Page 35 of This Changes Everything

“Good.” He laughed nervously. I released an ocean’s worth of tension with my exhale, joining him in the awkwardness.

“Hi, Cainey!” I heard Blair call from the background and started to tear up. He was twenty-one now. So much time had passed. I wasn’t going to be able to get through this call. I heard Rory shut the door to whatever room he was in.

“Sorry,” he said. “Umm . . . so, I know this is unexpected, and it’s been a long time. But ummm . . . Okay, here we go.” Rory struggled to find the words, and then finally, they all strung together. “My prom is coming up, and there has never been anyone in my life who’s meant as much to me as you, so I was wondering if you’d go with me?”

I was speechless. My mouth dropped so far open that my jaw may as well have fallen off its hinges. Two years had come and gone. Two. Years. I hadn’t known my heart had been sitting dormant, waiting for him to wake me up again, but here we were. I was awake.

“I heard you have a boyfriend, so just friends and all that, but what do you think?” Rory pressed on through my silence. I could hear his voice waver through his nerves.

I spun around in my chair slowly, like I was moving in molasses, and looked over my shoulder to see Matt zoned out on the TV. My eyes plummeted to the ground. All my blood rushed to my head. “Of course,” I whispered with my eyes closed. “Yes, I’ll go with you.”

“Okay.” I could hear the relief in his voice. “Great. We’ll just stay in touch to figure it all out. But yeah. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome? Thank you?”

Ellie, don’t you dare start crying.

“Alright, I’ll talk to you later, Cainey,” Rory said quietly.

I hung up the phone, and I saw stars.

“Who was that?” Matt called out, and I fell into a black hole.

Rory pulled into my parents’ driveway to pick me up in his new-to-him, old-to-everyone-else Jeep Cherokee. Hannah, my mom, and I were hiding beneath my sister’s bedroom bay window, secretly watching Rory step out of his Jeep. When he got out of the truck in his fitted black suit, crisp white shirt, thin dark-gray wool tie, and Ray-Ban sunglasses, I almost threw up. He pushed his hand into his loose curls, which were styled and off his forehead.

“Oh . . . Yikes. Has he always been that pretty?” Hannah asked.

“Yup.” I gulped.

Utter delight penetrated Hannah’s stare as she grinned at me like a lunatic. “This isn’t good.” She giggled like a goddamn monster.

“It’s going to be fine. Don’t scare your sister.” My mom rubbed the back of my cream-colored, lacy, but structured dress, which I was starting to worry looked a lot like a wedding dress.

“I wonder what Blair looks like these days,” Hannah mused, just as Rory looked up to the window we were peeking out from. The three of us dropped to the floor with a thud.

“Oh, Jesus. Did he see us?!” my mom said in a harsh whisper.

“I don’t know. I have to crawl now. This is a nightmare.” I slumped. “I think I’m gonna be sick.”

“Don’t barf. Get it together.” Hannah crawled toward me and kissed me on the head. “Have fun.” Her devilishness was disturbing. “We’re going to be right here waiting for you when you get back, and you better remember every last detail. It’s Rory, Ellie! Rory! This is huge!”

“Stop it!” I hissed. “I have a boyfriend.”

“I know, you stupid idiot.” My sister shook her head at me.

“No licky-dicky.” My mom smiled, looking exactly like my sister.

I contorted my face. “I. Have. A. Boyfriend!” I growled, refusing to admit that I was reminding myself of that fact just as much as I was reminding my sister and mom.

“IT’S. RORY!” my sister exclaimed through gritted teeth.

What is wrong with these people?!

I awkwardly crawled out of the bedroom in my fancy dress on my hands and knees so Rory wouldn’t know we had all been spying on him.

I opened the door to Rory, and the air was sucked out of my lungs. He looked at me standing in the doorway and appeared stunned for a moment, frozen in place. I must have looked different to him. I didn’t have my hair in a ponytail. It was in loose waves down my back. It was also longer and darker than he was used to, making my blue eyes stand out a little more. I wasn’t wearing a polo or the khaki pants that he had seen me in for all those years, and he had never seen me dressed up before. Not really. My lips were red, and my closed-mouth smile was instant. Rory pushed his sunglasses back into his hair like a headband. He looked like he couldn’t form thoughts, so I formed mine instead.

“I made you a boutonniere.” I reached over to the side table by the front door and pulled out a little box. I lifted out the boutonniere that I had made the day before. It was small, natural, and green. It had two sprigs of eucalyptus, a pop of baby’s breath, and was wrapped in twine. He still hadn’t said anything when I pulled it out of the box and got the pin. “Oh, I’m sorry. I’m just assuming. Do you even want this?”