I blinked and it was Prom.
It felt as though I shut my eyes for one second and the next time I opened them I was thrust into my mother's old worn computer chair in the middle of her bedroom allowing Brianna to cake my face in makeup.
Three months of passing Liam in the halls with not as much as a nod or a quiet hello exchanged. Three months of sitting on his left in English and watching him doze off in the middle of class, having to shake him before his head slammed into the desk and caught the attention of the teacher. Three months of sitting on the clear other side of the cafeteria without giving him the benefit of the doubt and allowing him to explain his side of things.
Andy, having being caught in the middle, usually sat with us, or more specifically Brianna, but would occasionally ask of my friend to join him at the jock table across the lunch room. Bryan, though he was still very much talking to Shay and trying the whole dating thing, only saw her outside of school. He felt as though it would cause too much tension if he had her sit with us, as she was a good friend of Liam's as well.
There was just something so utterly devastating about the thought of parading around in a stunning dress alone. Bryan ensured me that he'd be by my side all night, but the very thought of getting in between of his blossoming relationship made me sick. He deserved to have the night of his life, especially since the Senior project he'd been working on so intensely for the last six months was to be shown tonight. This was his night. This was Brianna's night. The only reason I had agreed to go was because Bryan had promised he'd sit out Prom altogether if I didn't go.
"You look so beautiful, Reese." My mom whispered, snapping me back into reality as she touched a gentle hand, touch featherlike, as she stared into my eyes. "Oh, honey. I'm about to start crying."
She started fanning herself as she headed for the door, shaking her head. I stood, nearly tripping over my underskirt as I tried to cross the room to the full length mirror Brianna was finishing her own makeup in front of. She looked gorgeous; in a floor length light pink ballgown, it looked as if she'd walked straight out of Disney. She had light pink accents around her eyes and falsies on, but outside of that had decided to keep her makeup minimal. I was happy with the decision, in my opinion she didn't need any at all.
The girl that stood beside her looked nothing like me. The dress hugged every inch of my body, including the lace running down both arms. The slit over the right leg gave a perfect view into my leg, somehow managing to look as perfect and long as Brianna's in the pale blue stilettos Shay had loaned me. But it was my face, the face that only an hour looked as if I'd been hit by a car repeatedly. My blue eyes, having been sunken into my face and rimmed with red from excessive crying, were staring back at me, still as emotionless, but popping with the nude eyeshadow and thick coats of mascara and eyeliner Brianna had made sure to perfect over the last few days leading up to this.
"Bryan!" Brianna's sudden yell sent me tumbling backward. She laughed, grasping my forearm to steady me. "Sorry, I sometimes wonder why the idiot has a phone when he never answers it."
I nodded in agreement, my eyes falling on Bryan as his approaching footsteps sounded through the room. Bri and I turned at once, both smiling when we saw him in leaning in the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest. He looked so much older that it made my heart ache; I felt as though it was my fault he'd have wrinkles by the time he was thirty. Crossing the room I fixed the white tie and smiled weakly. "You look great, Bry."
"Says you." He rubbed my shoulder comfortingly. "I have no doubt that someone will want to dance with you tonight, don't worry."
Brianna draped my purse over my shoulder with a tight squeeze of my other shoulder before heading for my living room at the end of the hallway.
"As long as I don't end up drenched in pig blood tonight will be a win in my book." I was only half joking, but Bryan didn't find any amusement in the comment.
"I will kill Nicola myself if she does that." He muttered, offering me his arm. I laughed, knowing very well that he was aware of how uncoordinated I was in heels. If it weren't for him, I would have ended up having a great conversation with the ground on multiple occasions.
Andy awaited us in the dining room, my mother taking pictures with Bryan's camera of him beside Brianna. I felt my heart clench in both happiness and longing at the look Andy was shooting her every time she giggled. They were so perfect it almost hurt looking at them.
"You guys too!" Mom pretty much shoved Bryan and I into the picture. I slammed into Andy's right side, earning a chuckle out of him as he draped his free arm over my shoulder and hugged me tightly against his side. It was nice, having Andy as a friend, he gave me a little of the comfort his best friend once had. "Oh My God, you all look so grown up."
I shook my head. "Don't you dare start crying, Mom. I'll start crying."
"Me too." Brianna's eyes were already misty as she and Andy stepped aside so Mom could get a picture of Bryan and me. "Please, Mrs. Taylor, I don't want Reese to smear her makeup."
My mom waved us both off with a sad smile as she took a picture of Bryan and me, then outstretched my best friend's camera back out to him. She leaned forward and hugged me tightly, whispering, "Don't leave that venue with any regrets, sweetheart. I love you."
Her words stuck with me the entire ride to the venue almost thirty minutes away. Bryan kept his hand on top of mine, sneaking concerned looks in my direction the entire time. It wasn't until Andy had parked his Jeep and he walked around the car to help me out that he spoke.
"I don't know how I feel about this whole heel thing." He joked, sizing me up.
I smiled. "You're just mad I'm taller than you in them."
He scoffed. "Pfft, no you're not!"
I shut the door behind me and looked back toward Bryan to find him bent over in a bow, the palm of my right hand in his own. "Are you ready, my lady?"
"You're such a dork, Bry." I said through a giggle.
He kissed the top of my hand with a wink as he led me toward the venue at the top of the stone steps. "But I'm your dork, so it's okay."
*
Turns out being dateless at Prom with the knowledge someone has a vendetta against you is worse than I thought. The entire time I sat alone at the table I shared with my friends, my eyes were shooting in every direction, expecting Nicola to rush me with a bucket of fake blood or something even more embarrassing. I only relaxed slightly when I caught sight of her dancing with Jay a few feet away from Bryan and Shay, both swaying back and forth in a fit of laughter. I started to fall back in my seat, at ease for the time being having eyes on the she-devil. It was until Andy led Brianna back over to me and she sat but he remained standing in front of me with his hand extended that I knew something was up.
"Don't make me look like an idiot." He raised a brow. "Come dance with me, Reese."
I stood, looking toward Brianna for confirmation that it was okay. She waved me off, sipping at her water with a smile. I allowed Andy to lead me out to the floor, shifting us once we were in the midst of the crowd to spin Andy around so I still had clear view of Nic.
"I'm glad you came tonight, Reese." He said with a small smile. "I know how hard these dances must be for you, especially after what happened with my dumb ass best friend, but you bared through it to make sure Bri and Bryan had a good night. I'm so happy to have a friend as selfless as you."
I snorted. "You're a great person too, Andy. You give me so much credit, but you make Brianna so happy and you're the first real guy friend Bryan has had."
"None of this would have been if it weren't for you, Reese."
"Not true." I waved my hand between us. "You would have eventually mustered up enough courage to talk to her."
He sighed, then his expression slowly shifted and I knew what the next words would be before they even left his mouth. "Liam didn't hook up with Nic, Reese. You know that. Why are you avoiding him?"
"He's better off without me."
"You're seriously going to let what Nicola, of all people, says get to you? Reese you make Liam the happiest I've seen him in years. You filled that big empty space in his chest where his heart used to be. You can't possibly think that he's better off without you."
I bowed my head a fraction, afraid to meet his eyes. "I'm scared, okay? This. . . relationships aren't my thing. I don't know how to handle my feelings. I don't want to break his heart. I don't want my heart to get broken."
"Someone once told me that it's better to have loved and lost then to have never loved at all." This voice wasn't Andy, but Bryan. I looked over my shoulder to see he and Shay had approached with weak smiles. "And that I shouldn't go into this relationship thinking she was going to break my heart or it'd be doomed from the start."
I opened my mouth to speak but Shay cut me off. "You did the impossible, Reese. You brought back my Liam. The goofy, sweet, kid I grew up with."
"I remember at the beginning of all of this, of the Playbook, I told you not to loose yourself in all of this, in Liam." It was Brianna, her hand finding mine. "But the opposite happened. You found yourself in Liam, Reese. You broke out of the shell of the broken girl left in the wake of Raya's death, I see my best friend when you're with him."
I started to fan myself the way my mother had as tears stung my eyes. "Stop guys. I'm gonna cry."
"Oh hell no you aren't." Brianna said with a gasp, then grasped my hand and started to drag me out of the room. I opened my mouth to protest having to walk in these heels more than necessary but it fell dry in my mouth the second we stepped outside the blue and white streamers. Liam stood outside in a black tux, one of his feet kicked back against the wall, the other in front of him as he leaned into the post beside him, eyes on the ceiling. The color of tie he was wearing was the only indicator I needed to know that they had all planned this. "Hurry this up so you don't miss them crowning King and Queen."
Then my friend was gone, hurrying back into the room for her boyfriend while I stood stiff facing Liam. Brianna's not so discreet departure had stirred him out of his thoughts and his eyes fell on me. He dropped his foot to the ground, his lips parting in surprise. Finally he let out a quiet, "Reese?"
"Yep." I shifted my weight on to my right foot, instinctively wrapping my arms around myself. "Can I go back in now? I'll smear all this makeup if I start crying."
He crossed the small space between us and cupped my cheek in his hand. "You don't need it anyway. You look beautiful, but this isn't you, Reese. Not the cute, goofy, not at all quiet nerdy girl I fell in love with. I told you when I met you that I was trying to figure you out, that you were every stereotype broken."
I opened my mouth to speak but her pressed his index finger against my lips so he could go on without interruption.
"You look absolutely breathtaking right now. But I'd still love you just the same in a Beetles Tee and a pair of jeans. Because I fell in love with the puzzle of a person you are. And the deeper I fell, the harder you became to decode. But that's okay. I could spend the rest of my life trying to figure you out and I'd be content." He leaned forward so we were only inches apart. "I love you, Reese Taylor. That last play was to stop pretending to be someone I'm not. So I am. You showed me that it was okay to feel, to wear my heart on my sleeve, to not be some conceited, arrogant jock with a superiority complex. You showed me that people would love me regardless of my faults and flaws, my past. If I wasn't a jock or a bad boy. Every single day I saw the repercussions to my actions, that I could allow my heart to choose over my head. And that is something I can't ever repay you for."
His eyes fluttered shut as his speech came to an end. "Our parents made the mistake of letting one another go with them still being so blindly in love. I'm not going to allow us to make the same mistake."
With the ending of his beautiful speech came his lips against mine. I didn't realize just how much I missed his touch, his embrace, his lips-him as an entirety- until one of his hands fell against my hip, the other behind my neck to pull me deeper into him. It wasn't necessary. The second he kissed me, my arms tangled themselves behind his neck and pulled him in closer to me.
"Not too bad a speech, Tin Man." I whispered breathlessly into the space between us.
That damn infamous smirk shot across his face at the comment. "Oh, I learned from the best, Dorothy."