going, is too much.
I donât know. I donât know anything anymore, I guess. J.P. must have realized from my silence that heâd said the wrong thing. Because finally, he said, âWaitâ¦Are you saying that I do have to ask?â
I said, âUm.â Because I didnât know what to say! A part of me was like, Yeah! Yeah, you should have asked! But another part of me was like, You know what, Mia? Donât rock the boat. Youâre graduating in ten days. TEN DAYS. Just let it go.
On the other hand, Dr. K told me to start telling the truth. Iâd already not lied to Tina today. I figured I might as well stop lying to my boyfriend, too. Soâ¦
âItâd have been nice if youâd asked,â I heard myself say, to my own horror.
J.P. did the strangest thing then:
He laughed!
Really. Like he thought that was the funniest thing heâd ever heard.
âIs that how it is?â he asked.
What was that supposed to mean?
I had no idea what he was talking about. He sounded a little bit crazy, which wasnât at all like J.P. I mean, true, he does make me sit through a lot of Sean Penn films, because Sean Penn is his new favorite actor/director.
I have nothing against Sean Penn. I donât even mind that he ended up divorcing Madonna. I mean, I still like Shia LaBeouf even though he chose to star in Transformers, which turned out to be a movie about robots from space.
That talk.
Which is just as bad as choosing to divorce Madonna, if you ask me.
Still. That doesnât mean J.P. is crazy. Even though he was laughing like that.
âI know you bought tickets,â I said, going on as if I didnât actually suspect him of a cognitive imbalance. âSo Iâll pay you back for mine. Unless you want to take someone else.â
âMia!â J.P. stopped laughing all of a sudden. âI donâtwant to take anyone but you! Who else would I want to take?â
âWell, I donât know,â I said. âIâm just saying. Itâs your senior prom, too. You should ask who you want.â
âIâm asking you ,â J.P. said, sounding grumbly, which he used to do sometimes when he felt like going out, and I felt like staying in and writing. Only I couldnât tell him thatâs what I was doing, because of course he didnât know I was writing a real book, and not just a paper for my senior project.
âAre you?â I asked, a little surprised. âYouâre asking me right now?â
âWell, not right this minute,â J.P. said quickly. âI realize I may have fallen down in the romantic prom invitation department. I plan to do it right. So expect an invitation soon. A real invitation that you wonât be able to resist.â
I have to admit, my heart kind of sped up when I heard this. And not in a happy, oh-heâs-so-sweet kind of way, either. More in like a oh-no-whatâs-he-going-to-do sort of way. Because I honestly couldnât think of any way J.P. could ask me to the prom that could make dry chicken and bad music at the Waldorf at all appealing.
âUm,â I said. âYouâre not going to do something thatâs going to embarrass me in front of the whole school, are you?â
âNo,â J.P. said, sounding taken aback. âWhat are you talking about?â
âWell,â I said. I knew I probably sounded insane, but I had to say it. So I said it fast, to get it out. âI saw this Lifetime movie once where to make a grand romantic gesture this guy wearing a full suit of armor rode up to this womanâs office building to propose to her on a white horse. You know, because he wanted to be her knight in shining armor? You arenât going to ride up to Albert Einstein High wearing a suit of armor on a white horse and ask me to the prom, are you? Because that would truly be about nineteen levels of wrong. Oh, and the guy couldnât find a white horse so he painted a brown