“I bought them from a friend who owns a bakery.” I’m suddenly starving so I pull out a box. Pink lemonade pie. Perfect.
“Which friend is that?”
“London,” I say, cutting out a piece.
“London…Larsen?”
I freeze with a bite of pie halfway to my mouth. “How do you remember her?”
She purses her lips like she’s not going to tell me, but then she seems to change her mind. “Of course I remember that girl, and what you did to her. I’m surprised she’d call you a friend.”
I suppose she doesn’t consider me a friend. Yet. “Oh, come on. It wasn’t that bad.” I pick up my bite, but before the fork can make it to my mouth it’s snatched from my hand. Along with the plate.
“No pie for you,” Mom says, taking the bite for herself.
I fold my arms. “You’re going to spoil your dinner.”
She points the now empty fork at me. “Itwasthat bad. That poor girl was in tears when she showed up here.”
“Wait, what?” When did London come to my house?
“You were already at the dance, so I invited her in and—”
“What are you talking about?” There’s a sinking feeling in my gut.
Mom drops the plate to the counter with a clank. “You stood her up. On prom night, Sean.”
Prom? What?
“No, I didn’t.” Her dad made it abundantly clear I wasn’t allowed anywhere near his little girl. So I’d asked someone else instead. Apparently, he didn’t have a problem letting my brother take her. “Trent took her.”
“Yeah, after she showed up here looking for you.”
She was looking for me? Waiting for me? My stomach clenches.
My mind races through that night, but seven years has a way of making things fuzzy. One memory from the dance is very clear, though: I was insanely jealous and brushed her off like she was nothing because I was hurt.
I thought she’d told her dad to get rid of me…but she didn’t.
I slap the counter. “I swear I didn’t mean to.” I quickly tell Mom the whole story.
She is silent, for only a moment. “Well, London still believed you were her date. I grounded you that night, remember?”
I do. But I thought it was because of the other stupid stuff I’d done.
“What did you say to her?” I don’t know why this information is so relevant years after the fact, but I need to know. I need to know what happened so I can fix it.
“I told her the truth. You cared too much about what other people thought of you and let the attention pull you in a different direction than the one you were meant to follow. Then I told her Trent would take her.”
All this time, I thought he’d swooped in and stole the girl I liked. And I was too embarrassed by it all to question it.
I groan and turn for the door.
“Where are you going?”
“I’ve got to go tell her,” I say.
“Of course you do. But Sean that was years ago. Just because your perception has changed doesn’t mean hers will. She’s had years to think of you in that light, you have to prove that’s not who you are.”
