Theo makes her catch her breath; this surprises her. He's never given her reason for pause before- not at his class clown comments in class, and not when he offered her this, this second chance at the average schoolgirl's long anticipated dream. He wears a suit, and he looks dashing, in a way she never noticed at that ill-fated prom. She feels plain in comparison, in her once-worn dress, her hair down, her mascara surely smudged. Something soft and sweet plays low in the background. He had offered his house, which no doubt had its own glamorous ballroom. His parents were out of town, he said, for the whole weekend, and for once he was not generously hosting another raucous party.
"Every girl needs her night," Theo said, when he cornered her up against her locker on Monday morning. She'd rather forget the catastrophe she'd left behind, but the eager insistence he'd offered up when he suggested he could be her second date was nothing she had the heart to refuse.
"You look beautiful," says Theo, taking her by the hand. She forgets to tell him he's handsome, but he already knows it.
return of the prom au