Double update ! Make sure you're on the right chapter :)
Declan was still watching me. He knows I'm angry. When I catch his gaze from across the room, he's already heading towards me. But then I see Brooke and I hold him off. This was something I needed to do by myself.
Brooke is wearing a V-neck black lace gown that contrasted with her red hair. If she were a friend, I would have told her she looks good. But I'm not walking towards her right now to compliment her.
"I know what you did," I whisper in her ear. She startles until she sees me. "You're a different breed of fucked up, aren't you Brooke?" I say in a normal tone. "Don't think you're off the hook just because I'm walking away for now."
I leave her to her thoughts and that sliver of fear I recognized in her eyes before I turned away. I'm too angry to think straight right now. Whatever was going to happen if I stayed in front of her face would have been sloppy and I would most likely be kicked out before the night was over.
Declan reaches me before I realize how close he is. "What is it?" He asks. "What did she say to you?"
"You were right about Brooke," I let out. He looks right at her when he hears my words and then takes a step forward to talk to her himself. I latch on to his arm to stop him. "No, please," I beg. My tone stops him and he looks down at me. "I just want this one night to be normal. No more drama. Can we please just have this night?"
He nods at me and leans down to give me a second forehead kiss of the night. That small action calmed me down significantly. That's when the music around us slows down. The people on the dance floor are separating in pairs for this dance.
Declan smiles and holds out a hand for me. "Our night, Row. Let's go be normal," he says and nods his head towards the dance floor.
I feel like crying at how happy he just made me. I take his hand and let him lead us there. This was a distraction I needed.
Declan drops his hands to my waist and I hold him from his shoulders as our bodies begin to sway. I look up at him to say something but he's already looking at me so intently it sends warm feelings through my stomach. I forgot what I meant to say. He must know what he's doing to me because I see that same charming smirk from earlier.
Before I could ask him what his look meant, Declan leaned close to my ears and tells me something so low I barely hear him. "You're having my babies one day."
I made a noise and pulled away from him. Talk about a distraction. The look on my face only amused him more. He was testing me for sure. "Don't tell me that. What if I want ten of them?" I challenge.
"Works for me. That's one shy short of a soccer team, baby mama."
"You did not just call me baby mama."
"One day," He winks. "I'm going to have to call you my wife first."
One day, I agreed in my head with no hesitation. But then I realized what my mind just told me. You've known him for five months, Row. Do you really see yourself marrying this boy one day?
... Bitch duh.
Only five months, yet I feel like I've known Declan my entire life. As much chaos and uncertainty I've felt because of what life had thrown at me, Declan was one of the only things that I could stay sure of. He's had all of my heart for longer than I had known. God, I love him.
"I love you, Rowena," He says. The look in his eyes tells me he means it.
"Did I say that out loud?" I ask, realizing it was like he had read my thoughts.
"Nope, I just know you well enough by now to know what you're thinking."
I reach up to kiss him. It was a short kiss, but I put all of my feelings into it. I lean into him, resting my head on his chest and his arms come around me as we continue to sway to the steady calm of the music. I didn't say anything and neither did he. We were in our own world for the next few minutes.
After the song ends, our principal comes up on the speaker. The rest of our friends find us immediately and Natalie latches onto me in excitement.
"I know we have all been waiting for this announcement," our principal begins. "But before we announce our prom king and queen, I would like to take a minute to thank our staff who made this night possible."
As he continues, I realize my friends are looking around each other and buzzing with excitement. I find myself dissolving in the feeling as well. This was Natalie's night, we all knew it.
Principal Garcia was wrapping up his appreciation note. "And now it's time to announce this year's prom king and queen," he raises his voice and students are cheering for him to go on.
"Give a big warm congratulations to our prom king," he begins and then opens up the small envelope to read a name. "Oh wow, this one was a close tie. To our prom king Adam Myers!"
We all cheer for Adam as he celebrates his own win. Declan doesn't seem the least bit surprised that he lost against his best friend. In fact, from the way he was supporting Adam, he made it seem like he wasn't even an option.
Adam jumps onto the stage and yanks the mic from Principal Garcia. "Oh, hell yeah Routledge seniors. I knew you had my back!" The sound of more cheering bursts from the crowd. Adam was clearly everyone's favorite.
"No, but seriously, you guys, thank you. And a big special thank you to my best friends back there. Row, Nat, Cyrus, and especially my boy Declan. We all know who I almost tied with because fuck you, Duncan."
Principal Garcia immediately took the mic away and lectured Adam while I watched Duncan, who rolled his eyes and then stuck the middle finger up towards Adam on the stage. Adam wasn't even listening to Principal Garcia, he just held his hands out in the shape of a heart towards Duncan to show his humor. Not even Duncan could be mad, I saw it in the way he was hiding his smile. That's why none of us felt bad from how much we laughed.
"Alright, alright," Principal Garcia says in the mic to get everyone's attention again. They're giving Adam his crown now. "And now it's time to welcome our prom queen!"
As people are cheering, he opens the next envelope. Natalie yells over the cheering so that I can hear her. "Row, I have to confess something!" She starts. "Me and the others, we sort of pulled our own version of a Chuck Bass for you."
"What the hell does that mean?" I yelled back. But Principal Garcia spoke before she could explain.
"A big warm congratulations to our prom queen Rowena Salone!" and then I see him pull away from the mic in the same confusion I feel right now.
"What?" I say out loud though I know no one can hear me. To my surprise, most people are actually cheering.
Natalie is yelling over the noise again. "We encouraged a write-in vote for you, Row. You deserve this!"
"But how?" I asked. "Why?"
"We worked it out. A lot of thanks to the soccer team. I think they threatened and bribed around BUT IT ALL WORKED OUT!" she finished. And then she's pushing me towards the stage. I look back at Declan for guidance but he's just clapping along and smiling.
I get to the stage somehow and Adam helps me on. Someone sticks a crown on my head, hands me a bouquet of roses, and then the mic is handed to me and I still feel lost.
"Um," I say into the mic. "I hear I have the soccer team to thank for this."
"Yeeeeah Rowena!" I hear Coach Clarke in the crowd somewhere along with a few other cheers.
I'm still completely thrown off by this entire situation, but I continue talking. There was something I wanted to say to this class as a whole and I was going to take this opportunity to say it. "Listen I uh- this is completely unexpected with everything going on. Since I have the opportunity to say this to everyone at once, I need to say that I did not write that expose that was released a few weeks ago-" I see Brooke in the crowd. She looked like she was going to piss herself with anger and nervousness for what I was going to say next. "...and I don't know who wrote it," I say slowly.
I surprise myself with the choice of my words and see Declan frown, but still, I keep going. "I just wanted to take this moment to say thank you to those of you who have believed me ever since then. I didn't know what to expect from this school when I was the new kid but I'm grateful for the friends I've made because of it. You're the only people that matter to me." I see my friends from here, even Nico and Duncan count in this speech.
"With that being said, and as innocent as I am in some sense, I'm not the one that deserves this crown. Because my best friend Natalie Griffith, the one who set this up for me, the one who sat on the planning committee for this party tonight, and the same one who does countless other student support acts for this school is standing over there without a crown and that's not acceptable to me. So I need you to congratulate our true prom queen Natalie Griffith," I finish. I hand the mic to the principal and climb down the stage. I make my way over to Natalie and take the crown from my head and adjust it on hers instead.
"Row..." She begins.
"No, Nat. No one deserves this more than you do. I said what I needed to say, and I already have what I need from this night. This is your opportunity alone."
She wraps her arms around me in a hug of acceptance. When she pulls away, she plants a kiss on my cheek. Adam is down from the stage and has his hand held out to her as a song plays for the king and queen dance. I keep the flowers so she has her hands free for it.
Declan wraps an arm around my shoulder and I lean into his side. Cyrus settles beside us and I take his hand in mine. We all watch Adam and Natalie dance for half the song. Then, Adam steps back from Natalie and signals for Cyrus to step in. I smile as I watch the exchange. Adam comes to stand with us as we watch Natalie and Cyrus.
They're talking to each other for a while. Then Natalie says something to Cyrus that makes him bend down to give her his ear so he can hear her better. I smile I watch them, two of my best friends who deserve the world.
And then suddenly they're looking at each other for just a moment too long for it to be normal. That's when Cyrus leans down slowly, and Natalie bends her head up to meet his lips halfway.
Cheers go off around us, Declan, Adam, and me being the loudest of all. I don't think they hear us right away though, it's their first kiss and they're in their own moment.
When they pull apart the song is ending and transitions into a different song that encourages more people to join the dance floor. Natalie laughs and hugs Cyrus as his arms come down around her.
Unfortunately, the moment is over for me when I see Brooke's red hair. I detach myself from Declan's side and go over to her, but I'm sure he follows anyway and Adam is following him.
I reach her in no time and it almost looks like there's an apology on her lips. I speak before I can hear it. "I didn't do shit for you, I want that much to be clear. I'm tired of all of this and I really hope you are too, Brooke. We're done with all this high school drama, I'm being the bigger person for myself." She takes a blink of confusion. I don't think she knows what to say.
I told her earlier she wasn't off the hook, but damn it im tired. "I do at the very least want you to admit it," I say.
My last words seem to snap her out of her apology and her confusion. Instead the bitch smiles. "What are you talking about, Rowena?" She asks innocently. I wanted to slap that look straight off her face.
"You are so bitter it's actually hilarious," I respond to her. "You really had to take the time to write an entire article talking shit about half our senior class and dragging your own ass through the dirt just to get at me. That's a lot of work for one person, you must think I'm super important, huh Brooke?"
She huffs and crosses her arms "You had a big head about yourself, Rowena. You know, I didn't know what Jeremey was going to do, but after I heard, I had hoped a good smack around would have knocked some sense into you. Clearly, it didn't work."
The shock of her words actually makes me laugh out loud. So, I don't have time to properly react when Natalie comes out of nowhere and speaks up for me. "Someone should give you a good smack around, Brooke."
And when I thought that was shocking behavior for Natalie, she steps forward and sends her fist flying towards Brooke's face. It connects with her nose and I can hear her nose break over the sound of the music.
Brooke screams and cries, "NO, NOT AGAIN!"
"Hopefully this time it'll help you see some sense you shallow fucking soul sucker," Natalie yells over her screams, throwing her words right back at her.
My mouth is hanging open at what just happened. "Natalie!"
"I know, that really hurt like a bitch," she says to me and shakes her hand off. "How do you guys do that all the time?" She asks us, but nobody can reply because they're all just as shocked as me.
Only then do I realize Coach standing so close. He's literally just blinking at the group of us. "I saw nothing," he says to no one in particular and swivels on his heels until he's walking the other way.
I only just start laughing when a teacher shouts at us from across the room. There are too many people surrounding us for them to get a clear picture of what happened. So, I unstrap my heels and motion for Natalie to do the same. Then, I grab her and turn around to face the others. "RUN!"
Natalie and I hold our dresses up so we can get some normal speed as the boys are hot on our heels. And then I'm laughing again as we run and the boys begin whooping until we're a complete mess of speeding noise traveling out of the gym doors.
And as were running together in the parking lot towards Declan's jeep I knew that I was going to remember this prom night for the rest of my life.
OKAY WOW. I didn't mean to sit down and write this chapter but it's 3am and I regret nothing.
(Yes I did switch the order of the banners just bc I felt this one was most fitting here)
One more chapter + the epilogue !!!
Thanks for reading :)