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It was a few days before the prom and everyone was busy making arrangements. What tux would they wear, what dress was the girl wearing, should I get a limo, what corsage should they get? I only had one thing on my mind, asking the girl I always had the hots for to go with me. Tiffany Marks, the girl that every high school boy with a pulse dreamed of being with. She was tall with long wavy platinum blonde hair, slender hips and long tanned legs, deep hazel eyes and the fullest red lips I have ever seen with a smile that seemed to draw the attention of everyone in the room.
So here I was, standing in the hall waiting for class to get out. I had checked my breath, slicked my long hair back, stood up as tall as I could and was going to make my move. I was going to finally ask Tiffany Marks to the prom; the girl of my dreams. The only girl I thought that could rival Candace in the entire school. As the bell rang, I saw her come out of class and that’s when I made my move…
“Tiffany? I was wondering, would you like to go to prom with me?” I lowered my head down and asked the blonde goddess.
About a minute went by and I heard her answer, although it was not the answer that I had hoped for. I looked and heard Tiffany and 2 of her friends laughing at me.
“Me… go to prom with you… the skinny reject that couldn’t even make the JV baseball team?” She laughed.
I dropped my head in shame and heard the entire hallway join in with her. Soon everyone was taking pictures, pointing and laughing at me. The only other time I felt that low was when I got the phone call that my parents were gone. I felt like I wanted to cry, like I just wanted to run away and hide from the world. Suddenly, despite the fact that I was a little over 6′ tall, I felt like I was only about 6 inches.
“God Tiffany, do you have to be such a bitch all the time?” I heard a familiar voice say.
Looking over my right shoulder, coming out of class, was Candace. The only girl that compared to Tiffany and she knew it. Around the same time, Jackson had rounded the corner, heard the hallway laughing at me, saw my obvious distress, and walked over to me asking if I was alright.
“I’m fine…” I said, trailing off
“Excuse me, just who the hell do you think you are talking to?”
“Bitch, I’m talking to you.” I heard Candace as she started to lay into Tiffany. “You know, not everyone is beneath you. You’re not better than everyone else just because you’ve slept with half the football team”
“What the fuck did you say to me?” Tiffany screamed. She went to grab Candace, but Jackson quickly jumped in the middle of it, keeping both girls at bay. “Fine then, if he’s so special then why don’t you be his date? You wouldn’t want to be the one giving the nerd a sympathy date because you can’t get a real man.”
“I’d be more than happy to go with Nate. Any of the girls here would be lucky if he was their date to prom.” Candace replied.
‘Maybe this wasn’t going to be such a bad day after all.’ I thought. I had no idea that Candace even noticed me outside of being her brother’s nerdy little friend, but here this beautiful woman was sticking up for me in front of the whole school, her reputation be damned, she was not going to let someone hurt me. I always secretly admired Candace to the point that I had a crush on her at one point growing up, but never thought that it would ever be returned in kind, so I brushed those feelings off, but they never truly went away.
I slowly turned to walk away to ponder the events that just happened. I wanted to just crawl into a hole somewhere and keep myself away. I reminded myself that I only had 3 more months to go then school would be over with and I wouldn’t have to deal with this shit anymore. As I started to walk down the hall, I felt a hand being placed on my left shoulder.
“Hey Nate, are you ok? I’m sorry about Tiffany. She can be such a bitch.” I heard Candace’s voice say as I slowly turned around to look at her. I noticed something change in her. She seemed concerned. She always looked like she was happy, like she hadn’t a care in the world. The last time I saw this look on her face was the day I found out my parents were gone.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” I said, hoping to put on a brave front, even though I felt like I was about to break into a thousand pieces. Typically, talking to girls wasn’t typically high up on the totem pole of things to accomplish in fear of this exact scenario that had just occurred.
“Good!” she said; the smile slowly re appearing on her face. “So, are you going to ask me?”
“Wait, you were serious?” I asked, completely shocked of the fact that such a beautiful woman made the point of asking me to ask her to prom.
“I would love to go to the prom with you if you would have me as your date.” Candace replied, slightly blushing and giving me a hint of seductiveness in her smile
‘Holy Shit, is this girl flirting with me?’ I thought. I could see her kind of giggle and the smile that could warm the room came back. “Candace, would you be my date for prom?” I nervously asked.
“Pick me up at 7.” as she turned to give me a hug and a quick kiss on the cheek.
I felt like I was on cloud nine. I was the luckiest guy in the world and nothing was going to tear me down. My luck seemed like it might possibly turn around for the better, which is until later that day I found out the truth. One of the guys in history class pulled me aside and told me what was going on. He said that he told me because he felt a sorry for me after this morning’s hallway incident and didn’t want me to embarrass myself any further. Somehow Tiffany had found out that I wanted to ask her to prom and decided to make a fool out of me. This was all a little game Tiffany had set up with a couple friends and now it seemed that they had drug Candace into their little charade. I wasn’t going to end up going to prom with a hot girl as my date. I was set up. I was a pawn, again. I was the one being made fun of and it never seemed like it was going to end.
As prom night arrived, I had decided to bail. I wasn’t going to go knowing that one of the two most beautiful women in school had agreed to go to the prom with me only as a joke and that when I got there, I would be the laughing stock of the entire class as by now everyone knew. I quickly jumped in my car and took off down to the beach. I walked down to the pier and sat under it, knowing my life was never going to be anything that I would consider lucky or good as far as women go. To my surprise Jackson found me after a little while and I watched him slowly walk down the beach and under the pier, heading towards me.
“Hey you alright buddy?”
“Does it look like I am alright? Candace and Tiffany have decided they needed to make a fool out of me in front of the whole school!” I screamed.
“Honestly Nate, I had no clue they were setting you up like that. If I did, I would have stopped it, I swear.”
“I know Jax, it’s not your fault, but there isn’t a damned thing I can do about it. I don’t look like you; I’m not as popular as you…” I trailed off.