Princess in Pink (The Princess Diaries 5)

“What do you mean?” I demanded. If it hadn’t been so dark, I so would have run my searching gaze across Michael’s face, looking for some sign he was joking. As it was, however, I just had to listen really hard.

“Mia,” Michael said, reaching for me. For somebody who thought Seven Minutes in Heaven was such a stupid game, he seemed to be kind of into it. “You’ve got to be kidding. I’m not exactly the prom type.”

But I slapped his hands away. It was hard, you know, to see them in the dark, but it wasn’t like there was much chance of missing. The only thing in front of me, besides Michael, was coats.

“What do you mean, you’re not the prom type?” I wanted to know. “You’re a senior. You’re graduating. You have to go to the prom. Everybody does it.”

“Yeah,” Michael said. “Well, everybody does lots of lame stuff. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to, too. I mean, come on, Mia. Proms are for the Josh Richters of the world.”

“Oh, really?” I said, sounding very cold, even to my own ears. But that was probably on account of how super-attuned they were to everything, seeing as how I couldn’t see. My ears, I mean. “What, then, do the Michael Moscovitzes of the world do on prom night?”

“I don’t know,” Michael said. “We could do more of this, if you want.”

By this, of course, he meant making out in a closet. I did not even credit that with a response.

“Michael,” I said, in my most princessy voice. “I’m serious. If you don’t plan on going to the prom, just what, exactly, do you intend to do instead?”

“I don’t know,” Michael said, sounding genuinely baffled by my question. “Go bowling?”

BOWLING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MY BOYFRIEND WOULD RATHER GO BOWLING ON HIS PROM NIGHT THAN GO TO THE PROM!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Does he not have an ounce of romantic feeling in his body? He must, because he got me that snowflake necklace… the necklace that I haven’t taken off, not even once, since he gave it to me. How can the man who gave me that necklace be the same man who would rather go bowling on his prom night than go to the prom?

He must have sensed that I was not taking kindly to this news, since he went, “Mia, come on. Admit it. The prom is the corniest thing in the world. I mean, you spend a ton of money on some rented penguin suit you can’t even get comfortable in, then spend a ton more money on dinner somewhere fancy that probably isn’t half as good as Number One Noodle Son, then you go and stand around in some gymnasium—”

“Maxim’s,” I corrected him. “Your senior prom is taking place at Maxim’s.”

“Whatever,” Michael said. “So you go and eat stale cookies and dance to really, really bad music with a bunch of people you can’t stand and who you never want to see again—”

“Like me, you mean?” I was practically crying, I was so hurt. “You never want to see me again? Is that it? You’re just going to graduate and go off to college and forget all about me?”

“Mia,” Michael said, in quite a different tone of voice. “Of course not. I wasn’t talking about you. I was talking about people like… well, like Josh and those guys. You know that. What’s the matter with you?”

But I couldn’t tell Michael what was the matter with me. Because what was the matter with me was that my eyes had filled up with tears and my throat had closed up and I’m not sure, but I think my nose had started to run. Because all of a sudden I realized that my boyfriend had no intention of asking me to the prom. Not because he was going to ask someone more popular instead, or anything. Like Andrew McCarthy in Pretty in Pink . But because my boyfriend, Michael Moscovitz, the person I loved most in the whole world (with the exception of my cat), the man to whom I had pledged my heart for all eternity, had absolutely no interest at all in attending HIS OWN SENIOR PROM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I really can’t say what would have happened next if Boris hadn’t suddenly ripped the clos

et door open and yelled, “Time’s up!” Maybe Michael would have heard me sniffling and realized I was crying and asked me why. And then, after he’d drawn me tenderly into his arms, I might have told him in a broken voice, while resting my head against his manly chest.

And then he might have sweetly kissed the top of my head and murmured, “Oh, my darling, I didn’t know,” and sworn then and there that he would do anything, anything in the world to see my doe eyes shine again, and that if I wanted to go to the prom, well then by God, we’d go to the prom.

Only that’s so not what happened. What happened instead was that Michael blinked at all the sudden light, and held up an arm to shield his eyes, and so never even saw that my own eyes were tear-filled and that my nose might possibly have been running… although this would have been horribly unprincesslike and probably didn’t even happen.

Besides, I nearly forgot my grief, I was so astounded by what happened next. And that was that Lilly went, “My turn! My turn!”

And everyone got out of her way as she went barreling toward the closet….

Only the hand she reached for—the man whom she chose to accompany her for her Seven Minutes in Heaven—was not the pale, soft hand of the violin virtuoso with whom for the past eight months Lilly had been sharing furtive French kisses and Sunday-morning dim sum. The hand Lilly reached for was not one belonging to Boris Pelkowski, mouth breather and sweater tucker inner. No, the hand Lilly reached for belonged to none other than Jangbu Panasa, the hot Sherpa busboy.

Stunned silence roared through the room—well, except for the wailing of the Sahara Hotnights on the stereo—as Lilly thrust a startled Jangbu into my hall coat closet and then quickly went in after him. We all stood there, blinking at the closed door, not knowing quite what to do.

At least, I didn’t know what to do. I looked over at Tina, and I could tell by the shocked expression on her face that she didn’t know what to do, either.

Michael, on the other hand, seemed to know what to do. He laid a sympathetic hand on Boris’s shoulder and said, “Tough break, man,” then went and grabbed a handful of Cheetos.

TOUGH BREAK, MAN?????? That is what boys say to one another when they see that their friend’s heart has just been ripped from his chest and tossed upon the floor?

I couldn’t believe Michael could be so cavalier. I mean, what about the whole Colin Hanks thing? Why wasn’t he ripping that closet door open, hauling Jangbu Panasa out of it, and beating him to a bloody pulp? I mean, Lilly was his little sister, for God’s sake. Didn’t he have an ounce of protective feeling toward her?