The Prom Queen's Date

Chapter Twelve

Did I ever imagine myself hanging out with Sabrina Jenkins on a Friday night? No. Never. Friday nights were reserved for hanging out in Anna's bedroom binge-watching documentaries about wildlife and sometimes Jimmy Neutron. Yes, that may have been in Sabrina's house, but we were in separate rooms. It never counted. Did I also ever imagine myself not only hanging out with Sabrina but also her date for the evening? No way in hell.

What type of twisted universe was this that I'd not only volunteered willingly to hang and document my crush and her date, but to also suggest the idea of them pairing up in the first place? This universe apparently.

At eight o'clock sharp, Sabrina honked her car outside of my house and collected me and then drove to collect Parker from her home. They were both dressed in cute and warm casual wear for the cold end of January, wearing fluffy matching beanies and sweaters. Whereas Parker wore a black light rain jacket, Sabrina wore this dark blue trench coat. They dressed appropriately for a date and well . . . I was the camerawoman, not to be seen, so I was okay to wear a plain old hoodie.

The roller rink was the perfect place to go as it was freezing outside, and any sane person would be curled up inside by the fire but not us three. Here people from our school wouldn't see that these guys had their own photographer following them around as they staged cute scenarios. The only person who was there was the guy at the register. He handed a pair of skates each to the girls. When it came to me, I decided it was probably best to watch from the safety from outside the barrier.

Positioning myself so that I sat on top of the wall blocking entry to the roller rink, I set up my phone to take pictures. At the same time, the girls were testing their skating skills around the arena. Parker was surprisingly kind of awesome at it. Then there was Sabrina who . . . sucked. But that was the perfect combination for cute pictures.

Parker grabbed hold of Sabrina's hands, guiding her forward as she skated backwards.

"Perfect," I called, holding the capture button down, so no moment was missed. "Stunning. Models."

"Wait, don't take pictures yet." Sabrina wobbled in her haste to tell me what to do. "We have to practice first!"

"I'm in charge. We need it to be as authentic as possible. Where's the fun if you're both perfectly skating around and smiling like bozos? You can't be perfect. We need people to relate to you. That means once in a while, you need to be a complete mess."

"Sam's right," Parker said.

"That's right, I am."

"I guess you do have experience of being caught on camera looking like a fool." Sabrina wobbled some more. "More of a fool than me."

"That's also right. I do. Okay, now Parker, only hold one of Sabrina's hands and guide her around the rink like that. A full lap."

Sabrina refused to let go of Parker's hand. "I'm clearly not ready for such an advanced moved . . ."

"That's the point!"

Parker did as she was told and somehow managed to escape Sabrina's firm grasp and held only one of Sabrina's gloved hands. Sabrina's knees were bunched together, but her legs were spread apart like a new-born deer. It looked like her legs were broken. What they didn't know was at this point, instead of taking pictures, the phone was on video mode, capturing all their shenanigans in live-action.

Sabrina gripping onto Parker's hand like her life depended on it while her other hand flailed about, grasping at the air – Parker's attention focused solely on keeping Sabrina upright and moving? It was a cuter image than I'd like to admit. I'd only noticed that I had a death grip of the phone when my thumb cracked the screen a little. Oops.