Feel Real

Five: Prom

Mona has recovered from the accident. Tonight is prom and she and I are on prom court. I'm surprised I am. Mona is such a humble woman about her popularity, wealth, and intelligence. She doesn't boast or brag about it. I am downstairs at Mona's place, talking to her parents as Mona finishes up with getting ready for prom. Mid-conversation, I stopped speaking. My world came to a halt because of a goddess. "My god." I managed to get out in a murmur. Her parents turned around.
Her gown is definitely her; aside from black, pastel pink is her colour.

And her hair astounds me by how she did it herself.

Mona smiled at me a very beautiful smile as she approached me and gently kissing my cheek. "My God, Ramona, you are stunning." I managed to get out as I put the light pink and white rose corsage. Her parents took pictures as I did so. I would mind usually but I'm so in the moment right now. The four of us went outside under a freshly blossomed Magnolia tree for pics. Mona and I stood side-by-side, with an arm around me and her free hand on my abdomen. I had an arm around her. I actually smiled for pictures. I'm excited for prom. I'm excited that Mona is my date. I'm proud of myself for asking her to be my date. For another picture, I held her from behind with her looking up at me; giving me the most beautiful look that I could easily tell she was admiring me. I smiled down at her, "I am so in love with you." I chuckled in disbelief as I smiled. "I am so in love with you, Josh. I'm really lucky to have you." She responded gleefully. For another pic, she and I faced each other, hand-in-hand and kissed. "Since I know you two are goofballs, go for the most dumbass thing you two can think of." Mona's mom said. "Challenge accepted!" Mona laughed. Mona and I did the typical hardcore musician pose: both people on one knee and clasping one's hand in the form of a bro handshake. "Wow you guys." Mona's dad laughed. "One sec, I've an idea." I said as I cautiously scooped Mona up bridal style. Mona squealed and giggled but realised the idea I have in mind for a picture. Her beautiful blue eyes met mine. And she caressed my left cheek and gave a soft and elegant smile. Right as the picture was about to be taken, a gust of wind came thru which brought Magnolia petals afloat. "Talk about opportunistic timing." Mona giggled. I kissed her. Another gust came thru which brought more soft pink petals afloat. I gently placed Mona down and I got pics of her with her parents. A neighbour volunteered to take pics of all four of us. "It's about time for us to go, mom and dad. I love you guys so much." Mona says as she hugs them. "I love you too, Ramona." Her mom says as she hugged Mona firmly. "I love you bunches, Mona." Her dad said as they hugged. Her mom hugged me tightly "Thank you Josh for taking such good care of her. I love you as well." Mona's mom says to me. "No need to thank me, ma'am. I'm a gentleman. My mom raised me to be this way. And it's just common sense. I love Ramona so much. And I love you too. You and Stephen raised a wonderful woman." I say as I broke the hug with Rosemary. She smiled so proudly at me. "You're a great guy, Josh." Stephen says as he hugs me. "Thank you, sir. You're awesome." Stephen let go of me and smiled as he said, "Have fun you two!" "We will! Thank you mom and dad! Much love!" Mona says to them. The limo arrived for me and Mona. I opened the door for my queen. "Goddesses first." I warmly say to my girl. Mona smiled and blushed as she got in before me then I did. "I'm so nervous, Josh." She admits to me. I held her hand and kissed it. "We can stay a bit after who's announced king and queen. I'm here baby girl. I'm nervous too." I calmly assured her before kissing her cheek. "You are so handsome and charming, Josh. You're charismatic." Mona says with passion. I blushed so bad and smiled, "Oh my fucking god you're blushing and it's so adorable!" She geeked in a cute manner as she hugged me. I laughed and hugged her back firmly, "It's because of you, Ramona." I say as we broke the hug. We both took countless selfies on the ride to our school. When we got there, the driver got the door for us. I got out then got Mona's hand and helped her out of the limo because of her gown. "Have a fun night you two!" He says to us. "Thank you, sir." Mona gracefully thanked. "Ready for hell?" Mona says to me as we linked arms. "Totally." I smirked. Mona laughed. We walked in, with our arms linked. People gave me and Mona shocked looks. They're surprised she's with me. Joke's on them because she's better than all the other girls in this godforsaken cesspool. Ramona can easily say the same for me. We went in and got ready for court. Given instructions and bouquets of flowers. Mona grasped onto my arm firmly; signalling bad anxiety. "We got this, darling. If we don't win, the better that is for you and I." I cooed. She looked up at me and smiled, "You're right. I hope we don't win." She whispered so nobody else heard. All the other court couples were glaring at us. I checked my phone for time: 7:59PM. Right as I was about to turn it off, it struck 8. "Oh boy here we go." Mona murmurs. "It's okay, Mona. It's okay." I cooed. We're the second court couple to go. And elegantly we strode onto the auditorium stage. We have to do a little gimmick when we got out to the centre of the stage when our names were announced. What she and I did was I twirled her elegantly then dipped her and gave her a kiss. The place erupted into cheers and clapping. I placed her back up and we walked to where our placement is. The 12 other couples came in. One of the teachers who helped organise this gave an annoying speech about us seniors and wishing us luck at college and bullshit like that. I could see Mona roll her eyes about it. I tried not to laugh. She is definitely my girl. "Now the moment you all have waited for. 2018 prom king and queen of Santa Cruz High School is..." she says as she got the envelope and opened it. Mona and I tensed up in hopes we don't win. "Ramona O'bel and Joshua Spohr!" Oh fuck. The auditorium erupted in obnoxious cheers. Mona and I walked down to the centre of the stage where the crowns were placed on our heads and given sashes and she was given another bouquet of roses. We got devious glares some of the other courts but a whole lot of them were happy for us. The whole prom coronation ended. Mona and I went out to the gym for our dance. "I figured this shit would happen." Mona murmured. "We can dip after." I murmur back. "True that." She sighed. We got showered with all sorts of congratulations from fellow students. We smiled and nodded and occasionally said thank you. She and I got to the centre of the gym where everyone circled around us. "Guess we gotta make light of this, babe. We're having our first dance." I whispered softly. Mona gave such an adorable look and smile in response since the commotion died down. When You Can't Sleep At Night by Of Mice and Men started playing and away we went with our dancing. The school knows of the accident. This is a beautiful moment. She had her arms loosely around my neck and with her body against me. Mona had her head rested against my chest. I had my hands on her waist. I gently had my head resting down on hers. "I love you, Ramona. You are truly wonderful. You have the brightest, most lively soul I've ever seen in anyone. You are so vibrant. You have this powerful spark deep inside you that cannot be put out. Let the spark burn into a flame. You are the best person, and woman, I've ever met and fallen in love with. You are so persevering. I am so proud of you, Ramona." I softly whisper down to her before kissing her head. I heard some people go "aww". I honestly forgot there's a fuck ton of people staring at us. Mona looked up at me, smiling the brightest, most beautiful smile I've ever seen from anyone. "Josh, I love you so much. And thank you so much for everything. You have such a gentle, warm, shy soul and I love it. I see a spark in you as well but it's spotty, you know? Don't let that spark die. You are full of such great potential that I can see but you don't see. You are so strong. You make me so proud. You are the best guy, and person, that I've ever met and fallen in love with. Thank you so much for taking care of me and being so good to me." She whispered softly. I smiled brightly to her and gently kissed her before elegantly twirling her at the end of the song then kissing her passionately for a quick second. People went bonkers yet again. "Lets go home." I say warmly to her. "Lets go, my love." She says warmly. We managed to dip and went straight home. Tyler texted me:

Tyler: congrats dude! you and mona are a badass and cute couple. so happy for you two!
Me: thanks man. boutta go home and crash for the night.

Luckily Tyler is smart to leave me be when I say something along the lines of that so he ignored me.
As soon as we got in, Mona immediately took her heels off. "Ow. Fuck these." She sighs in agony. "You okay baby?" I sadly asked. "I wasn't expecting tonight to go the way it did. Even though we weren't there for long, I'm tired and sore." She yawned. I gently lifted her head up by her chin, "I am so proud of you, Ramona." I whisper with passion as I stroked her cheek. She stood up and looked lovestruck into my eyes, "Joshua, those six words means everything. I am incredibly proud of you and I am so grateful to have you as my boyfriend and to have you in my life. You are the best. Thank you so much for all of your help." She replied warmly before standing up on her toes to kiss me. I wrapped my arms around her as I kissed back. My heart pounds, races, and melts every time I kiss her. Just like the first time we kissed. Her lips dance perfectly on mine every time we kiss. Her kisses are so gentle yet passionate and full of love. It's beautiful. It's such a beautiful, lovely, warm feeling. The way she caresses my cheek(s) while we kiss is a heart-stopping feeling. We slowly broke from the kiss with both of us giving each other passionate looks. I fixed her prom tiara, "This may be a bullshit tiara for a bullshit thing but in tough times never, ever let your tiara fall. It's okay if it falls. You can pick it up and continue on. I know you can. I have faith in you." I whisper softly. Ramona smiled brightly as tears welled up a tiny bit in her gorgeous blue-grey eyes, "That's incredibly motivating. I've been thru enough and fought thru enough and I'm exhausted from it all. Your words just...warmed me up and gave me motivation back. Same goes to you and your crown, handsome." She cooed. I smiled back at her. We went up to our room where we undressed and fell asleep not long after we got into bed.