Mistakes I’ve Made by Jordan Marie
12Reed
Six Months Later
“Hey, Reed.”
“Hey, Chas,” I respond when I see Chasity Newberg walking toward me. Chas is a junior. I’ve seen her around, mostly because she dated Mitch for a while—although I’m not sure you can call what the two of them do together dating. Still, she’s nice enough. She’s got a rough home life like Mitch and I do, so I figured the two of them bonded over that shit.
“I was wondering if you’d like to go to the prom with me.”
Surprise and uneasiness hit me all at once. I want to go to the senior prom. I don’t have a ticket since I’m only a junior and so far, Callie hasn’t asked me. If anything, the two of us seem to have moved more firmly into the friend zone. We’ve even started dating other people. I did it out of desperation, hoping to spark some semblance of jealousy inside of Callie.
It didn’t work.
“I thought you and my brother were seeing one another?” I remind her. “It’d be kind of weird if you and I go out.”
“Nah, Mitch and I are just buddies who scratch an itch from time to time. You know how it is,” she says matter-of-factly.
I kind of smile. Chas kind of says it like it is and doesn’t give a damn what others think. I actually like that about her. Other than Callie, most girls play some kind of role and never turn out to be who they say they are.
“I don’t know. Can you let me think about it? I’d like to make sure Mitch is cool with it.”
“Sure, but I don’t see why he cares. He’s going to the prom already.”
“He is?” I ask, because this is the first that I’m hearing about it.
“Yeah, he told me that him and Callie Street are going together,” she says and my heart slams in my chest painfully hard before it feels like the bottom falls out beneath me.
“I…didn’t know,” I respond when I finally find my voice. Still, it feels like my throat is full of sand and glass when I force myself to speak.
“Yeah, but you can talk to him about it. I just didn’t want to go alone like some kind of freak.”
“Cool. I’ll let you know after sixth period.”
“Sounds good,” she says. Then, she puts her hand on my shoulder and smiles at me, her eyes dancing in a way that I understand what she’s about to say—even before she says it.
“I think you and I can have a real good time, Reed.”
I exhale, unsure how to answer. “I’ll, uh, get back with you on it, Chas.”
“Don’t wait too long,” she says, walking off. Then, she stops and turns around. “Oh, and Reed, come by tonight and I’ll give you a preview of the fun we’ll have together at prom,” she says, then turns away again. I turn back around without answering. Instead, I take off walking down the opposite way. I’m not thinking about her offer or anything to do with Chas.
I’m too busy wondering when the fuck Callie was going to tell me she was going out with Mitch.