Irish Oxytocin

Prom | 31

❁ Chapter 31 ❁

June 25th, 2022.
Prom Night.

The night we had been waiting for our whole high school experience had arrived.
Prom has been the one thing all senior students had been talking about since our last semester in grade eleven. Jamie has been planning everything in detail since we were all twelve, and she was not going to let anything ruin our night.

The group had met up at Ethan's house due to his parents renting us a limousine. They had set up a photo booth in their living room for us all to make memories. Especially for Ethan, who was leaving us alongside Jacob to travel the world for the next year.

I was standing next to the cameras with Shawn, who was putting a purple corsage around my wrist. Aaliyah was already at the hall with the prom committee setting up for the night.

"You look incredible, Ce," he whispered as it clipped on.
"Why thank you, my handsome date," I spurred, giving him a bow.

He returned the bow as Jamie and Chase stepped out of the booth.

"Your turn, team Pierce," she called out.
"Why team pierce? Why not team Gomez?" Shawn asked.
"Cora is cooler," Jamie shrugged as we both walked into the booth.

Shawn rolled his eyes as we both stood next to each other.

"Can you guys pretend you like each other?" Jacob pleaded behind the camera.
"That's my best friend's man, homie," I protested, patting Shawn's shoulder.
"Not like that, dumbass. Pretend your best friends for once in your life," Jacob demanded, inching for us to move closer together.

I rolled my eyes and wrapped my arms around Shawn. Although, he had other plans.
With a swift movement, Shawn hooked his arms around my dress and lifted me over his shoulder.

"Gomez! I'm going to flash everyone in the room!" I screamed.
"Nothing most of us haven't seen," he shrugged, smiling for a picture.

"We were three!" I called out loudly.

♥︎♥︎♥︎

The limo arrived quickly after we were all done taking photos. The ride was insane. The driver let Daniel have aux cord while he stood (as tall as he could in a vehicle) to pour us all shots.

"Let's get wasted!" He sung, ignoring the lyrics of his own music.

Once we arrived to the hall, a red carpet was waiting outside for us. We all hooked onto our dates as we walked down the carpet with some other mutual friends. Aaliyah was there to greet us right away with wrist bands. All of them had Ethan's name printed on them.

"Seriously?" I asked Ethan, pointing to his name in small letters on the wrist bands.
"Even the school knows how lit my parties are," he shrugged sarcastically.

We all entered prom with the rest of our grade. The hall was beautiful. Aaliyah and her other friends did a really good job at framing the night. It was Hollywood-themed, with director cameras and flashing lights all over.
Aaliyah was on camera duty, so we'd still see her throughout the night. She did that on purpose to not let Jamie down with her big plans.

As we were all gushing over the set, a slow song came on. Shawn grabbed my hand and led me to the dance floor.

"You don't have to go this far, you know," I told him, wrapping my arms around his neck.
"I know, but I want to. I want this night to still be memorable without him," he said hesitantly, scared to bring him up.

Speaking of him, it had been twenty-five days since he was gone. There was no source of contact. Not even a try. I was beginning to accept he was gone without it burning my heart at every mention of his name.