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“Don’t you think it will make her jealous to see you going with me?” Gabi asked.
“Not if I explain why I want to take you.”
“And why is that?” Gabi asked.
“You told me you want to have a normal teen experience since you didn’t get to go to a regular high school. And prom is the perfect opportunity to do that. I’m dateless, and honestly, I need a friend right now.”
“What happened between you and Shannon anyway? You guys seemed so perfect together.”
“I think my new celebrity status has been too hard on her.”
“Ryker, I’m so sorry. I’d love to go, but I don’t want to cause any problems with you and Shannon.”
“I don’t want to cause problems with her either, but I know this is the right thing to do.”
“Why is that?”
“I want to go the distance with Shannon. I have unfinished business with her, and I think bringing you to prom will help us with that.”
“I’m not following you.”
“I just want to be happy with Shannon.”
“I understand that, but how will you taking me to prom help you get back together with her?”
“I think when she sees us together, she’ll realize that she could be missing out on something great. You and I know that nothing is going on between us, but Shannon doesn’t know that, even though I’ve told her over and over. I just think she needs a wake-up call. Maybe this is the only way to get her to listen.” It was risky and drastic, but I couldn’t think of another way to get through to Shannon. “She might get upset at first, but she’ll understand once we explain everything.”
“I hope you and Shannon figure things out. I would give you relationship advice if I could, but I’ve never had much luck with it myself. It’s not an easy thing for normal people, but in this industry, it’s a whole different level of hard.”
“Can you get out here fast? It’s on Friday.”
“Of course, I can! Thank you so much for inviting me, Ryker. I can’t tell you how much this means to me. I didn’t think I’d ever get a chance to go to prom. You probably think that’s weird, but I don’t actually have that many friends. And the ones I do have are all actors like me who live on the road most of the time. It can be a pretty lonely existence.”
I’d already seen that to be true myself. I just hoped it was still possible for Shannon and me. We’d been by each other’s side for the last ten year as we’d grieved for our wayward parents. We just needed to realize that we had the strength to get through this as well.