Erin flopped on the couch, letting out a groan. He felt a hand on his back. He couldn't see her, but he knew Sophie was trying to give him an encouraging smile. 

"I bet you're just being hard on yourself." She said. "Not even you could've messed this up!"

Erin raised his head just enough to give her a tired half-glare. Sophie's smile stayed intact.

"She called me adorable," Erin grumbled miserably. Sophie looked confused, so he continued, "like a little brother."

Sophie's eyes widened in understanding, and she sat down next to Erin's splayed form. "Yikes." Sophie whistled. "I'd call that the kiss of death, but I bet even linking the ideas of kissing and you would be a bit too much of a stretch for her."

Erin's head flopped down again. "Thanks. You're super helpful."

Sophie shrugged. "I do my best." She leaned back, using Erin's legs as a cushion. "But hey, there's plenty of fish in the sea or whatever. You didn't really think she was gonna go to prom with you even while you were talking yourself into asking. Maybe now that's she's placed you in the same sexual category as a lamp you can set your sights on easier targets."

Erin kicked Sophie off. "You mean I should go after low-tier chicks like you?"

Sophie gave a bark-like laugh. "Only in your dreams, sweetie," she smirked as Erin elbowed her. He rolled his eyes and pulled them both into sitting positions.

"Seriously though, she's the last girl I can think of who would even sorta consider going to prom with me." Erin sighed. Sophie nodded sagely.

"Yeah. At this rate you're gonna have to ask one of the guys. I mean, nobody would be shocked though, you always have been super, super gay."

Erin tiredly elbowed Sophie again. "I'm not kidding." Erin said. "This is senior year. We're supposed to be getting fancier than we ever have, going to prom with somebody attractive we barely know or care about, and quietly accepting that this is the high point in at least half of our lives. I've only got one of those down, and it isn't even one of the fun ones."

"You forgot getting drunk off our asses," Sophie added, "that one's important."

Erin nodded. "Yeah, so I've got two down I guess. Still though. Maybe I should just go for broke and ask out one of the really popular girls."

"If you still randomly care about going to prom for some reason, you should. May as well get used to denial now before colleges and jobs start handing it out like candy."

Erin ran a hand down his face. "You're just a ray of sunshine as always."

Sophie stuck her tongue out. "Well [i]excuse me[/i], princess. Face it, we're just gonna end up at my place, playing drunk racing games and eating cookie dough like we do every year. And hey, why's that suddenly so wrong? Everything's got its place. The birds fly, the fish swim, and we stay shut-ins."

Erin scanned the ceiling, a frown on his face. "Don't you ever want to try and be different from that?" He asked quietly. "Don't you ever think about where we'd be if we just made a few little choices differently? If we'd just been more normal? Don't you ever wonder if we'd been able to save..."

Sophie's face fell. When she put a hand on Erin's shoulder, he looked up to see her expression stern.

"Don't you go saying that kinda shit." She snapped. "Sure, maybe in an alternate universe where we didn't make any mistakes at all we'd be prancing around in flowery fields and Delilah would be there and everything would just be fine and dandy. That's not the world we live in though, so you can't just live with your head stuck in what-ifs." Her expression softened a bit. "Who cares if somewhere out there in quantum space there's another us who are just faultless little angels. We're not perfect, popular high-schoolers, and we don't need to try and be them either." She sighed, but smiled. "She wouldn't want that. We don't need fancy clothes and hot chicks and prom. We've got each-other."

Erin sighed. Both sat in silence, Erin's head tilting to rest on Sophie's shoulder. 

"You bring the jack, I bring the coke?" Erin offered. Sophie laughed softly.

"Sure."