Page 42 of The Promposal

This just kept getting better and better. “What I don’t understand is why we weren’t notified. If you’d just called us and told us, I would have driven a cashier’s check over to you myself.”

“You were notified.” I heard a rustling sound, like papers. “Let me just check my file. Ah. Yes. We called a Parminda Kandhari and told her about the situation. She said she understood and that your school was simply short on funds and to cancel our agreement.”

Mindi? Mindi had done this?

Why?

I stayed silent for so long that Ms. Monson spoke again. “Ms. Lowe, I am sorry for the confusion, and I wish you the best of luck in finding somewhere new for your dance. I am afraid you might have a difficult time of it, though, as this is wedding and prom season.”

She hung up.

I hadn’t needed the reminder that it was prom season. I’d been living for this day for so long. My perfect, amazing senior prom.

A prom that Mindi had just single-handedly gutted.

I walked into the student government room and sat at the head of our table, in my regular seat. I watched as everybody started to file in, taking their spots. When Mindi arrived hand in hand with Victor, it was all I could do to stay in my chair.

When everyone had sat down, Ella closed the door shut behind her.

“I just got off the phone with the manager at La Caille.” I kept my eyes trained on Mindi, watching the color drain from her face. “Apparently Mindi put a stop payment on our deposit check, and we’ve lost the venue. Care to explain?”

Mindi opened and closed her mouth several times, like a fish who suddenly found herself drowning on dry land.

“Is that true?” Victor asked, still holding Mindi’s hand.

Part of me wanted to throw a textbook at them because she didn’t deserve any emotional support or comfort right now.

Her eyes filled with tears, and she nodded.

“Is the money gone? Did you steal it?” I asked. Because nothing else made sense. Mindi had her huge public Disney-themed promposal. She had obviously wanted to go. Why else would she stop the check unless she had been like embezzling funds or something?

If she told me that she’d cleaned out our prom account so that she could have her perfect dream beach wedding with Victor Herboyfriend, I was going to end her. Leap across this table, wrap my hands around her scrawny little neck, and choke her out.

“The money’s still there,” she whispered.

“Then what happened?” I demanded, slamming my hand down against the table. The sound caused everyone to jump.

“Maybe we should all just calm—”

The boy needed to stay quiet. “Do not finish that sentence, Victor. Because I have a feeling you’re somehow a part of this, and Mindi is going to explain why she ruined prom.”

The tears ran down Mindi’s face, and she didn’t seem capable of speech.

And I was not in a forgiving mood. “Every week we sat in here, and you told me it was all taken care of. We were fine. Not to worry. But you were plotting behind our backs? You lied to us on a repeated basis, even though I was nice to you.” Did she not know how hard that was for me? Because of how annoying she was? “You’re going to explain why. Now.”

She took in some shaky breaths. “Do you know that I come to school a half hour early every day?”

What did that have to do with anything? I threw both of my hands out to the side, as if to say, “So?”

“My parents are very old-fashioned and very strict. I am not allowed to wear makeup. I’m not allowed to wear my hair in crazy styles. I’m not allowed to wear the clothes I want to wear. I get here early to change, and at the end of the school day, I change back. Every day.” She wiped the mascara-stained tears from her cheeks. “And the one thing I most definitely am not allowed to have is a boyfriend. My parents would kill me and then ground me for the rest of my life. I’m expected to have an arranged marriage like theirs when I’m older. I can’t start dating until I’ve graduated from college. And I’m especially not allowed to date non-Indian guys.

“I love Victor. He is the best thing in my life. And I would do anything to protect what we have. Even ruin the prom.” He put his arm around her, like he wanted to shield her from me.

“I’m still not connecting the dots here,” I told her.

“Mercedes Bentley came to me and said that if I didn’t find a way to stop the prom from happening, she would send my parents pictures of me kissing Victor.”

Mindi did this to hold on to her boyfriend? That was literally the stupidest thing I had ever heard. And I’d sat through Scott and Mercedes’s presentation on the American Revolution.

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