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Thursday, September 19th
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Ambrose didn't come home until it was close to 2 a.m. I kept tossing and turning in bed and the loud music coming from the car made me nosey for a second.
"Why do you have dark eye circles? Have you not been using the eye cream I gave you from Korea?" Tiffany asks with a raised eyebrow.
She applies a layer of sheer pink lipgloss as she makes eye contact with me through her compact mirror.
"I didn't sleep well last night," I mutter. The lunch for today wasn't that great. I can see why every year some students complain.
One would think that because they're paying over 40k in tuition, that would include better meals. I'm sure other public schools have better lunch options than us.
"Why? Did you have a fight with Ethan or something?" She asks.
I shake my head. "The neighbor was too loud with his friends."
"It's always something with him," Tiffany says.
"Don't start."
"Anyways Ethan is looking for you," she says, "I think he was going to use lunch to do weights."
"Did he say why?" I ask. Ethan and I did speak again after the weird interaction in the library. We haven't exactly sat down and spoken like how we usually do, instead we've only seen each other in the hallways and at lunch.
Tiffany shrugs her shoulders. "I think something about the dance."
I sigh and grab my bag before dismissing myself from the table. I made my way to the other side of the school, next to the football field where the weight room was at.
The weight room wasn't crowded with people except Ethan and a few of the guys on the team. One of which recognized me, causing a ripple of greetings to emerge from the guys.
"Ms Class President!" Johnny, one of Ethan's good friends yells out. "Came to see loverboy?"
His dark skin was glistening with sweat and the other guys were shirtless and or their shirts were drenched in sweat.
"Yeah, where is he at?" I ask, not seeing him with his usual friends.
"He's by the treadmills talking to the coach," Johnny says.
I nod and say a quick thanks as I make my way over to the treadmills. I see the coach is standing with a clipboard in his hands and has a very serious look on his face. Ethan is sitting on one of the benches, not looking too impressed with what's on the clipboard.
The coach leaves and Ethan looks up at me as I approach him. "Hey, Tiffany said you wanted to talk to me?"
He nods and gives me a small smile. "Yeah I just wanted to talk about how things will go with homecoming. Maya mentioned that you were overworked with the planning of the dance and I just wanted to check in with you," he says, "are we still going together?"
His question catches me off guard. I had believed that he was still mad at me in some way.
"I mean we are still dating right?" I ask, unsure of what to even say.
"Of course we are angie," he says. He usually only uses that nickname with me when he's trying to be affectionate with me. Sometimes it was rare for him to use. "I don't want you to stay mad at me."
"I still haven't picked out my dress yet," I say, "I haven't had time to."
"You want to go after school today? I'll buy it for you," he says with a grin.
I can't help but lift the corners of my mouth up into a smile. "Don't you have practice though?"
"I do, but the coach says I have to get my Spanish grade up if I want to play the game tomorrow," he says sheepishly.
"I'll help you get your grade up if you're willing to stay up late tonight," I say.
He nods. "It's a deal," he says, a smile grows on his lips.
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Ethan left my house around 10:30 p.m. and I watched him drive away as I stood outside of my house to make sure he left in one piece. Right at the same time that Ethan's car is backing up and driving off, I see Ambrose walking towards my right side.
"Ambrose?" I called out. The light hits his face at an angle where his hair isn't covering it up and then I notice something on his face. "Is that a bruise?" I ask when I see a dark bruise forming on the outside of his left eye.
He stops in his tracks and puts a hand up to his eye as if to feel the bruise. I see him wince and walk over to him.
"What the fuck happened to you?" I ask in disbelief.
Nothing. He signs.
"No, something happened," I say, "Tell me! Who did this?"
Don't worry about it. He narrows his eyes at me and tries to push past me, but I'm quicker than him.
I grab onto his upper arm and he freezes in his tracks. With the little force I have, I basically drag him towards me. He barely moves enough steps to let me take a good look at him. I cautiously lift my hand up to his face and he flinches back. He notices what he did and dares not to move again. I brush the long strands of hair away from his face and that's when I take note of how bad the bruise looked.
There was a clear imprint of something onto his skin and if I wasn't mistaken it looked like the person who hit him was wearing some kind of ring.
Ambrose looks at me with a shy look on his face—ashamed mostly. He brushes his hair with his fingers to make it hide the bruise again.
"Are you going to tell me who did it?" I ask one last time.
If I tell you, you wouldn't be able to do anything about it.
"What makes you so sure?"
Because he's a dangerous person and clearly wanted to send a message.
I furrow my brows at his words. "Send a message?" I repeated his answer, very confused. "What kind of message? Who is this guy Ambrose?"
His name is Dimitri Ivankov. He clearly doesn't like people to come across him so his message is to stay away.
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Friday, September 27th
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"What time did they say they were coming?" Maya asks as she fidgets with her dress straps for the tenth time.
"Tiffany said she was on her way and Ethan said that he was still trying to learn to tie his tie," I say with a groan.
It was currently 6:54 p.m. and I was supposed to be at the school at 6. The dance committee wanted to go through the full checklist and make sure everything was set up and ready for people to show up. However, Tiffany sent a message through the group chat that we should take pictures together, since this would be our very last homecoming dance.
Because I couldn't say no, I agreed.
"This fucking bra strap is so annoying," Maya grumbles.
"Here." I motion for her to come over. I grab a bobby pin that I keep in my clutch and I grab her bra straps, putting them into place with it.
She adjusts her dress and looks satisfied. "Thanks, Evan. I thought I would have to rip this bra off by the end of the night."
"I'm going to text the dance committee." I pull out my phone and text one of the girls on the committee.
She replies back instantly saying that everything was running smoothly so far except that we were shortlisted a couple balloons for the entry archway. As always, there's nothing that I could do from a distance when I could've easily been at the dance by now.
Ethan's black Range Rover finally pulls up to my driveway and I feel something in the pit of my stomach when I see none other than Tiffany in the passenger seat.
My smile drops and the relief is replaced with confusion.
They both get out and it takes all the power in me not to lash out at Ethan. Tiffany smooths out her crystal blue cocktail dress while Ethan wears a dark blue tie with his dark gray suit. It wasn't the exact shade of blue, but it was still in the same color family.
I was wearing a lilac colored dress, totally different from dark blue.
"I thought we were supposed to match?" I direct my question to Ethan.
"I think I misplaced it somewhere when I was getting the suit dry cleaned. I just grabbed what I could before I made you guys even more late," he says, putting an apologetic look on his face.
"I didn't know you were supposed to come together? Weren't you going with Finn?" I ask Tiffany.
"She didn't have a date and her car wasn't working," Ethan interjects.
"Yeah, my dad wasn't going to let me borrow his Ferrari for a school dance," Tiffany says with a laugh.
I feel my right eye twitch, but nonetheless the show must go on. "Alright, can we just go on with the pictures? I already missed the pre-dance checklist and I can't miss anything else."
After we posed for pictures and my pictures photographed each of us, the others took a quick restroom break before we officially left for the dance. I waited outside for them when I noticed that Ambrose was coming out of his house.
"Ambrose," I say.
His head snaps over to me and what looks like shock, washes over his face and runs his eyes over my appearance. His eyes then quickly snap back up at me. He walks up to the short fence that separates our yards.
You clean up nice.
I chuckle. "Thank you. Are you not going to the dance?"
He scrunches up his face. I can't dance.
"I can't either, but I'm still going," I say, as a matter of fact. "You had all this time to prepare yourself."
I hate dances and I have other plans to attend to.
"Are you hanging out with Siouxsie?" The name tasted bitter in my mouth.
Kind of. I'm going to the record store she works at. They're currently selling some guitar things I need.
"You play?" I ask in a surprised tone.
I don't talk about it because you don't like the music. He rolls his eyes.
"So," I say, "it's still a hobby that's worth mentioning."
I hear Ethan and Tiffany's voice coming out of the house. Ambrose looks over and his face seems to morph into disappointment.
I hope you have a good time. He gives me a small smile and steps away from the fence.
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Everyone was currently scribbling down their votes on who was nominated to be Homecoming King and Queen. I knew Tiffany would be voting for herself while Maya made sure to write my name in capitalized letters. .
The only ones that were nominated for homecoming king were Ethan and some top basketball player, that was also pretty well known around school.
Tiffany gives me a smirk when she slips her paper into the ballot at our table. "Best of luck Evangeline."
After a few minutes, the ballot boxes were collected and taken to the back to get counted. In about 20 minutes, they would announce the winners. A long and tortuous 20 minutes.
I've only been at the dance for an hour and a half and I was already pretty tired. "Do you want to dance?" Ethan asks beside me.
I notice that Tiffany is glancing over at us with a look on her face. I nod and he interlaces our hands together. I feel a burning gaze as I get up from my seat and follow Ethan to the dance floor. I meant it when I said that I didn't dance nor was I comfortable doing so.
It was sort of a slow song and everyone seemed to just be swaying along to the song. It shouldn't be that hard, right?
"I forget if I told you this, but you really do look beautiful," he says with a sincere smile.
"You look quite handsome today too," I say, "I just wish we could've matched."
He playfully rolls his eyes. "I'm sorry. I know these stupid dances mean a lot to you girls."
Does he even know me?
"I only come to these because I have to after planning them," I say with a snort.
"By the way, did you vote for me?" He asks with a smirk.
I nod. "I have to. You're my boyfriend," I say, "Did you vote for me?"
He takes a second too long to answer and nods his head. "Who else would I vote for?"
We dance for a few more minutes until Mr. Vince goes up on stage and announces that the winners have been chosen. Tiffany and Maya join beside us as we all hear who won.
"Your Homecoming king is the captain of the football team, Ethan Myers!" Cheers erupt in the crowd as people turn to congratulate Ethan, including his football teammates and friends that are making all sorts of noises to cheer him on.
He parts the crowd like the sea and makes his way up stage. I hear Tiffany cheering for him loudly and it triggers something inside of me.
"And your Homecoming queen..." Mr. Vince says, the sounds are muffled and I hear the cheers.
I see the movement, but it's not me who's going up on stage. Tiffany is smiling widely at the people around her as she makes her way up to the stage. They place a sparkling crown on Tiffany's updo hair and a big golden crown on Ethan's head.
The entire crowd is cheering for them and I hear whispers of gossip slithering in between the cheers.
'They look so good together!' 'Why do they actually look more like a couple than with Evangeline?' 'Tiffany's always been the prettier best friend'
The sly comments were making me sick and the only thing I could do was force a smile on my face as I made eye contact with Ethan.
They both finally step down and a slow song plays. Right, this is the part where they share their first dance together.
I take this opportunity to step back and head over to the voting booth that has all of the ballot boxes.
"Where are the slips from table 4?" I ask.
One of the girls hands me the box that has been opened so they can count the votes and I take out a stack of papers. I flip through all of them to come across the one where I recognize Ethan's hand writing.
He had clearly written Tiffany's name.
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The ride home was quiet. Ethan was still smiling about winning, even though it wasn't really a surprise that he did. I kept looking out the window for the majority of the ride back home.
When we finally pulled into the street and past the security checkpoint, there was a cop with their lights on right outside of Ambrose house. Ethan slows the car down and I quickly get out of the car, not saying another word to Ethan.
I run up to one of the officers that's standing outside talking to their partner.
"What's going on?" I asked the officer.
He looks at me weirdly and looks back at the house. "That's not really up to us to say," he says.
"Well is he okay? Is Ambrose okay?" I ask, slightly panicking.
"Ambrose is fine," he says, "I actually do have some questions about his behavior."
Oh Ambrose, what did you get into now?
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A/N: I apologize if there are any grammar mistakes! I barely proofread the chapter since it is already late and I just wanted to post this really quick before I lose my main ideas for this chapter.
I didn't mean to rush with all of the time skips I just didn't have anything planned for stuff to happened in between until it was time for the dance lol
Anyways I hope you guys liked the chapter! If you did please give it a vote and comment!
- N ♡