The Prom Queen's Date

Chapter Eight

After dinner, I slipped under the fence between my house and the Jenkin's to join Anna in the hammock. But when she saw me, she jumped up in a raw panic before I could even think about stretching out beside her.

She stole Sabrina's car and sped to the nearest shop to get supplies for prom planning and 'date equipment' whatever the hell that was. This left me in the Jenkin's back yard and in the hammock all by myself as I waited for her return.

The patio door to the garden slid open. I saw Sabrina's grey sweatpants first and then the same black and large t-shirt she put me in the night of the party.

"Anna, I'm making some tea, do you want any?" she called out while staring down at her phone.

"Anna can't come to the phone right now. She's driving."

Sabrina shifted her attention from her phone to me and walked around the pool and across the yard until she stood in front of me with her hands jammed into her pockets.

The silence stretched on as I rocked back and forth in the hammock, and she didn't even blink. They unintentionally hypnotized me so that my eyes remained open for far too long as well. Clearing my throat, I forced my eyelids to close at least the once.

"You're going to stand there and stare at me, saying nothing?" I asked. When she did nothing but rock back and forth on her heels with a subtle eyebrow raised, I sighed. "Sabrina. Seriously. Stop looking at me."

"I'm looking to see if you've suffered from brain damage. No visible indents . . ." She stepped forward and brushed my hair out from my face. "Nothing here either."

" . . . Do I even want to know why?"

"I have detention for the next two weeks."

"Congratulations? That was our plan?"

"What was my other condition, Sam?" she asked and but didn't let me answer because she placed a finger over my lips, muffling my words. "It seems you have short term memory loss because I remember explicitly saying that I get to choose your date to prom."

I shoved her hand away and relaxed back into the hammock with my hands behind my head. "I haven't forgotten, Sabrina."

"Well, Samantha, is it true that you have a date tonight?"

"Don't think that's any of your business, to be honest," I said.

"With Maisie Adams?"

"Lalala," I sang, covering my ears.

"Don't ignore me," she said. "Samantha."

I couldn't even remember the last time she'd called me by my full name. "Fine. Yes. God. I have a date tonight. Your sister is helping me get ready after we do some prom prep. Are you happy?"

Sabrina grabbed hold of the hammock and climbed in the opposite side, so she faced me. "Maisie Adams?" she repeated.

"Yeah. Maisie. What's wrong with Maisie?"

"You should be asking what isn't wrong with Maisie." Sabrina scowled. "This is a prank, isn't it? You know who she isn't, don't you?"

"Name one thing wrong with Maisie."

"She has pink hair."

" . . . We both know she has awesome hair."

"Have you seen her twitter? It's been a shrine to you for the last twenty-four hours. That's not normal."

"Oh no, a teenage girl posts about her feelings online. How out of line!"

"There's something off about that girl. I have an excellent radar for that sort of thing. Trust me. You don't know her."