Skylar, Vanessa and Elena's dresses ^ or -->
(unedited)
Oh, lights go down,
In the moment,
We're lost and found.
I just wanna be by your side,
If these wings could fly.
"Wings" –Birdy
"You look beautiful, Lena," Raine said. Then she frowned. "You haven't had dinner yet."
"It's fine, I can always eat when I get back and I'm not that hungry." I had snacked a fair amount while studying so I'd be fine. "Thank you, Raine."
She grinned. "Maybe you shouldn't thank me yet. Every moment we've spent getting you ready, Kaden's been interrogating Ashton."
I groaned. "He's probably so annoyed or scared right now that he won't even want to go to the dance with my anymore." I started towards the door, but before I could get very fair, Raine stopped me.
"Clutch," she told me.
"Right, thanks." I stopped, and grabbed the clutch she had brought, putting in my phone and wallet. I glanced up to see Raine grinning at me widely. "What?"
"Nothing." I gave her a doubtful look. "You're just acting like so much of a teenager, worrying about her date getting questioned too much..."
"Kaden can be terrifying," I muttered. "I wouldn't be surprised if Ashton ran out ten minutes ago. You know, if he did, then all of this," I gestured to the dress, and hair, and makeup. "Will have been a waste."
"No, if he ran out, which he wouldn't have, because he clearly likes you," Raine said. "Then you go with the other guy who asked you. Jacen, was it?"
He wants to kill me. Literally. I hadn't talked to Jacen since he had told me about that. Not that he had made it very difficult, it had been more like I hadn't had the chance to talk to him, though I probably wouldn't have even if I had had the chance to. He hadn't been at school the past two days.
"Come on, I want to head down in case Ashton hasn't ran yet and Kaden's starting to get really scary," I told Raine.
Her smile widened, which I hadn't think was possible.
"What?" I asked again.
"You really like him, don't you?" she said.
I blinked. "I- I don't know."
Raine simply smiled, not saying anything else as we made our way downstairs. Ashton -hey, he was still here- and Kaden were at the bottom of the stairs, heads bent together and looking deep in conversation when got there. Kaden was the first one to look up.
He frowned. "Why is that dress so short?" he asked. "I'm not letting you out of the house like that."
I gave him an incredulous look. The dress reached my ankles. Okay, only part of my dress did, since it was asymmetrical, but the short part wasn't that short.
He grinned. "Just kidding."
"You're not funny," I muttered.
"You look gorgeous," Ashton said softly.
"Thanks." Against my will, I felt a faint flush crawl up my cheeks. "You look handsome." And he did, even though all that had registered was surprise when he had first come into my bedroom. I glanced at him, he didn't look traumatized. Maybe Kaden had gone easy. "Your tie matches my dress."
Ashton chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, I wondered why Skylar dragged me to the mall yesterday, but it makes sense now."
Kaden cleared his throat.
I glanced at him. "So we'll be going now-"
"Not so fast," he said. "I have a couple questions to ask Ashton."
I stared at him. "What were you guys talking about before?"
"The case," He replied.
"And the World Cup," Ashton supplied.
I blinked. "You couldn't have asked before talking about that?"
"Of course not," Kaden said, giving me an almost offended look, though he looked a little too much like he was enjoying this to truly pull it off. "I wanted you to be here."
"Why?" I demanded. This wasn't how it was like in books and movies. Usually the girl was there by accident, not because her dad had waited for her to start asking the questions.
"So you would get embarrassed by hearing the questions and he would get embarrassed knowing you'll hear the answers." Kaden grinned. "It's like a double bonus!"
I stared at him. "You sound like Satan."
"Ouch." He didn't sound hurt at all.
"You do sound a little sadistic, darling," Raine said, though you could tell from the tone of her voice that she found this amusing.
He shrugged. "It is a basic right for a father to ask his daughter's boyfriend about his intentions."
I blinked. I wasn't sure what was more surprising, the fact that he had called Ashton my boyfriend or himself my father. Not that Kaden or Raine had ever made me feel like we weren't family or anything like that- we had just never really talked about it. I guess they hadn't felt like they should ask when I first came to them after the accident, and after that, well, we had simply never discussed it.
Kaden turned to Ashton. "What are your intentions with Elena?"
"To get to know her better," he answered.
Kaden raised an eyebrow. "And pursue her romantically?"
Ashton hesitated. "Yes."
"You should've said that," Kaden told him flatly.
I groaned. "Kaden." Ashton hadn't ran before, but that had been because Kaden hadn't started asking. He still could, and I wouldn't blame him.
Kaden ignored me. "Do you have any STIs?"
I gaped at him. "Please don't do this."
"No," Ashton said.
"Do you have proof of that?" Like a report? Who carries that around? It was such a ridiculous request that I wasn't sure whether or not Kaden was being serious. A glance at Ashton told me he was thinking the same thing.
"Okay, we're done here," I interrupted, before Kaden could ask something worse. I wasn't sure what could be worse, but knowing Kaden, he would probably find something. Or he already had something in mind. I grabbed Ashton's arm, pulling him towards the door.
"Have her back by midnight!" Kaden called. Thankfully, that was all he said.
I froze when I stepped out of the house. "Holy shit." I turned to stare at Ashton, eyebrow raised. "A limo?" I asked.
He rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah. Too much?"
"I'm sure there's gonna be people showing up in horse drawn carriages and helicopters," I said. "I was just surprised, that's all."
The driver upon seeing us, got out of the car and opened the back door, then closed it once we were inside and made his way back up to the front. "Sorry about Kaden," I told Ashton once we were on the road.
He shook his head. "I kind of expected it." He winced. "Not those exact questions, but I figured he would ask some."
"What were you and Kaden talking about with the case?" I asked, changing the subject.
Ashton shook his head. "No."
"No?" I repeated.
"I don't want to talk about the case, or my friends, or any of that tonight," he told me.
"But-"
And then he cut me off like he always did- by kissing me.
Ashton always took me by surprise when he kissed me but I had gotten fairly good at catching up. I probably should've pushed him away, I knew better than to continue this when I was going to move to LA -temporarily, but still- but I didn't want to.
Somehow I ended up halfway on his lap, my hands buried in his hair and his arms wrapped around my waist. I pulled away after a moment, needing to breathe, and untangled my hands from his hair. It wasn't styled and full of gel, thankfully, so I didn't get any of that gooey stuff on my hands.
"Sorry," he said, not really sounding sorry. He leaned back a little and glanced at me. "I just took off half of your lipstick, didn't I?"
I shrugged. "It's okay, but..."
"But?"
I laughed and lifted a hand, using my thumb to wipe off the faint pink smear on the corner of his mouth. "I think Relaxing Rose is really your colour."
A moment later, the car pulled to a stop. I glanced outside so see we were parked in front of La Dome, a large building known for holding lavish banquets and other big social events. There were very few people outside, though, and we were the only ones who had just pulled up.
I turned to Ashton. "When was the dance supposed to start?"
"Six-thirty, I think," he replied.
I glanced at the clock. It was a little past seven now. "Sorry about making you late."
He shrugged. "If you don't mind being late to your first high school dance, then I'm fine with it."
"Skylar told you?" I asked, groaning.
He grinned. "She may have mentioned it a couple... Dozen times," he said. The driver opened the door and Ashton slipped out, then held his hand out me. "Shall we?"
The dance was in the biggest ballroom, just across from the main entrance. From the lobby, I could hear the loud, top-40's music and DJ's voice. The room was dark, but there were enough flashing blue, silver and white lights for me to see that they had gone all out on the decorations. As expected, I guess, since it was a Blaire Academy dance.
Everything was blue, silver or white, fitting the winter scheme. Shimmering, gauzy curtains hung from the ceiling, dealing over to create a tent, like effect. Soft blue chairs and small white tables lined the massive room, as a place to rest. There was a table in the far corner that held snacks and drinks. Silver snowflakes and sparkles covered every inch of the room, making it look like a magical winter wonderland.
"Wow," I whispered.
Ashton chuckled. "Come on, let's go find the others."
It seemed like everyone from Blaire Academy was here, but the room was big enough that it wasn't crowded. We found the rest of the Elite at the edge of the dance floor.
Jacen glanced at me and raised an eyebrow. "So much for not coming, huh?"
Before I could respond, a flying mass of white fabric and red hair crashed into me. "You came!" Vanessa exclaimed, pulling me into a hug.
I nodded, untangling myself from her after a moment. "Did you think I wouldn't?"
"Yes," Skylar answered bluntly, walking up behind Vanessa with Nathan. No Keira, though. Was she still being held at the police station?
"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked pretending to be offended, even though I had been planning on not coming until Ashton shown up.
"You were in your pajamas studying half an hour ago," Ashton said.
I glared at him. "Traitor."
Vanessa gasped. "I trusted you!"
"Hey, I'm here now, aren't I? And you guys look gorgeous," I added, attempting to change the subject.
Skylar's dress was full length, like she had said. It was light blue, with a thin strap going up her right shoulder and a slit up to her mid thigh. It gathered a little between the strap and the slit, and there was a little beading in an even lighter blue.
Vanessa's dress was short and strapless, a little like mine. It stopped a couple inches above her knee, falling in soft , almost wispy layers. Tiny glittering jewels decorated the area around her chest.
Before either of them could respond, the fast song that had been playing ended and a slow, Ed Sheeran song came on. A cute, but nervous looking guy came up and asked Vanessa to dance, which she said yes to. Out of pity and kindness, or genuine interest, I wasn't sure.
Jacen turned to me, a wide smile on his face. Oh no, tell me he's not going to do what I think he is. I don't want to dance with him. "Elena, would you like-"
"Stop trying to steal my date!" Ashton cut him off with a glare.
Jacen raised an eyebrow. "I do believe it's Elena's decision."
And now I'm getting dragged into this. Sometime during the conversation, Nathan and Skylar had wandered off to dance, so it was just me, Ashton, Jacen and a couple curious onlookers left.
I glanced at Jacen. "Maybe next time." Or never.
"Ouch, Elle, rejected twice," he said, pretending to be offended. "And it hurts more that it's for Ashton."
Ashton rolled his eyes, pulling me away from Jacen and onto the dancefloor before Jacen could say another word.
I let out a quiet sigh of relief. Unfortunately, Ashton heard. "What happened with Jacen? Other than in the cafeteria the other day?" he asked.
"Nothing," I told him.
He clearly didn't believe me. "If he did something," he said, moving towards where Jacen was dancing with a girl in our year.
I stopped Ashton before he could take another step. The last thing I wanted was another fight at the formal. Jacen was clearly, for some unknown reason, trying to provoke something, so I didn't want to go playing into his hands as well. "It's fine, really," I said, looping my arms around his next.
Ashton gave me an uncertain look, but settles his hands on my waist. "If he's bothering, you can tell me, you know."
I raised an eyebrow. "I thought we agreed no talking about the case or your friends tonight."
"Jacen's not a friend," he grumbled scowling.
"I agree with you, I don't want to talk about any of that stuff tonight, okay?" I told him. I turned my head and leaned it against his shoulder, closing my eyes and letting Ashton do the guiding through all the other people slow dancing. Even in my heels I was still a bit shorter than him. It felt nice, even surrounded by all these people, and I could almost forget about everything going on- Los Angeles, the case, Jacen- everything.
So maybe Raine was right, maybe I do really like him.
It was weird, since I wasn't sure how it had ended up like this. And it wasn't always like this, just a couple days ago I had wanted to throw something at him for how secretive he was being. It really shouldn't have ended up like this, considering how it had started out.
The game.
It had started everything and I wasn't sure how it played a part in the end. I had been supposed to make Ashton fall in love with me to avoid getting killed, but I was supposedly going to get killed –by Jacen– for doing just that. How had something so twisted started?
"Hey," Ashton whispered in my ear. "What are you thinking about?"
I opened my eyes and glanced at him, but didn't move. "The game," I replied honestly.
He frowned. "You said you didn't want to think about things like that."
"I said I didn't want to talk about it," I pointed out, closing my eyes again. "Nothing about thinking about it."
"Hey," he repeated quietly. He slid a finger under my chin, tilting my head up so I wasn't hiding in the crook of his neck anymore. I was surprised to feel his lips brush over my closed eyelids. "It's your first dance. No heavy stuff, okay?"
I opened my eyes and laughed. "I swear you're determined to take off all of my makeup." Looking at him closely, though, it didn't look like any of the eye shadow had rubbed off, thankfully, it had just been a light brush.
"You look just as beautiful without it," he muttered. "And it looks like there's still some lipstick left..."
Before he could close the distance between us, though, the song changed and I found myself getting pulled away from him.
"Woah guys," Skylar said. "Don't get it on here."
"Cock blocked," Jacen sang under his breath.
"Come to the bathroom," Vanessa said, grabbing my arm and pulling my through the throng of people.
"Why do girls always go to the bathroom in groups?" I heard Nathan ask as we left. There were a couple other girls in the bathroom, but they quickly scurried out when we entered.
"You guys looked pretty cozy," Skylar remarked.
"Yeah, how serious is this thing?" Vanessa teased.
I shrugged.
"Is it official?" she asked.
I hesitated, then shook my head. "I don't think so." Unless there was some other way than asking... Or was it supposed to be assumed since we were going to the Formal together?
Skylar froze. "He hasn't asked?"
"Well Kaden called him my boyfriend and he didn't object, but other than that..." I trailed off.
She narrowed her eyes. "I'll meet you guys outside," she said, then walked out of the bathroom.
"Have you guys kissed yet?" Vanessa asked. She was leaning close to the mirror, brushing a finger lightly under her right eye, but she glanced at me when she asked the question, just in time to see the flush crawl up my cheeks.
It was annoying how I always ended up blushing against my will when someone asked me about that.
"You have!" she exclaimed. "Aww, Ashton finally found someone."
I wanted to ask her about the game at that moment, since she was one of the people who, at least as far as I knew, didn't know about the more sinister repercussions. I wanted to know why she thought it had started, but I wasn't sure if bringing it up would be suspicious, since I hadn't, and she hadn't, mentioned it in weeks. Before I could decided if I wanted to ask, Vanessa spoke again.
"Did you have lipstick on when you came?" she asked.
"Uh, sort of," I replied, a little caught off guard.
Her eyes widened. "What were you guys doing on the way here?"
"Nothing!" I exclaimed.
She giggled, giving me a teasing look. "Are you going to reapply?"
I shook my head, I hadn't brought lipstick, or any other kind of makeup with me. "No, I think I'll be fine."
She raised an eyebrow. "Because Ashton will just kiss it away?"
I glared at her. "You're terrible." But I could help but laugh. I glanced at myself in the mirror and stared for a moment. Here I was, at a dance with Ashton Sinclair, in a fancy dress, cheeks flushed and laughing with Vanessa Merrick.
Woah, weird.
It's not going to last.
"Elena?"
I turned away from the mirror. "Yeah?"
"You okay?" she asked.
I nodded. "Yeah, just got caught up in a thought."
"Fantasizing?" she teased.
I sighed. "You never stop."
When we left the bathroom and went back into the ballroom, another slow song was playing, one that I didn't recognize this time. Jacen approached us. "I think Nate's looking for you," he told Vanessa. She grinned and left to go search for him after a slightly teasing wave.
Traitor.
Jacen turned to me. "Wanna dance?"
I glanced past him quickly, wondering where Ashton was.
"He's dancing with Skylar," he said, correctly guessing my intent. "No one to save you now."
"You seem to enjoy playing villain," I remarked, reluctantly placing my arms around his neck he moved us away from the doors and onto the dance floor.
"Ouch, Elle, that hurts, right here." He took his hand off my waist to place it over the left side of his chest.
"You told me you want to kill me," I said flatly.
"Careful now," he chided, leaning in closer and dropping his voice. "We wouldn't want everyone to know our little secret."
I glared at him and debated walking away. The song was only at its first chorus, I wasn't sure I'd be able to survive another two or three minutes with him. Just as I was about to pull away, he started talking again, almost as if he had sensed it.
"And I never said I wanted to," he said. "For the record."
I raised an eyebrow. "So what, you're going to play victim now?"
Before he could answer, someone tapped him on the shoulder. We turned to see Nathan standing there, looking slightly apologetic. "Someone cut into Sky and Him, so Ash cut into me 'Ness and told me to cut into you two. So, may I cut in?"
I glanced over his shoulder to see Ashton and Vanessa sort of slow dancing, though they seemed to be more focused on talking quietly about something, since his head was bent to her ear and she looked like she was stretching up on her tip toes.
I glanced back when I felt Jacen released me. He looked amused, probably because I was mildly frustrated at not being able to receive an answer.
"Ash said you didn't want to dance with Jace, but if he had tried to cut in Jacen would have put up a fight," Nathan explained.
"Yeah, he probably would." Jacen had been strange lately, more so than usual with all his taunting. He kept trying to get Ashton riled up, to start a fight even though he got hurt in them just as much, if not more than Ashton.
"What happened with you and Jace?" Nathan asked.
Well, he wants to kill me. Actually, no, apparently the word want doesn't apply but he's still going to anyway.
"He implied that we'd have sex," I said instead. Not a lie, he had made a sexual innuendo in front of everyone the other day.
Nathan blinked and raised an eyebrow. "When was this?"
"You weren't there that day." I told him. I examined him closely. He looked fine, but something about his tone didn't sound quite right. He sounded a little absent, like he was thinking about something completely different. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied, giving me an easy smile that didn't seem very genuine.
"Really?" I asked doubtfully.
He sighed. "Worried about Keira."
"Are they still holding her?" I would've though the Winston's would have gotten her out by now with all their influence and money.
He nodded. "We've tried everything but with the video footage and her confession earlier, they say she's too strong of a suspect. And it's not helping that she won't explain anything."
"I'm sorry," I told him.
He shook his head. "I'm just mad because it was Detective Fallon who found the footage and I hired him."
"Well it's not like you wanted this," I tried to reassure him.
"I just wanted to find out who's hurting my friends." His voice cracked a little and he let out a frustrated sigh, then shook his head again. "Sorry, this is supposed to be a fun night."
"No, it's fine." I had told Ashton I didn't want to talk about any of this, but it had kind of gone out the window with Jacen and Nathan was clearly hurting. I could remember what Ashton had said, that Nathan finding out everything would hurt him.
The song drew to a close and the DJ's voice came on. "We've had a couple requests to keep it slow, so we're going to play another slow song before speeding things back up."
I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to see Ashton, standing behind me. "So I finally get you back," he remarked as Christina Perri's A Thousand Years came on.
I rolled my eyes. "It was one song."
"It felt like an eternity," he said seriously.
I shook my head. "You're full of cheesy lines tonight, aren't you?"
He grinned. "Just trying to give you the authentic high school experience."
"The one where the guy uses every pick up line he looked up on the internet to try and get into the girl's pants?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
He paused, then nodded slowly. "But that's not my end goal, promise." My eyebrow arched higher. "That would end in my getting slaughtered by a very renowned and well-respected lawyer. I'm not keen on dying," he explained matter-of-factly.
I couldn't help it- I laughed.
"But in all seriousness," he said. "I'm glad Jacen picked you."
I stared up at him. "What?"
"I'm sorry about how much this messed up your life," he continued. "But I'm not sorry I met you."
My breath caught. "Ashton..."
"And I know it's selfish-" he cut himself off and stopped for a moment. And where he started again was completely different from what I had expected. "Elena Evans, will you do me the honor of being my girlfriend?"
I'm moving to LA.
The words were on the tip of my tongue, and I wanted to tell him so badly, since it didn't feel right to keep a secret when he asked me this. "Ashton..."
But before I could finish the doors banged open and people in uniforms stormed in.
Police uniforms.
"Hampton Hills Police, everybody freeze!" They yelled.
The dancing stopped.
The music cut off.
Ashton stepped back as they made their way towards us, and in the dead silence of the entire ballroom, the clinking of hand cuffs rang out.
"Ashton Sinclair," one of them said. "You are under arrest for the murder of Olivia Tunclet."
-- ♡ --
Teaser: "They think you're involved, Elena."
QotC: If I got this book published would you buy it and read it? (be honest, please)