas.

"Come one Olivia, let's go."

Laura lounged on one of the work tables, playing on her phone. Olivia had promised her that they would go over their transportation to prom. They had to book something soon and they hadn't decided what they were taking, Laura wanted a limo and Olivia wanted a trolley.

"I need to at least get started on this," She took a step back and showed Laura the empty canvas. She had taped several rough sketches around it, hoping something would inspire her. "Which one do you like? The sooner I figure this out, the sooner we can get back to planning for prom."

"Whatever," Laura walked over to the canvas and observed the sketches. Olivia had done them during detention the other day. They were all good, she had no idea what Olivia wanted however, so she just pointed to one, "How about that one?"

"You like that one?" Olivia looked over it again, it was an okay landscape, but it wasn't what she would have chosen.

"No, but staring at it is pointless." She grabbed Olivia's hand and led her out of the classroom. "We need to figure out how we're going to get to prom."

"It's a little late for that." Someone behind them said.

The two turned around and found Tomas standing behind them. It had been about a week since the day Laura had tried to kiss him and in that week, the two had grown a lot closer. He sat with them at their table, ignoring the looks Hannah and Jake shot him throughout the lunch period.

Every day he walked Laura to her class after lunch, and hung out with them after school. He had even picked Olivia up one day when Laura needed to get to yoga. Olivia had detention for ditching class, it was her first infraction so she only had to stay back for an hour. No big deal.

What was a big deal, was the drama surrounding Tomas and Hannah. Rumors spread like wildfire that Hannah had rebuffed Tomas' attempts at a relationship and he had left the friend group for good. Whether or not that would prove true remained to be seen, even I don't know. I hope that's not the case, Hannah, Tomas, and Jake were always such good friends.

Like I told B, I only know what happens until Prom, well the day of Prom. The last thing that I know for sure happens is that Olivia and Jake kiss.

Oops, spoiler alert.

You know what, it's not like no one guess that was going to happen. It's obvious, they are our romantic leads and it wouldn't make sense if they didn't have a kiss somewhere in this story. I personally would have thought they'd wait until prom night, but that's just me.

"Tommy!" Laura threw herself into his arms, she hadn't yet abandoned the idea that he could fall for her. She was aware of his feelings for Hannah, she knew that he had been rebuffed by Hannah the very day he avoided her kiss. Of course she knew. "How are you?"

"Good," He let her down on her feet. As the week passed, he grew to like the girl more and more, though not as much as he like her friend. "Like I said before, there is no way you guys are going to get a limo or trolley. Every other school in the surrounding area has prom the same day we do, everything has already been booked."

"What?" Olivia turned and looked at her friend, the same friend who was supposed to have already booked their ride. Laura had thought it was one of the least important things on her Prom list. Looks like she was wrong. "How are we going to get to Prom now. There is no way we're taking your car Laura. We're supposed to take our photos at the park and then pre-game before Prom."

"Ugh, and there is no way either of our parents will drive us if they think we've been drinking. Plus, I don't want to be the loser whose parents drop them off at Prom."

"There's nothing wrong with being dropped off at Prom by your parents." Olivia argued, "But I agree. I don't want to our parents to drive us."

"Well," Tomas had a really good idea, one that would work in both his and their favor, "You could ride with me?"

"What?"

"In my limo, I'm still riding to Prom with Hannah and Jake. We already put the deposit down and Hannah paid in full, so there's no way we can back out. My name is the one we put down because I was already eighteen when we booked it. I doubt either of them would mind splitting it five ways instead of three. It'd also mean that I don't have to be alone in a limo for half an hour with the two of them."

"What about Cheryl?" Olivia asked fiddling with her hands.

She was a part of their group, and Olivia doubted she wanted her there. Then again, Tomas had said it was only Jake and Hannah in the limo with him.

"She's going with some lacrosse player, I don't know his name. His parents insisted on getting the two of them their own limo so she had to back out. She'll be meeting us at Prom and the two are sitting at our table."

"Our table?" Olivia and Laura had been put in for random assignment. Most of Laura's other friends had left when she and Sam broke up.

"I almost forgot. I talked to someone on class council and had you two moved to our table," Tomas hated to be the bearer of bad news, but he felt bad keeping it from them, "Your ex is apparently good friends with one of the people in charge of seating and they decided to put you by the serving doors with that group that gets high under the bleachers during fourth period."

"What an asshole." Olivia knew that the next time she saw him, she was going to break his face. He deserved it for everything he had done. "Thanks Tomas."

"No problem, you guys certainly beat sitting next to the class president drone on about how she got into four of the ivys and how successful she's going to be after high school. Trust me, you guys are doing me a huge favor."

"Well no matter who is doing who a huge favor," Olivia nudged him a little, "We're both super grateful and I'm happy we became friends. Even if you're graduating soon, you're a lot of fun to be around."

"Thanks."

The bell rang so Laura stepped in between the two, not liking that Tomas wasn't paying her attention, "Well that's one less thing on our list of things to do for Prom. And at least the ride there is going to be interesting, even Prom itself sucks."