you will find me ↬ zach dempsey

sixteen part two ;

chapter sixteen part two: winter formal

jeff, alex, viola and coleman wildly danced at a martin garrix and bebe rexha track entitled 'in the name of love'. the moment tony played it; he gets a screech of approval from our group and he gives us a hand gesture as if to say 'enjoy!'

when i momentarily stop to rest, my eyes travels to the bleachers where i see a familiar face. clay. he's alone but he's smiling, he must've gone nuts. i follow his gaze and my eyebrows raises when i see hannah, sitting at the bleachers at the same level he's sitting, smiling so genuinely i stopped for a moment to admire it. clay and hannah. hannah and clay. both so innocent and deserves each other.

i go to jeff and yelled over his ear, "i see clay at the bleachers, and hannah at the other side. thoughts?"

jeff gasps and glances at the two before nudging me to hannah's direction, "we're playing matchmaker again. you go talk to hannah while i talk to clay. we're gonna convince them to dance with each other and get married and have babies."

i burst out laughing at jeff's adorableness and do as he says. we've been playing cupid and matchmakers for hannah and clay for awhile now, ever since jeff noticed clay likes her. i say brightly, "hey hannah!"

she turns to me with pure happiness, as if she's very relieved and grateful. "hey! you look beautiful."

i sit beside her and trained my eyes on jeff and clay talking at the other side of the gym, i nudge her with an elbow. "what're you doing here all by yourself? it's a winter formal, a school dance. you should be having fun and dancing with someone.. and by someone, i meant clay jensen."

she laughs as i wiggled my eyebrows at her, shaking her head. "i.. i don't know.. i'd—i'd love to! but, i don't think he wants to."

"he wants to and he would! trust me, you have no idea." i nudge her with my elbow again before adding, "go! let go of everything. let go of the negativities, let go of your fears, set yourself free from everything even if just for tonight..."

her face have gone serious now, in awe and a bit sad and for a second i start to wonder what's wrong, what's going on in her head. and instantly she smiles so wide and looks at where clay is. clay's standing and hannah looks at me in shock before standing too. they meet each other in the middle, at the dancefloor, sharing a gleeful smile.

jeff and i stand together by the sidelines, watching them start dancing with the music. i ball up my fist and elevate it in the air and instantly, jeff bumps it with his. he puts an arm on my shoulder and ruffled my hair, "we did it."

"of course we did, we're a duo, partners, remember shadowhunters? we're parabatais." i recalled. i palm his pockets and pulled out his flask, smirking as i take huge gulps from it. "hmm.. vodka, love it."

jeff chuckles and takes it from me, taking a sip. we turn to the right when we hear montgomery start dancing behind courtney crimson, not missing the mischievous glint in his eyes.

jeff and i glance at each with muddled expression. courtney is far from montgomery's types of girls. he usually goes for girls who come at him first, girls who are eager for dick, girls who are always – excuse me for the word—DTF. i learned that word from coleman.

she pushes him away with her hand but he comes flooding back to grinding with her body and i think i hear her saying, 'aren't you and gabriella together? seriously, leave me alone. if she finds out, she'll call for ryan to drag me through hell and back.'

jeff must've heard too because he burst out laughing, taking another sip from his flask. jeff excuses himself, telling me he completely forgot about his date and he'll look for her through the wild crowd. i walk up to justin with drunk-dancing jessica with him and swayed slowly with the music, drinking on justin's flask and shooing bryce like a dirty fly.

"alright, liberty high. let's slow it down a bit, nice and sloww." ryan speaks through the mic and a slow song started playing.

everyone immediately goes to find their partners and i back away carefully from the dancing crowd, knowing full well that i won't be having someone to dance with at this song because my date is currently preoccupied.

my thoughts were interrupted when i hear someone clearing their throat and i look up to find out that it was zach.

he bows down dramatically, a cheeky smile on his face, offering his hand for me to take. "may i have this dance with you, my beautiful lady?"

i let out a laugh and gave him my hand, him leading me to the middle of the dancefloor, gracefully giving me a twirl before placing his hands on my hips and guiding my hands to his shoulders.

i can feel his hands shaking slightly on my hips and reach his hands with mine and gave it a squeeze, rubbing until it stops trembling. he gives me a heart-wrenching smile and surprised me when he pulled my closer, his breath hitting my face, a smell of raspberry punch with a hint of vodka and mint. i gulped discreetly and smiled, "shouldn't you be dancing with your date?"

"same thing goes for you, babe." he says cheekily, winking at me.

i countered. "well, montgomery's off with courtney to god knows where doing god knows what. how about you? aren't you with the other courtnets?"

"yeah, i am. but i wouldn't miss having you in my arms tonight, beautiful." his talking turned to breathing now and my heart pounds loudly to my ears but i don't know why.

"you must be drunk, you've completely turned to calling me 'babe' and 'beautiful', which is a first because you always bully me when we're together." i noted, shaking my head. i flip my hair on my back and i notice his eyes skim to my neck and he takes a sharp intake of breathe before looking away only to look back and visibly gulp.

i frown and wondered what the fucking hell is going on with zach. he pulls me even closer now to the point where we're closed enough to kiss, his face bent downwards to be eye-to-eye with me. i gulp again and looked away, taken aback with the intensity of his stare laid upon me. what is he doing? why do i feel like my heart is going to burst? why is he looking at me like that?

he held my hand and twirled me, a squeal escaping my lips. he did it again and again, me spinning in his arms and him catching my body every time i stumble or trip, pulling me closer than ever that sends electric shock throughout my body that i almost thought I would die.

"listen.." he begins when we've calmed down. "i want to tell you something---"

"OH HEY CORY!" montgomery's voice shrilled from nearby and immedieatly, the spell between zach and i were broken.

i see hannah walking away with her face looking broken and betrayed and for some reason, my heart drops on my stomach and clay looks after her with a helpless look on her face.

"ga—"

i cut zach off and pulled away from him, shooting him an apologetic look. "i have to go, i'm sorry. i'll call you tomorrow, okay?" then i left and i never found out what he wanted to say.