Battle of the Captains

royals

After congratulating Austin for his victory, I went straight home, despite his protests. It was actually something he'd said that had me running away from the ball (game) like Cinderella.

He asked me if I was still going to prom with him.

Our Junior Prom was roughly four hours away and I panicked.

Prom was a topic hadn't really crossed my mind since Liz and I went dress shopping last week. Since our fight, I hadn't planned on going at all. Of course, I was a strong, independent woman but the thought of winning prom queen to Austin's prom king and being forced to take the most awkward first slow dance of the night haunted me.

But now– now things were back to normal. Actually, things were better than normal. Austin and I were talking again, I was going to prom with the hottest guy in school, the hottest guy in school loved me, oh and I sort of loved him too. We hadn't gotten into that after the game. I'd kissed his cheek and promised that we'd talk later.

Not being familiar with how to do my own hair and make-up, I knew that if I wanted to at least look presentable, I'd have to get an appointment at the salon, which Kain happily drove me to when I mentioned who my date for the dance was.

What Kain was not so happy about was the idea of waiting for me as I got all beautified so I told him that he could go across the street to McDonalds and stay there until I called him– as if he wasn't going to go do that in the first place.

I was soaring and I wanted to tell somebody about why. I figured Kain wouldn't be much of a listener if I started talking romantic stuff about Austin. I knew Liz was busy preparing herself. So I told Mary, my make-up artist and hair stylist all about it, starting from the beginning. In turn, I listened to her rants about her ex-boyfriend who had cheated on her with one of the other stylists who worked at this salon.

When I got home, my dad and my brothers told me I looked great and I spent the next hour thinking about that in front of the mirror in my room. I touched the blonde curls that fell past my shoulders as I assessed everything about myself, insecurities forming in the pit of my stomach.

I hadn't wanted to tell Austin that I loved him because I was afraid that after the challenge was over, soon enough he'd get over me too.

What if it didn't work out?

That was probably the biggest fear of every girl going into a relationship with someone they really liked. There were shallow relationships and there were relationships where you had to risk everything. I knew that the relationship between Austin and I would be the latter. It was about sacrificing time for the other person and getting used to different lifestyles to match theirs. Going into that kind of relationship meant that you were putting your heart on the line, despite the risk of it tipping over and falling, leaving yourself to just hope that it doesn't break in the process of falling in love.

Thirty minutes before Austin was supposed to pick me up, I put on a red, tube prom dress and I brought out these three inch heels that would barely help me get past Austin's nose.

Five minutes before Austin was supposed to pick me up, I started sweating, which was a bad thing for my make up and my dress.

In attempt to relax, I sat with my brothers in the game room while they played a new sports video game that we'd just gotten recently. When the doorbell rang, I swear my heart jumped out of my chest and like a rubber band, snapped back into place.

"Can I get it?" Kyle asked, before running to the door before anyone could say no.

I didn't know why I was so nervous. I'd gone on a date with Austin before– no problem. Yet at this moment, all my problems had been overruled by the need for some kind of acceptance.