The whole school is talking about prom.

Posters are plastered everywhere, the cheerleaders are counting their dresses, the boys are arguing over who's going to ask whom.

And me? I'm supposed to play the cool, insensitive guy, too busy with the team to even think about prom.

But every time I walk past their locker… I think about it. About them. About me. About us. Even though 'us'… doesn't exist. Not yet.

The guys on the team are pushing me, teasing me.

"Are you going to invite someone, Captain?"

"The girls will fight over you."

I pretend to laugh.

If they only knew that the only person I want to invite... is the one who makes me too nervous to string three words together.

And then, one morning, I see them in front of their locker. The sunlight hits them perfectly.

I stand there like an idiot, my fingers gripping my varsity jacket tightly. I think to myself: Okay. This is it. I'm going. I walk. I move forward.

They look up.

And I completely lose my confidence. Suddenly, my legs feel like jelly. Me, James, the captain who faces entire teams without flinching… unable to speak to a single person. To them. Because for them, I can't afford to mess up.

I end up saying something stupid like,

"You... you're going to the prom?"

I curse myself inwardly.

But when they look at me with that smile... that smile that makes my head spin more than any victory... I tell myself that maybe taking the plunge wasn't so crazy after all. I feel like all the noise of the school disappears around us.

Just them.

Just me.

And my heart is beating so fast it almost hurts.