Jeremiah and Skye sat next to each other on the floor of his living room, their textbooks, notebooks, and binders opened and piled high above the coffee table which served as their desk. He sat with his legs sticking straight out in front of him under the coffee table while she sat with her legs crossed. They were working on their senior projects, a requirement aside from their regular finals, for graduation. She was busy writing something in her notebook that she didn't notice him looking at her, opening and closing his mouth like he wanted to say something to her before chickening out.
"Skye?" he finally said.
"Yup?" she replied without looking up.
"So prom's coming up..." he trailed off.
"Yup," she continued to scribble in her notebook, her pen moving against paper in a breakneck speed; her neat, cursive writing gliding smoothly from pen to paper.
"Are you going?"
"I didn't want to. You know I don't do high school dances, but my mom is insisting I go, something about high school not being complete if I didn't go. Rite of passage mumbo jumbo."
"So you're going?"
"I guess so, it looks like. I can't deny my mom embarrassing pre-prom pictures," she giggled.
"You have a date yet?"
"Well, Aaron did ask, so I'll probably go with him."
"Oh," Jeremiah replied shortly. He didn't know why he was disappointed at what he heard.
"So...which one of your many girls are you going with?" she finally looked up at him and smiled broadly, teasing him.
"Well, I was gonna ask you, but I guess I'm a little late," he shrugged, tried for nonchalance and he hoped he pulled it off before looking down at his notes.
"Me?" she pointed to herself. "Stop kidding around, Jer," she laughed at him. "Luckily for me, I don't need your pity date," she nudged him with her forearm. "I'm nervous, though."
"Nervous?" he looked up at her again.
"My first dance with a boy. And it's the prom! I know there are certain expectations that come with this occassion..."
"Skye, you don't have to do anything you don't want to do, okay?" he held her chin in his hand between his thumb and index finger.
She nodded at him. "I mean, it's me we're talking about so there's probably a good chance that nothing will happen. Besides, Aaron is a complete gentleman. I guess I just have an overactive imagination."
"S, you are so beautiful. Aaron would have to be dumb and blind not to see that, but if he tries anything against your will, he'll have to answer to me," he told her seriously.
"Yes, dad," she smacked him lightly on the chest with the back of her hand and let out a quiet chuckle. "So sorry I can't help you escape your many girls by going with you as your date. You'll just have to brave the pack and pick one."
"I guess so," he said softly.
"Besides, don't you want to be with someone who you actually want to go with?" she grinned at him again.
"Who said I didn't really want to go with you? You're my best friend."
"Exactly. Just your best friend. Don't worry, I'll save you a dance," she touched his cheek before going back to her work.
"Make it two?" he smiled at her.
"Two fast dances. You got it, dude."
***
Jeremiah and a few of his jock buddies pooled their monetary resources together to rent a limo for their group and their dates. He included Skye in the head count even without asking her, assumed that she would just say yes. Luckily, her shyness and nervousness got the best of her and opted to go with the group instead of being alone with Aaron.
Jeremiah walked to Skye's house half an hour earlier than the time she told him her date would be there. He waited patiently for her in the living room, he himself dressed to the nines in his black tuxedo, white shirt, and blue necktie. He stood up when he heard Skye's mother, Regina, gushing over how beautiful her daughter looked.
He stood up as he waited for mother and daughter to descend down the stairs. Skye's mother went down the stairs first, turning around every now and then to snap photos of her daughter. Jeremiah saw her left foot first, her French tipped toes in black strappy high heeled sandals. His eyes followed up the slit of her gown and trailed up her long shapely legs. He swallowed the lump that formed in his throat suddenly. She walked down the stairs and he drank in the sight of her. She wore a two toned long gown with assymetrical sleeves, with one arm a cap sleeve and the other sleeveless. The front was black and had a high neckline, modest, and had a slit up the left leg. The back was blue, and exposed a bit of her back because of the cowl back that draped loosely up to mid back. Her hair was in a side swept high ponytail and her make up remained simple yet polished. Jeremiah could only stare at his best friend as she made her way down the stairs elegantly. She stopped in front of him and gave him her signature grin.
"Hi, you're early," she told him before giving him a quick hug.
"I wanted to make sure you weren't wearing anything too revealing that I would have to push boys away from you all night long," he joked.
"Well, that's not your job this evening, it's Aaron's. So you don't have to worry," she winked at him.
"I have something for you."
"You do?"
"Yup," he said and pulled a small velvet box out of his pocket.
Her eyes grew large in surprise as she took the box from him. "What is this?"
"Just open it," he smiled at her.
She gingerly opened the box and revealed a pair of half carat diamond studs. She quickly closed it and proceeded to hand it back to him. "No way, this is too much!"
"Just consider it an early graduation present, miss valedictorian," he said before taking one stud out to put on her bare ears. "You've been a big academic help to me, this is not even enough to thank you."
"It's more than enough, Jer. Thank you."
She ran to the bathroom to admire the twinkling dots on her ears. Her mother asked for them to pose together by the staircase before Aaron got there.
Skye was fixing Jeremiah's tie when the doorbell rang. Skye was about to answer it when Jeremiah motioned that he would go. Jeremiah opened the door for a surprised Aaron, the latter clearly not expecting him there. Jeremiah opened the door wider so that Aaron could come in.
Aaron turned his head from Jeremiah to the goddess by the staircase. He shyly approached a waiting Skye. He walked up to her and gave her a kiss on the cheek. He opened the plastic container he held and pulled out the corsage he bought for her.
"You look absolutely beautiful," Aaron told her honestly. He put the corsage, white roses tied together with blue ribbon, carefully on her dainty wrist.
"Wow, pretty," she told him earnestly. She took the matching buttoniere out of the container and pinned the flower on his lapel.
Regina couldn't contain herself and snapped photos of every little movement the two made. Jeremiah just regarded them silently, his jaw set as he watched his best friend smiling at the other boy.
The limo arrived in front of Skye's house and Jeremiah helped her into the limo, not caring if Aaron flashed him a surprised look. They stopped by his date Matilda's house first. Matilda was a cheerleader and one of the most popular girls in school. He went alone, Aaron and Skye decided to stay in the limo so as not to disturb a romantic moment, Skye said. After fifteen minutes, the other couple went inside the limo, an annoyed looking Matilda leading the way.
"Hi, Mattie. You look amazing," Skye noted to the pretty brunette, trying for small talk.
Matilda just huffed. "Skye, next time you tutor your best friend here, please tell him that pink does not mean blue," she angrily gestured from her dress to Jeremiah's tie.
Skye threw an "oops" Jeremiah's way. "Well, you guys still make a beautiful couple. I'm sure it's not really a big deal."
"Aaron managed to match with you, so maybe it is a big deal," Mattie continued to whine like a brat.
"For Pete's sake, Mattie! They're just colors! It's not the end of the world!" Jeremiah exasperatedly said and threw his hands up in the air.
"You know what? Why don't Aaron and Jer just switch ties. I don't mind that we don't match," Skye looked to Aaron. Aaron had on a pink and blue striped tie.
"Sure," Aaron looked at Skye.
"Huh? You match with Skye?" Matilda finally noticed. "Why is that, Jer?" she continued to huff.
"Oh come on, Mattie. Can we please just enjoy the prom?" he rolled his eyes and complained.
“Whatever,” Matilda petulantly replied with a roll of her eyes, mimicking Jeremiah’s earlier actions.
The two remained quietly angry at each other as the limo picked up the rest of the gang. If anyone else noticed the tension, no one dared to bring it up. When they got to the prom, the normally shy Skye managed to not sink into the background, mostly stayed with Aaron on the dancefloor, dancing with him or in a group with their other friends from their honors classes. Meanwhile, it was as if she and Jeremiah did a role reversal. He sat at their table like a wallflower, sitting glumly by himself as his date Matilda danced with her friends and a few other guys she knew. Skye walked up to him and held out her hand.
“May I have this dance?” Skye asked him with a twinkle in her eyes.
Jeremiah looked up at her and gave a playful sigh. “Why I thought you’d never ask,” he playfully told her.
He took her offered hand and allowed his best friend to lead her to the dance floor. She and Aaron had been dancing in the dark shadow on the edge of the dance floor, away from the DJ, and that’s exactly where she led Jeremiah. He shook his head at her and led her towards the middle of the dance floor, the crowd automatically making room for one of the most popular guys at school. The song playing was one of the most popular dance songs, and everyone on the dance floor were jumping around and raising their arms, clearly having a good time. Jeremiah started hopping around as well, and soon, Skye was jumping around with him, throwing her head back and laughing every now and then. And finally, he was having a great time at his prom. All he needed was his best friend to pick him up. When the song ended, she took his hand and walked with him to get some punch, the last song made her thirsty. He poured some punch for her in a paper cup and got some for himself.
“Thanks for the dance, S. I needed that,” he smiled at her.
“You’re most definitely welcome, Jer. I couldn’t take it anymore, seeing you in a corner all by yourself…that’s not you. You’re always the life of the party…or I’ve heard,” she giggled. “I’m sorry you’re having such a dismal time,” she grimaced at him.
“Not anymore,” he grinned at her before taking another drink of punch from his cup.
“I’m sorry about Matilda. I don’t know why she made a big deal out of your tie not matching her dress.”
“I guess it’s just a girl thing…the whole matchy matchy at prom thing.”
“Well, why didn’t you just get a pink tie? She told you what color she was wearing and everything.”
“I know. It just slipped my mind, I guess,” he shrugged.
“I’m just glad she didn’t blow up at me. I honest to goodness thought she would explode at the thought that you matched with me on purpose or something.”
“If she did, I would have defended you to the high heavens,” he pinched the bridge of her nose. “I guess what you said stuck to me, that you were wearing blue. It was in my subconscious already when I picked out my tie. Besides, you know blue is my favorite color. It’s my go to. Don’t tell me you purposely chose blue to match with me?” he winked at her.
“As if!” she lightly hit his arm. “I fell in love with this dress when I saw it at the store when I went shopping with my mom. It just so happened that it only came in blue, so there,” she stuck her tongue out at him.
“I didn’t get the chance to tell you earlier, but you look beautiful,” he told her earnestly, looking deeply into her eyes.
“Thanks,” she replied as she blushed furiously. Her crush on her best friend might have faded away, but when he looked at her like that, it hit her something fierce, like she was bludgeoned by a ton of bricks. “I tried.”
“For Aaron,” he said quietly.
“For myself. And for the pictures that will last forever!” she giggled.
They stood in silence for a while until she saw her date walking towards their spot.
“Skye, may I have another dance?” Aaron asked her politely.
“Of course,” she looped an arm through Aaron’s. “Jer, are you gonna be okay?” she turned to face her best friend again.
“Yup,” he managed to force a small smile. “You go and have fun. Don’t forget about my second dance you promised me.”
“Yup, you got it!”
She grinned at him one more time before disappearing into the dance floor with her date.