Now that the show was over with, drama was pretty much a free period, which I enjoyed thoroughly. Since it was the last period of the day, it was pretty much like I got out of school early, though I still had to stay in the auditorium.

Christian really meant it when he said he wanted to stay friends. He still talked to me and smiled at me as if no break up had ever gone on between. He didn't even act like we had ever dated, and I was really thankful for that.

But I couldn't help but wonder how he really felt. I knew that it didn't feel good to be broken up with, even if you did remain friends with your ex.

Mona made sure to stay away from me during our free drama periods, but this resulted in her being all alone in the back of the auditorium. I didn't really care about her very much; it was her choice. She could have continued to sit with us to be by my friends, if she really wanted to. I barely even acknowledged her presence anymore.

And then there was Blake. I had been texting him every day and talking to him on the phone each night, not telling anyone about this. I was getting to know him again, and it was very refreshing. I was glad that we didn't rush into getting back together. We should probably wait until after prom, after he didn't owe Mona anything anymore.

Cassie, Christian, and I sat right up in front of the auditorium while Mona sat right in the back. One day, while Christian was up asking Mr. Summers a question, Cassie turned toward me almost urgently.

"I have a huge favor to ask of you," she smiled widely at me, freaking me out just a little.

I only blinked at her. "Okay..."

"So, you know how Sean and I broke up?" she started, not getting straight to the point like I wished she would. "And you know how you and Christian broke up?"

"I'm aware," I responded flatly.

Cassie only nodded. "Well, you see, I was kind of, sort of wondering that... you know, since prom is only two weeks away and I don't have a date, and you're no longer dating Christian..."

I realized what she was trying to ask me before she even said it. "You want to take Christian to the prom?"

"Only if you're okay with it," she made sure to point out. "If you're not okay with it, I'll stay away and not even think about it. But he's the only other single guy I know well."

I thought about this for a moment. Christian was my ex-boyfriend and Cassie was my best friend. She thought Christian had broken up with me while I really broke up with him. It might have been a little awkward for me for her to go to the prom with him, but I knew how important it was for her to not go to the prom alone.

"It's fine, Cassie," I assured, since I honestly didn't care very much at all. "But it's up to Christian. You still have to ask him."

Cassie looked absolutely ecstatic. Obviously she hadn't been expecting that I would actually allow her to take Christian to the prom. I was sure she had been ready to beg me on her hands and knees if she needed to.

When Christian made his way back over to us, Cassie grew excited. I just stared at her. Was she seriously going to ask him now?

"I'm going to go over and sit with Mona today," Christian informed us once he got back over to us. "She seems really lonely and I feel kind of bad for her."

And there Christian went, being the amazingly nice guy he always was. Both of my friends could see that I could have cared less about Mona, but they said nothing about this.

"Hey, Christian," Cassie called out before he could get away from us. "Could I ask you something?"

Christian stopped, surprised. "Of course, Cassie."

"Do you have a date to the prom?"

I stared down at my feet during this entire exchange. I didn't want to know if Christian was looking at me or not. I felt incredibly awkward being right in the middle of this entire thing. Couldn't Cassie ask him this when I wasn't around? He was still my ex-boyfriend!

"No," Christian answered simply. I still didn't look at him.

Cassie now smiled. "Oh! Well, I was just wondering if maybe you'd like to go to the prom with me, then?"

I knew Christian looked down at me now, but I didn't dare look at him. He could tell that I was okay with this, right? I mean, Cassie was asking right in front of me and I wasn't objecting. I was just watching a spider crawl by my foot.

When he saw that I wasn't interrupting, Christian finally answered with, "Yeah, sure. That sounds like fun."

Cassie only smiled at him, suppressing the squeal I knew she wanted to let out. She waited until he was sitting beside Mona in the back of the auditorium before she finally let it out, grabbing onto my arm tightly. I didn't know how I was supposed to react to this.

"I already have a dressed picked out and everything," Cassie sighed, sinking into her chair as she smiled brightly. "This is going much better than I thought it would! I thought I wasn't even going to prom after I broke up with Sean."

I said nothing to this. Honestly, I didn't know what I was supposed to say. I was just glad that Cassie wasn't focusing on me for once. But soon, I knew she would be. She'd be freaking out over the fact that I didn't have a date and then she'd try to find me on herself. That was definitely not going to be fun.

After school, I decided to walk home. Cassie had driven me to school that morning, so I just declined the ride home. I felt like I really needed some fresh air and a walk would help me with that.

Prom wouldn't leave my mind, and it really annoyed me. I usually wasn't the type of person that cared about this sort of thing, but I knew that being nominated for prom queen was important. And that was only more of a reason to go.

When I saw Sean sitting outside of the diner by himself, I almost expected a girl to come out of the diner and sit with him. But then I saw that he was studying and I immediately felt guilty for thinking this way.

I found myself making my way over to him, knowing that now was the best time to talk to him. He didn't even see me coming before I said, "What the hell happened?"

His eyes widened when he saw me. "What?"

"Between you and Cassie," I specified, hands on my hips. "What happened between the two of you?"

When he realized what I was talking about, he let out a long sigh. I continued to stand there and wait for an answer.

"What did she tell you?" he asked.

I then took a seat and explained to him everything that Cassie had told me. He didn't try to defend himself, so I was sure that everything Cassie had said had been true. And I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

"Is she okay?" Sean questioned, actually sounding genuinely concerned about his ex-girlfriend. "She was crying when we broke up the other day. Even though she was the one who broke up with me."

I rolled my eyes at him. "Of course she was crying. She didn't want to break up with you."

Sean grew confused. "Then why did she?"

Sometimes I didn't understand how some guys could be so dense. Blake had always been able to tell when I was upset, and even Christian could. But obviously, Sean was not graced with this skill.

"She thinks you want another girl," I explained, pursing my lips when I remembered the other part of what Cassie told me. "And she thinks that that girl is me."

Sean looked surprised, and didn't say anything right away. This scared me just a little, because I had no idea what I was supposed to expect from him.

"I do like another girl," he answered now, and I felt my stomach drop. "But that girl isn't you, Leah."

I let out a breath that I wasn't aware I had been holding. I felt immediately relieved now that I knew that I was not the reason Sean and Cassie broke up... even though Cassie still thought that I was. But that was beside the point.

"Is it a girl from school or something?" I found myself asking now, actually curious.

He didn't look away from his notes when he said, "Yeah, it is."

That was understandable, I guess. Sean might have been just a year older than us, but he was still in college while we were in high school. Those were two completely environments in many different ways.

"But Cassie's okay, right?" Sean asked me once again.

I was glad that he was worried about her. It showed that he really did care about her, even if he did like another girl from his school. At least he wasn't a complete jerk in this whole situation.

"She's fine," I answered honestly with a shrug. "She just asked Christian to the prom today, and he said yes."

Sean's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Christian?" he inquired. "Your boyfriend Christian?"

Oh, yeah. He and Cassie had broken up the same day Christian and I had, so he hadn't been informed about that. I was so used to Cassie telling him everything that it was odd when he didn't know something.

"We broke up," I stated simply, since there was really nothing else to it. "But we decided to stay friends. That's why I'm okay with Cassie going to the prom with him. I realized that Christian was always more like a friend to me than a boyfriend."

Sean was giving me a look I couldn't read, and it made me kind of uncomfortable. What was he thinking about?

"You broke up with him because of Blake, right?"

This one sentence nearly knocked me right off my feet. "What?" I squawked, drawing attention from a few people around us. I sunk down in my seat a little.

"Well, that just answered my question," Sean smirked simply.

I didn't really have anything else to say, so I just kind of sat there. There was no point in denying it, since Sean wasn't going to believe me if I tried to tell him that that wasn't the truth. So I just sat there and took it.

The first question Sean asked me was, "Are you two back together?"

"No," I answered with a sigh.

"Does he want to get back together with you?"

"... Yes."

It was strange, talking to someone about this. Especially when that someone was Sean. After all the history we had together, it just didn't seem right to be talking to him about this. But then at the same time, it did.

"Are you going to prom with Blake?" was his final question.

I shook my head. "No. He's going with Mona."

I couldn't stop thinking about prom, and it made me blanch. I was the only one out of all my friends that didn't have a date. Even Blake was going with Mona, which I wasn't exactly thrilled about, but it wasn't like that bothered me all that much.

I didn't even want to go to prom, honestly, but I knew Cassie was going to make me, even if I didn't have a date. But if I went alone while the rest of my friends had dates, I was just going to look like a complete and total idiot.

Everyone I knew already had dates, even the people I was only acquainted with. There was seriously no one I could have asked to go to the prom with me—

Wait a second.

There was someone I could ask. There was only one other person that I could ask to the prom that didn't already have a date.

I was about to go against everything I believed in. Break every rule I'd ever known. Maybe even cross the line completely.

"Sean," I suddenly sighed, not believing what I was about to do, "do you want to go to the prom with me?"

He looked shocked, but I didn't blame him. Obviously, this was the last thing he ever expected to come out of my mouth. I was even surprised that I had said it. I felt like I was going to regret it.

"You're asking me to prom?" He looked like he was expecting me to tell him that I was just kidding.

I simply shrugged. "Well, I mean, it was either you or Mr. Meyers, and I'm pretty sure I'd get in less trouble if I brought you."

This seemed to confuse Sean. "Why was Mr. Meyers an option?"

Ah, crap.

I tried to act like I had no idea what he was talking about, but I knew that it was too late. I had said too much and Sean knew that something was up.

And suddenly, I found myself spilling out everything that had happened between Mr. Meyers and me during my junior year, even though it was over a year before.

Sean didn't look like he knew how to react to that, and I couldn't believe I had just told him that story. I knew that that had been a horrible idea, because I could have gotten Mr. Meyers fired and arrested, even though it had been over a year.

But I was surprised to see that Sean didn't seem mad. Only shocked. "You don't look like you want to kill Mr. Meyers," I pointed out. "That's good."

Sean shook his head and let out a sigh. "The anger will probably set in later. That's just a... really shocking story."

I didn't know why I was telling Sean everything. Maybe because he had been friends with me for so long, even though he didn't always act like the greatest friend. But he had been getting a lot better after he started dating Cassie.

"Don't do anything about it, please," I now pleaded, just to make sure he knew that this was a secret. "The only other person that knows about this is Blake. I don't want to get Mr. Meyers in trouble, because he really is a good guy. So please. Don't tell anyone."

Sean didn't look very happy about that, but he nodded anyway. "Alright. I won't tell anyone."

I let out a sigh. Alright, now that that was out of the way...

"But back to the whole prom thing," I reminded him. "What's your answer? Will you go to the prom with me?"

He thought about this for a moment, and I grew nervous. Sean was the only person I had left to go with, and I didn't even care that he was my best friend's ex-boyfriend. Cassie was going with my ex-boyfriend, so she couldn't complain without looking like a hypocrite.

"Well, senior in high school Sean is very excited about this," he informed me, and I didn't know how to react to this. "But freshman in college Sean doesn't know how he's supposed to react."

"We're just going as friends," I clarified. "Nothing more."

Sean went back to thinking. My stomach growled. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all.

"Okay," he finally agreed. "I'll go to prom with you."

I found myself smiling at him. I was so happy with the fact that I actually had a date that I didn't even care that I was just going with a friend. It was better than going all alone when I was nominated for prom queen.

After a few more minutes of talking with him, I excused myself from the table and told Sean goodbye, continuing on my way home. I was about halfway home when my phone suddenly rang in my pocket.

Without even checking the caller ID, I answered. "Hello?"

"Hey!" Jane greeted. She sounded just as bright and chipper as usual. "Jaz and I are about to go out dress shopping for prom today with Thomas. Do you want to come with us?"

I pursed my lips at the memories that flashed through my head. "Do you remember what happened the last time I went shopping with the three of you?"

That was not something I wanted to remember. It wasn't a moment that I was particularly proud of, though I still did believe that Mona deserved every hit I gave her. I just didn't like the fact that I had gone crazy for a second. I didn't like that I had snapped.

Jane seemed to think for a second. "I highly doubt we'll run into Mona again," she excused, but there was no way she could have been sure of that. "Come on, Leah. I know you haven't gotten a dress yet, and Jaz and I haven't gotten our dresses either! Do you even have a date to prom?"

I made a face. "Yeah," I answered, since it was the truth.

Jane seemed surprised when she asked, "Really? Who?"

It took me a moment to answer the question, because I was actually a little ashamed. Not only was Sean my best friend's ex-boyfriend, but he had been in love with me for years. And I wasn't so sure if I believed him when he said that he liked another girl that wasn't me. I wanted to believe him, but I had reason to be skeptical.

"Sean," I finally told her. "I'm going to prom with Sean."

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