A Bad Boy's Worst Nightmare (Book 1)

18. Prom

"Give it sixty years," I scoffed.

She grinned.

"Come on, go take your last final," I said, nudging her shoulder. "Then we can hang out after school and both not go to Prom, I guess." Fuck. What are you doing? Just ask her already. If you stall, she will have no choice but to say no because you will have asked way too late for her to prepare for it. Moron. "About that, actually."

Ryder stopped and looked at me. "Yeah?"

"Would...you maybe like to go?"

Confusion flickered across her face, then a smile spread across it. "Sure."

"Really?" I asked in disbelief. "I thought you didn't want to go." Stop talking her out of it, moron.

She snorted. "I thought you weren't going to ask me."

Wait...she was seriously waiting for me to ask her? She actually wanted to go to Prom with me?

"My backup plan was to take Kelsey as my date," she added casually in a joking tone.

"Date," I repeated stupidly.

Ryder lifted an eyebrow. "Or friendly acquaintance that waited until last minute to ask."

"Right. Well...alright. Should we not hang out after school then? You know, so you can get ready or something."

She snorted. "I'm not a regular girl, Corey."

I know.

"I don't take five hours to get ready. Hell, I don't even wear makeup hardly ever. I guess I could play with my hair a little though," she said, trailing off as she touched one of the long waves of her hair.

"You don't have to," I said hastily.

She snorted and looked up at me. "Prom is meant to make me spend hundreds of dollars on a dress and makeup and getting my hair done while you pay for the ticket. I think I'm perfectly within reason to mess with my hair."

"Um...right. Sorry. Yeah. Alright."

"Do you own dress clothes?"

"Kind of?"

Ryder rolled her eyes. "Find some, Corey. Don't show up looking like a loser or I won't go." She was clearly kidding, as proven by the humorous light in her eyes, but it still made me a little nervous to think that she might back out last second.

I nodded to her. "Go finish your finals."

She smirked. "See you tonight."

"See you tonight, Ry."

* * * * *

I was fairly certain I had never been as nervous as I was while I waited outside of Ryder's house that night. A thousand different possible dressed ran through my mind, and I couldn't decide which one Ryder might wear. I'd never seen her in a dress, after all, and she almost always wore hoodies like I did. Granted, she had a different reason, but still.

Jason was waiting with me as well. I didn't know much about Kelsey's boyfriend, but I knew that Ryder approved of him, so that probably meant he was fairly decent at least.

Finally, the door opened.

My heart hammered harder.

Kelsey was the first one out of the house, and even I had to admit that she looked pretty good. It was simple, a white dress with rhinestones or sparkles around her waist, and it was above her knee, coming maybe to her mid thigh; she had a bracelet on her right wrist, and I figured it was probably the one that Ryder told me he got her for their two year anniversary. I could practically hear Jason's jaw hit the ground beside me. But I wasn't concerned about what Kelsey looked like. The only girl I was interested in looking at was...