My senior year of high school wasn’t as mind-blowing as I heard it should have been. It was supposed to be the greatest and most memorable year of my high school career, but it definitely wasn’t turning out that way. As a matter of fact, it was turning out to be just as dry, slow, and boring as every other year.
Right off the bat, I knew this year was going absolutely nowhere. A big storm had hit the area around Florida right before school started. Roads were blocked off and flights were cancelled until things could be sorted out, so anyone who happened to be there on vacation or whatever was stuck there. This included a large number of students, the Naked Brothers Band, and Richie. The entire first week of school, which was usually dull and monotonous anyway, was practically a waste of time as teachers waited for the mess to be cleared before giving out work or course outlines. It wasn’t too big of a deal, though, and things were back to normal rather quickly.
And by normal, I meant just as boring as before.
It seemed like everyone around me was getting excited for college. I had already decided to take a year off after high school to go touring with Richie. College was always an option for me, but I wanted to see what else was out there. Besides, I was in no condition to be thinking about college. While everyone else was getting their lives together and putting them on a little application to be submitted to their dream schools, I was moping around town, trying to figure myself out. Everything Alex had said to be before summer ended was still bothering me. What was even worse was that I hadn’t even started to take his advice. Despite everything that Alex said, I was still confining myself to a little bubble of self-pity and insecurity.
It didn’t help when I started to get the feeling that Richie was keeping secrets from me. It was a convenient distraction from my other problems, and one that I willingly took in order to justify my unwillingness to face Nat. At least it kept me from being bored.
It started right at the beginning of the year, not long after he came back from his “extended vacation” in Florida. Since then, he had been giving me these strange looks, as if he were plotting against me or something. Whenever I asked him why he was looking at me so strangely, he said that he wasn’t.
Which obviously meant that he was.
That’s all it was, at first. It was just a look, and nothing more. It wasn’t until second semester rolled around that I started to notice a few other things. First off, he was always using his phone when I wasn’t around. He would always be talking or texting when I came by, and he shut his phone the instant he saw me, abruptly ending whatever conversation he was in. I didn’t know who Richie was talking to or who he was texting, but I was guessing that it had something to do with the sly look he was always giving me.
Then there was the fact that Richie would often sneak out at night on those days that I decided to spend the night. There were a few nights that I was able to catch a glimpse of him slipping outside or back into the room in the middle of the night when he thought I was sound asleep.
It was all one big mystery, and I almost solved it once. Unfortunately, Richie was much better at sneaking around than I was at figuring him out.
Some time around the beginning of fourth quarter, I was walking back towards my locker, which happened to be next to Richie’s this year. As I rounded the corner, I noticed that Richie was talking to someone else in front of our lockers. The two seemed to be in an intense debate, and Richie looked like he was losing. The boy’s back was turned to me, so I couldn’t see his face. However, his wife beater, height, curly hair, and bandana made me awfully suspicious.
The mystery boy left before I had the chance to walk in on their conversation. Richie saw me and put on a smile, but I could see the aftereffects of Richie’s conversation with the other boy. He looked pale, sweaty, and unusually unsure of himself.
Deciding to get straight to the point, I just went on and said the first thing on my mind. “Were you just talking to Alex?”
Richie faltered. I had him. It was the first clue to this long-winded mystery, and I felt so proud of myself; I was on the verge of figuring it out. Too bad Richie knew exactly how to send my triumph to a screeching halt. Either he was a mastermind at changing the subject or he hadn’t even been listening to me in the first place. Either way, his answer took me completely off guard.
“Will you go to prom with me?”
“What?!?”
