He deflects it with a joke: Postponing the decision, for the moment

I deflected Amy’s question with some joke about showing up “like a pimp” with all three of them on my arm. She’d laughed at that and dropped the subject, but I already knew it was going to be a problem. Sure, I had more than a month until prom—time enough to figure it out—but a nagging worry nevertheless crawled into the back of my mind, made itself comfortable, and refused to leave.

Obviously, my joke about bringing all three was just that, a joke. It was one thing for me to be in a situation where I was casually fooling around with Corrine, Amy, and Elizabeth, but none of them would be happy to attend prom with one third of a date. And honestly? I would have felt less like a “pimp” and more like some weird sleaze-ball.

So, who DID I want to invite? And what would happen to the girls I didn’t? Elizabeth would be crushed, Amy would be pissed, and Corrine would think it was punishment for the hurtful things she had said to me back when she was dating Steve.

A year ago, I would have guessed that my biggest challenge with prom would be finding ONE girl who would want go with me, not deciding between three of the hottest ladies in school.

There was no winning play. In the meantime, I did my best to keep myself distracted.