Keep Your Head Up

The following days were nice, John and I hanged out and took care of my garden almost perfectly. During a calm afternoon, my mother wasn’t home and both our little brothers played games outside, John asked me about school, more specifically about prom.

“Are you going?” He placed his hands on the dirt trying to make it clean around the petunias and tulips.

“Probably” I replied, handing him a water bottle.

“Who’s your prom date?” He smirked.

“Lisa” I chuckled, handing him a tiny shovel.

“I don’t believe you”

“Why not?”

“No one asked you?” He asked looking surprised.

“No!” I said a little too loud. I grabbed some tools and made my way to the garage where I’d put them back on their places.

I heard steps behind me when I was trying to reach the top shelve.

“Here” he took the tools from my hand “Let me help you”

“Are you mad at me for asking that?” John’s eyes looked straight at me.

“No, I’m not mad oh my God!” I replied, turning away.

“You look a bit upset” He continued “I can’t believe no one asked you, morons” He said almost as he was talking to himself.

“No one asked Lisa either so we’re going together” I explained. “It’s not a big deal, we’re planning on going to my lake house and spend there the weekend.”

“Really? That’s nice. Do you have a dress already?” He looked insanely interested, we sat on the tool counter.

“I do, my mother asked her friend to make it for me.”

He looked sad and stopped talking, then he just got up from the counter and his eyes shone so bright like he had small lights on his tiny irises.

“What if I took you to your prom?” He asked with an exciting voice. I bet John was a morning person, he always looked and sounded so enthusiastic about things, he’d wake up with a smile on his face and he would sing in the shower and be completely and blindly happy, he reminded me of his mother.

“O’Callaghan, you are asking me to a prom on a school you don’t even go to?” I asked him. I noticed that lately I used to answer questions with more questions, I wondered why, how ironic.

“Hells yeah Phillips”

“Why?” I insisted.

“Because you’re my friend and I want you to go with a normal date to your senior prom.”

“Are you trying to say Lisa isn’t normal to take to prom? Seriously, what if we just want to go together because we’re best friends and we just want to be together the entire prom night?” I let this out so fast he looked confused.

“No, Breana, I wanna take you, I have a tux and all, we could get Lisa a date as well” He paused to let out a sigh and placed his hands on his upper hips “And I’m almost sure you both aren’t going together because you chose to” His voice lowered volume with that last part.

“John are you being serious? Me, with you?” I wasn’t really taking him seriously.

“Yes Breana, please? I rushed my graduation and I’m not going to prom on my school back in Tempe, and I have a good friend in your school and we’re planning getting taco bell and play videogames during prom night, and now I just think we should go with you.”

“Who is your friend?”

“Kennedy Brock, he told me he takes Spanish and English with you.”

Kennedy Brock was a tall, brunette boy with pretty teeth and cute green eyes. He had a really sweet voice and during freshman year he played a song on the Christmas party, it made everyone cry.

“And he’d go with Lisa?”

“Yes, he totally would”

“Is this on John O’Callaghan?” I was worried he was joking.

“It’s on Breana Phillips.”

I rolled my eyes at his smirky smile and he jumped onto a hug, I awkwardly took it. Our dirty hands touched each others backs and pushed me into him really tight.

“John” A thin voice was heard, Shane appeared from the outside of the garage “Mom is home, I’m leaving okay?” He stepped slowly away, waiting for an answer while John let go of me.

“Okay little man, tell her I’ll be there in a little while” John said at the little boy who disappeared from sight in just a few seconds.

“I’ll talk to Lisa and I’ll let you know something tomorrow alright John?”

“Alright”

He went away to go get some more tools and put them back in place, I helped him bringing some bottles and buckets.

Before he left, he turned his body at me, his Ramones shirt was ripped on the front and mindlessly dirty, he had his hands on his worn out jeans and inhaled before speaking.

“I’m going to take you to prom, okay Breana?”

“Okay John” I answered him, he winked at me and went away.

After dinner I called Lisa telling her about prom. She snapped. Firstly she laughed and thought I was joking and that his crush for me wouldn’t get so far in just a few days, and then she believed me and confessed her crush for Kennedy since freshman year.

“When he sang on that Christmas party I felt like he stole my heart and kept it” She said throughout some sighs.

We discussed it for a long time, and we decided we needed to change our plans and actually shave our legs and wear high heels. Fortunately going to the lake house was still an option, but I don’t know how my mother will react when I tell her two other boys were probably going with us.

I fell asleep without putting my pajamas and dreamt about John wearing a tuxedo. Strangely that was all I dreamt the entire night.