Every Cliche in the Book

One Last Week

"Alice! Come on! You seriously can't be waiting until the same week as prom to prepare for prom! That's absolutely ridiculous!"

Alice looked at the wailing Erica and raised an eyebrow, "I don't want to stress myself out for more than one week so I'm going to wait before I decide on anything. Especially since I don't even know who I'm going to go with."

Erica squealed, "Go with Derek! It's so obvious you like each other but you refuse to even acknowledge that fact! Just ask him!"

"I don't know if it's a good idea to go with him. I ran over his brother and I'm pretty sure it's not right to date someone after doing that. Especially with how badly the car affected him. If only he wasn't such a small person, it wouldn't have been so bad."

She stared at her, "That's such a dumb reason to not ask him."

Alice rolled her eyes, "It's the most legitimate reason any of us have come up with yet. I mean, you didn't ask out Kelly because a leaf landed on your head and you screamed that it was a sign from God himself that you two wouldn't go very well together."

Erica blushed, "It's true though."

"If anything, it's a sign you two should be together. You could be falling in love the way the leaf fell because of gravity. The leaf must've been you and the ground was Kelly. You fell for her and she would catch you no matter what."

She hid her face in her sweater, "Stop it. I don't need your advice. Kelly likes guys and that's fine with me. I mean, I'm pretty sure she likes guys. We never talked about crushes or sexuality before. That would've made things really, really, really weird."

Alice chuckled, "Have fun going to her house today. You two were gonna find out what colors you were wearing to the prom, right?"

Erica squealed when she was reminded of that. She had completely forgotten! Kelly was probably waiting for her right now! She couldn't leave her waiting there for her any longer. They had colors to match!

She ran off in the direction of Kelly's house, leaving Alice standing at the corner all alone. She watched her breath hang in the air. Each time she'd breathe, a puff of white would come out and sit in front of her until it eventually faded back into normal air and she breathed again. It was cold but there wasn't that much snow. It was more like frost covering everything that hadn't moved the night before. It made everything sparkly. Alice smiled, she loved it whenever it looked like this outside. It was so pretty every single time it happened.

She watched as the last car drove past her and she crossed the street.

Admittedly, she had lied to Erica. She wasn't actually waiting to get prepared and she wasn't avoiding asking Derek out. She was just trying to find the right moment to do all of that. That really was the actual truth.

She had one last week to do what she wanted to do.

 Now was the best time that she could think of. She knew he was outside, he had told her that over text. She also knew that his favorite time of the year was when the weather was like this. She walked down the sidewalk and took deep breaths as she got closer to Derek's house.

Stay calm. If she panics and runs she won't have another chance to do this right. Stay calm.

Small flakes of snow started to fall from the sky and she looked up. The sky glittered like the ground did. She didn't know if it was a good thing or a bad thing but she continued walking.

As she stopped in front of his house, Derek walked out. He smiled and waved at her, not really knowing why she came over but he was glad to see her.

Alice felt her heart skip a beat as she looked at him. He looked so handsome right then.

Derek blushed faintly while looking at Alice. Her hair was covered in frost and her eyes seemed even more bright because of it. He was really curious about why she was so insistent on talking with him at that time. Did he do something wrong? Did she do something wrong? Did they both do something wrong? He needed answers.

Alice smiled shyly at him, "Did you start planning anything for prom yet?"

Derek shook his head, "I didn't really want to go without anyone so I didn't plan on going at all."

She frowned, "It'll be fun though and we only have one more week to plan!"

"I know there's only one week but I don't think I'm going. It's no fun going on your own and the group would be too awkward to go with. So I'm just going to stay at home and watch some movies I guess. My most special night shall be filled with my favorite movies."

"Why do you think you're going on your own?"

Derek sighed, "Maybe because no one at the school likes me in that way so no one is going to want to go with me. I'm just unlikable."

Alice furrowed her eyebrows, "There is someone who likes you, I know for sure. She really wanted to ask you to go to prom with her. Hearing that you don't want to go would make her very upset. You wouldn't want to upset the girl, would you?"

His eyes gleamed with joy, "Someone actually wants to go with me? Who is she? When is she going to ask me? Is she cute?"

She sighed and grabbed Derek's hand, "Derek, will you go to prom with me?"

Time seemed to slow down to a point where it almost stopped. Derek stared at her in shock as the snow fell around them. Alice blushed and waited for an answer but Derek couldn't say anything. He nodded a tiny bit, any more motion seemed impossible at the moment.

Alice smiled brightly, "We should probably plan what we're going to do when we show up to the prom, how we're getting there, what we're wearing, and all those things."

Derek couldn't say anything. He was too surprised. Alice chose him over Rick. They knew each other forever and he never thought she'd ever want to be with him. He was happy and scared. Happy he had her, but scared of losing her.

Alice kissed him. The snow made them both cold but the kiss seemed to make the feeling melt away.

Only one last week until prom.