“Dirty Little Secret” by the All-American Rejects is a pop-punk song that explores themes of hidden relationships and the guilt and thrill associated with them. The lyrics depict someone keeping a romantic or possibly illicit affair secret from others, acknowledging the shame and complexity of the situation. [Source: chatGPT]

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Fun fact: Emily was keeping a secret. Nathan was also keeping a secret.

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Chapter Twenty One: Dirty Little Secret

I stared at him, dumbfounded. In a split second, my brain conjured up images of Nathan and me on prom night, him in his tux and me in a dark green dress; twirling around, joking, laughing, dancing, and having fun.

I blinked the images away and laughed. Because I knew he was kidding.

“You're joking.” I said with a smile, but those images were proving fatal to my heart. It constricted painfully in my chest.

Nathan shook his head, “No, I'm not.”

There wasn't any hint of humor on his face. “You need a date to prom. I'll be your prom date.”

I pushed him, with my index finger to his chest, “Stop. It's not something you should talk about like this.”

I was starting to get heartburn for reasons I could not understand. He was taking this joke too far.

“I'm serious,” I looked up to meet his eyes as Nathan continued, “I'm not joking. Why is it so hard to believe? I'm telling you, I'll take you to prom, aren't I? Not only that, I'll be the best date you ever had.”

As soon as he said that, the night we watched a movie in drive-in and had dumplings for dinner flashed through my mind.

“But why?” I asked, weakly.

“Because you need a date?” He asked in confusion.

“I mean, yes, I do,” I said, “But why would you do this for me?”

“Hmm,” He contemplated for a moment, then said decidedly, “So I get to go to prom and make fun of you?”

That seemed like something he would do. So I imagined it all, everything; from him picking me up from my house, to us being in the dance floor together slowly swaying to a nice song. I dreamed of dancing together with him, Nathan making fun of me whenever I got delusional or emotional over how amazing the night would be.

I focused back on the present. I was standing in front of him at the Barnes & Noble entrance. He was holding the bags of books we had just bought, looking great like he always did, even after a day of school, asking me to be his prom date.

This universe was cruel. He seemed too perfect to be true. I didn't believe in any of this. Maybe I was dreaming.

“As if,” I said as I stepped away from him, “with this shit promposal?”

“What shit promposal?” Nathan asked, genuinely curious.

“I am not saying yes to this zero-effort, spur-of-the-moment, out-of-the- blue promposal.” I said, scoffing, teasing him.

I was scared, too. If he could ask me this easily, he could as easily take it back too. Perhaps I was messed up to think that way.

“Oh,” his eyebrows raised, “that's it, huh? Fine.”

“What's fine?” I asked as we started walking again.

“Everything,” he muttered, smirking.

Something about that felt sinister, yet my heart thudded excitedly.

*****

I figured out what was fine when I went to school the next day. I was sitting in Eng Lit, minding my own business, when a paper ball hit my head.

I couldn't tell exactly why I looked in Nathan's direction, as if I knew he had thrown it.

He was looking forward, circling a pen in his hand.

I rolled my eyes, straightened out the paper. It said, ‘Prom?’

I laughed. Nathan looked at me and raised his eyebrow.

I shook my head no. He scowled. So, this was his idea of good promposal.

Actually, it was cute. In my head, I had already said yes. But I was going to make him wait, a little, for fun.

I didn’t pay attention to him for the rest of the class. In Algebra, as I sat down, Nathan Callahan took the seat right behind me.

I was looking around for my friends. I spotted Azra, sitting a few seats ahead of me. She waved at me. I waved back. The class started. Mr. Ewan went on and on about polynomials. I started to yawn.

I felt someone poking my back. I rolled my eyes. He poked my sides, so I tried to grab his hands. He let me. He shoved something in it.

I brought my hand back. Looking forward, I sneakily opened whatever Nathan had given me. It was a mint. He had wrapped paper around it. The paper, once again, said, ‘Prom?’

A big smile bloomed on my face. I popped the mint into my mouth, wrote “no” as an answer. When Mr. Ewan turned back to the board, I swiveled around and dropped the paper on Nathan's desk.

The piece of paper came back the next minute. Now it said:

Say Yes when I'm still asking you nicely, or you won't like what I'm going to do next.

I covered my mouth and laughed. The threat was adorable.

I wrote another “no” underneath it and passed it back. Minutes ticked by as I waited for something to happen. All my attention was on the boy sitting behind me instead of on the class.

This boy was such a distraction.

When the class almost reached its end, his hand reached out and poked my side where I was ticklish. I burst out laughing so hard, the whole class turned to look at me, along with the teacher.

“Any problem, Ms. Kingsley?” Mr. Ewan asked.

I cleared my throat, “No, sir.”

Nathan kicked me under the table. I tried to step on his foot but failed.

He was going to pay for this. This was out of line. As soon as the bell rang, I turned towards him and glared. Nathan was leaning back in his chair, with his arms folded behind his head. He was chewing something, the mint probably, and said, “You had it coming, sweetheart.”

I probably growled, I wasn't so sure. My brain was clouded with rage.

He tapped my nose with his index finger and said, “Cute. Just like a little baby kitten.”

Then he stood up, threw his backpack over his shoulders, and walked away.

I gathered my wits and my books. When I exited the class, Azra was waiting by the door.

“What was that all about?” she said, looking curious.

“What was what all about?” I asked, trying to act nonchalant.

I wasn't ready to tell anyone about anything. If I really did go to prom with Nathan, they'd know. I didn't want to hear anything about it beforehand.

“You screamed during class,” Azra said, “And wasn't that Nathan Callahan sitting behind you? He was laughing.”

Was he? After humiliating me, in front of the class, he was having fun. I really needed revenge.

When we were walking down the hallway, someone was squealing. Azra and I looked around for the source of the sound and found a girl laughing holding a bouquet of flowers. Another promposal.

Azra was shaking her head, “No one is ever going to buy me flowers.”

“Of course, someone will,” I wrapped my arm around her back when she wrapped hers around my shoulders.

“Are you getting flowers, Em?”

I wasn't getting flowers. Instead, I was getting ruffled hair, kicks under the table, paper torn from notebooks, jabs on my sides, and a mint.

How utterly romantic.

I shook my head no. We took our seats in Geo. Leanna joined us shortly. The class started. I wasn't gonna look for him here. Not after what he did in the last class.

The class went on. I glanced around, despite what I  had decided. There was no sign of Nathan Callahan. Weird.

The door burst open 10 minutes later. It was him. Nathan looked like he had been running.

What was he going to do this time? I thought. I looked at Azra and Leanna. Both of them were looking his way. Shit.

He walked in and went straight to the teacher. They talked for a minute, looking serious. Then the teacher smiled, patted Nathan's shoulder. Nathan walked right out.

“Huh?” Leanna said, “What was that about?”

Azra was shaking her head, “I have never seen Mr. White pat someone.” Our Geography teacher wasn't the most enthusiastic person on earth.

I murmured, “Yeah, me either.”

“What were talking about?” Leanna said. “Is he like planning to ask someone out?”

“Nathan Callahan?” Azra scoffed, “I don't think so.”

“I know, right?” I said weakly, trying not to sound suspicious.

“Lea, he was laughing while sitting behind Em in the last class,” Azra said to Leanna. Leanna turned to me and gave me a look.

I shook my head, “That's just a coincidence.”

Leanna narrowed her eyes. Mr. White's voice disrupted our little chat.

Lunch started, and I stood in line with my friends. I was ahead of them. I grabbed some fries, a sandwich, and an apple. I was on my way back to our usual table when someone bumped my shoulder hard. I yelped, almost dropping my lunch tray, but a hand on my wrist steadied me.

It was Nathan Callahan.

I looked back at my friends. They were still getting their food.

I looked back at him, “Are you out of your mind?”

He thought for a moment and then deadpanned, “I might be.”

I tried to scold him, but he placed a takeout coffee on my tray and walked away.

It was a recyclable plastic cup filled with what looked like an iced Americano.

I took my seat and started eating. The surrounding chairs filled up. Malti sat across from me, Leanna beside me, and others all around. Erika was talking about a jock who had used the whole cheerleading team to ask his girlfriend out to Prom. I was sipping my coffee.

“Where did you get that?” Malti asked. The girls turned to me as well.

“Umm,” I dropped the straw back in the cup. “Well…”

“Hey, there’s something written on it,” Leanna said. “That doesn't look like your name.”

My eyes fell on the cup as well. I had sipped 1/4th of it, and I could see the curve of a P. Oh shit. Oh no.

I stood up hurriedly.

“Gotta to go to the toilet,” I mumbled, laughed, and grabbed the cup from the tray with me.

“Girl, let me see what it says,” Leanna was reaching for it.

“Suspicious, very suspicious,” Azra was saying.

I shook my head. I didn't dare glance Nathan's way, who was watching this whole thing pan out from his table and laughing to death, for sure.

I ran for my life, leaving my friends shouting behind me. I took out my phone, sent a string of curses to Nathan, and sipped the rest of my coffee and the R, O, and M revealed themselves one by one, lengthwise.

Of course, the cup said, “Prom?”

My phone rang. It was the criminal himself.

“You are so dead,” I said.

“Or so you keep telling me,” Nathan said, “but that's not how you start talking on the phone.”

“After I murder you, I'll leave your body in a ditch,” I replied.

“You love my body,” Nathan retorted, “You can't stop staring at it.”

“I'll beat the daylights out of your body,” I replied. He laughed.

“So, what do you say? Yes? Or do I need to embarrass you further?” Nathan asked. He was walking, I figured.

“No, a thousand times, no,” I was leaning against the wall at the back of the school. There was a bench. I walked to it and sat down.

“You are going to regret this,” Nathan said.

“Shut up,” I told him. “Where are you walking to?”

He hung up. I stared at my phone.

“To you,” someone said above me, and I looked up.

Nathan Callahan was standing right in front of me.

My heart kicked up to my throat. That definitely wasn’t normal.

I made a fist and punched his abs. Damn, they were some hard muscles. Nathan chuckled in amusement.

“What were you saying about my body?” He said. “Here you are, feeling me up.”

“Screw off,” I kicked his shin, “Fine, I'll go to prom with you. Stop embarrassing me.”

“Haha,” Nathan rolled his eyes, “That yes won't do, Emily.”

The bell rang in the distance. I stood up. He ruffled my hair, “See you later.”

He turned around, and I followed him. We parted ways as soon we neared the cafeteria.

I ran into my friends but didn't talk to them. They kept glancing at me. I acted like my social battery was over.

Nathan didn't share the next class with me, thank God. I hoped his attacks were over.

Chemistry was the last class of the day. I sat at my station, ready to take Nathan’s ear off for poking me the whole day. The class time started, but there was no sign of Mr.Wong or Nathan.

Everyone was talking among themselves. I was doodling in my copy and glancing at the door every few minutes.

Wong finally walked in, and so did Nathan, followed by him. He was holding a big stainless steel tray, and on it were beakers. At least 40 of them.

They entered the room. Wong started writing on the board, some formulas about acid reactions. Nathan was setting things up on the front table. I tried to catch his eye a few times, but he wouldn't look at me.

When he finally did, he pleaded with his eyes and said something. I was bad at lip-reading, but it looked like he was saying Wong had caught him. He murmured what looked like, ‘Save me.’

I cackled like a maniac, silently, in my seat. That served him right.

Wong said Nathan was his assistant for the class today, while Nathan tried a polite smile. It looked extremely fake.

Our chemistry teacher started talking about indicators and different pH solutions. He said the test tubes held different solutions, and one by one, we were to go to the front and pour the solutions into different beakers. It all looked interesting.

He started calling us by name. Some people whined. But as they went to the table, Nathan handed them a test tube. He pointed to a beaker. They seemed to have some sort of colored tape on them. After pouring, they waited for the color change and came back.

I was waiting for my turn like a kid waiting for a Christmas present. It would be great to go up there and laugh at Nathan’s face. He looked so miserable.

This would be so much fun.

*****

A/N: there will be no update tomorrow (Sunday), since I already updated today (Saturday).