you. | sean lew

chapter twenty-one

march nine ; day twenty-three

sean turns over to the other side of his bed to see it's 7:57 am and is feeling extra grateful that he was able to sleep in, even if it was for just another hour.

it seemed like everyone in sean's entire friend group has decided that today was the perfect day to skip school and dedicate it to their pre-prom preparations.

they organized their impromptu junior ditch day at eleven the night before through their massive group message that always blows up each other's phones.

they all planned to meet at the mall at nine so they could ensure they would all have enough time to pick out their dresses and tuxes.

he manages to get out of bed with ease, immediately opening his window blinds. he darts towards his closet and picks out his favorite black joggers and his extremely over worn white tee. following that, he tiptoes to the bathroom, peeking at his sister's rooms to see if they were still home to rat him out for skipping. fortunately, they already left.

he quickly brushes his teeth, washes his face, and styles his hair up. he puts his eyeglasses on and grabs his car keys, heading straight over to vivian's to give her a ride.

"you wanna grab breakfast first?" he says to his phone, pressing the speaker button.

"yeah sure," vivian's voice echoes from the phone.

"don't you think the school will be slightly suspicious that all of us were coincidentally absent on the same day?" sean worries.

"kenneth's got it covered,"

the phone call abrubtly ends, and sean parks into vivian's driveway. she comes out within seconds and hops into the shotgun, holding a thermos full of coffee.

she's wearing glasses, a sight rarely seen by anyone - even sean - as she always makes sure to wear contacts when going to school. her jet black hair is tied into a messy top knot and she's wearing grey sweats and a cropped hoodie to go along.

"so i was thinking we'd go all out, like those emoji covered suits, ya know?" sean says seriously, looking over to vivian.

"you even think about wearing an emoji covered tux when you pick me up and i'm not leaving my house," she threatens.

"i'm just joking!" sean bursts out laughing. "but we should at least match my tie or something to your dress? that's a thing, right?"

vivian nods, taking a sip of coffee.

sean pulls into the drive thru of mcdonalds and orders whatever breakfast item he can afford with the five dollars in his back pocket.

they park for a bit after receiving their food and eat their breakfast while waiting for the clock to hit 8:50.

once it does, sean restarts the engine and they make their way to the mall.

as they walk to their mutually agreed meeting place of the food court, sean wraps his arm around vivian's shoulder, a position the two of them have become fairly accustomed to.

"so, what's first on the agenda?" julian asks, turning over to lexee, the group's assigned 'prom planner'.

"the most important task of all, the attire," she says, reading off the notes app of her iphone. "guys and girls split up to find their respective tuxes and dresses."

"i guess this is goodbye," sean jokingly extends his arm to vivian, looking the opposite direction.

she swats him away, rolling her eyes.

"get a room!" gabe groans, followed by laughter across the group.

"you sound like sean before he met viv," josh laughs.

the guys head over to the first store they see that sells tuxedos.

sean scans the entire store, overwhelmed by the options.

"what the fuck?!" he whisper-yells as he reads the price of one of the suits.

"i work at a pretzel shop earning minimum wage, how am i supposed to afford this?" he complains to julian.

"you could rent one," julian suggests as he picks up one of the tuxes.

sean sighs and attempts at finding one that fits his budget.

five stores later, almost all of the guys have found what they were going to wear - except sean.

that being said, josh, julian, kenneth, and gabe made it their priority to help him find one so they could go meet up with the girls.

within thirty minutes, they've found six tuxes for sean to try on. he does so, and finally chooses one.

meanwhile, the girls were still on the hunt for their dresses.

it was a fairly easier search considering lexee took it upon herself to be the girls' stylist and choose their dresses. the only thing left to do was try the choices on.

"how's this?" vivian asks for the fifth time as she walks out of the fitting room.

"my baby!" nat exclaims. "you look so beautiful!"

"you think sean'll like it?" viv asks.

"everyone will like it, you'll be the prettiest prom princess our school has ever seen," nat assures, hugging vivian.

/

after seven strenuous hours of prom preparation, everyone meets up to eat at the local café across from the mall.

"so how was tuxedo shopping?" vivian asks sean as she keeps her eyes focused on the menu.

"expensive," he replies.

"that's because you thought they'd cost like twenty dollars," gabe chuckles.

"whatever gabe," sean rolls his eyes.

"lex, what's the next phase of our prom mission?" julian asks.

lexee looks to her phone and yells out, "prom candidate campaigning!"

she turns her phone to all of her friends to show her checklist: posters, mini giveaway treats, and social media posts.

/

two hours later, the entire group finds themselves decorating posters in the living room of lexee's house.

"how much effort do we need to put into this? who's their competition?" josh questions as he adds glitter to one of the flyers.

"that's a good point, i don't even know who we're running against," sean realizes.

"oh," lexee pauses. "i'll check right now."

lexee goes to her computer, quickly typing in the school's website address into the search bar.

"alright," she starts. "there are three other couples."

"maria and alan," nat reads off of lexee's screen.

"alexis and ian," lexee adds.

the two girls' jaws drop at the last couple.

"...sam...and james?"

***
a/n
btw sam is viv's best friend from an earlier chapter that insulted sean lol