Chapter Twenty-One

So now that I had a date to prom and the prom room itself was mostly set up, I could envision the night with Anna by my arm. We needed to think about decorating ourselves and not the school of the week leading up to Valentine's Day or the prom itself. We needed prom attire. Outfits that complimented each other. A theme. The only problem with that was we spent all our creative juice on planning prom, Sabrina and Parker's campaign for prom queen's and Anna's prom proposal. I had nothing left to tap into. All that was left was a desire for the prom date to pass us by.

We sat in the kitchen of the Jenkin's house early in the morning of Saturday, debating on how we would go about sorting ourselves out for prom. Anna set up a whiteboard and jotted down the word Prom in big letters that nearly took up the entire surface, not leaving much room to throw up ideas – which I think was the subconscious way of herself pointing out the obvious.

We had none. Anna drew a swirly bubble around it, and still, nothing came to mind.

Anna left the whiteboard sitting up against the fruit bowl in the middle of the island and mimicked me by pressing her cheek against the counter and stared into space – which happened to be next to me, so we both stared into space while having each other's faces as the blurry background.

"Everyone's going to expect greatness from us," she whispered.

"We can't always deliver."

"How about we wear big nappies. That's it."

"It's not Halloween," I argued.

"Everyone's going to go like Cupid or have some arrows and hearts. We can't go with any plain old clothes, Sam."

"I know that, but nappies scream I have no bladder control. Stay well away from me."

"Or they'll think we're the original cupids and worship us."

"Do we really care what other people think?"

Anna squinted her eyes. "If no one cared what other people thought of them, we'd have no prom at all."

That was true. "Let's have no prom at all then."

"Please don't tell me this is a new brain blast technique?" Sabrina wandered into the room, sitting on the opposite side to us.

"We're blocked," Anna explained.

"Aw, my poor babies, all burned out," Sabrina crooned, reaching over the counter to pat both of our heads.

"That's it. Cancel prom," I said, leaning into Sabrina's hand, arching my neck like a cat. "Take down the voting system. Call up the cat shelter and tell them we're not helping their sick kitties anymore."

"On it," Anna said, whipping out her phone.

In Sabrina's attempt to grab the phone, she managed to lay flat on her stomach on the island counter. She flipped onto her back and held Anna's phone up in the air for her to skim through. "You know what you both need? Naps. Go take one. I don't trust you not to destroy everything, and you've built."

Anna closed her eyes, cheek still pressed into the counter. "We'll skip prom, Sam??"

"Sounds good."

"We can watch a movie about prom."

"No, because I'll be mad that the story arcs will show nothing about how much effort is put into the prom – those characters won't even have names never mind the credit."

"If you're complaining about people not appreciating you, we literally threw you a party," Sabrina pointed out.

"That was Sam's idea. Emotional labour fell to her to tell you what to do."

"Fine. Here's what you're going to do." Sabrina hopped off the counter and stood behind us, placing her hand over our necks like we were cats ready to be carried by the scruff of our necks. "I'll take Sam outfit shopping, Parker will take you, Anna, and your clothes will be coordinated and at the same time – Sam can choose for me, and Anna you can choose for Parker. It'll end up being a surprise for each other's dates. Keeping the magic alive. Maybe you need something left as a surprise so you can look forward to something you had no input in."

Anna inched her hand into the space between us on the table. "I'm in."

I placed mine over hers. "Alright . . ."

"Tone down the enthusiasm." Sabrina grabbed and rattled her keys in the air. "Come on, Sam, no time like the present."

"What did I just agree to?" I muttered, standing up.

"Have fun – I'm going to take a nap now." Anna yawned. "Don't kill each other. Or kiss each other. Or anything gross."

"Anna," Sabrina warned.

"I'm joking! Look at you two going off on a playdate. I'm happy. Go, do your thing."

I shared a weirded-out expression with Sabrina and followed her out to her car. "Did she call it a playdate?"

Sabrina winced. "She did."

"Maybe we should get nappies."

"Shut up and buckle up," she said through a laugh.

I did as I was told and buckled up and it strange being in the passenger seat next to Sabrina. It was usually Anna here and me at the back.

Out of nowhere, Sabrina took out her usual flask and planted it between us in the cupholder.

"I was literally in the kitchen with you, and you didn't have that with you."

"I made it upstairs." She nodded at it. "If you want some, it's there. But if you spill it, I'm not giving you my jacket to cover up this time."

"Jokes on you, I'm wearing a sweater, and it's not white."

"Yes . . . spilling hot tea on yourself will definitely be a joke on me."

"Uh-huh."

The purple flask was right there for the taking, so I took her up on her offer and took a sip. It was perfect. So perfect that she made faces as I slurped it down. That was the right way to drink tea. Audible noises. Slurping. Appreciation of the warmth. Without saying a word, I made sure that she knew that she made perfection. She may have driven over the speed limit to avoid listening to my gratitude any longer.

As we walked into the mall side by side, it hit me. Anna wasn't there. There was no party to go to, and we weren't drunk. There was no mess to clean up and no one to impress. It was only Sabrina and I, in each other's company, because she wanted to help me.

She could have just as easily have gone with Anna instead and had Parker help me out, but that's not what was happening. Maybe I was thinking too much into it. Maybe it wasn't a big deal.

And then she took my hand in hers, and at my prolonged stare, she said, "My hands are cold. You don't mind, do you?"

Keep calm.

"Nope!" That wasn't calm. That was the opposite of calm. I cleared my throat. "It's all good."

"The tea was supposed to do that job, so it's only right you take over since you drank it all."

Lies. The whole point of flasks was to have a cool exterior and a hot interior. "My hand is all yours."

"Okay, Sam, I didn't request ownership, I'm only borrowing the warmth."

"You're renting out my hand."

"No—borrowing."

"Okay. Borrowing."

"Let's do me first." She had said as soon as she took a step inside a clothes store.

"Little risky, don't you think?"

"Head out of the gutter."

"I gutter a great dress." I presented a random piece from a hanger. Sabrina took it from my hand and looked it over. "Wow, you like it?"

"It's the ugliest dress I've ever seen in my life."

"Really?"

"It's perfect for you."

Smacking my lips together, I took it back from her and hung it up again. We trailed along rows of dresses, really fancy ones dedicated to fancy balls and formal occasions and they were all the same. None of them stood out or caught my eye. But they all found Sabrina's. She had to take them out, one by one to assess every detail, only to hang the ones she held the longest back up with a muttered complaint about it being an eyesore.

When she finally did like one, she didn't find a basket like an average person or held it in her hand; she flung it across our connected hands like it was a clothesline and continued to walk around like that was an expected action. And you know . . . it was convenient, so I threw a couple that I liked as well over our arms, so both dresses for her and me were compiled together in no order.

When we did decide to go into the changing rooms, we stood outside and tried sorting through the clothes. Sabrina held a piece out and asked, "Was this for you or me?"

My eyebrows raised. "I know I didn't pick it out."

"Neither did I."

"Well, one of us is lying."

"I guess we should head into the same stall . . . save time and try them all on."

"Found the liar," I mumbled as she whipped up the curtains and pulled me inside.

She laid the dressed on one half of the chair along the wall, grabbed the first one and pushed it into my chest – while she turned her back to me and started stripping down. Her hips swayed way too smoothly too not be intentional as her jeans cascaded down her legs. She glanced over her shoulder and winked at me. I finally averted my gaze when she started taking off her blouse.

"Pass me the dress, will you?" she said.

"Hmm. Sure."

I stretched my arm forward and waited for her to take it only for her to grip my wrist and lowered it as she stepped closer to me. When my back hit the mirror, she didn't hesitate to press up against me. "You know, Sam," she breathed, lips brushed against mine, "you don't always get the hint."

I dropped the dress as she traced her fingers over my wrist. "Maybe you need to make it more clear."

"Well . . ." She scooped the dress off the ground and quickly threw it on and turned her back to me again. "It takes two people to get into this dress. Zip me up?"

"Fine," I said swallowing. "Fine."

I touched her back, and it sent a thrill to me to see goosebumps appear at my touch. The zip went up slowly, and once it reached the top, we shared a moment of looking at each other dead in the eyes in the mirror and just like that she was spinning back around, threading her fingers through my hair and kissing me. Tortuously slow, she dragged her lips down and over my jaw, forcing my pulse to quicken and my breathing to hitch.

When there were footsteps outside of the changing room, it was only then that she pulled back and we were totally breathless. She brushed a piece of my hair off my face and let her hand linger on my cheek.

"You have this way over me sometimes," she admitted, thumb brushing over my cheek. "We're not going to find a dress with you in here with me. Are we?"

"Probably not," I agreed with a huff of laughter.

"You should go."

"Probably."

"Your lips look thoroughly kissed. It's a good look on you."

"I think that's a record."

"Hmm?"

"Of how many compliments you've ever given me."

She raised an eyebrow and said, "Anna would be so proud. Speaking of, before you go, and you have to, she's asking for proof that we haven't killed each other. Let's send her some."

Hearing the deviousness in her voice, I got nervous.

She brought out her phone and put it into camera mode, lining it up perfectly, so it caught her kissing me on the cheek. She looked down at the picture and shook her head.

"What did she say?" she asked. "Don't kiss each other?"

"Or kill each other," I said.

"Okay hands around my throat."

We sent off a picture of me pretending to strangle Sabrina.

Anna didn't love it.

"Now, kiss me."

"You're crazy," I pointed out.

"You like it." Sabrina puckered her lips playfully. "Now kiss me." I did what I was told and kissed her. "I forgot to take the picture."

"Oh my god, here, I'll do it." I took out my phone and held it out. "You kiss me."

"With pleasure." We kissed again. "Send it to me."

"Okay . . ." I sent it to my latest contacts which was Anna, and then I clicked onto Sabrina's name and sent it to her too. "Happy?"

"Yes. Bring these dresses with you." She had no trouble picking out which dresses belonged to who before shoving my lot into my arms. "Model them for me. Take pictures. I don't want to see you in person until we've left these changing rooms."

"Too hard to resist me?"

"To resist killing you, yes."

"You're one letter off from the appropriate word but okay."

For the next hour or so we tried on different dresses, and Sabrina refused to either let me come in and see her model the dresses, and she also refused to visit me. She did, however, accept the pictures and told me her opinion. It was a little unconventional way of prom dress browsing but it kind of seemed perfect.