There was an odd silence in the car while we drove to the mall after the Swifties calmed down. Our eyes locked and I smiled at Cooper in the mirror when he rolled his eyes in amusement. Perhaps Hastings’ and Jen’s chat about Taylor would finally convince him he was going to prom with an actual gay guy. Prom was not high on my lists of moments from my past to relive, especially in this version where Hastings would be escorting Cooper.
I kept thinking about the secret between Coop and me. We shared a kiss. I had an additional secret I’d never be able to reveal to anyone. I couldn’t fathom how or when I’d ever be willing to try and convince someone I was not from this version of time. Odds were that this would end up being my new space, universe, time, whatever the hell my mother had managed to pull off, and I would live here from now on which was a sobering truth indeed.
What did that actually mean for me? Was I going to relive another ten, nearing eleven years all over again? Would this be how I find out what Coop and I would become? Would I watch my mother die again? What could I do in this world since I knew so many things already? But more importantly, what would change by me simply being here?
Did my mother and I change this future? I had the advantage of maturity. How on earth could my love for Cooper mature and grow organically when I had a decade-long head start? He was only seventeen. So was I in this realm if we were speaking about my physical body, but I was twenty-seven in my experiences. Twenty-eight in a few weeks. Was this even fair?
Cooper smiled at me again and my heart ached to touch him. I had a physical reaction to him and desperately wanted us to be alone so I could show him how much I loved him.
“What are you grinning at?” Hastings asked Cooper. “Everyone is dead silent and boring as hell and you’re sitting back here smiling.”
“Nothing,” Coop replied. “I’m excited to try on my tux. I’ve never been toprom.”
“Excited for all this, huh?” Hastings asked, moving his hands over his body and writhing like a bad Elvis impersonator making me want to smash his fucking face in.
“Oohhh, sounds like a prom-night love session to me,” Jen chimed in. “Maybe we can share a hotel room?”
“That ain’t happening,” I barked, checking on Coop in the mirror.
He’d stiffened up when Hastings grabbed his hand and set it on his crotch.
“Break it up, Hastings,” I said, eyeing him now with an adjusted mirror, perhaps glaring a bit too harshly.
“You got yours up there,” Hastings quipped. “Leave me and mine alone.”
“I’m not yours,” Coop said, pulling his hand away. “You don’t see a ring on this hand do ya?”
Jennifer shrieked in laughter and attempted to high five Coop but he ignored her so she praised him instead. “That’s how it’s done, Cooper,” she agreed. She waved the promise ring I’d given her in front of us. “This is how you take someone off the market, Michael Hastings,” she said, using his full name whenever the two Michaels were together.
“Glad to see you two lovebirds made up,” Hastings stated, convincing no one he meant what he said.
“Let’s change the subject,” Cooper said, turning his attention to Hastings. “You know,” he began hesitantly. “If you want . . . well, we don’t have to be like on a real date or anything for prom, Michael,” he added. “You know, just in case you want to check out the scene and stuff.”
“Peeling off are ya?” Hastings replied. “I asked you to prom, pretty boy, and you said yes,so we is going.”
Hastings’ voice irritated the fuck out of me. His attempt at ghetto slang made me want to punch the windshield.Lay a hand on him at prom, fucker, and see what I do.
Cooper seemed resigned to his prom date even though I got the signal loud and clear, he wanted out. Coop wasn’t an unkind person. He’d most likely fulfill his obligations and I’d also have to deal with it.
Theyoungishman at the tux place rushed over and greeted us afterrecognizing the three of us had Jennifer in tow. I recognized him as a hometown hero from a dozen years back when he won a regional basketball game with a last second winning shot. He dined off that event for years. He ogled Jennifer like a hungry wolf, and I figured he should find a more tactful way to communicate instead of eye banging her like she was a piece of meat. “Which of you low-lives has the honor of taking this beauty to the dance?” he asked, as smarmy as a used car salesman.
Jennifer slid her arm inside mine and smiled sweetly. “This one,” she purred, knowing when she had an audience. “Those two are each other’s dates,” she added, thinking he would find her so worldly and diverse minded.
“How about they have a three way and I take you myself?” he asked, looking like a pervert in his ill-fitting suit and oversized rental shoes.
“How about you date in your own species genome,” I growled, knowing I was reacting as a nearly thirty-year-old man and not a dumb teenage boy who probably should’ve laughed at his entirely inappropriate jokes.
He winked at Jennifer like the gross human he was. “Well, looky here. A real tough guy smarty pants you got there, girly.”
“Just get our tuxes so we can try them on,” I stated, ready to lose my shit like a grumpy old man who’d heard enough. I’d better wise up quickly and do better at acting like a teenager.
Too late. “Chill, Mike,” Hastings said. “When did you get all old and shit? You sound like my old man.”
“Fuck off, loser,” I hissed under my breath. I felt Cooper’s hand on my lower back when he walked past me in his attempt to calm me down. He understood me and could sense my emotions so well. The realization was an eye opener that I never would’ve figured out when I was actually seventeen. He understood me and was attuned to my body language. He had my back and was already looking out for his boyfriend.
The word boyfriend sounded strange as I rolled it around my brain for a moment. I loved the idea of us being boyfriends. Him belonging to me, me to him.
The fittings went well. I wasn’t happy that Hastings barged into Coop’s dressing room and insisted on sharing the tight space with him. The ideaof astripped to his briefsCoop anywhere near Hastings made my blood boil. We finished the fitting and left the mall after getting Orange Julius drinks.
