"You're ready," Mr. Milton said as I reached the open door to his office. "I think you're ready to try to run this store under me."
I covered my mouth as my eyes widened. "Finally," Brayden huffed. "I've been trying to tell you I'm ready since last year! What made you think this was the time?" I could hear some suspicion leaking into his voice.
"You just have to do a couple of things first." A chair made noise followed by footsteps. It was too late for me to act like I wasn't eavesdropping. Still, I tried to make it look like I was just walking up to the office. "Ah, Jenny!" Mr. Milton said when he saw me. "Just the person I wanted to see. Come here for a minute, step into my office."
I followed him inside. Brayden was seated in a chair and he looked up at me curiously. "What did you need, sir?" I asked, watching as he walked back around and sat in his desk chair.
"I know you've heard me talk about him a lot, but this here is my son," he said, gesturing to the man sitting in the chair next to me. I looked down to find him smiling hesitantly up at me, seeming a bit confused and bracing himself for something. "Brayden, this here is Jenny Herrington. She's one of my best employees and, I dare say, like a daughter to me."
"Nice to meet you," he said. His eyes were scanning my face, as if they were trying to find something there.
"Likewise," I said, turning back to Mr. Milton. "What's going on?"
He smiled at us. "Brayden, in order to put you in charge, I want you to be her date to her homecoming and her prom."
Brayden sat forward in his chair. "Wait, hold on, I'm not going to a high school anything. I had my day for all of that, and it's not happening again. Prom is just a cover for doing other stuff. It isn't just a dance. Besides, are you sure no one else will ask her to one of them? I don't want to take the fun out of it for her." I could tell by the tone in his voice that he was just backtracking to keep his dad from getting upset.
It didn't really work, though. Mr. Milton's expression hardened. "If you want a chance to prove to me you can run this store, you're going with her to those dances."
"But-"
"Keep it up and you're going to the football game with her, too."
He sighed and looked up at me. "When are these dances?"
I cleared my throat nervously. "Homecoming was back in February when the renovations finished on the gym, but prom is in a month."
Mr. Milton shook his head. "Sorry I didn't think of this sooner, then. At least you won't miss prom."
I glanced at Brayden out the corner of my eye. He looked mildly horrified. "Prom is important, you know," he said, leaning forward, schooling his face into a serious look. "Who you go with will determine how other kids see you. Going with a band geek will brand you as one of them, but if you're popular enough, it can raise them up to your level and upset the balance."
"You're going with her," Mr. Milton said sternly. Brayden seemed to instantly deflate.
He wasn't wrong. But if I brought him, it would be like I won the lottery. Even I could tell he was the type of handsome everyone fawned over. Plus he was older. The only problem for me was that he was a stranger who drank a lot and I'd never hear the end of it from my friends if we walked into that place together.
Well, classmates. Not friends.
The point is, if we went together, it would cause a huge thing, and I didn't want anyone mistakenly thinking we were together. Not any more than it seemed he wanted them to.
"Mr. Milton," I began. "It's usually couples that go to the prom together, since they usually have afterparties with their friends. I don't know how he would feel about hanging out with a bunch of high schoolers. I mean, I have a group of girls that I'll probably be going with if they don't have dates."
"I'm not taking no for an answer," the dad replied. "You two are going to prom together, and that's the end of it. What you decide to do after that is entirely up to you. Oh, but I do expect to see some effort put into this." He paused and looked down at something on his desk. "Now if you two would excuse me, I have to get back to running my store."
With nods, Brayden and I both walked out of the office and closed the door behind us. Once we were far enough away he couldn't hear us, Brayden stopped and turned to me. "I'm a catch and you know it," he said with a smirk. "I know you're excited about going to prom with a hot older guy. But listen, kid. I'm not excited about revisiting anything about high school. It was the worst four years of my life."
I crossed my arms. "Oh, you think I'm excited to go with you? You're nothing but a sarcastic drunk. I recognize you from the group that hangs around the bus stop every morning, passing around a bottle of liquor. I don't care what you decide to do on prom night, but it sure isn't coming with me."
When I started to walk off, he hurried to stand in front of me. "Wait, you're the girl my friend was trying to pick up. For your information, I was only drinking that day. I don't drink all the time. Also, what do you mean you don't want to go with me? You should be excited about being able to show off. After all, how many seniors get to brag that they landed themselves a college grad?"
I rolled my eyes so hard they were in danger of rolling out of my head. If I didn't knock him down a peg or two, he was bound to start flexing his muscles in public. He was already smirking at me like he'd read every single thought in my head. "Look, I'm sure you're sweet or whatever, but I'm not interested in showing off anyone. I sure don't want a pompous boy to come anywhere with me. Stop preening already and let me get back to work."
This time, he grabbed my arm to stop me from walking away. "Where do you get off talking to me like that?" All the pretense of a teasing, flirty conversation had fallen away. His voice was serious.
A couple of my coworkers were looking at us suspiciously. "Better watch grabbing me like that. There's more than one person here right now that would love to whoop you if you so much as lay a finger on me." He glanced around before dropping my arm. "Thank you. I don't get off on it - I just want you to understand that I don't want you going to my prom. I have a group of girls I'm going with that don't have dates. I'm taken care of. If you'll excuse me, I have to get back to work now." This time he didn't follow me.
---
The prom was never mentioned again after that day. Mr. Milton acted as if everything was settled, and Brayden never set foot in the store again. I went on about my work like nothing had even happened. I bought my dress for prom and left it at the store. Before I knew it, it was the day of my prom.
Before I left that morning, I made something for my dad to eat that night and left a note saying I was staying late at the store, so I'd be back around one in the morning, so don't wait up for me. From there, I went to the store and then school. Everyone was stoked, but I found out that the week had been busier than I thought.
"So I'm going with someone," Lila said hesitantly over lunch. "I'm going with the guy on the basketball team, Jamaal. He's so dreamy and I've had my eye on him for a long time now."
This was the first I was hearing of this Jamaal guy, but I let it go. I sipped my juice as it dawned on me that I was now going alone to prom. Great. Brayden probably wasn't even taking me now. I would be that one weirdo who showed up to prom alone. "What about you?" Jas asked.
My eyebrows rose. "Me? Oh, um, yeah, I have someone I'm going with."
Lila put a hand to her chest and let out a breath. "Oh, thank God. I was so scared of making you go alone. Don't scare me like that!" She lightly punched my arm.
I smiled at them both as I took a bite of my lunch. What was I going to do? I was probably going to go alone tonight anyway. Why was I lying to them? It saved face now, but what about later when I walked into the gym by myself? Was I supposed to just tell them that my date to the dance stood me up?
Actually, that would be the truth. He probably was going to stand me up, which I was fine with. I wanted him to. I'd rather be a weirdo than go with someone like him. Even if going with him would get me a lot of points.
"Who is it?" Jas asked.
I nearly choked on my food. It was a question I should have been expecting. "He's, um, he doesn't go to our school." Or any school.
"Ooh, a mystery guy," Lila said, both of them leaning in closer. "You've gotta tell us who he is."
I laughed nervously. "Well, he's kind of tall. He has blond hair and brown eyes." Wait. Were they brown? I knew he was blond, but I didn't really pay attention to his eyes. I didn't really really care that much. "He's also super handsome."
The girls squealed and gave each other knowing looks. "Where does he go to school?" Lila asked.
I grabbed my water and took a long drink, trying to think of what to say. "He, uh, he graduated from this high school."
"Wait. He's a college guy?" Jas asked. I'd just completely changed the game for them. I wanted to abandon this conversation. Why couldn't I have just kept my mouth shut?
"You could say that," I said in a higher-than-normal voice. A chorus of oohs. What was I setting myself up for?
"You're going to have to introduce us," Lila said.
"Sure." I hoped he wouldn't come and that way I could complain to them about college boys all night instead of dancing.
However, my plan to not dance seemed to be ruined from the time I set foot into work after school. Brayden was there holding two garment bags, waiting for someone. I tried to go inside where he couldn't see me, but he spotted me and grabbed my arm to stop me. When I glared at him, he immediately released me and held up his hand. "Just trying to get your attention. Now that I have it, I want to give you this." He held out one of the bags he was holding. "This is a gift from my dad. He said he gave you money to get your own, but he didn't trust you to actually do it, so he had his wife pick you out a dress for prom."
"I did buy one, thank you very much." I crossed my arms and headed towards the employee lockers. He followed me, whistling and carrying the bags. By the time we reached my locker, I was ready to put duct tape on his mouth.
I opened my locker and pulled out a garment bag. He raised an eyebrow and motioned for me to continue. I unzipped it and revealed the black dress I'd found on a rack at a local store. No, it wasn't super fancy, but I couldn't really go anywhere to get something that looked like the other girls' dresses. Besides, I wasn't into high fashion.
Brayden let out a loud laugh when he saw it. "You were going to wear a shirtdress to prom? What kind of event did you think you're going to?"
I bristled at his laughter. "Prom. Where else would I be going?"
He shook his head and wiped at his eyes. "Here." He held out the garment bag again. "Wear this one. I promise it's not tacky or anything like that. Mom has some really good taste in clothes." I narrowed my eyes at him, but took it anyway. We stared at each other for a long moment. "So, uh, you gonna thank me or maybe go home to put it on or something?"
Home absolutely wasn't an option. "Thanks," I said begrudgingly before sticking it in my locker with the other dress and closing the door. "I'll put it on later. It's time for my shift."
"What about going home? You could put on makeup and jewelry if you do that." He was giving me a confused look.
I pressed my lips together. "I won't have time to go home, okay? I'm getting dressed here. I have everything I need in my locker. I'm not stupid." I knocked a couple times on the door and pushed past him to get work started.