The Past is Only the Future with the Lights On

The following day at lunch, Dahlia and I sat talking about our dresses at our normal table. Mikey and Frank were running late for some reason, so we decided we’d chit-chat to pass the time until they arrived.

After finding my, quite cute, if I do say so myself, dress, I aided D in finding a dress of her own. Hers had polka dots on it as well, only they were much smaller compared to the dots on mine, and white, where as mine were black. And her dress was completely black, with a red strip around the waist of it, and thin black straps that hugged her shoulders perfectly.

“Hey, ladies. Whatcha talking about?” Mikey asked, sitting down across from Dahlia with a tray of food, grabbing a bag of chips and a burrito, which we’d all found out tasted pretty good for coming out of our school’s cafeteria, and handing them over to his girlfriend.

“Our prom dresses,” Dahlia told him, beaming as she unwrapped the foil of her burrito.

He shook his head and mumbled something I didn’t quite catch about ‘girls’ and ‘so typical’? Yeah, something like that.

“Where’s Frank?” I asked Mikey, assuming he would have been with him this whole time.

He looked over at Dahlia for a split second, a smirk plastered on his face. “I don’t know. I haven’t talked to him since this morning.” Why do I get the feeling he’s lying?

It’s easy to tell when Mikey is lying. Mainly ‘cause he makes it so damn obvious. I just couldn’t understand why he was lying about something like this. All I wanted to know was where my best friend was.

“Kelly!” I heard Skyler almost excitedly say from behind me. Just as I was about to turn in my seat to greet him, he was seated on the other side of me.

I laughed at his grinning face. “Hey,” I said returning the smile. This only made his cornered lips raise higher as he swiftly leaned in to give me a quick kiss.

“I feel like such an idiot,” he said, laughing at himself and shaking his head.

Confused, I asked, “Why?”

He stopped laughing to look up at me and smile embarrassingly. Scratching the back of his head, he looked around the room nervously.

“I’ve been so stressed and crapped about graduation coming up, that I’ve totally forgotten about you,” he answered honestly, meeting my eyes once more.

“What are you talking about? I see you everyday, silly. You haven’t forgotten about me in the slightest,” I told him, chuckling.

He shook his head. “Not like that,” he said, only confusing me further. And judging by his laugh, he saw that on my face. So he clarified himself. “I doubt you really expect me to do this, considering we’re dating and all, and you don’t seem like one to go to many school dances, but I was wondering if you would accompany me to prom.” His beaming, almost blinding, smile had returned as he awaited my answer.

He wasn’t as shy to ask me things or talk to me as he once was. But I guess that’s just what happens when you find someone you’re really comfortable with.

I smiled as well. Looks like my money wouldn’t be going to waste after all. However, that does mean I wouldn’t be needing that ‘back-up plan’ anymore. “Even though you don’t seem much of the dancing type either, yes. I will go to prom with you.”

Jeez, how big could this kid’s smile get? I must say, his happiness was rubbing off on me. And that smile certainly was contagious. “You’re so awesome. I’ll talk to you after school, ‘kay?” he asked, receiving a nod from me. Giving me one more kiss, this time a bit longer than the first, he got up and walked away from our table.

Probably smiling like a fat kid in a candy store, I turned back to my friends, noticing it was still the three of us. Only, this time, they’re faces looked somewhat…surprised. And it appeared as if Mikey was slightly pissed or something.

“You guys okay?” I laughed at my friends, their expressions not changing a bit as they continued to stare at me.

I looked down at the food in front of me, which wasn’t much, to escape the eyes of Mikey and D. They were kind of starting to scare me, to be honest. As I did so, I caught something out of the corner of my eye. Something I could easily point out in a crowd of a million. Frank; walking away from our table. Why was he walking towards the exit of the cafeteria? He hadn’t even sat down with us.

Confused, I quickly got up and followed him, calling his name in hopes that he would turn around and talk to me. But he just kept walking. It wasn’t until I’d caught up with him and grabbed his arm that he had stopped walking.

And the sight that was now before me absolutely broke my heart.

Frank looked as if his whole world had just been ruined, his eyes beginning to get glossy.

“Frank…” I said softly. He fixed his stare onto the ground. “Are you okay?” I asked, the answer so obvious.

He scoffed at my question, then looked back at me, boldly nodding his head.

But you know me. I didn’t buy it. “Then why are you leaving?” I continued to question him.

This time he just shrugged.Most of the time Sometimes he could be a real pain in the ass. I really was not in the mood to get in a fight with Frankie at the moment - with it being so close to the end of the school year, who knew how long this one would last - so I settled with trying to start a conversation with him, even though we were still standing in the middle of the cafeteria.

“So what are you up to after school today?” I asked him, and he let out a quiet sigh of relief, most likely for the subject change.

He shrugged once more, scuffing the tip of his dirty white Chuck’s against the linoleum flooring and stuffing his hands in his front pockets.

Uhm…yeah…Now where does the conversation go from here?

“Are you going to prom?”

His whole body went tense as those words left my mouth, only confusing me more. It wasn’t really a big deal if he wasn’t…It’s not like I was going to judge him for not having a date or anything…

Finally, he looked back up at me, his jaw slightly clenched.

“Ya know, I haven’t quite decided yet,” he said, his voice sounding almost mocking and cynical. To be honest, it kind of hurt. He didn’t need to be an ass to me just because something was up with him.

But I tried to brush it off. “You should… I promise to save you a dance,” I smiled, trying to convince him to come.

He gave me a light smile as well, nodding his head before walking right out the door without another word or glance at me.