I Choose You

31. The Prom Fashion Show (Edited)

"Emery!" she smiled. "You look so pretty, oh my gosh!" she embraced me in one of the tightest hugs that I had absolutely no words. I was in shock at how beautiful both of my best friends looked in that moment.

"Thanks," I whispered, before Autumn excitedly handed me my shoes and earrings, motioning for me to put them on. I did quickly, before standing.

I felt so off balance that I was starting to regret the fact that I had turned down Autumn's offer on learning to walk in heels. After all, this is my first time, and it's only going to be in front of the entire school. No big deal.

"Here," Autumn and Riley both smiled as Autumn handed me a mirror. I inhaled a sharp breath as I brought it up to my face, images of a hideous wicked witch flashing through my brain, but when I saw the girl staring back at me ... I couldn't believe it was me. I never knew I was capable of looking like this.

My hair was in curls and pulled to one side of my shoulder; my makeup was perfect, completely natural, emphasizing only the features necessary, and my lips were glossed with a light pink lip gloss that complemented my skin tone perfectly. My eye shadow had been chosen specifically to match my dress—a beige pink color—but it still managed to bring out the hazel in my eyes that much more. I never even knew my eyes could look that bright.

I couldn't help but gape at the girl who was staring back at me in that mirror, before I turned to my best friends and threw my arms around the both of them. "Thank you," I whispered.

"You deserve this more than anyone," Autumn smiled, pulling out of my arms.

"We're now calling all contestants to please line up with their escorts!" a woman on the intercom announced.

Riley smiled. "Let's go out there and kick some ass,"

The girls and I all smiled at that, before Riley pulled us in the direction of the main stage. The journey there was a bit difficult, what with having to dodge all the makeup tools, curling irons, and shoes scattered across the floor, but we made it eventually.

The sound of chatter behind the curtains rang out from every direction. Girls were giggling, and guys were guffawing. I could even hear the sound of some girls having slight panic attacks and others commenting in hushed whispers on how another girl's dress was ugly. I frowned upon hearing those words and stopped walking towards the curtain, the earlier confidence in myself that I had built up disappearing as fast as it had appeared.

Are they going to whisper about how ugly I look when I walk out there?

I don't know if I can do this.

I could hear all the guys lining up, the sounds of their dress shoes clacking against the hardwood floor as their chatter and laughter carried its way past the curtains. The immediate sound of Carter and Blake's voices were the first to hit me, reverberating past me like an echo, but the one voice I was searching for, the one voice I wanted to hear so badly, was nowhere to be found.

There were a million different smells in the air: peach, musk, cedarwood, lavender, you name it, but that one scent that I had become so accustomed, that one scent that sent chills through my body was nowhere to be found. Aiden was nowhere to be found. And I felt panic rise through my body. I felt my heart begin to thump, the sound echoing through my ears as I leaned against the wall to steady myself.

I can't do this.

"Oh my god!" I whispered, as Riley disappeared behind the curtain, but Autumn stayed back.