The Worst Prom Date Ever

26 • The Worst Brother Ever

When I was around eight years old, my parents and I were watching one of Pascal's youth football matches. I was intensely craving for some lemon squares but I remembered that the lemon square box was kept inside Pascal's gym bag. I can't really talk to Pascal at that time as he was too busy concentrating at the game. I couldn't do anything about it so I just quietly sat back down to my seat.

Halfway throughout the match, the referee whistled for a time-out and each team proceeded to their bleachers for a brief huddle with their coaches. As Pascal was walking back to the bleachers, he looked up and I saw him scanning the crowd. After he finally spotted us, he fixed his eyes to me and gave me a mildly curious look.

After giving each other these confused stares, it was as if Pascal had a light bulb moment and momentarily shook his head. He jogged towards the bleachers, passing by their team huddle. I stood up and craned my neck, as I saw him rummaged something from his gym bag. After a few seconds, he looked back up to us and waved at me, motioning me to come down.

My small legs ran towards the end of the wire fence gate where my then eleven-year old brother was waiting for me. He was holding up the box of lemon squares in his hands. Ultimately astonished, I asked him how he knew what I was thinking.

"It's all in your eyes, Pipes," he said, chuckling. He ruffled my hair and jogged back to catch up with his team. I ate the lemon squares right at that moment.

That was just one of the many. My brother has this strange "show-and-not-tell" ability, like some sort of telepathy. All he needed to do was to look at you in the eyes as if your thoughts were written inside your pupils, so it was no wonder that he was able to get what I was not trying to tell him.

"Do you know about the deal?" He finally said. My eyebrows rose, and he mumbled a curse, which I faintly heard. It was a very bad word.

Pascal rubbed the back of his neck. He was getting uneasy and shifted his body away from me. "Okay, I can explain."

"Explain away."

"This happened months ago. I was in a party, Beau was there, he crashed my jeep, and I told him to take you to prom instead of repaying me." There it was. He finally confessed. It was exactly what Callista told me days ago. This was such a slap in the face.

Frustrated from my lack of response, he carried on. "I mean, I despise Beau and his superior attitude, but I know it'll mean so much to you if he takes you to prom."

"You're just like him," I said.

"Like what?"

"Superior. Arrogant. Compulsive liars."

Pascal drew back a little. "Ouch, Pipes. Calm down."

My eyebrows furrowed. I wasn't exactly happy with the thought that I was highly affected by the gravity of the situation right now. "I don't think you have any idea on what's it like to be a loser like me. You've always been a crowd's favorite ever since we were little, and I did nothing but support you on that, because I'm very proud of you,"

He was about to say something back but I ignored it and continued on.

"Then a recent turn of events happened, and you made this silly bargain for your precious jeep—with the guy I have a crush on who clearly does not like me back. You've embarrassed me, alright? That's why I didn't go to school. Thanks a lot."

In short, my brother basically glorified my already low-ranking social status. This all stemmed from me having a popular sibling and a popular childhood friend-turned-crush. I was just trying to be under the radar but the universe decided to conspire against me, like I did something wrong to deserve this kind of humiliation.