Foes & Cons by Carrie Aarons (i am malala young readers edition .txt) 📗

I’ve been thinking about taking Blair to prom since she made me watch the movie She’s All That in seventh grade. Picking her up in my car, watching her walk down the stairs in a gown molded to her curves, getting to sway her around the dance floor all night. And then, there’s the weekend, where seniors rent houses to get wasted in and make all kinds of bad decisions. If I have my way, Blair and I won’t be leaving whatever room we claim for those two nights.

Promposals have become all the rage in recent years. There are the ones with whole marching bands, handmade signs, balloon arches on the girl’s lawn, and everything in between. But for Blair, for my girl who has never wanted the popularity or cared about what others thought of her, I know what I have to do.

I’ve done the grand gesture. Remember when I stood on a table and professed my love to her in front of a cafeteria full of students? We’re serious now, end game serious, and we don’t need others in our business. Plus, this is a big ask, the one most girls, or so I’m told, wait for the entire four years of high school. I want this to be special and simple. She knows how deeply I care about her, so a genuine question and a beautiful flower is the way to go.

Either that, or I’m about to be turned down.

Inside the school the bell rings, and I watch as hundreds of students come streaming down the lawn and out into the parking lot. Some board buses, upperclassmen make their way to their cars, and all the while I’m sitting on my girlfriend’s car with my heart on my sleeve.

Blair is heading for the lot with Glavin and Nate walking next to her. My best friend is chatting their ear off about something, and Blair laughs. Her dark toffee-colored hair blows in the breeze, and I stop breathing for a minute. I’m always aware of how gorgeous she is, but sometimes it catches me off guard. I’ve seen her at almost all the stages of her life, and it’s rare that two people are as connected as we’ve become. I was a damn fool for not seeing that for so long.

“There you are! You weren’t at my locker.” Blair tilts her head to the side, because I usually wait to walk to our cars together at the end of each day. “Who is that for?”

She points one gray-painted nail at the rose.

“Blair Oden, will you go to prom with me?”

My gaze falls to her lips, as it tends to do, which are painted in a dark shade of red today. They split into a smile, and then she’s walking into me. She takes the rose, smells it, and then looks me in the eyes.

“Well, I was thinking about going with someone else—”

Her joke is cut off by the kiss I plant on her lips, my tongue sliding into her mouth before she can protest that we’re in public. Blair melts, sighing into the kiss, and then breaks it off.

“Of course, I’ll go to prom with you. Thank you.” She hugs my neck, pressing a lingering kiss to my cheek.

“For what? Asking you? Is it really that surprising I did?” I chuckle, loving the way her hips were arching into me.

Blair is still smelling her rose as she rests against me and I rest against her car. “No, but I’m glad you didn’t like, put me up in a hot air balloon or something. This was perfect.”

I pump a fist behind her back, like I just scored a goal or something. “Don’t I just know you so well?”

“Dude, kind of lame on the ask.” Glav shrugs his shoulders.

“I’m going to stand outside of Jacob’s window with a boom box and ask him,” Nate brags.

“Now that’s how you do a promposal.” Glav fist bumps our student class president. “See, Sawyer? You should have done something epic.”

“Shut up, Glavin.” Blair rolls her eyes.

Our two friends leave, and we’re still canoodling as the parking lot empties.

“I think my dad is consulting on a project in Princeton. He won’t be home for hours.” Blair’s shy but seductive gaze takes my pulse up a notch.

“Are you driving, or am I?”

I’m like a dog who was just told he’s being taken for a walk; way too excited and overly rambunctious. But what do you expect? My girlfriend just basically told me I’m getting laid.

“Follow me home, lover boy,” she singsongs, and then ducks into her car.

I keep my eyes planted on her driver’s window as she buckles in and then lays the rose across the dashboard above her steering wheel. She then has the audacity to wink at me before peeling out of the parking lot, the saucy minx.

I don’t think anyone has driven through Chester faster than I am this afternoon.

36

Blair

“There is a letter on the counter for you.”

Dad’s smile is ear to ear as I walk in the door from school. Instantly, my stomach drops to my feet, because I know what it is.

I’ve already gotten two other college letters in the mail, and they were both acceptances. They were fun to read, and exciting to know that I have a place somewhere if I need them as fallbacks, but I can tell by my father’s smile that this is the big one.

The letter from Brockden is here.

Sawyer’s face is the first thing that shoots through my mind, and I wonder if he’s arriving home to the same thing. But right now I need to take this moment for myself, because it’s a big one, and I’ve worked hard toward it.

Dad trails me as I make my way to the kitchen and spot a big envelope sitting there waiting for me.

“They don’t send big envelopes for rejections, right?” I say, so much hope spilling into my words.

“Just open it, kiddo,” Dad urges me, massaging one of my shoulders.

I take a deep