Saturday morning is quite possibly the most chaotic morning of my entire life. When I say I literally have 187 missed messages from Emily and Marina, I mean I literally have 187 missed messages from Emily and Marina.

Apparently James isn’t totally thrilled with this either, because minutes after I’m trying to catch up on what’s happening, I get a text from just him saying:-

• What on earth?

• Idk man, girls.

• Ha. I guess.

• Btw did you get a corsage for Emily yet? 

• Aw crap. No, I didn't."

• Well, fear not, for by the power of my employee discount, I'll grab an extra.

• Thanks! :)

• Yep.

I search for my keys and shout, “Mom! I’m going to the store!” I shout, pulling on a pair of shorts and stuffing my phone into my pocket. “¡Espera, espera! I have a list!”
“Ugh, can't you just text it to me? I’m in a rush!”
“I suppose.”
“Okay, bye!”
“Do NOT forget my list. Bye, mijo.”

It doesn’t take too long to get to the store despite the Saturday morning traffic. Catelin, one of my co-workers, is sitting at the floral department counter with a look of utmost boredom. “Yooooo Peyton, my man, can you please tell me to do something. I have been doing nothing but making these hideous corsages for three hours, and the only other person here is Todd and I don’t wanna talk to Todd.”
“You’re bored enough to let me boss you around?”
“Honestly, I’d rather be mopping the floors of the men’s room.” I laugh, “But you’re still not bored enough to talk to Todd?” She sighs as she taps her long red fingernails on the counter and asks, “Todd’s so creepy! But like, why are you here, you’re not working this weekend?”
“I’m assuming we have corsage stuff left?”
“Peyton, those are fighting words”
“I can do it myself, I just need the stuff.”
“I dunno man, corsages take orders three day in advance, did you order three days in advance?” I raise an eyebrow to her. “Please?”
“I’m kidding, of course I can make one for you. I definitely don’t trust you to make one yourself.”
“Hey! We all have artistic potential. Sometimes, we just don’t know how to execute it.”
“Who told you that one?”
“A friend.”
“A friend? Huh.”
“Anyways, could you do two? I told my friend I’d get him one too.” She sighs dramatically but responds, “Sure.”
“In that case, can I get a purple one and a pink one?”
“Yep.” She gets to work, immediately waltzing through the rainbow assortment of flowers. Catelin talks my ear off for a solid ten minutes, going off about her sister’s son, and how they needed a daycare place, and how she wishes he’d stop crying when she held him, and how her sister finally got a real job working as a nurse for a pediatrician. She’s always talkative, going on and on about every little thing that life has thrown her way. It keeps shifts that would otherwise consist of staring at the wall significantly more interesting. 

Ten minutes later, Catelin presents two perfectly wrapped corsages. One with a pink rose and the other with some speckled flower with big flat purple petals. I pay for the flowers, along with the stack of groceries my mom needed. “See ya later,” I call. “No, Peyton! Don’t leave me!” She rests the back of her hand to her forehead like she’s fainting or something. “Bye, Catelin” I laugh. In the parking lot, I pull my phone out to check the time. I find out that I have another 38 messages from our group chat, a missed call from Emily and two missed calls from Marina. When I get into my car I open the chat.

• Me: Yo guys, what the hell? 

• Emily: Sorry. Were wrapping up. I promise. 

• Marina: did you get corsages? 

• Me: Yeah. 

• Marina: ooh! lemme see! 

• Me: No. 

• Marina: Why notttttttttt 

• Me: They’re a surprise. :) 

• Marina: they’re fucking corsages, peyton, how surprising can they be?

She shuts up anyways though.

• Marina: well, i’ll finally give you your peace and quiet guys. i need to go get my hair done. 

• James: It’s literally ten o’clock 

• Marina: and? a girls gotta be ready. 

• Me: Whatever. I’m getting James at 5:30 and then I’m going straight to Em's house so you better be ready by then. 

• Marina: K 

• Emily: Sounds good. 

• Me: Btw, are we still going to Jared’s after the dance? His brother wants a head count so he knows how many kegs to order or something. 

• Emily: I dunno guys… 

• Me: I think he was kidding about the kegs btw. 

• Marina: Come on, please Emily. Pwease pwity pwease? 

• James: I'm good with whatever. 

• Emily: I guess. But I’m a designated driver. I refuse to drink. 

• James: Yeah, I’m not huge on drinking either, But, like, I can’t drive. I’ll be designated support friend. 

• Me: Fine. Emily’s driving us home then? 

• Emily: Sure that’s fine. 

• Me: I’m putting my phone on do not disturb now so if you have anything to add speak now or forever hold your peace.

No one responds.

• Me: Cool. See you guys tonight.

I plug my phone into the charger in the car on the way home since the battery is already drained from the millions of texts from Emily and Marina. A lot of people have their proms today, so traffic is a little chaotic, but I make it home in a reasonable time. 

I arrive home to screaming. Casey and my mom are having a full fledged war about something that’s probably really petty. “It’s not fair! How come Peyton can do whatever he wants!”
“ ‘Cause Peyton’s 17!”
“So it’s okay for Peyton to go on a date alone at the movies but I can’t?”
“Well to be fair, the last person I dated was a girl, so uh, not a good example,” I say. “That’s not even the point. The point is that I don’t know anything about this kid, Cassandra. I’ve never even met him. So no.”
“Don’t call me Cassandra!” At this point I leave and regress to my room.

There’s a black suit lying on my bed with a purple tie spread out next to it. I’m really not a suit kind of guy, but Marina insisted, so my mom rented one from a little store owned by a local Puerto Rican family near their firm (at a discounted price!) I try it on and, thankfully, it fits perfectly. Then, I immediately take it off and lie down in bed. I can’t believe I have to wear this stupid thing all night. James will be wearing one too. I weigh this in my head for a moment, one half of me thinks: You can suffer together! The other half thinks. He’ll look really hot! I stare at the suit in dismay. It’s going to be a long night.