Deja Vu (SatoGou)

Chapter 4

On the night of the dance, I sat in the chair at my desk when I should have already been on the way, staring at the costume hanging up on my wardrobe door. Chloe had bought it for me, knowing I probably wouldn't get one for myself. It was a vampire costume, and I was a little embarrassed, because I was fifteen, and it seemed kinda stupid. Besides, I didn't even want to go. Chloe had pestered me to ask literally anyone, but I didn't want to ask a guy that wasn't Ash, because that would out me unnecessarily, and I didn't want to ask a girl, because I wasn't interested in any.

I had no date, and I would have to watch Ash and Serena dance all night, and she'd probably flirt with him until he decided to give her a chance... I shook my head, crossing my arms and sighing. I could just say I got sick.

I stood up and walked across the room to my bed, crawling under the covers again where it was warmer. If I just went to sleep, it would be easier to ignore all the calls and texts I was inevitably going to get from everyone when I didn't show up. I knew I was kind of depressed, but I thought it would be worse if I went.

I had my eyes closed for all of three minutes when I heard my mom calling my name from downstairs. Irritated, I threw the covers off and went to the door. "What?" I called down.

"There's someone at the door for you," she called back. I stood there, confused for a few seconds, trying to figure out who it could be. Everyone would already be at the school by now. It might have been Chloe, noticing I'd dodged her texts all day, realising I was going to bail. But then surely my mom would have said Chloe instead of 'someone'.

I walked down. My mom was walking into our living room, a mug of tea in her hand, and the door was open, revealing Ash, in a vampire costume of his own. He smiled, revealing fake fangs, and I froze.

"Hi," he said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.

"Ash," I said, crossing the hallway and stepping outside, closing the door behind us. I didn't want my mom to hear. "What are you doing here?"

"Uh, more importantly, why aren't you dressed?" He asked, looking down at my sweatpants and hoodie.

"Oh, I'm not going," I said, avoiding his eyes. I didn't want to let him down, and it was sweet of him to come check on me, but- "I don't have a date, anyway."

"Sure you are," he said. "Go on. Get dressed, I'll wait here for you. I'll go with you."

I blinked at him, stunned. "But, where's Serena?" I asked.

"She's sick, I think. Cancelled a couple hours ago. I was gonna text you, but then I lost my phone, and by the time I found it it was late, so I figured it'd be easier to run here and hope you weren't already gone, so uh..." He trailed off, shrugging and smiling. "Are you gonna come, or what?"

I suppose maybe it was something about the backdrop of the orange glow from the sunset behind him, or the way the cold breeze was blowing from the same direction, ruffling his hair slightly, or the way he edged slightly closer as he asked me, but I swear something changed in that moment. Something snapped inside me, and I was full of adrenaline, blood pumping, as I said yes, and backed up into the house. He told me he'd wait outside for me to change, and I was so full of energy I ran right up the stairs, shaking as I tried to put on the ridiculous costume, feeling better knowing Ash was waiting outside with a costume just as ridiculous. I was filled with hope. It felt like magic.

The whole night felt like magic. We walked to the school together, both shivering from the cold but smiling, talking about something stupid that I can't remember. I was nervous about showing up with him, like it would give me away or something, even though there was nothing romantic between us, and probably anyone could see that.