The next morning, Bee stood in front of her mirror, forcing a hoodie over her head. Usually, she liked to dress nice for school, but there was more to hide that morning, and she wasn't taking any risks.

Bee pulled on a baseball cap and then grabbed her backpack, heading down the stairs. Her mom was already at work, so when Bee went into the kitchen, she had it to herself, which was fine with her. She poured herself a bowl of cereal and sat, forcing herself to eat as she stared straight ahead, trying to make herself forget about last night.

It was harder than she thought. She tried to distract herself by pawing through her planner, looking at her schedule to try and calm herself down. She had set design that morning, and she had a student council meeting, and she had a test in english. She rolled her shoulders, then she rolled her neck, and she crammed the cereal into her mouth.

When it was finally time to catch her bus, she shoved her planner into her backpack and put her cereal bowl into the sink. When she stepped outside onto her driveway, she was shocked to find Oakland's truck parked along the road.

She tightened her hold on her backpack and headed towards his truck. As soon as she approached his passenger side door, he rolled down the window. "Get in."

She didn't, not yet. "Why are you here?"

"You didn't text me back last night. I was... just making sure you were okay." So very unlike Oakland that she just looked at him with skeptical eyes, wondering if she could trust him. She felt like she couldn't, but there was something pleading in his voice.

"My dad took my phone away." She shrugged and opened the door, definitely preferring this to the bus. Once she hefted herself up into the truck, she closed the door and put her baseball bag in the backseat and kept her school backpack on her lap.

He didn't pull away from the curb, not yet. "I need to know if you're okay or not."

She slunk back into the seat, staring straight ahead, her mouth in a tight line. "I'm okay. I'm here, aren't I? If I wasn't okay, I wouldn't be here. Honest."

Oakland eyed her, then turned on the radio, letting Glass Animals play through the speakers. His shoulders were still tense, despite what she had said, and when she went to rest her hand on his shoulder, he nearly flinched. He didn't even look at her as he blew out a long sigh. "If something happened to you, I would feel at fault. Why didn't you just spend the night, Bee?"

She shifted, uncomfortable at his words, wishing he wasn't prying in her life the way he was. "My mom wouldn't have been safe. I needed to return home." She forced a shrug. "Besides, it seems worse than it is."

He didn't look like he believed her, but he didn't press her. He looked out his window, silent as the trees passed, looking like he was wishing he hadn't picked her up. She too was beginning to wish he hadn't.

When they pulled into the school parking lot, she put her hand on his arm, leaning over to look at him. He smelled like soap and shaving cream, and his eyes looked guilty. "I'm fine, Oak. Trust me, what happens to me doesn't matter. Don't worry about it." She reached to grab her baseball bag, and then she was out of the truck, heading towards the school without looking back. No matter how Oakland felt, Bee knew it didn't matter. There was no real need for him to worry.

* * *

Prom was on everyone's minds that afternoon in the student council room. It was hard to believe, but prom was only two weeks away, and things needed to be finalized, fast. Everyone on student council was in charge of a booth, and Bee was happy to say she was in charge of the batting cage booth, where students could pay fifty cents to take a shot at 3 fast pitch balls. She had already asked coach about taking the pitching machine, and he had agreed.

A girl named Olive was running the kissing booth. "I have a pretty good line up," she said, waving a sheet of paper in the air. Her smile was infectious, and her cheeks were rosy with excitement. She stopped waving the paper so she could read from it. "So far, I have Jefferson Pierce, Tom Reynolds, Luke Ishand, Penny Davis, Lily Rollands, and Alex Pierson. I figure, prom lasts 4 hours, that's about 40 minutes per person. I really would ideally like to cut it down to 30 minutes per person, so I'm still hunting for 2 more people."

Everyone had already decided a kiss would be seventy five cents, and it would be strictly no tongue.

"Olive, you should sacrifice a half hour of your time," someone said, laughing. "That way, you only have to find one more person."

Olive rolled her eyes and pushed her blonde hair behind her shoulder. "Okay, maybe I will." Then, she looked at Bee, her face lightening up. "What about Oakland Stone? You guys are friends, right? I totally want to ask him, but I'm a little nervous he'll shoot me down."

Bee let out a barking laugh, folding her hands on her lap. "Oakland and I aren't friends."

Olive's eyes grew pleading. "C'mon, Bee. You're at least on the baseball team with him. Just ask him, for me? For the whole student council?"

Her mouth twisted, but Bee sighed regardless. "I'll ask, but no promises."

Olive let out a gleeful shout. "Also, please would you tell him I think he's cute? Cause damn, that boy." She fake swooned. "Is he asking anyone to prom?"

Everyone looked at Bee, like she would know. "I have no idea. Ask him yourself." Then, Bee pushed the conversation away from her. "So I went ahead and reached out to our DJ, just to make sure things are good to go. He sent me another confirmation email and asked us to be there early on the night of prom to make sure the playlist is okay and that the acoustics will work well in the space. I think we need to focus on painting our booths."

Bee hadn't even started hers, other than to ask Coach for the pitching machine. They had asked the woodshop teacher if he could have his students build booths when they first came up with the idea, and Bee had gotten confirmation that the booths and their add-ons were also ready to go.

Marnie nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, our booths are ready in the woodshop room. We just have to grab them and paint. How about we all get together this Saturday and paint?"

Everyone agreed, but Bee slunk a little lower in her seat. "You guys go ahead, but I can't. I have practice on both weekend days."

Marnie eyed her with surprise. "So like, you don't have a single day off?"

Bee hadn't thought about it like that, but Marnie was right. She shrugged, smiling. "Nah, but it doesn't bother me. I like practicing baseball on weekends." And that was true, she loved it.

Marnie went through what each booth needed, and everyone began talking about decorations, adding in their input when it came to indoor decor, wondering if the tables should have red and yellow table cloths, or if that was too tacky. Bee started to tune it out, thinking about this coming weekend, and how strangely excited she was to be there with the one boy she never thought she'd look forward to seeing.

Bee suddenly though had an idea, bringing her mind back to the conversation. "What about silk red table cloths and then we do a yellow centerpiece? Still classy, and a little less tacky. And maybe we put bags of popcorn at each seat. I'm also thinking, it would be cool if we dressed the entrance in like a carnival tent, so in the foyer they come in, put their jackets away, and then the entrance into the ballroom is red and white fabric, pulled away to look like the entrance to a big top."

Others jumped in with ideas, pitching what they thought could be cool, and Bee jotted it down in her planner. She was happy they were all excited and on the same page about the theme. By the end of student council, Bee was happy to say she was pretty thrilled for Prom, even if she was dateless.

Dateless. She wondered about James, and if she should ask him. Part of her wanted to ask, but the other part was still hearing Oakland's words. Don't ask James to prom. She wanted to know why he would say that.

As she walked into the cafeteria, she shook the thoughts from her head and saw Jane and John at the table for the May Day volunteering. When she stepped up to the table, Jane almost looked embarrassed to be caught with John. "Hey, Bee."

She smiled, settling in her seat. "Hey Jane. Hey John."

"Jane tells me that interact meets on Thursdays. I think I'm coming to the meeting on Thursday, if you want a ride home."

"Yeah! That would be sweet." Bee took out her lunch, taking a bite of her sandwich and nodding. "I'll let my mom know."

Then, Bee caught sight of a very angry Fauna walking towards her and the table. "Here comes trouble," she muttered, setting down her sandwich. She wasn't sure what she'd done this time to make Fauna angry, but it was obvious the girl was.

When she got to the table, her hands were on his hips. "When did he ask you?"

Bee opened her mouth, then closed it. "What?"

"When did Oak ask you to prom?"

Her voice was loud enough to draw the attention of the students near them, who had stopped eating to look at what was happening with interest. Bee wanted to hide, but there was nowhere to go. "He didn't."

"Bullshit!" Fauna shoved a finger in Bee's chest. "He took you to the ocean, didn't he?"

Bee looked to the side, trying to find Oakland in the cafeteria, but she couldn't. "He did, but he didn't ask me to prom. And I don't think he's going to."

"No. No. This is such bullshit! You told me I was too good for him, for what? So that you could have him?" She looked like she was going to cry, and Bee shifted in her seat guiltily. Even if that wasn't her intention, it did look like she was trying to get Fauna to back off of Oakland for her own personal gain.

"Fauna, no. Oakland and I still aren't friends, and I still don't like him. What we talked about in the hallway wasn't some sort of game."

Her face was growing redder with each moment. "I saw you get out of his truck this morning."

John was looking at her then with a questionable look in his eyes, and Bee wanted to disappear, so desperately. "That didn't mean anything, Fauna. C'mon. He gives girls rides all the time, and it never means anything. Hell, he kisses girls all the time and it means nothing."

Bee didn't see him arrive, but Oakland was suddenly there, wrapping an arm around Fauna's shoulders. "Fauna, relax. She's right, it meant nothing. I mean, look at her. She's kinda pathetic, isn't she? Having to take the bus every day, using her gender as a pass to do whatever she wants. She's looking for pity babe, nothing more. Now, let's go back to the table. Besides, you're the one that eats lunch with me and sits next to me in class, not Beatrice."

Bee knew there was no reason to feel the punch to her gut at his words, but she did. She felt like she was sucker punched, right in the stomach, because Oakland was acting like yesterday hadn't happened. Like this morning hadn't happened.

Isn't that what you're doing? She thought to herself, knowing she was right. She was doing the same thing, pretending there was nothing between her and Oakland, even though she knew there was something there. She knew her own feelings, and she hated how upset he made her, again and again.

Oakland steered Fauna back to the table, but Fauna shot her a nasty look over her shoulder, a look that screamed we aren't over. What bothered Bee more though was that Fauna somehow knew they had gone to the beach, and she had assumed he had asked her to prom.

John was still staring at Bee with disbelief. "You went to the beach with him?"

Bee wouldn't look John in the eye. "My dad was... I needed to escape, and Oakland was just there. He offered to drive me until I could go back home. We just ended up at the beach." And as far as interactions go, it was one of the most innocent interactions she'd had with Oakland. No kissing, no choking, no hair pulling. It was so tame, so why did it feel so bad?

John's face softened at the mention of dad, and he turned back to Jane. "So I'll see you Thursday."

Jane smiled, but it looked suddenly strained. "I hope I see you before that."

John laughed as he turned away, winking at Bee, heading back to the table where Larkin, Stephen, and Benji were all staring at her. She hated that it felt judgemental even though she knew her friends truly wouldn't judge her.

But, it was Oakland who would, and when she made eye contact with him across the room, there was something about his expression that made her turn away and hug her stomach. She hated how sick to her stomach she felt all of a sudden. She hated that he had this effect on her. She hated that some part of her liked him.