Page 95 of Every Broken Promise
I caught Sam’s gaze as she got in a car with Carrie and her date. She glowered at me as they drove away.
At least I didn’t have to take her home.
My dad was outside with the lights in his truck as I pulled into the driveway.
“Going out?” I asked.
“I was going to go look for you. I heard what happened,” he told me.
“I’m all right.” I shrugged it off.
My dad pulled me into a hug.
“I’m sorry your prom night got ruined, kiddo.”
His words made me smile for the first time in the last hour.
“Nah, it wasn’t that big of a deal anyway. Astrid did the right thing.”
“She sure did. I’m glad she has you in her corner. Not everyone will see it that way. Kids can be cruel at this age.”
All I could do was nod in agreement.
“Are you stopping by her house tonight?” Dad asked as we reached our front door.
I looked at the car and back at my dad.
“I just broke up with Sam. I want to get my head on straight before I talk to Astrid.”
My dad didn’t say anything for a second, then he gave me a small smile.
“You can make things right tomorrow.”
He said it so confidently that I believed him.
Astrid
I didn’t anticipate how hard it would be to see Tyler with someone else tonight. You’d think I’d have had a lot of practice already, but seeing him tonight of all nights was a reminder that he was never going to be mine.
Prom was finally here. It marked the end of our childhood. The end of being in the same school with the same people. It was time to spread our wings and go our separate ways.
I would be going off to college, and Tyler would be staying here helping out his dad.
It was another thing that would be setting us apart. The strain in our relationship had grown with each week he stayed with his current girlfriend. I swallowed down the guilt I felt at the fact that I never came clean about the other college applications. My plan had been to stay in town and attend community college so I could be close to Ty, but as senior year went by, I wondered why I was still doing that when I felt unwanted every time I hung out with Tyler and his friends.
Sam didn’t like me. I tried to be her friend. I did my best to make the most of my situation. My feelings for Tyler were mine to deal with all alone. I never tried to make Sam jealous; I kept a respectful distance when we hung out as a group, but it didn’tmatter how much I tried, she never accepted my olive branch of friendship.
Being in the friend zone never sucked as much as it did this past year.
Now the acceptance letter to the state university felt like the final straw to our friendship. Would Tyler understand? It’s not like he would have much time for me anyway—he rarely did nowadays.
I made my way around the field, holding on to the skirt of my dress. Taking a deep breath, I promised myself I would make the most of tonight. It was the first time in a long time that I felt pretty. The dress, my hair, and the way my makeup exuded femininity… it was something I had always struggled with.
Despite the unease I felt over what was to come, I still danced around with a group of my classmates, trying and failing to not look over at where Ty and Sam were seated.
It wasn’t until I saw Ty and Sam leaving to get a bit of privacy from the crowd that I left the makeshift dance floor. I found myself by a group who were a bit too cheerful.
Cops usually turned a blind eye on prom night, letting all the seniors have their last hoorah before real life set in, so no one got busted for underage drinking.
