{just the dress, although this girl is stunning, she isn't porcelain.}
I lay back on my bed with my legs hanging over the edge, and Porcelain climbs onto my lap with a blunt between her lips. Taking a long hit, she removes it from her mouth then kisses me on the lips, causing me to inhale the smoke. Breaking apart, smoke bellows from both our mouths and we laugh at each other. Passing the blunt back and forth between us, I stick my tongue out at her as she finishes the last of it.
"How come I had to find out you smoked through Andre," I say, resting my hands on her hips.
"Because you never asked," she laughs, laying her head on my chest, "plus you always smoke in your little group."
Chuckling a bit, I can't help but agree, because I know it's true. I only smoked with the group, because I had a place to; smoking in either one of my parents house was a no go. Now that I have my own though, I can do whatever the hell I want.
As she lays her head on my chest, we talk about what would be on our bucketlist if we had a month to live. We point out the places we would get different tattoos, and even talk about getting matching ones. This then went to a game of would you rather, and somehow we ended up on the topic of our futures.
"You don't give yourself enough credit, Kie, you're going to be successful," Porcelain says, looking at me through hooded eyes.
"But you don't know that for sure, it's scary, Porcy," I breathe, wrapping my arm around her back.
"What are you good at," she solicits, tracing my jawline with her fingernail.
"I'm a Jack-of-all-trades, master of none, ya know? I can do a little bit of everything."
Laying her head back on my chest again, she closes her eyes for a moment. I twirl a piece of her hair around my finger, and hum Billie Jean by Michael Jackson as I stare up at the ceiling. Everything about my future is so uncertain, who am I going to be, will I still have Porcelain, what am I going to do after graduation? So many unanswered questions, that I can only await the future to have the answer to.
Porcelain snores on my chest, and I snicker softly as I lay her on the bed then stand up to go to the bathroom. I use the toilet, then wash my hands to leave but stopping when I look into the mirror. The bruise on my cheek has turned a disgusting yellow colour, and I huff at the reminder of Frank. A smile plays on my lips as I remember something else from that day, and I bite my lip to suppress the smile. Leaving the bathroom, I grab my jacket from the chair in the kitchen and walk out the door.
I take the stairs down two at a time, and emerge into the chilly air of mid-May. Shrugging the jacket on my shoulders, I head down the street in no particular hurry to anywhere. My head is down as I think about my options for when I graduate. College is always an option, as well as working, but I can do both instead of one or the other. Traveling would be nice, but I would be alone and I hate flying by myself. I could always ask one of my friends to come with me, but I know most of them will actually be in college.
"What are you going to do with yourself, Kieran," I say out loud.
"For starters, stop talking to yourself," the voice makes me jump as I look up.
Chandler flicks her cigeratte to the ground, and crushes it underneath her boot as she pushes herself off the brick wall. I haven't seen her since she moved to Denver, what the hell is she doing back here? Pushing the thought to the back of my mind, I hurriedly embrace her in a hug and she laughs as she squeezes me back. It's not we haven't text each since she's been gone, but seeing her in person now is the greatest thing in the world.
"I missed you too," she laughs, her chin resting on my shoulder.
Once we pull away from each other, she asks me to give her a breakdown of what has happened while she was away. Trying to remember the last thing I told her, I tell her about Fernando ditching us for the soccer team and a few more current event from the last five months. I save all of my personal things until the end, and this causes us to stop walking in the middle of the sidewalk. People grumble under their breath as the move around us, but we ignore them as we continue to talk.
"I don't care what you have to do, but you have to cut this girl off," Chandler tells me, and I nod my head. "I mean it, if you don't you're going to have to answer to a lot of hands being thrown."
"Are a pair of those hands yours," I joke, and of course she punches me on my shoulder.
"Yes, because from what you've told me Porcelain seems like a good girl. So just know if you fuck up, I will gladly slide into her DMs and turn her out."
"Stay away from my girlfriend, Chandler, I'm serious."
The smile on my face contradicts my statement, and we walk a bit more before my phone buzzes in my pocket. I smile as I see a text from Porcelain, so I say goodbye to Chandler and jog the whole way back to my apartment. Once again I take the stairs two at a time, and burst through the door of the front room with a smile on my face that gets completely wiped away. Porcelain sits on the couch with her legs crossed with a glass of tea pressed to her lips as she looks at photo in her hand. The picture is turned toward me, and I want to crawl into a hole to die.
"Just a little house warming gift to hang on the wall," Porcelain reads from the back of the photo.
"Strike two," I wince as her golden eyes bore into mine, ripping through my soul.
"Strike two."
$ $ $ $ $
"Is the bow tie necessary," I whine as my mother tightens it around my neck.
"Yes, it is," she replies sternly, finally dropping her hands from my neck.
Turning me around, she makes me look into the body length mirror on her room door. I have to admit, it does add a nice touch to the tux but it's still uncomfortable to wear. My mother smiles at me through the mirror, and I return it as I adjust the cuffs on my jacket. And although I'm smiling on the outside, I'm nervous as hell on the inside. This day has to be perfect, prom is one of the most important days in a woman's life beside their wedding day and giving birth, and I don't want to mess it up for Porcelain.
There is a knock on the room door, and I take a step back as it opens up to reveal Fiona. Her brown hair is pulled back into a high ponytail, and little Kale is wrapped in a blanket in her arms. I smile at my sister, because I don't want to be rude and I'm slightly happy to see her, and she returns it. Of course she was surprised I smiled at her at first, but the shock wore off before my smile could disappear. Reaching out my arms, I try to grab my nephew but she mistakes my actions as an invitation for a hug. Laughing at it, I hug her back anyway but take my nephew shortly after.
"You look good little bro," Fiona comments, eyeing me warily as I hold her son.
"I know, but thank you," I once again smile at her, this one more genuine than the last.
"Have you always been this full of yourself?"
I get ready to say yes, but the dark time of when I wasn't popped into my head and I shudder at the memory. Nearly two months of not feeling myself, was the worst experience of my life. Shaking my head, I begin to play with baby Kale whose brown eyes remind me of his mother. He smiles up at me, his pink gums on full display, and it makes my mood a thousand times better.
"Although this is adorable, you have a date to go pick up," my mother says, taking her grandson from me.
My smile falls a little, she just reminded me of my nervousness and I begin to feel sick. I feel like something is going to go terribly wrong, and it's a strong one too. Either I'm going to fuck this up somehow, or someone else is going to ruin the night. I begin to reach for my necklace, only to remember that my mother made me take it off and put it away. Although I did take it off, I didn't put it away but in my pocket. I reach into my right pocket to feel the cool obsidian underneath my fingertips, and I somewhat relax.
Kissing my mother on the cheek, I say goodbye and repeat these actions with Fiona. With my final hug, I grab my keys and leave my mother's house behind. Climbing to the car, I start it then take a few deep breaths to calm myself once more. Finally pulling onto the street, I listen to an old song by Usher that I've forgotten the name of as I drive. I smile as I remember Porcelain singing at the top of her lungs to this song, it was terrible but she looked so happy doing it that I didn't care.
Twenty minutes later, I am in the inside of the Vance home with Porcelain by my side as her parents take pictures. We smile either at the camera or each other, and I just couldn't help myself when I kissed her on lips.
"Awe, that's so adorable," her mother cooes as she snaps a picture.
"Hands above the waist, son," her father warns, seeing as my hands had begun to wander.
"You guys make me sick," Jace laughs, and I internally roll my eyes.
We take a few more pictures with Andre and Naomi, and then the four of us pile into Andre's truck to leave. At first he has the windows down to let a breeze in, but the girls started to complain about their hair and he rolled them up. Let's be honest, I was gonna say something about it if they didn't. Too much time, effort, and hairspray went into getting my hair in this quiff, so I refuse to let the wind mess it up.
The four of us talk idly about what we think the dance will be like, as well as our plans after the dance. Naomi suggested going out to eat after, to which we all agreed gladly. I drop out of the conversation when they begin discussing the state track meet (all three of them are on the team) but I hold Porcelain's hand as I stare out the window. What I really mean is, that I'm looking at the window to stare at Porcelain's reflection, because staring directly at her is creepy. Her legs are crossed at the knee, and she moves her right hand animatedly as she talks. I turn my head to look at her, just to see how alight with life her eyes are.
Leaning over to her, I push a lock of straightened hair out of the way and whisper in her ear, "You look gorgeous."
She doesn't stop talking, but the smile on her face grows as she squeezes my hand in acknowledgment. I kiss her cheek, then sit back in my seat as she turns her body so that her back is pressed to my side. My arm goes around her body as if a natural movement, and I still find myself basking in how perfectly her body fits with mine.
Finally we make it to the hall, and I slide out the backseat to help Porcelain out of it as well. Andre gives the keys to a valet, and camera's flash as we begin to walk down the red carpet. Kids from the school acting as paps shout random questions at us, and we actually stop to answer a few as they happily jot our responses down on notepads. We strike poses here and there, laughing as we finally make our way into the hall.
"The school spends way too much money on these dances," I smile, shaking my head.
"I planned this dance, thank you very much," Naomi say indignantly.
"Really," Porcelain and I chorus.
"Hell no, I can barely plan out what I'm going to wear let alone this fancy ass dance!"
We follow the trail of flowers on the floor into a large open area, filled with people dressed in fancy clothes. Many girls' dress have some type of glitter or shiny substance on them that catch the light, and it begins to irritate my eyes before we fully get situated. A sense of déjà vu passes over my ass I rub my eyes, grumbling about my retinas being damaged, but I can't remember where I've experienced this feeling before.
The four of us take a seat at one of the empty tables pushed to the sides of the room, and we people watch for a while before we spot Taylor and Wyatt on the dance floor. Porcelain is the first person to spot them, and eagerly ran over to them. (I will never understand how she can run heels, I've seen her do it multiple times and still wonder how she hasn't broken anything.) Getting up to follow her, the rest of us approach the lovely couple and they hug us as they gush over our outfits. Taylor as picked up on some of Wyatt's habits, and is now using a feminine voice as he talks about Andre's shoes.
Lil John's Get Low blasts through the speakers, and there is a simultaneous "ah shit" in our group as we all begin to sing and dance to the song. Again déjà vu hits me, and I'm taken back to our moment in the record store; the music playing loud, people talking to each as if there had never been any barriers between them before, and an aura of happiness. For the rest of the night, we dance to the ever changing music, sing along to songs we barely know the words to, and genuinely enjoy ourselves.
An hour before the dance is over they announce the prom royal court. The princess and prince were people I didn't know, so I didn't care much but when it came to king and queen I was all ears.
"For the second year in a row, Taylor Hudson shall be crowned Prom King."
The crowd goes crazy as Taylor makes his way to the stage, and I glance over at Wyatt who has heart in his eyes as he watches his boyfriend's crowning.
"And for the first time ever in Delano High history, we have two Prom Queens! I would like to proudly announce, Wyatt Thurgood and Porcelain Vance, as this year's Queens."
Wyatt celebrates instantly, yelling "I'm queen bitch," as he makes his way through the applauding crowd, and I smile after his departure. My smile fades a little when the crowd stops cheering, and the entirety of the room is focused on us. Porcelain stands frozen next to me, her eyes wide in disbelief and I notice how tight her grip is on my hand. Her other hand reaches for her neck, but the tooth isn't there being replaced by a diamond necklace.
I remove my hand from hers, causing her to look at me panic stricken as I dig inside my pants pocket. Pulling out the obsidian tooth, I drape the necklace around her neck then kiss her cheek. My hand rests on her lower back as I push her toward the crowd, giving words of encouragement as I do so. Looking back at me once more, she slowly makes her way to the stage as the crowd parts for her to walk. As if it were a movie, someone begins a slow clap that escalates into thunderous cheers as the crown is lowered onto Porcelain's head. Her smile is bright as she looks out over the crowd, and I have never been more proud of someone in my life. She may have been crowned Prom Queen, but she has always been my queen.
{the ending was so fucking corny, someone shoot me. this is chapter thirty I guess, and to my dear boyfriend, here is the chapter you oh so desperately wanted. vote/comment how you feel peeps. out ✌}