Page 17 of The Wrong Prom Date

Tanner rolled his eyes at the interaction before focusing on me. “Well, whatever the reason for you being here, Liam, we’re glad to have you.”

“And the rest of this semester doesn’t seem nearly long enough. Are you sure you can’t stay longer?” I looked across the table as a soft, sultry voice drifted toward me. It was the girl I’d winked at earlier today who had spoken. She was the one Tanner had warned me about and was leaning across the table, pressing her chest up so as much cleavage as possible was visible.

“No, I can’t stay,” I replied. “I’ve got to start on my next movie.”

She pouted in response. “Well, I’m really looking forward to getting to know you in the short time we have together,Liam.” The way she purred my name made me want to run away—hard and fast and never look back.

I swiveled in my chair to focus on the two guys at my side. Hopefully, if I didn’t look in the girl’s direction, she would back off a bit.

Tanner chuckled as he watched. “Calm down, Laurie, I think you’re scaring him.”

I didn’t look to see her response, because Tanner was right. I was scared, and I had no idea how to deal with someone so forward. Most of the interactions I had with girls were fake, so I wasn’t used to it. I was either acting with them on set or posing with them in front of the paparazzi outside nightclubs. The whole point of those excursions was to help develop my image, and the relationships were as fleeting as the public interest in the tabloid stories they created. When you considered the fact that my manager was also my mom, and she was the one who organized those outings, it became really unromantic—and a little disturbing.

I’d never even had a girlfriend. Not that I’d ever admit that embarrassing truth aloud. I could only imagine the stories that would run if the tabloids ever found out what a fraud I really was. I needed to get myself together fast if I wanted to stop that from happening. My PR team would want me to be all over girls like Laurie. Instead, even these guys I barely knew could see I was uncomfortable.

I huffed out a long breath. “It’s been a long day.”

“Bet you can’t wait to do it all again tomorrow,” Cole said.

Not even close. I was dreading it.

7

Teagan

“Mom, I’m home,” I called into the house as I closed the front door behind me. She didn’t answer, but I wasn’t exactly surprised. It had been a long time since she’d welcomed me home after school.

I traipsed through the house, ditching my bag down on the kitchen counter as I went to get myself a snack from the fridge. The moment I opened the door though, my heart plummeted. The shelves were empty again.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I grumbled as I slammed the fridge door shut and fished out the jar of peanut butter I kept hidden under the kitchen sink. I dipped my finger into the jar and licked the peanut butter off it a few times before putting the jar away. Even my emergency food wasn’t cutting it today.

“Mom!” I yelled out.

Again, I received no response. I knew she was home because her car was in the drive, and I was guessing she was in her bedroom. Taking the stairs two at a time, I stormed up to her room. Surprise, surprise, she was passed out on the bed. I yanked the blinds open, dousing the darkened room in sunshine.

She groaned and threw a pillow over her head. “Teagan, will you cut that out?”

“There’s no food in the house again.” I folded my arms across my chest as I glared down at her.

“But I just did the shopping,” Mom grumbled.

“That was over a week ago,” I replied. “Funny thing about food. It doesn’t last forever, and you’re supposed to go buy some more once the groceries run out.”

She groaned and finally pushed the pillow off her face so she could look at me. My mom had always been beautiful, and when I was younger, people often joked that I could be her mini-me. We didn’t look quite so similar anymore, and even her beauty couldn’t mask the heavy bags under her eyes, her constantly reddened cheeks, and the pallid tone of her skin.

My dad leaving two years back had been the catalyst for my mom’s downward spiral, but he wasn’t entirely to blame. Mom had been dealing with her own demons for years. Now that my father was gone, she no longer felt the need to keep them caged.

I sometimes wondered if I should have left with Dad. It would have meant moving out of state and living with his bitchy new girlfriend, but that didn’t seem like the worst option on days like today. Life would have been miserable without my friends, but at least there would be food in the house.

“Take the credit card to get some things,” Mom said. “And close the blinds again on your way out.”

I huffed out a breath and searched through my mom’s bag for her wallet. I took the credit card before leaving the room without shutting the blinds. A little sunshine would do her some good. Maybe next time she went out she would remember this and reconsider drinking so much. Not that I thought that would ever happen.

“I can’t wait to get out of here,” I muttered as I headed back to the front door.

Our house had once been the kind of stylish place you saw in décor magazines. Everything had been white and pristine, with designer furnishings and high-end appliances throughout. It didn’t look like that anymore.

The front garden was overgrown, and the pool out back was green and half-empty of water. Mom had been selling off our nicest things over the years, so the house now looked sparse, like we’d only just moved in. Every room used to look like an art gallery, but the walls were now sadly bare.

---