Sooooo sorry for not updating, it's been like a month, which is cringe worthy. But you guys we're at 9k!! Thanks for all the reads, votes and comments!!
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Raven P.O.V.
I really didn't know what to expect when we pulled up to the school. But to say the least, our school went all out on the Autumn Formal. The entrance was decorated with assorted illuminated lights, that blinked back warm colors and actual leaves were plastered on the building's entrance. A teacher or a parent stood leaning against one of the pillars of the school's entrance. They flashed a smile at us and we smiled back in turn. We slowed down near the parking lot, and found a spot that neatly held his last name , "SORENSON", in big letters. Clayton rushed out of his seat and helped me out the back of the convertible. The dress swooshed around me and I took my first wobbly steps testing my balance. Once my balance was in order Clayton linked our arms together.
"So...how do you think this is going to turn out" I murmur. Staring at the entrance, it's lights warm colors flashing across us.
"Well, hopefully...It'll be amazing, doll" he said looking down at me with a quiet grin, "It is afterall, your very first dance" he adds intertwining our fingers. I squeeze his hand lightly and we begin our walk towards the building.
"Wait, how are you feeling?" I ask worriedly, my hand shooting up to inspect his face. If he's in a suit, that means he went home and going home has never been a pleasant experience for him. I mentally face palm for this very delayed worry.
"Nothing happened, he was at work" he said reassuringly. I pressed my lips together not fully believing. He let go my hand and lightly tugged at my cheeks trying to get me to smile. I swat at his hands and flash him a smile.
"Now, doll. Would you do the honors?" he said bowing and flourishing his hand. I take it and do a curtsy.
"It would be my pleasure" I laugh, tugging him along towards the building.
* * *
There was a deep red carpet that ran through the hallways straight to the gym. On the sides of the carpet millions of leaves, in array of all colors, littered the floor. The procession towards the main dance areas was lit by strings of light. We could hear the bass of the music through the floor, as we glided down the carpet. There were sprinkles of freshman along the walkway leaning against the dark orange, brown, and red painted lockers conversing. They stopped their idle conversing and turned their heads towards us. It was like their breaths got caught in their throats.
I starting fidgeting not liking getting looked at...at all. It was making my skin crawl and my grip on Clayton tightened. I started feeling less comfortable in this dress.
"Doll... Envision being in the shower, the water beating on your skin, steam rising" he started, and the image slowly started to form in my mind, "then imagine I'm in there with you" he added at the last second and he broke that beautiful calming affect the water, imaginary water in this case, had on me.
"You ruined it" I say throwing a light punch to his gut. He let out a slight omph, and rubbed at his stomach.
"So physical" he whined. A grin spread across my face served him right for being all weird and sexual. The pulsating of the music was stronger now and when we entered, the gym sure as hell didn't look like the gym. It looked like someone dug up a plot of land from the forest about the size of the gym and plopped it into our gym. Every detail looked life-like. From the tree bark, to the many leaves, to the soft glow of light that is definitely not accomplished with fluorescent lights. I stood there mesmerized my mouth agape.
There were tables draped in deep oranges with blood red filigree dripping on it. The chairs were colored in deep browns and gave the shine of mahogany. The room was filled with people chattering at tables, in corners of the gym, and leaning against trees. The dance floor was a large square, that held the most trees and more strings of lights dripping above it.
"C'est incroyable" [It's incredible] I whispered under my breath.
"This isn't even the best part" Clayton says with a boyish grin. He tugs me towards the south wall, taking heed of my complex on the dress I was wearing. There was a full on banquet table here, brimming with so much food.
"This was the wrong dress to wear, I won't even be able to eat that much food" I pouted staring at the food fondly. I felt Clayton tug on my hand once again and I followed after him. We took a seat at a table filled with football players and their dates. I saw Daren, and he was fidgeting grumbling to himself. He looked really put together, his wavy hair hadn't been touched and was messily pushed behind one ear, and he wore a suit that fit him perfectly. His whole look just screamed Ruri. He looked up at me and his eyebrows smashed together in confusion.
"Raven? But Ruri said she was at your house?" he mumbled.
"Yeah, she helped me get ready. She was on full-fashionista makeover mode" I said with a laugh. I studied him a bit more and it dawned on me.
"Is she your date?" I ask incredulously. His poor face turned to beet red. "SHE IS!" I smiled, "And you're worried about her, your adorable Daren."
At this point I had grabbed the whole football team's attention. Their snickers were apparent even though they were trying to muffle it.
"Oh, Soyez silencieux" I groan dismissing them in my wonderment. I directed my attention back to Daren. "Not tell me, how'd you do it?" I ask smiling giddy. Daren seemed to become less antsy and relaxed.
"We we're goofing off, doing different impressions from Sherlock and it kind of just happened" he said wistfully.
"Tu es tellement mignon" [You are so cute] I smiled. I eased into conversation with the rest of them. It was so easy to talk to them and throw in a few french phrases. I wasn't clamming up and my heart wasn't twingeing at the attention. There wasn't any hard labored breathing or fear striking at conversing with people that I barely knew. It was so...simple. Their dates weren't cheerleaders either, and I vaguely knew some of them.
Our conversations were broken when a voice came on the speakers, "AT THE STROKE OF MIDNIGHT WE WILL ANNOUNCE THE QUEEN AND KING OF THE AUTUMN FORMAL! Stay tuned!" We all cringed at the crackle of the feedback and corniness and laughed at each other's reaction.
"Why midnight?" I asked confusedly. The boys looked at me weirdly, but explained.
"It's some weird school tradition that makes it seem like some fairytale" Daren says with a shrug. The others grunted in response agreeing. They didn't explain any further and I took it as the end of the topic. Though, I did glance at the time on my phone, it read 9:50.
* * *
Clayton P.O.V.
I stared at her as she spoke. She wasn't caving in and hiding herself like she did when we first met. She was perfectly at ease with them and I felt a twinge of jealousy at that. I quickly squashed it down cause it was idiotic. She'd laugh and then reply with something in French.
They'd ask her what'd she say and then she'd create a guessing game with it. She babbled on about how she tried to make breakfast once, and put a banana in the freezer to well freeze it and the next morning it was basically a chunk of ice and she couldn't cut it up with a regular knife so she got a butcher knife and slammed it down on the banana.
I watched the bemused expressions of my teammates as she told her story. Her face was glowing happily, and at some point her voice ebbed off. I looked up muddled finally realizing the absence of her voice and was met with Rave's lopsided grinning face inches from my own. I was transfixed with her as she looked at me merrily. Her grin grew wider and she stuck out her tongue.
"You zoned out" she whispered, "What were you thinking about?"
"Nothin'" I retort.
"Sure, nothing" Dom, one of my teammates, quipped even using air quotations. I shot him a glare and he just grinned.
At that moment, another person walked through the gym doors. Raven's eyes lifted up from our table and she jumped out of her seat.
"RURI LOVE!" she squealed and scurried over to Ruri as carefully and as fast as she could in her dress. Ruri grinned back at her. They delicately hugged each other and Raven dragged Ruri towards our table. Daren shot up from his seat at the sight of Ruri. They linked arms and walked away from our table. Rave gave them a whistle. My teammates whooped in agreement. Ruri turned her head back at them and stuck her tongue out in which they returned with their own comical responses. Raven grabbed my hand and pulled me up.
"Let's dance" she chirped, "Because some people can't be civilized" she added with a smirk. My teammates jokingly rolled their eyes and waved their hands dismissively. She led us to the dance floor carefully weaving through mounds of people. A new song had started up once we actually got to the dance floor.
Baby, baby, baby
I'm coming home
To your tender sweet loving
She wrapped her arms around my neck. I slowly fumbled with my hands trying figuring out where to put them. I settled my hands onto her waist and I could feel her bare skin and the heat radiating off of it.
I wanna be around
I wanna be around you girl
I wanna be around girl
I wanna be around
She shuts her eyes and starts swaying as the soft sound of singers voice fills up the room.
Baby, how I'd be grieving
If you wanted to leave me all alone now
By myself, I don't want nobody else
The world leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, girl
You're the only one that I want
She lowers her arms and rests her head on my shoulder. We start to turn slightly and I can feel her smile.
I wanna be around you girl
I wanna be around girl
I wanna be around
"You're doing pretty good, I didn't think you could slow dance" she whispers languidly, her hot breath pushing against my neck. I chuckled and brought up a hand to touch her face.
"Well, doll, you learn something new everyday" I whisper back.
To your tender loving
You're my one and only woman
She lifts up her head, and scrunches up her nose, "Stop being so cheesy, it hurts" she laughs. I couldn't control the grin that blew up on my face.
"Kind of impossible" I retort. She raises an eyebrow at me.
"You see, doll, you're kind of my world which means that sometimes cheesy stuffs gonna come out my mouth when I talk to you cause I can't help it" I surmise staring into her eyes. We stopped moving and Rave's eyes slowly began to grow as the realization of my words hit her.
"Oh you're good" she said with a huge smile on her face. She dragged her thumb across my cheek, tilted her head, and then her lips pressed against mine. My breath hitched in my throat, and I'm pretty sure my heart was beating a mile a minute. I could feel her smile against my lips and that made me even happier causing a grin to spread on my face as well. I kissed her back, becoming intoxicated with her taste. The background noise, even the song we were dancing too, became muffled. We kissed harder, our mouths moving in sync. She raised her hands up higher moving her fingers through my hair, tugging at the strands lightly. The feel of her was just another natural high for me, her soft lips ghosting over mine and lightly nipping them made my heart clench. I didn't want to stop, I didn't want to let her go, I didn't want it to end.
Rave pulled away first, I stared at her misty eyed. I gave her a smirk and she gave me an eye roll.
"I don't see why you're smirking, you've got my lipstick on your lips now" Raven says with a mischievous smirk.
"Oh, so you're branding me now" I chided.
"Well..." she started smirking and she turned around to hide her emerging smile.
The dance floor had been slowly accumulating people now that the slow music had come to an end. My head was foggy, like I was riding a high out. She kept a firm grasp on my hand and pulled us out of the dance floor. I wasn't paying attention at first but when Rave jerked to a stop my focus returned.
When I looked up, I vaguely remembered the face of the person who stood before us. Rave, on the other hand, recognized her immediately.
"Drew, how are you? I didn't get to thank you for helping me at the party" Rave rambles. Drew gave Rave a small smile. She was dressed in a kind of grey pantsuit, with some classic dress shoes, and her blond hair ruffled.
"Princess" Drew chuckled, " It was nothing", she added dipping a hand into her pants pocket.
"Clay, she helped me find you at the party" Raven says turning to me. I nod my head.
"Thanks for the help" I say sincerely. Drew didn't react for a few seconds, hesitant but then she gave me a nod.
"Hey, I helped the little princess find her way to the King" she drawled with a shrug. I cringe a little when she says King. She flashed Rue another smile with a wink and walked past us.
"She turned out to be better than I thought she'd be" Raven said with an impressed look on her face. I gave her a questioning eyebrow raise. "Well she did try something on me, but Drew's cool" she explains with a shrug.
"I was wondering why she kept calling you Princess" I said with a smirk.
"Oh, I hope you're not getting jealous bugaboo. Even though Drew has an obvious advantage fashion wise" Rave jokes.
"Doll, you wish" I say with a poke to her side. She jerks away from me with a giggle.
"Oh honey, you dream of it" she says flamboyantly with a cheshire grin, "I totally understand, I'm kind of amazing" she continues on laughing the whole way through sentence. She does a little twirl making her look like she's floating above the ground.
Everyone around us fades, and its just Rave there twirling around in her dress and me leaning against one of these weird ass real but not real but maybe real trees. Her smile and aura just radiating happiness and I agreed with Drew calling her Princess. I could just stay here and watch her forever... my Rave.
It was startling when a mass of red curly hair came into my view breaking the magic of this natural high I was getting tonight. Victoria smiled seductively up at me with a random guy, he probably doesn't even go to our school, draped on her arm.
"Clayton, nice to see you here" she says laying on the thickest bullshit in that one sentence it was suffocating. I didn't even have the energy to respond to her. I stood up straight and walked around her. She was astounded like I haven't been doing this to her for months already. I was taking Raven's hand to lead us away from her and back to our table, but, of fucking course, Victoria swoops in and wrenches our hands apart.
Raven turned her head slowly with a look of pure disbelief. Victoria was being, as Raven says 'petty' and as per Ruri 'Pettiness ain't cute'.
"Victoria, you make me sad. What on earth could have possibly made you like this? I know you're smart, but you lack basic common sense. You're wasting your time on something you have no control over. Is that your problem? Can you not deal with things not going your way? Have the world laid out not exactly as you want it to be? Is your world so torn up that you cling to anything that you think you might have the slightest chance of controlling?" Raven snapped, she didn't even look angered just really saddened. Victoria's mouth hung open in an O. The people around us had gotten quiet, even stopped moving, but the music still blared on. Victoria didn't move, her own breath caught in her throat. Actually, I think everyone's breath got stuck in their throats. Victoria never got called out, she was just a force that was there and was just widely accepted as a Queen Bee. Queen Bee's were bitchy, it was a simple fact.
A sharp whistle rang out, and heads turned to the source. It was Drew and she was smirking, "Looks like someone upset Princess." Raven stared at Victoria hard, waiting for her to respond. Victoria's breathing began to become labored. She started letting out gasps trying to gulp down air. Raven took a step closer to her, studying her carefully.
"Don't you dare touch me" Victoria hissed, but her voice came out strangled. Her eyes were fluttering frantically and she was clutching herself. She started going down faster than anticipated and the guy she was with swooped in and caught her at the last second. Nobody was moving, no one was speaking, just staring.
"I'll call an ambulance" Raven says quietly already dialing. The guy nods his head and places Victoria in a seat. She slumps over onto the table, her dark green dress crumpling beneath her. The guy started checking her pulse and going over basic routine things just making sure that she was alive and breathing. A teacher had pushed her way through the throng of us, and was now kneeling before Victoria trying to wake her up. Her breath was erratic and so was her heart rate as the guy had surmised.
"What happened" she asked looking us all over. We were silent just staring at Victoria's slumped twitching form. You could tell the teacher wasn't prepared for this that a girl would have a panic attack in the middle of the dance. That no one would move to help her but just stare. She would probably go back home thinking about the events of the night and wonder how all but a few helped a girl who'd fainted.
"I think she's having a panic attack" Raven voiced after a few minutes of silence from all of us. The teacher looked up at her and nodded her head.
"What triggered it?" the teacher asked as the wailing of sirens became noticeable. Rave just gave her a shrug and kept on staring. When the paramedics barreled in with the stretcher most of the people took a gigantic step back. Me and Raven however just stood there and watched as she was lifted up and carried away.
"She finally broke" Raven whispered, watching somberly as Victoria was loaded onto the ambulance. The guy climbed in with the paramedics in the back, and Dr. Aldben got into the back as well. Most people had wandered back into the gym but we stood out there.
"Is that what you said you couldn't fix her...she wasn't broken yet" I ask Rave. Her mouth opens to respond but no words come out. I don't push her waiting for her answer to come.
"I-I-I didn't think... I didn't know...she must have been broken...but she didn't admit to herself she was broken" she whispered softly. We stood out there for a while longer. Raven said she wasn't feeling being inside with people that had treated Redhead like a disease.
"I know she's a bitch but you can't just let her have a panic attack, it's like letting her kill herself" she murmured her voice tight. She leaned on me, head buried in my neck and didn't say a word. I rubbed her back lightly in slow circles. When she stood up straight she gave me a weak smile and planted a kiss on my cheek.
"Let's go and end the night on a good note" she croaked. I nodded my head and took her hand gently. By then, the time had rolled down to 11:40. We re-entered the gym, the music still pulsating and the people still dancing. Before we had gotten far in, Ruri was in front of us, arms wide open. Rave gave her the most happy smile I'd seen for the past hour.
"Come here" Ruri said motioning for her to come in for a hug. Raven did just that and hugged the daylights out of her. "You're too nice, you shouldn't be this upset over Redhead" Ruri huffed. Raven nodded her head.
"But you know how panic attacks are" Raven retorts her voice tight.
"I know, Raven but you can't let that bog you down. Now, you have a very hot cutie that's basically in love with you behind you so I suggest you have some fun" Ruri quips giving one of Raven's cheeks a pinch. Rave sticks her tongue out childishly but turns around and gives me golden smile.
"Let's have some fun" she grins and pulls me towards the dancefloor.
"Doll, I'm the definition of fun" I say with a smirk.
"Less talk more action" she laughs. God, I loved her laughing. So for those 15 minutes Raven laughed without skipping a beat, and twirled to the music with me spinning her around, until the someone came onto the speaker. The lights shut off and a lone beam shot down to the center of the square. Kade stood there basking in the light of said beam, a grin plastered on his face.
Kade stood in the spotlight of that beam holding a mic. He looked sharp in his tux but very uncomfortable with his current situation, he brought the mic up to his lips slowly.
"Uhh...I'm here to announce the Queen and King of the Autumn Formal" he started not very confidently, and quietly added "Still don't know how the hell I got here though." That earned him a round of laughs here and there through the crowd. He seemed to ease up at that and cracked a grin.
"Now, I'd ask for a drum roll but...who the hell cares" he said with a shrug. I can see Rave cringe, she knew that Kade was going to get chewed out for cussing. Right then, our principal, Mr. Boerio came in and bopped the back of Kade's head. He took the mic from him and shooed him off and Kade scampered away with a grin.
"Students, though we have experienced a sad event we all know how much that Victoria would have wanted the dance to continue and for the Queen and King to be crowned" he starts. We all knew it was complete b.s., nobody really cared for Victoria except her posse.
"But, as the theatre says the show must go on" Mr. Boerio continues his baritone voice echoing through the gym. He then begins to open the manila envelopes that he had kept in his left hand. It's like the breath's of the whole room, got caught in their throats once again. Except for Rave, who was staring at Mr. Boerio with her eyebrows furrowed and a slight frown on her face.
"Our Autumn Formal, Queen and King...are.... Ruri Milanos and Clayton Sorenson!" Principal Boerio bellows. A round of applause ensues but it doesn't filter into my head that I've been named King. I didn't move when the spotlight hit me and Ruri, not when Kade walked my way and grinned at me beckoning me to follow him, nor when Ruri came to my side as well. Rave was still frowning in my mind, and it bothered me. I hadn't seen her frown seriously before, and it felt all wrong on her. She wasn't meant to frown, she's supposed to grin and laugh. I went to reach out to touch her face but the frown was gone and she was grinning at me once again, though it looked like her mind was somewhere else entirely.
"Go get your crown, Clay" she voiced tilting her head towards where the crowns were. I took a step towards the crowns and Ruri roped her arm around mines and pulled me towards them faster. I looked back at Rave, she gave me a quirky smile and stuck her tongue out.
The coronation was quick , and me and Ruri were respectively given a mic.
"Say a little something" Mr. Boerio insisted. I didn't want to stay up here longer than needed. It felt wrong not being near Rave...made my lungs constrict a bit. Especially, since Rave never really got upset...bothered but not upset. It's like I finally saw a crack, and I don't know what'd I'd do if Rave was actually as broken as I was.
Ruri glowed though relishing it all. She spoke for the both of us and when Mr. Boerio asked us to dance together she politely declined since we both had our own dates. I thanked God for Ruri, cause I wouldn't be able to respond coherently right now. When we were released I made my way back to Rave faster than ever. I got claps on my back and a few people that I didn't know tried to spark a conversation with me. I just flashed them smiles and kept plowing through the crowd.
Rave was chattering away with Drew, her smile glowing and I was relieved. She was startled when I wrapped my arms around her waist and hugged her carefully from behind, and she gave me a quizzical look. "Clayton, you're acting like I'll disappear" she laughed, her brown eyes twinkling. I didn't answer her but in my mind I replied, 'You might'.