Miss Perfect and The Bad Boy

five - shopping trip

"Tonight is the annual homecoming game, make sure you come and show your support," the lady over the intercom announced in science class. "And tomorrow the homecoming dance, dress up nicely, and bring a date!"

"Are you going?" Alex asked. He turned to face me. We were acting like that whole thing on Saturday didn't happen, which was fine with me because I didn't know what I felt while he was touching me and I would rather not know.

"Yeah, my boyfriend is captain of the football team, I kinda have to. And I want to go to the dance, it's going to be fun." I wrote down the next chemical equation on the worksheet into my notebook. "Why aren't you going?"

We were supposed to be doing a partner assignment on formulas and equations, but Alex had spent the last ten minutes trying to balance a pencil on the tip of his nose. "I'm not paying sixty dollars to see a bunch of losers tackle each other for fun and then pack into a hot gym with 300 other losers."

"Well, if we got a colder gym, it would ruin the entire ambiance." Then I got an idea. "I'll take you shopping! And I can pay for your ticket."

He picked the pencil off his nose and looked over at me, his expression somber. "You've done enough, Nikki. Seriously."

"I want you to come, though. You haven't even been to a high school dance."

He scoffed. "Come to a dance to get drunk and smoke weed? I can do that with people I actually like."

"It's the homecoming dance! You don't have to come to the game, just the dance. Come on. What else are you going to do tomorrow?"

"I don't want to spend your money."

I grabbed his arm. "Oh, come on. It'll be fun. You're only going to be in high school once. Do you really want to miss out on this wonderful experience of horrible food and spiked punch? It's a right of passage to be stuffed into a horribly decorated gym with horribly dressed people. How else will you tell your kids about the best worst night of your life? I'll take you shopping after school, I need to get a dress anyways. You can dress up all nicely, find a date, dance all-"

"Okay, God, fine," he cut off, exasperated. "I didn't know one person could talk that much in one breath."

I sat back, satisfied.

♡

"Hmm, the color doesn't look that good with your tan skin. How about the black one? It would look great with a blue tie," I said.

It was after school and Alex and I were at the mall trying to find him a suit. So far, he's said every one he tried on is his favorite, but he doesn't know a thing about fashion.

"Oh wait, maybe you should get a plain black tie because you don't have a date yet and a colored tie would clash with whoever you end up going with."

"Actually," Alex said. "I do have a date."

I raised my eyebrows, surprised. "Oh. Who?"

"Madison Williams."

My eyes widened. "Madison Williams?"

Alex grinned at my face. "She asked me to the dance last week and I told her I wasn't going but now that you convinced me, I asked her if she was still available and she is."

I nodded slowly, not knowing what to make of that. Madison and I had Spanish together last year, and she was one of the prettiest girls at school and definitely the nicest. No wonder Alex wanted to go to the dance with her. Who wouldn't?

"Are you jealous?" Alex smirked.

"No, Madison's great. I just didn't think you guys talked," I said as I got the black suit off the rack.