The Most Popular Boy in School Asked My Daughter to Prom – Then He Walked Over to Me During the Slow Dance and Said, ‘I Did My Part, Now You Do Yours’
When I stepped back into the gym, kids were whispering in knots near the bleachers. Parents stood with careful faces that didn’t hide a thing. The principal was by the exit with Elsie. Mason’s coach stood nearby, along with Mason’s parents.
Good, I thought. Let them all hear it.
Elsie looked wrecked. When she saw me, fresh hurt flashed across her face.
“Elsie,” I said.
“I don’t want excuses.”
“You’re not getting excuses.” I took my daughter’s hands before she could pull away. “Listen to me carefully. Your father is here. He’s been here all night. He’s the one who arranged this. He contacted Mason.”
When she saw me, fresh hurt flashed across her face.
The principal’s mouth tightened.
Mason’s mother made a strangled sound.
Around us, the whispering sharpened.
Elsie stared at me like I’d slapped her.
“No,” she whispered.
“Yes.” I squeezed her hands. “He apparently thought it was the only way he’d get a chance to speak to you.”
Around us, the whispering sharpened.
Her face folded in on itself.
For a second, I thought she might collapse.
Instead, she lifted her chin. Her eyes were still wet, but there was something steady in them now. Something I had never seen so clearly before.
“He wanted a chance to speak to me? Then he can have it. Bring him out,” she said.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen her look so determined, so I nodded.
For a second, I thought she might collapse.
I walked back down that hallway and opened the closet door.
Darren looked up fast, smiling like an idiot. “You talked to her?”
“She wants to see you,” I said.
He followed me into the gym.
At first, he didn’t understand what he was walking into. The silence hit him a beat too late. He slowed, and looked around at the ring of faces… The principal. The coach. Parents. Students.
Mason standing off to the side looking ashamed and cornered.
Elsie waiting near the exit, spine straight as a blade.
I walked back down that hallway and opened the closet door.
Darren stopped. “Elsie, honey, I know this is a shock—”
Her voice was flat. “Don’t call me that.”
Darren blinked. He looked around again, finally understanding that whatever reunion he had pictured was dead.
“You had a stranger pretend to like me,” she said, louder now. “At my prom.”
“I thought it would make this easier. I only wanted to talk.”
Mason stepped forward then, voice shaking. “I’m sorry, Elsie.”
She looked at him. “Then tell me why. Why did you do it?”
“You had a stranger pretend to like me.”
