Will.5

I'm in the part of this story where I don't really know what a satisfying ending would be. Will's perspective, which in my head cannon is after the events of Declan's story, is already published in "Olive Juice," so we know where they end up. I'm open to suggestions.

If you haven't read the previous parts…that's what the tags are for, baby.

“No offense, but I’m going to be sick.”

My parents were both about to scold me for being snarky when Cassie walked in, probably from show choir or something. “What are you talking about?” she asked.

Mom, Dad, and I almost spoke simultaneously. “Nothing.”

Cassie gave us a funny look, and then got a super annoying smirk. “Is this about Declan’s crush on Will?”

Ha ha! With that I escaped upstairs so that my sister could get the It’s-Unkind-And-Unsafe-To-Out-Someone speech. They even made her come tell me sorry, which was amazing. Cassie was so frickin mad.

One good thing about prom coming up was that no one was looking at me or Will. Surviving the week and prom was the only conversation we had. I tried to invite Will to lunch off-campus, but a group of our friends caught up to us on the way.

“We’re all going together, right?” our friend Lola asked, grabbing our arms in a way that made it clear the decision had already been made. “I booked the limo already.”

I glanced at Will, but it’s not like we’d talked about doing anything different.

“Yeah,” he said patiently.

I rolled my eyes for his benefit, and sighed “Yes, duh,” because at our little school where even freshmen could go to prom, we’d been doing the exact same thing for the last three years. Lola booked the limo, we went to a diner on the way and I brought everybody lobster bibs to keep our clothes nice. Josh or Chandra would sneak flasks in. Senior year nostalgia made even our unspoken traditions feel more profound. Like, it almost broke the group when Josh told us his mom was making him take one of the Bench People to prom, even though he seemed just fine with it.

But yeah, that’s how we ended up being separated for most of prom. At opposite ends of the limo, seated far away at dinner, and then goofing around at the dance because I didn’t know what else to do. Chelsea was hosting the afterparty, so Lola had the limo driver take anyone who was going. But he wouldn’t let us all pile on top of each other, so I ended up in the first group who got dropped at Chelsea’s, well ahead of Will. Chelsea’s parents were home and awake to greet us, putting a damper on some of the hijinks we had planned.

I drifted out by the pool with most people. Only a couple of us had brought a swimsuit, so mostly people were dangling their feet in the lit pool. Chelsea and I ended up next to each other, chatting about some bullshit. My brain couldn’t process anything because I was fixated on when Will would show up.

His adorable freckled face showed up with the third group, almost an hour after me. For a moment he stood in the moody warm patio lighting, looking around at the people playing with a light-up frisbee and the friends who’d either found swimsuits or had stripped down to their underwear for swimming. He looked good tonight. Will’s black hair was styled off his face, probably by one of his aunties.