He stands directly in front of Annie and addresses the students. “It seems that I’m without a date for the ball.” He makes a dramatically sad face. The students—well, the girls—yell things like, I’ll be your date, Prince Charming. Pick me. Marry me, Jake.
Jake pretends to look through the crowd while Bryce narrates from a note card. “The Prince looked far and wide for the most beautiful girl in the land to be his date for the ball. Women lined up in town after town, hoping to become his princess. But it wasn’t until the prince laid eyes on her that he knew she was the one.”
Jake drops down on one knee in front of Annie. He takes her hand and says, “Will you go to Winter Formal with me?”
Annie’s eyes are the size of saucers. Whitney nudges her shoulder and whispers, “Stand up.”
But Annie doesn’t. She just stares into Jake’s eyes and nods.
Jake stands up, pulling Annie with him and addresses the crowd, “She said yes!”
Everyone claps and cheers.
Jake holds out his elbow for her, like a proper prince would, leading her back through our human walkway. As they walk by, we toss glitter into the air.
The pep rally resumes, with Dawson and the coach speaking. I hadn’t realized he was the basketball team captain, too. The cheerleaders do another cheer. I glance off to the side of the gym and spy Jake and Annie kissing.
I’m so happy for her. Especially after the way Ace treated her.
When the rally is over, I bound over and hug her.
“Can you believe he did that?” she asks me, not letting go of Jake.
“Yes, I can believe it. He’s a real life prince.”
Jake laughs. “So not true. I just wanted her to feel like a princess. And this is just the beginning. We’re talking five-star restaurant, limo, dance, hotel suite. Only the best for my girl. And before you ask, Monroe, you and Aiden are invited to join us. I got reservations for all of us and a party bus for before the dance.”
“That sounds really fun,” I say.
“But after the dance, you’re on your own.”
“The night is sounding better and better,” Aiden says, walking up behind me.
I give Annie a quick hug and then follow Aiden to his room.
“Wasn’t that so cool?” I ask him, once we’re in his dorm.
He makes a little frown. “Do you wish I did something more public when I asked you?”
I pull him onto his bed with me. “Absolutely not. Just because I think it was awesome for Annie, doesn’t mean I wish it was me. The way you asked me—the way you do everything—is so incredibly perfect and thoughtful. I would never change a thing.”
I get a blazing smile, then a deep kiss, which turns into a hot make-out session that almost makes him miss his bus to the basketball game.
The Rock Star.
6pm
It’s another long dance practice.
We get a break for dinner, but then have to come right back to practice until ten.
“You’re going to kill me before the competition,” I tell Peyton.
“Oh, stop being such a baby. You know as well as I do that we need the extra practice.”
“I know, but I’ve had cramps for the last two days. I may die.”
She laughs. “I’d suggest some ibuprofen.”
“You’re heartless,” I say with a laugh. “So, will the competition be fun?”
“It’s fun. Stressful. Particularly the team competitions. The small group ones are better. You don’t have as many people to worry about screwing up. Do you have a minute? I have something I want you to listen to.”
She’s starting to blush and giggle and I know it probably has to do with Damian. “Sure.”
“It’s from my favorite person in California.”
“Your dad?” I tease.
She gets her phone out of her locker and hands me an earbud. We each put one in our ear.
I hear Damian being interviewed on a radio show.
He answers a few questions about the band.
His famous dad.
Then:
“We hear you’ve been doing a lot of writing lately. How do you find your inspiration?”
“Well, there's this girl I met recently, and she fills my heart with music.”
“So, tell us about this girl. She must be pretty special.”
“Oh, no, Ryan. I’m keeping her all to myself.”
“Would you like to give her a shout-out, then?”
“Yeah, she’d love that. Pepper, you inspire me, baby. I love you.”
Peyton’s eyes are glistening with tears but she has the kind of beaming smile her brother gets when he’s really happy.
“This is crazy,” she says. “And the fact that he wants to keep it a secret is crazy too.”
“He’s just trying to protect you.”
“Oh, I know. And I’m happy about that. At first, my head kept telling me that guys only want to keep relationships a secret when they have other girlfriends or aren’t really that into you. But when I listen to my heart, I know it’s in my best interest. His life is getting more and more crazy as their songs keep climbing up the charts. They have two songs on the Billboard Top 100 this week.”
“I know. I’m so proud of him. I think once you get out of high school and go to California then you can go public with it.”
“I’m thinking about doing something crazy.”
“Like what?”
“Transferring out there to finish school. I only need one more class to graduate.”
“What does Damian think about that?”
“He thinks I should finish here,” she says with a pout.
“Well, having a diploma from Eastbrooke is more impressive than getting a GED. And Damian didn’t get to go through a senior year or graduate. I’m sure he doesn’t want you to miss out on all that.”
“He can’t come to Winter Formal with me, but he did promise to come to Prom.”
“When is Prom?”
“Late April.”
I close my eyes for a second to block out the vision I just had of Aiden taking someone else to Prom.
“So, I’m assuming you’re Pepper?”
“Yeah.”
“Why Pepper?”
“You know when we went to town and shopped? There was a store that had all these ceramic figurines, but when you picked them up they split apart—they were salt and pepper shakers. Damian joked that it looked like salt and pepper were having sex. Then he said, I’m salt and you’re pepper and pushed them back together. He was being silly. But then after we did it, he laughed and started calling me Pepper.”
“That’s cute. Do you call him Salt?”
“No,” she says, blushing.
“You’re blushing. What do you call him?”
She rolls her eyes and smiles. “It’s silly, but when we had sex, it was so unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. It was hot perfection. And so different than it’s been with anyone else. When you do it with someone you’re in love with you have both the emotional and physical connection.” She smiles again and then laughs as she says, “I was teasing him, telling him that he might not be a rock star yet, but that his— you know what—was. So I guess I named his penis. Now even he refers to it as The Rock Star.”
“Oh my gosh. What is it with guys and their penises? You’d swear it was bigger than them.”
“They are pretty proud of them!” she laughs.
“He said he loves you.”
“He told me that before we left the island.”
“Didn’t that seem a little soon?”
“Not really, considering that we’re getting married in a few weeks.”
My eyes get huge. “You're what?!”