Corey's P.O.V
It had been over a month since Kelsey had found me sleeping in Ryder's bed, and she still hadn't let go of it. I looked at the Astronomy final in front of me. I had met Ryder in the beginning of March, the tenth to be exact, and it was now May fifteenth. Two months. She had only taken two months to completely change me. I looked up and across the room, where Ryder had been assigned to sit while she took the final. She was filling out answers quickly, twirling her hair in her fingers lightly while she wrote with her left hand. Over a month since I decided to make her mine, and I still hadn't done anything about it. Other than spending every opportune moment with her, I hadn't done anything to show her that I was interested in her. What was wrong with me? If I wanted her, I had to get her. It should be simple.
Except it wasn't.
The bell rang, causing me to jump. Today was the last day of finals, and I had only just finished the final when it rang. Tonight was the Prom, which Ryder repeatedly insisted that she wasn't going to go to. Maybe I should just ask her. It would be a lot easier for me that way. I think.
When I walked up to her, there were a couple of guys lingering near her.
Since I had met her, she had directed most of her aggression and anger toward me when she needed to, so she didn't really scare many people anymore, even Lacy, who had been petrified of Ryder for two years. That meant people went around her more often. Specifically, guys.
"So...Ryder...Prom's tonight. You thinking of going?" douchebag number one asked.
She shook her head. "No point. I don't want to really."
"Are you sure?" douchebag number two piped up. "I'd really like to take you. If...uh...if you're interested that is."
Ryder smiled politely, but shook her head again. "Sorry. Dances really aren't my thing."
"Come on," douchebag one prodded. "It'd be fun. You know, dancing, slow dancing, maybe a little after dance fun," he said, wiggling his eyebrows at her.
The sick look on Ryder's face gave me some satisfaction, but not enough. I tapped the guy on the shoulder. "Get lost, loser. She said no, so just drop it. She doesn't want to be your little fuck toy, understood?"
The guy looked at me, then paled. "Um...Tyler, maybe we should just come back another time."
The other one, apparently named Tyler, nodded in agreement, and they both fled.
Unlike Ryder, I still scared people.
Good.
She looked up at me with her brown eyes that I had come to love. "Thanks," she breathed. "I didn't know how I was going to escape that one. God, what's the big deal about Prom, anyway? It's not like it's the end of the world if I don't go." Ryder sighed, picking her backpack up. "How do you think you did on the final?"
"I think I did pretty well."
"Liar," she said with a smirk. "I was watching you take the test. You looked freaked out."
"I wasn't here for most of the year," I muttered defensively.
"I know," she acknowledged, reaching up and messing up my hair. She had taken a liking to doing that recently, mostly because it upset me to have her screwing with my hair. Ryder's fingers stopped in my hair for a moment, causing me to tense a little bit. "The white in your hair stopped spreading," she declared, finally removing her hand. "I was kind of hoping to see what you looked like with entirely white hair."
"Give it sixty years," I scoffed.
She grinned.
"Come on, go take your last final," I said, nudging her shoulder. "Then we can hang out after school and both not go to Prom, I guess." Fuck. What are you doing? Just ask her already. If you stall, she will have no choice but to say no because you will have asked way too late for her to prepare for it. Moron. "About that, actually."
Ryder stopped and looked at me. "Yeah?"
"Would...you maybe like to go?"
Confusion flickered across her face, then a smile spread across it. "Sure."
"Really?" I asked in disbelief. "I thought you didn't want to go." Stop talking her out of it, moron.
She snorted. "I thought you weren't going to ask me."
Wait...she was seriously waiting for me to ask her? She actually wanted to go to Prom with me?
"My backup plan was to take Kelsey as my date," she added casually in a joking tone.
"Date," I repeated stupidly.
Ryder lifted an eyebrow. "Or friendly acquaintance that waited until last minute to ask."
"Right. Well...alright. Should we not hang out after school then? You know, so you can get ready or something."
She snorted. "I'm not a regular girl, Corey."
I know.
"I don't take five hours to get ready. Hell, I don't even wear makeup hardly ever. I guess I could play with my hair a little though," she said, trailing off as she touched one of the long waves of her hair.
"You don't have to," I said hastily.
She snorted and looked up at me. "Prom is meant to make me spend hundreds of dollars on a dress and makeup and getting my hair done while you pay for the ticket. I think I'm perfectly within reason to mess with my hair."
"Um...right. Sorry. Yeah. Alright."
"Do you own dress clothes?"
"Kind of?"
Ryder rolled her eyes. "Find some, Corey. Don't show up looking like a loser or I won't go." She was clearly kidding, as proven by the humorous light in her eyes, but it still made me a little nervous to think that she might back out last second.
I nodded to her. "Go finish your finals."
She smirked. "See you tonight."
"See you tonight, Ry."
* * * * *
I was fairly certain I had never been as nervous as I was while I waited outside of Ryder's house that night. A thousand different possible dressed ran through my mind, and I couldn't decide which one Ryder might wear. I'd never seen her in a dress, after all, and she almost always wore hoodies like I did. Granted, she had a different reason, but still.
Jason was waiting with me as well. I didn't know much about Kelsey's boyfriend, but I knew that Ryder approved of him, so that probably meant he was fairly decent at least.
Finally, the door opened.
My heart hammered harder.
Kelsey was the first one out of the house, and even I had to admit that she looked pretty good. It was simple, a white dress with rhinestones or sparkles around her waist, and it was above her knee, coming maybe to her mid thigh; she had a bracelet on her right wrist, and I figured it was probably the one that Ryder told me he got her for their two year anniversary. I could practically hear Jason's jaw hit the ground beside me. But I wasn't concerned about what Kelsey looked like. The only girl I was interested in looking at was...
And then she walked out of the house. I couldn't do any more than stare at her.
Her hair was curled a little bit at the ends, pulled over to one side. Her dress was strapless, black, and extremely lacy around her waist. Ryder had actually done her makeup, and it was stunning. Her eyelids were darker, and I would have thought it was natural if I hadn't spent so much time staring at her face. Her lips were dark-ish red, and she had what looked like a little bit of glitter at the end corners of her eyes.
She was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life.
Jason and Kelsey had gotten in his car by time she reached me.
"Kelsey returned the dress I bought and got this one," Ryder said, looking down at herself with a small frown. "And she basically pinned me down to put all this stuff on my face. I did manage to make her compromise about the heels though." When I checked, she was wearing black glittery sandals. Her eyes travelled over me. "You look very good," she decided approvingly. Her golden brown eyes found mine eventually. "Aren't you gonna say something, Corey?"
I couldn't.
"Weirdo," she said after a moment. "Come on, let's go."
* * * * *
I thought I was going to have to beat off the other guys with sticks. The moment we stepped to the side near the benches, there were at least five guys asking her to dance. She turned them all down though, to my satisfaction, and we stood there for a while and talked.
"Hey, we never got our pictures taken," she realized.
"I don't like pictures."
"So? I do."
"Ryder," I complained, "I'm not wearing a hat or anything."
"Yes. Which is why you quite frankly look very attractive in that tux. Now I'm not going to waste this, so just get your butt to where they take pictures, suck it up, and be a man."
I sighed. "Fine."
The picture didn't turn out nearly as badly as I had expected it to. She looked amazing, and actually happy to be there with me. It was the only picture I'd ever willingly participated in.
After about two hours of talking and drinking punch, I invited her outside.
"Thank god," she said when we got outside. "It was way too hot in there."
"Because I was there," I commented, smirking.
She rolled her eyes. "Yes, I was basking in your godly looks."
"Damn straight you were."
Ryder laughed and leaned against the little half wall behind her. "The music in there's too loud," she said randomly. "I can hear it from here."
"We're just barely outside of the gym, of course you can hear it, Ryder."
She lifted an eyebrow at me.
I paid more attention to the music playing and realized that it was a slow song. That was her way of asking me to dance with her. She wanted to have a slow dance with me. I cleared my throat nervously and offered my hand. "Would...you like do dance, Ryder?"
"Why, yes I would," she said in a dramatic voice, laughing.
I tried to think back to the 'How To Slow Dance' videos I had watched on my way here and placed my hands on her waist. The warmth from her body distracted me, and I immediately lost track of my thoughts. "I have no idea how to slow dance," I admitted after a moment.
"I do."
I nodded.
She slowly began stepping to the side, then bringing her other foot to that one, and very soon we were dancing. Ryder smiled up at me. "You're not completely horrible at this," she commented. "I'm impressed."
I snorted, but my eyes were locked on my feet as I desperately tried not to step on hers.
"You don't look there," she said, hooking a finger under my chin.
I felt heat rush across my skin as she tilted my chin to look at her. She was so beautiful.
"Why, Corey, are you blushing?" she asked as if she couldn't tell.
I glared at her as she teased me. "Of course I'm not."
"Too bad. I thought it was kind of cute."
I snorted to cover up the heating of my skin. Finally, as I looked at her, I stopped moving. I wasn't sure if the song had stopped or not. It didn't really matter. I searched her eyes as I took note of the proximity of our faces. Before I had even really become friends with her, I had promised myself that I wouldn't kiss her or touch her until I was completely certain that she wanted it. But her eyes were so hard to read sometimes. I had so many opportunities to kiss her, but I could never tell if she wanted me to, so I hadn't. Her eyes searched mine as well, looking for a reason for me having stopped moving. Finally, I leaned down a little, hesitating a bit.
She blushed, the pale pink shooting out across her cheeks in a beautiful change of shade. "What is it, Corey?"
God damn it I wish I could read her eyes. I wish I could tell if she wanted me to kiss her. But I had no idea. Well, there was one way to find out I guess.
"Ryder...would it be alright if I kissed you?"
Author's Note:
This is what Ryder's dress looks like:
This is what Kelsey's looks like:
This is what Corey's Tux looks like:
And this is what Jason looks like: