This chapter is dedicated to nutcracker645 for her awesome comments on all my works that genuinely made me smile. Thank you! ❤

Hope you enjoy this chapter!

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I KNEW BARBARA'S IDEA was insane. I had even mentioned it to her a few times during our phone call, but she had acted like she hadn't heard me properly. Typical Barbara. She had the tendency to become quite stubborn whenever she put her mind to something.

One more more thing the two of us had in common.

That's why my only answer to her spontaneous plan was that we would see.

I knew I couldn't possibly find someone so soon. Definitely not in ten days. Most of the people already had dates for prom and now was definitely not a good time to try and find one. Plus, barely an hour and fifteen minutes had passed since Mac broke up with me and Barbara was already trying to convince me to find someone else.

I wasn't exactly an expert in Biology, but I was pretty sure hearts didn't work that way.

They needed an extended amount of time to heal. Time heals everything, so they say. Maybe not everything everything, because there is always a small piece life experiences leave behind; traces of memories that never quite fade away, feelings that awake everytime you re-live those memories, as if by the push of a button.

And yet, even though I was, quite reasonably, still hung up on Mac, there was something about the idea of finding someone else that appealed to me. Something about the insanity of it all, that I couldn't quite put my finger on.

I think it was the simple thought that even though the chances were incredibly slim, that even though the whole thing sounded as likely to happen as a meatball rain, I still might get a date for prom after all this ended. A date with a guy that might like me for me. For who I really was.

Thinking back on it, that had never been Mac's case.

And the best thing of all, the possibility of starting from scratch with a whole new person, with no long-nailed girl roaming around him.

A rebound, my inner voice echoed.

Even though a rebound meant far more than a simple date for prom, that thought had started circling somewhere in the back of my head nonetheless. Though the word rebound didn't wholly reflect what I wanted. I wasn't planning to toy with anyone's feelings. I just wanted someone whom I could like just the way I had liked Mac - maybe even more. Someone who, in all its impossibility, could in fact like me back. And that thought was enough to make my heart race ever so slightly.

Still, a relationship was not my top priority right now, not with my heart's much needed recovery. But finding someone I could spend a beautiful evening with alongside my friends was something I was a little bit tempted to try.

A familiar sound broke me out of my thoughts. I squinted my ears and listened.

Someone was calling me on Skype.

I immediately frowned. Skype?

Then I remembered I never got to shut down my laptop after I'd used it about an hour before. Mac had called me just when I was browsing on Pinterest, and I'd rushed to answer the phone, completely unaware of the fact that that particular conversation was going to change things so drastically.

With that fresh memory showcased in my mind, I got up from my bed and raced across the room to check my laptop. A cold feeling travelled my body but I tried my best to ignore it.

Hopefully this call won't be as depressing as the last one, I thought to myself.

I hovered my finger over the mouse so the screen flickered back to life and read the white text displayed in a black rectangle.

Mitch is calling...

I clicked the answering button, a ghost of a smile haunting my lips, and I was immediately glad I still had a few smiles left in me. A flock of blond hair appeared on the screen.

"Hey, Mitch."

He didn't answer. He fumbled with the webcam on his computer for several seconds instead, then inched his head away so only his face could be seen on the screen.

I was instantly met by his signature grin. "Hey there, Cece. Can you hear me?"

"Yes, I can. How are you? How's Florida?"

"Awesome." The computer screen cast a ghostly white light onto his features which blended quite eerily with the warm light coming from the ceiling of what looked like a bedroom. "Not to mention that the skipping school part is utterly amazing on its own."

"Way to put salt on the wound."

He laughed. "Sorry, Cece. You knew I was going to bug you the moment you saw my name on your laptop screen."

I pursed my lips. "And yet I still answered."

"See? Your fault, not mine."

It was Mitch's first day in Florida, visiting his grandparents, and he was already teasing me about his absence at school. Typical Mitch.

"How's your grandmother?"

The main reason he'd left to Florida so suddenly was because of his grandmother. It was believed that she might be having some health issues, and since Mitch's grandfather was busy during the day delivering the newspaper and different fliers for extra cash, Mitch had offered to help his grandmother with the doctor appointments and all the other procedures she may need to go through.

Not to mention that the opportunity of skipping school was a huge bonus he simply couldn't refuse.

"She seems okay. I just got here about two hours ago so I didn't get to go in too much detail with her yet. She's been quite joyful, actually, so hopefully there's nothing serious."

"Let's hope so. And how long are you planning on staying there?"

"Not sure. I think I'm coming back on the Thursday before prom."

My eyes widened. "You said it was a week tops."

"No, I said it was two weeks tops."

I sighed, more disappointment welling up inside me. "Damn. I'm going to miss you."

He smiled. "I'm going to miss you too. But forget about me. You have Mac there with you."

I winced. I never got to tell Mitch about the whole 'dumping-the-trash' situation with Mac. And quite frankly, I wasn't too eager to bring up this topic again either.

There was a tug in my chest whenever I thought about him, making me go through that hurt and humiliation over and over again.

A part of me was also surprised Mitch hadn't realized something was wrong. But I knew he would soon. So he deserved to hear it from me first. Deserved to know what kind of person Mac really was.

I sighed. "Mac broke up with me. By phone."

I could see Mitch's jaw fall to the ground through his webcam. "You're kidding me."

I sneered. "I wish I were."

His brown eyes widened on the screen and he was quiet for several seconds. I kept my eyes glued to him and I noticed his mouth moving slightly. He was murmuring something underneath his breath. "I can't freakin' believe it... That jerk... That fuc-"

"Okay, easy there, Quagmire. It's fine. Really."

And I really needed to stop repeating this.

"Okay, but how - I mean, when...? Why...?"

"Look, let's just forget about him, okay? Honestly, I'm already tired of this topic."

"Okay, but - "

"Please." My voice sounded weak and I instantly hated it. "I promise you, he's not even worth one second of our time."

"That I agree with."

He took a deep breath and removed his gaze from me so he was no longer frowning at the screen. He frowned at his own lap instead.

I sighed once again. I felt kind of relieved Mitch let this matter go so easily, but I could see that his nose was still scrunched up in contempt, his cheeks more red than usual (and I figured that wasn't because of the warm sunlight flooding his room), and I knew he was probably counting down the days on his fingers until he could come back and leave a nice looking booth-shaped print on Mac's buttocks.

"So... You say you're staying there until the Thursday before prom, right?" I asked again, eager to change the subject.

He nodded silently, still gazing intently at his lap and murmuring something which I couldn't make out.

Okay then. About twelve days 'till I got my friend back.

Wait a second. Twelve days.

The Thursday before prom.

An idea sprung inside my head and before I had time to change my mind, I continued, "So that means you can still go to prom, right?"

Mitch nodded again, this time more confused. "Technically, yes. Practically, no."

I pursed my lips, already feeling the disappointment flow within me as if pouring from a bottle. I didn't like it. "Why not?"

"I'm not exactly keen on going back there."

"What do you mean, back there? This prom takes place in a totally different location. "

"Yes, but it's still prom, and that itself is a minus point in my book."

I knew what he meant. Junior prom had been a bust for Mitch. I hadn't been present there myself, since I'd been stuck home throwing my breakfast up in the toilet (just like I'd been on all of the other proms), but I'd heard that story enough to be able to give the whole experience a total rating of minus one.

Let's just say finding your date in the bathroom stall with one of your classmates isn't exactly the world's best view. Nor sound.

"Why are you asking, though?"

I opened my mouth to answer but the sudden knock on the door cut me off.

Saved by the knock, my inner voice chirped in.

"Cece? Can you please come help me with the dishes?"

It was Mom. I snapped my head towards the door. "Coming!"

"Okay." I heard her steps descending on the wooden stairs back to the living room.

I turned my head back to the screen. "I'm sorry, but I have to go. Mom needs some help with the dishes."

It was his turn to sigh. "Okay... Talk to you later then?"

"Of course. Bye, Mitch."

"Bye." He waved at the camera not all that enthusiastically - most likely still being mad at Mac - and then hung up.

I closed the Skype bar, shut down my laptop and got up from my desk chair, trying my best to ignore the sinking feeling in my gut which shouldn't have been there in the first place.

But feeling or no feeling, I had just found one more boy I could never take to prom.

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Hope you enjoyed the second chapter! What do you think about Cece's friend, Mitch? Do you think he made the right decision by refusing to go to prom?

Let me know what you think and vote on the star button if you're curious to see what happens next!

Thank you for reading, and I'll see you to the next update, which will most likely be this Monday or Wednesday the lastest, as I'll keep my usual update schedule: Wednesday, Friday and sometimes even Monday.

Stay tuned ♡