It was Valentine's Day; the last day of Cupid's week and the day of prom. All throughout school that day, Anna and I tended to the multiple people who bought tickets last minute.

We practically ran out the door at three pm to avoid the stampede of panicked students who assumed they could purchase tickets at the door right before prom. That wasn't happening. At least we personally weren't dealing with that. Mr. Byers could. We'd dealt with the organization of dance for too long. There was nothing more we could do than blasting it all over the school's social media, and posting the details on every poster, flyer and banner all throughout school.

Everyone had gushed about their dates, they bragged about their plans to get into limousines and carried heart balloons or held stuffed animals under their arm as they read through their Valentine's Day cards.

It was like Cupid himself invisibly flew around the school, shooting people and making the day extra perfect.

Sure, there were rejections, and maybe there were a few embarrassed tears, but friends rallied around those people, and there was no love lost for anyone. The aura of love and hope swindled around and drowned out everything else.

No one looked more perfect for each other than Sabrina and Parker as they got into Sabrina's car with their hands full of Valentine's Day gifts and overly broad stuff bears and heart-shaped candies.

While Dad drove Anna and me home, he didn't hold back on the questions.

"No offence, Anna, but I was expecting another Jenkins' girl with my daughter today of all days and nights of all nights."

"It's a friend's prom," Anna explained.

"That makes sense."

"Sam chickened out of going for the romantic option, sadly."

"I didn't chicken out," I injected and roughly pulled on the seatbelt digging into my hip.

"You totally did," Anna said.

"If I had done something big and magical to ask Sabrina out or anything to do with my feelings, I would've destroyed her chance at being prom queen. Exposed the whole charade! I wasn't a chicken. I was considerate. Plus, in no world would I be the prom queen's date. That position is already filled and what would've been the point in asking Sabrina to be my date only for her remind me of that very fact."

"Sam, what happened to listening to my advice?" Dad turned on the indicators before making a turn. "A simple conversation. Not a big explosion of public proposals."

"You also said Shoot Your Shot. Mixed messages there, Dad."

"Excuses, excuses," Anna said through a fake yawn.

"Legitimate reasons," I countered.

"Oh well, you two will have a good time together." Dad peeked at Anna through the car mirror. "Not feeling sick or anything, right, Anna?"

Anna leaned forward and squeezed his shoulder. "No, sir, and thanks for letting me crash when I was."

He placed his hand on top of hers and patted twice. "No problem, kid."

After arriving home, Dad headed into the house, and Anna leaned against the hood of the car and grabbed my arm as I went to go around her. Even if I had made a dash inside, we were spending the evening together to get ready for prom. There was no escaping her poking and prodding.

"You might be going to the prom with me, but you're leaving with Sabrina, right?"

"Anna . . ."

"You have a plan. Right? Something up your sleeve? I don't like this whole clueless and blank expression you've got going on." She let go of my arm. "She can't wait forever for you, Sam."

"I know that."

"All I'm saying is, I'm cool with you pursuing another date that isn't me before or even during prom. Don't worry about my feelings. But you do have to promise to save a dance for me. Just one!" Anna wiggled her eyebrows. "Let's get ready. Does it feel real to you? We're finally here. I can't wait to get there and dance and dance and dance, not worrying about anyone else and their plans for the night."

"You don't regret signing up for the committee with me, do you?"

"I wouldn't change a thing."

They were right really, I did chicken out, I did run away, and I didn't put up as much as a fight as I could have. There was the option to pull Sabrina to the side after Parker asked her 'officially' to be her prom date.

There was a difference between imagining being with Sabrina and actually being with her. The daydreams in my head, especially on today of all days, wouldn't match up with the reality. Because where Sabrina was my dream date every day, whether it be Valentine's Day or Prom, the fact of the matter was, I wasn't hers. Parker was her other queen, and that wasn't me. She chose her. And that fact hurt. (Totally ignoring the fact that I was the one who suggested that arrangement in the first place. Accountability who?)

Even if I did spill my guts and confess everything that I felt for Sabrina and even if she did feel the same way about me, she said it herself, that was our business. Everyone else's business was a fake reality created by not only Sabrina and Parker but me too.

Was there a point in confessing everything, today of all days and putting everyone involved in a sticky situation?

It was the question that ran through my mind as Anna, and I got our hair done in the hair salon and as our nails were tended to. Even as our make-up was in the middle of being put on, the question swirled and swirled until suddenly, we were in our prom dresses and were getting our pictures taken at the bottom of the stairs in my house.

Anna and I were there with our smiles and posing for my parents, and maybe I looked the part, but I didn't feel like it.

It was wrong.

It was wrong to do this without speaking to Sabrina first.

"Feel like running to someone rather than away from them?" Anna said casually and knowingly. Not waiting for my response, she nudged me. "Go."

"But . . ."

"Go. It's not like Sabrina lives more than a mile away."

"You're right. She's literally right there. Gotta blast," I rushed out. Raising my hand, I headed to the door, blocking yet another photo Dad took.

Instead of heading down the driveway like an average person and running up the Jenkins' driveway to the front door, I bunched my dress together and hopped over the fence so that I was in their backyard. As I landed on my feet, Anna was there on the opposite side of the fence, tossing over a bow and arrow. She winked and turned away without a word.

This was it.

That surge of unwavering confidence oozed in my blood again.

The lights were on in Sabrina's bedroom, so I did what any sane teenager would've done. Instead of wasting my one and only arrow, I tossed a small pebble against the window and waited. Repeating the process, my hands clutched a bunch of pebbles and rocketed them skywards and in doing so managed to puncture the glass with a frightening crack. Shit.

My body stilled, waiting for a response, be it Sabrina looking out of her window with a judgemental frown or a scary rant or a full-blown scream from the sudden crack of the window, but nothing happened.

It was all too silent.

The situation was painfully obvious.

She'd gone to the prom already.

"Anna!" I yelled, spinning around to face the side of my house.

"Sam?!"

"We gotta blast for real!" I called out, throwing myself needlessly back over the fence and falling into her waiting arms.

"We really need to learn how to drive."

"I do know how to drive."

"How lame is it though that you can't speed off in a car to chase your love to prom? You're catching a ride with your dad. Where's the romance? The flare? The fairytaleness of it all?"

"You missed the cliché romantic moment already."

"I did?"

"Uh-huh." There was no way I'd tell her about destroying her sister's window. "Let's go wait by the car."

The second time that day, Dad drove both Anna and me but this time, it was back to school. Mr. Byers stood by the door to the gym, taking in tickets, complimenting students on their chosen attire and when his personal prom committee wandered up the steps, he wiped a tear from his eye and sent us on our way inside through the heart-shaped balloon arch and inside.

Anna gripped onto my arm, squeezing tightly with both her hands. She let her gaze glide over our creation from the giant inflatable arrows that flapped about uncontrollably, to the pink and red shaped candy wrapper decorations hung from the ceiling to the cupid photo stand in board where people were already sticking their head in the hole and grinning up at the camera person.

Then I noticed her.

Sabrina.

She was amid the queue of students alongside their dates, in line to have their photo taken on top of the bow-shaped seat that had just about enough room for two people.

I stopped in my tracks and forgot how to breathe. Sabrina wore this strapless dress that began from the top with a navy blue that descended into pale blues and whites and further to the ground. It was like the colour of the sky during the evening and the early morning. Parker was by her side, but my eyes wouldn't budge from their admiration of Sabrina Jenkins. She commanded it.

Anna led me in that direction, and without a word, she slipped away, leaving me all on my lonesome to have my picture taken. So, I was stood there, by myself, waiting to watch Sabrina and Parker have their photo taken. Great.

The intrinsic rainbow and glittered Cupid's bow had a warm glow to it, complementing the dresses and suits as students sat in its slope.

"Oh, would you look at that," Maisie said with a wink directed at me as she passed me and cut the rest of the line. "I have to talk to my best friend, Parker, right now and it can't wait for another second."

"Maisie? What?" Parker floundered as she was yanked out of the line and pulled away somewhere that wasn't there.

Sabrina remained composed, dateless, at the front of the line and faced me with an enquiring head tilt.

"Looks like I'll have to fill in for your date," I said to Sabrina, hoping she didn't notice my throat swallowing down my nerves.

"It does seem that way, doesn't it?"

"You two, next!" the photographer instructed with a snap of his fingers.

"Shall we?" I asked.

"We shall."

I sat down first and flattened my dress before glancing up. Sabrina shot me a wicked smile before sitting on my lap with her hand on my back.

My eyes stung, and maybe it was the blinding light of spotlights beside the camera, or maybe it was the fact that this was all I ever wanted. Sabrina leaned in, kissing me on the cheek and whispered, "You're beautiful, Sam."

"Eyes here, ladies," the photographer said, but it wasn't as harsh as a tone.

I relaxed and placed my hands around her waist, holding her in place and smiled into the lens.

For a moment, it was like we were the only ones in the world, and then the flash went off and eyes glued to us as we stood up. Then the next couple sat down, and no one cared about us anymore and the fact that we weren't each other's date and still had a picture taken together.

"Drinks?" Sabrina suggested.

My mouth was suddenly dry. "Sure."

I wondered what Sabrina was up to when she hooked her arm in mine and led us to the punch bowl. She poured two cups and clinked them together before she sipped on her drink, all the while watching me over the rim of the cup.

There was no question in her eyes or expectation. They were sparkling and smiling and ultimately carefree.

Finally, I sighed and placed the cup back down on the table. "You make my heart ache sometimes when I look at you."

She placed her hand on my chest. "Is it aching now?"

"More than ever," I confided. "I'm ready now, Sabrina. I get what you were saying. How could I expect you to jump all in when I didn't even dip my toes in? I care about you. More than I thought I could care about someone and it's scary. Right now, it feels like I'm freefalling aimlessly with the little voice in the back of my head saying that it will all be okay and to trust you. I'm going to listen to that voice. I do, trust you. I don't know what that means for us. But there are my feelings. I . . . I do care for you. It was never casual for me or easy breezy. It was always more than that for me. Even when you kissed me for the first time, and I legged it out of your house, I cared for you."

My heart pounded and ached and fought inside my chest as she slowly slid her hand from my chest to cup my cheek. "How do you feel now that you've said it?"

"Alive," I breathed out.

"Sabrina, over here!" Parker called out, forcing Sabrina to let me go and take a step back.

"We'll talk later, okay?" she promised.

"I—" I chewed on my lip. Emotion before logistics. Nothing had to happen right there and then. "Okay. I'll hold you to that. Have a good time tonight, Sabrina. You deserve it."

"I'm not sure about that."

She reached back out and squeezed my hand before she joined Parker.

I didn't have a second to process what happened alone because Anna was there in front of me, dancing by wiggling like a snake around me. "That looked intense."

I poured another drink, forgetting which cup was mine in the first place. "I told her."

"That you love her?"

"No," I scoffed. "That I care for her. Imagine telling someone that you love them before going on a date? I know we're gay, but we're not that gay."

"Uh-huh."

"What?"

"You're both pretty gay."

"Whatever."