**Dedicated to summergirl21 for the awesome character banner!**
It was finally prom night. I had waited for this night ever since I was a little girl, watching all of those shows on TV about the rich girls going to those extravagant proms. I hoped mine would be like theirs. My dad was just as excited as I was! He bought me a beautiful strapless burgundy dress with diamonds embedded at top of it. My brother even used his last paycheck to go out and buy me a diamond ear ring and necklace set. As soon as I saw it, I just knew it would go so well with my dress!
As I looked in the mirror, my father's words replayed in my head.
"Alea, you look so beautiful with your mother's deep brown eyes," he had said earlier today.
I really wished she was here right now. She would be fussing over how my heels made me look like a grown woman. But I know she's in Heaven looking down on me with the biggest smile ever. She lost her battle with breast cancer last year. It tore my family apart watching her suffer and get sicker everyday.
I had finished putting on some light eye shadow and finishing up on applying my lip gloss when my dad called for me. "Alea! Come downstairs. Carson's here!"
I smiled at hearing Carson's name. Carson and I had been together for 4 years, ever since we got in high school. It's actually kind of funny how we met. I was the new girl in town, which came with all the usual angst. One day in gym during the beginning of freshman year, we were just about to go change out of our gym uniform in the locker room and I saw that my clothes were missing from my locker. I went and told my coach that my things were gone and she made all of the girls stay until my stuff reappeared.
No one wanted to spill the beans on who did it, and as a result we had to stay in the locker room an extra thirty minutes. Then, a short, skinny kid came to the locker room door with my clothes and gym bag in his hand. I was so happy my stuff had turned up. He said he found it under the bleachers and figured someone was looking for it. I learned later that the boy's name was Carson and the girl who stole my stuff was Bridget Thomas.
Carson and I became good friends and he was my only friend for a while until my social rank increased. Pretty soon, I became one of the most popular girls in the school with Carson's help of course. Seeing as how his parents were two of the wealthiest people in Atlanta, he never had difficulty with making friends. The December of that year, he asked me to be his girlfriend. I happily said yes and we've been going out ever since.
"Alea!" my dad yelled once again. I quickly grabbed my small black pocketbook and headed down the stairs.
When I got to the bottom of the stairs, I saw Carson standing near the door with my dad. He looked as handsome as ever. He had on a black tuxedo with a burgundy boutonniere in the lapel. His green-hazel eyes sparkled ever so beautifully.
He smiled at me, flashing his perfect set of white teeth. "You look amazing, Alea," he said as he walked closer to me and planted a kiss on my lips. I felt my face turning a bright shade of red.
"Alright, alright. Enough with the gushy stuff!" my dad said playfully.
"Sorry Mr. Peters." Carson smiled apologetically at my dad and pulled out my corsage from his tuxedo pocket. It matched the boutonniere in the lapel of his tux.
He slid it on my wrist. "It fits perfectly." I smiled.
"Alea" I heard my brother coming down the stairs.
I turned around towards the stairs and saw my brother, Eric coming downstairs with a small white box.
"I just wanted to give you something before you left." He opened the box and in it, was my mother's red ruby she had left for me.
I felt a small tear in the corner of my eye as I looked at it. I had completely forgotten about the ring, trying to make sure everything for prom was straight. I quickly wiped the tear and carefully put the ring on my finger. It sparkled as I examined it on my finger.
"Thanks Eric. I really appreciate this." I gave him a huge hug.
"No problem. Enjoy yourself tonight, okay?" He patted my back. "And you look gorgeous," He said in my mom's New York accent she always used for that word. We both broke out in laughter.
"Carson." He gave Carson a hand slap. "Take care of my sis. Don't let her have too much fun." He chuckled. Carson grinned at his silly, yet serious words. Eric waved at me and ascended back upstairs to his room.
"I'll make sure she's home by twelve." He pulled his phone out of his tux pocket. "We should probably get going."
"Wait." My dad pulled out his digital camera. "I gotta' get a picture first, man."
I looked at Carson and he shrugged. He positioned himself behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist. I held his hands.
"Okay, 1....2.....3!" The camera flashed, signaling he had took the picture. "It looks nice. I'll get it framed later." My dad had been wanting to frame everything ever since mom died. He even wanted to frame my perfect attendance certificates from when I was in elementary school.
"Okay, Dad. We're gonna' go. I'll be home later tonight," I told him as Carson opened the front door.
"Okay, be sure to call when the prom's over so I know you're alright. You have your phone, correct?"
"Yes Dad, I have my phone," I groaned, grinning. He could be so protective of me at times.
"Okay. Bye. Have fun." He followed us out on the porch and shook Carson's hand. "Take care of my little girl, son. I'm trusting you."
"Don't worry, Mr. Peters. She'll be fine." Carson gave him a reassuring smile.
Carson opened the car door for me and I got in. He had borrowed his dad's Rolls-Royce for the evening. His parents were both successful surgeons, so they had well over six figure salaries.
He closed my door and walked over to the driver's side and got in. He started the car. I waved at my dad through the window. Carson honked the horn and drove off.
Carson was always talkataive, his sense of humor was what I loved most. But he was silent in the car. I looked at him but he was focused on the road. I felt an unusual feeling - awkwardness. I had to break the silence.
"You look really nice tonight, Carson."
"Thanks sweetheart," he said, glancing at me with a kind smile.
I took out my phone and noticed my best friend, Cindy, had texted me. The text read I'm outside of the hotel. Where r u?
I texted her back saying On the way.
I closed my phone and tucked it back inside of my small pocketbook. "You want to go out to eat after the prom?"
Carson cleared his throat. "Your dad wants you home at twelve," he answered blandly. His emotionless words left a cold feeling in my chest that was increasingly becoming a burden.
"Yeah, but we could leave the prom early and go out to eat at Olive Garden or something," I offered, patting him on his knee.
"Um, we'll see," he said, scratching his head.
"Alright," I turned my body to face the window and the ride returned to silence. Carson seemed to be consumed in his own thoughts to pay any attention to me. Then again, I was extremely nervous. Maybe I was just over-analyzing. I turned on the radio and listened to Pink sing about being sober.
Fifteen minutes later, we pulled into a parking lot loaded with luxury cars and limos. I immediately saw Cindy and Jason waiting outside.
Carson stopped the in front of them. "You can go ahead and get out. I'm going to find a parking space." His surprising smile made my heart jump a little. I had begun to think he was upset with me about something so a weight was lifted off of my chest at his sign of happiness.
I smiled back and stepped out of the car.
"Oh my gosh! Alea! You look amazing, girl!" Cindy ran up to me and gave me one of her famous bear hugs.
I laughed. "Thank you! You look hot too!" She did look hot. She was wearing a gold, long flowing dress with a white scarf that went around her neck and white pumps with gold rims to match. Her curly hair framed her face perfectly.
"Thanks girl."
"Hey Jason! You clean up well." His black and gold suit fitted his body well and for someone who always wore jeans and basketball shorts, he looked quiet handsome all dressed up.
"Thanks Alea. You look really nice," he told me after giving me a hug.
"Thanks."
"Where's Carson?" Cindy said as she moved over to stand next to Jason and hold his hand.
"He's finding a parking spot. He should be here in a minute." I nodded as I looked towards the parking lot.
"Oh, okay. It's so crowded! It took us a good minute to find a space." She looked up at Jason. He nodded, grinning.
"Yeah, I know! It's crazy. Who all's here?"
"Um, we saw Jane and Clark come in shortly before you guys arrived." She began to tap her finger against her face. "Oh! And Trish and Josh came in a while ago. They had an awesome limo. It was probably the longest one I've seen! A bunch of other people came too. They're inside."
I nodded, thinking back to the possibility of Bridget being here. I didn't want anything to ruin this night. During the four years that I'd been going to this school, Bridget and I had only been to four of the same parties. But they all had ended badly. At the first one, she deliberately lied on me about bringing unwanted guests. At the second one, she purposely spilled punch on my dress before claiming it was an "accident". Not to mention, her flirtatious habits towards Carson at every party.
"Is..um..Bridget..here?" I asked nervously.
Cindy's face scrunched up. "Yeah." She rolled her eyes. "She came with some guy I've never seen before. I don't think he goes to our school."
"Oh." I looked down and rubbed my feet on the ground. Even though Bridget was completely irrelvant to me, I still found her as a potential threat. Her overly comfortable attitude in flirting it up with Carson seriously pissed me off and I didn't need for that to happen tonight.
"Don't worry about it, Ali. She's not going to ruin your night," she added as if she had read my thoughts.
"You're right." I stood up straighter and took a big breath. My confidence reappeared within me and I was determined to have a great time tonight, despite Bridget being around. A few seconds later as we were talking about how we wished the food this year was going to be way better than last year's prom food, Carson came sprinting up next to me.
"Hey guys. Sorry I took so long. I was fighting for a space with a Hummer." We all laughed and he put his arm around my waist. Looking up at him, I shook away the fear of this night turning out to be less than amazing. Whatever he was upset about before must not have been important enough for him to still be upset now. I knew he was going to make this the best night of my life.
"Hey man. What's up?" Jason nodded at him and gave him a hand slap.
"I'm cool, you?" he replied.
"I'm alright. Just here with this beautiful girl here." He looked down at Cindy and kissed her cheek.
"Ya'll ready to go in?" Carson tilted his head towards the entrance of the hotel.
"Yeah, let's go," Cindy agreed, walking towards the entrance with Jason by her side.
"You okay?" I asked Carson quietly.
"Yeah, I'm fine now that I get to see this face again." He grabbed my chin gently and brought my lips to his. I felt my face turn red.
"You and your redness," he said playfully.
When we got in, there were people everywhere. Promiscuous by Nelly Furtado was blasting from the speakers at the front of the dance area. The place was huge. Our school had rented out the whole bottom floor of the hotel for our prom; just one of the perks of living in a good area.
I spotted Jane and Clark, two of the strangest yet smartest people in the whole school, over near the punch bowl and I waved at them. They saw me too and excitedly waved back. They were such a cute couple, in their own strange way. I found it funny that she always towered over him, even without any heels on.
"You guys want to dance first or sit down?" Cindy asked, practically yelling over the music.
I looked at Carson. He shrugged as he checked out the surroundings. "Let's get a table first!" I yelled back.
She nodded, and we followed her and Jason over to an empty table near the middle of the room.
Carson pulled out my chair and I sat down. Jason did the same for Cindy. I put my pocket book in my lap. There were still two extra chairs at our table. Deep down, I hoped Bridget and her date wouldn't sit in them.
I looked around and scanned the room of other people I knew and spotted quite a few. Then my eyes came in contact with no one other than..Bridget. I felt my muscles tense up and my throat became dry. She looked really good. Her long black hair was flowing down her back and she had on a long white dress that was cut just low enough in the chest to reveal her cleavage. The dress fit her curvaceous shape perfectly. I felt sick. I hate to admit it, but- she looked better than me.
I looked over at Carson and and noticed that he spotted her too. His eyes were glued to her and not even the loudest of trucks could have jerked his head away from her. Realizing he hadn't noticed I was glaring at him, I sat back in my chair and began to pout.
"What's wrong, Ali?" Cindy asked from across the table. I had forgotten they were even sitting with us.
"Nothing. I'm just a little hungry." I faked a laugh and smiled weakly.
"Wanna' go get something?" Cindy began to get up, signaling it was time for a 'girl talk'.
"Yeah, sure," I muttered as I glanced over at Carson. "I'll be back."
He nodded and began talking to Jason, who was sitting across from him.
Cindy hooked her arm with mine. "So, what's up chick? You seem a little off. Something upsetting you?"
I sighed and looked at the floor. "I saw Bridget. Cindy, you didn't tell me she looked great. Her dress is so pretty," I said with my tone getting lower.
"Ali, come on now. You know you look better. Did you see her face up close? It looks like she slammed her face in a pile of icing, got ran over by a truck that was driven by Chuck Norris, was fed to sharks, and then spit back up."
I stared at her for a second and then we burst out laughing. I pretended to wipe a tear from my eye. "Cindy, girl you are insane."
She was still giggling. "I'm just saying. Piling makeup on your face doesn't make you look any better, in my opinion."
I shook my head and grinned. "I honestly hope this punch isn't poisoned or something. You know Eddie is just psycho enough to do it."
Eddie was one of the craziest boys I'd ever met in my whole life. He lived recklessly, not caring what anyone had to say about it or the consequences of his actions. He had pulled the fire alarm at least four times in the past school year - without any teachers knowing it was him of course. He and his brother had even set up and planned our senior prank this year, which was filling the school's walls with posters of naked women and men - and I mean, completely naked; straight out of a porn magazine, along with blasting screamo music through the school's intercom system without anyone knowing it was him. How he did this, however, no one knew.
"Eh, I doubt it. Besides, I haven't seen him or his brother here so it should be fine." She shrugged and picked up the ladle and poured some punch in her cup.
I did the same and sipped from the small red cup. I smacked my lips to check for any unknown tastes. "Okay, it's fine so far. I don't feel like I'm going to pass out or anything." Cindy laughed.
We made our way over to the food tables. There were all sorts of goodies and treats lining the tables, including brownies, cupcakes, chicken, roasted turkey, baked potatoes, and Chinese food. From the delicious aromas beginning to enter my nose, I concluded that the food was fresh and fully cooked - at least I hoped so.
"Wow, Stony High went all out this year," Cindy noted, looking over all of the tables.
"Yeah, it was pretty pathetic last year."
At our school, there was a senior and junior prom. Last year, it was held at a dining hall that was way smaller than this and only had half as much food. There was barely enough punch to even supply for more than fifty people and the food was stale and old. Whoever had planned it must have had no social life and the worst taste buds in America.
"Well hello Alea," I heard a familiar voice say from behind us. We turned around and saw it was Bridget. Cindy's instant irritated expression was accompanied by a deep sigh.
"Hi Bridget," I said without any enthusiasm.
She looked me up and down. "Nice dress," she said with a smirk.
"Nice paint on your face," Cindy retorted with a mischievous grin. Bridget snapped her head at her and flared her nose.
"Oh, don't be so shallow Cindy," Bridget snarled.
Cindy gave a fake smile. "So where's your date?" I asked, partially interested in knowing the answer.
"Oh he's over there at our table - with Carson and Jason." My heart sank.
"I'd love to see him," Cindy announced sarcastically as she picked up two plates filled with food. She handed one to me. "Let's go." She held her plate in one hand and hooked my arm with the other. We walked back over to our table with Bridget at our heels.
"Hey guys." Cindy sat down in her seat and I sat down in mine.
"Hello," they all said in unison. I noticed Carson's eyes burning a whole into Bridget's body. I sat in my seat awkwardly, playing with the green beans and carrots that had somehow managed to look less appetising than they were when I first saw them. Bridget even had the power to take away my appetite, along with my happiness.
"So you're Bridget's date?" Cindy asked, referring to the guy that was sitting next to Jason.
"Yes, my name is Davion," he said smiling. His gentle smile spread across his lips and he nodded to each of us as we greeted him. I always wondered how Bridget was able to attract the nicest looking guys. With her horrible attitude, I was surprised she had any friends.
"Oh, okay cool. I'm Cindy and this is my boyfriend, Jason," Cindy said grabbing Jason's arm.
"We've met," Jason said nodding.
I sat there quietly, wondering if anyone noticed I had been silent ever since I sat down at the table. What was wrong with me? I'd never felt this much jealousy before, especially towards Bridget. She hadn't even done or said anything to Carson and I already wanted to yank her arm out of its socket.
"Alea, you look a little washed out. Feeling sick?" Bridget asked mockingly.
I held my head up and looked Bridget dead in her eyes. "I'd feel much better if you'd leave," the boldness in me said.
The table grew silent and Bridget stood there with her eyes full of hatred. I was expecting Carson to side with me, and tell Bridget to go jump off a cliff, but instead he remained quiet in his seat, staring at the blue table cloth.
"Carson, would you like to go dance with me?" Bridget stood in between us, blocking my view.
"Um, I don't know. I'm having a pretty good time here." He peeked around Bridget to look at me. I stared at him sadly, hoping he read my expression that said, Please don't go.
"Oh, come on. I'm sure Alea won't mind, right?" Bridget asked, turning around to glare down at me. My nose twitched as I gathered up the strength to look back up at her.
My eyes then wandered to meet Carson's. "Only if you want to," I murmured.
Everyone at the table exchanged uncomfortable glances and sipped from their cups simultaneously.
"Well-"
"Great! Come on, Carson!" Bridget shrieked as she pulled him away from me. I watched them walk away from us, with tears building in my eyes and my fists beginning to tremble.
Carson looked back me sheepishly as Bridget dragged him towards the dance floor. Feeling let down by him, I looked away and rubbed my eyes. Why couldn't he just stand up for himself and tell Bridget "no" like a normal person would? Couldn't he see that she was only trying to upset me by stealing my date from me?
"Are you okay, Ali?" Cindy asked once they were out of sight.
"Yeah, it's just a dance right?" I said, not fully believing my own words.
She tilted her head at me and rose one of her eyebrows. Jason and Davion both looked at each other and sighed. Davion whistled as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"Right?" I asked again, trying to convince myself of my own assumptions.