Page 10 of Catch Me If You Can

Caleb…

prom night

4

caleb

I drummed my fingers along my thighs while waiting for Taylor to come down the staircase. This was supposed to be a big moment for girls. Slow-motion entrance, dramatic dress reveal, and parents crying in the corner.Yada yada yada.I wasn’t in the mood.

That night, my band—The Airheads—was playing at our senior prom. As the lead singer and guitarist, I couldn’t be late. So, if Taylor could get her sparkly behind down those steps and out the door sometime this year, that’d be great.

I stood at the bottom of the staircase with her mom and dad, who were doing the wholeooooh-ingandaaah-ingroutine like they were watching royalty glide down the stairs. Meanwhile, Taylor took each step like she was modeling for a bridal magazine.

If it had been up to me, I wouldn’t have asked her to the prom at all. But my dad had other plans. According to him, no son of his was showing up to prom without a date. Apparently, showingup stag would have been a disgrace to our name or masculinity or whatever crap he preached.

I didn’t like labels. “Prom date” felt way too official for me. Too committed. But, like with most things in my life, when my dad insisted, I fell in line.

If I didn’t check every one of his heteronormative boxes, he’d probably have disowned me before the tassel on my cap even flipped. Graduate, go to college, marry a woman, pop out a few kids, and inherit the company. The Great Plan. I was absolutelythrilled.

“You look beautiful,” I said to Taylor as she reached the bottom step. She did look pretty great and it felt like the right thing to say in the moment. I pressed a kiss to her cheek and ushered her toward my black Corvette. Another gift from dear ol’ dad. I figured it was his way of celebrating the fact that I was, in his eyes, sticking to that ‘great plan’. He caught me hooking up with Jessica Rodman in the backyard jacuzzi once, and instead of a lecture, he bought me a Corvette. Throwing money at me was kind of his love language.

Whatever. I’d take it. I liked girls. I liked presents. Win-win.

Taylor and I were actually good friends, so the drive to prom was easy. We joked about the setlist, and I managed to forget, for a minute, what had been gnawing at the back of my mind all week.

Nathaniel Philips.

The ghost of a best friend. Just five months ago, we’d been inseparable. Honestly, moving to this city had sucked. I’d liked my old school, and transferring for the last year of high school was the last thing I’d wanted to do. But then I saw Nathaniel scribbling away in his notebook, that day in the cafeteria. It was as though in that very moment, I knew moving wasn’t going to be so bad. I’d loved his dorky Clark Kent glasses, the way his hair always looked like he’d just run a hand through it. The moretime I spent with him, the more I enjoyed pulling him out of his own head, helping him loosen up. It was fun.Hewas fun.

Just being around him had felt like a breath of fresh air. The way he listened to my incessant rambling about bands or laughed at the dumb movies I made him watch made me feel on top of the world. But more than that, he had felt like the last piece of a puzzle that I didn’t know had gone missing. For some reason, being around him had felt… easy. Like I didn’t have to try or think. He felt like my left arm. I couldn’t explain it—I just needed him around. And I liked being around him. It had been as simple as that.

Then Sarah Lockwood happened.

I shouldn’t have said yes to them coming over for my birthday. It was supposed to be just him and I and I would’ve been perfectly happy with that. But, the moment their lips locked, everything changed. I knew it would. It was the exact reason I never went out with any girls. I didn’t want anything or anyone to come between us.

Not only that but I knew her type. She might’ve been charming and beautiful, but girls like her didn’t end well. They never were interested in anything serious. My old school was full of girls like that and they all thrived off of the same thing. Attention.

He deserved better. Someone all in. No one at our school could offer him that.

But did he listen? No. And now they were together. Like,togethertogether.

And the truth was? I hated it.

The gym was decked out in silver and navy, all glitter and gauze under the themeMidnight Dreams. I guessed someone tried. The decorations blurred in my periphery as I headed toward the stage.

Taylor knew I’d be ditching her soon anyway, so she was fine when I split off.

My band was already setting up. Tony was tuning his guitar, Jason was checking his drums, and Richard was adjusting the keyboard height.

“How we feelin’ tonight, boys?” I said, strapping my guitar over my shoulder.

“We’re golden. Jason found his extra drumsticks. Crisis averted,” Tony smirked.

I laughed and scanned the gym. The crowd was already vibing to whatever the DJ was spinning. This was our kind of night. High energy, packed floor. We were good at this and not just in a local-band kind of way. We owned the room when we played.

“Hey. Look who it is,” Tony said, nodding behind me.

I turned and saw them. Nathaniel and Sarah. Tucked into each other like they were posing for the front of a greeting card. She had her arms around his neck, and he was leaning in with that dopey look on his face.

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