"Why can't we go eat before prom?" I complain, rolling over on Ally's bed and swinging her pillow around in the air.
"We don't want to bloat. I've worked too hard to fit into my dress," Ally replied, freeing a section of her hair from the iron, allowing it to bounce into a perfect curl.
"Why'd you pick such a small size then?" Vivian asks.
"It was the only size left."
"Pick another one then."
"No! It was the perfect dress," Ally argues.
Ally's dress took the longest to pick out. She dragged us all along with her for a month going to every single dress shop she knew. Since it would be her last prom, Ally wanted something eye-catching and sparkly. So, we went to boutique downtown and Ally saw a glittery, champagne colored mermaid dress. Not only was it pricey, but she couldn't even zip up the dress when she first tried it on. She bought it anyways and worked out vigorously for weeks.
Vivian and Olivia had trouble finding their dresses as well since they wanted to have matching couple's dresses this year. They could've just picked dresses with the same color, but Ally said it was too "easy" and "simple", so she convinced them to get similar styles in slight different but complementary colors instead. This made everything way harder, since most dresses come in only one color. Luckily, the boutique Ally went to had two light pink tulle dresses with floral lacing at the torso. Olivia went with the white lacing while Evelyn chose the pink one.
Vivian picked her dress before any of us. The moment we walked into the first store, a burgundy dress caught our eyes. It was simple, yet the bottom flared out and had a large slit on the side. Since Vivian looks best in red, it was an easy pick. She tried it on int he dressing room, and of course looked gorgeous in it. Vivian didn't even bother to try on any other dress and not even Ally, Evelyn, or Olivia tried to hand her other dresses like they usually do. There was a consensus it was the perfect dress for Vivian, so she bought it in less than 20 minutes from when we entered the store.
As usual, for my dress, all my friends picked out at least ten dresses each, shoving them into my arms to try. I got tired of always trying on a bunch of dresses, so I tried picking out a black, sleeved dress. Everyone immediately protested, especially Ally, who thought I looked like I was going to a funeral. I told them I didn't want anything too colorful, so they ransacked a bunch of stores until we found a gray dress. Ally worried I would end up with a boring dress, so she was pleased to see it was off the shoulder, with ruffled sleeves.
"Wendy, you should start getting ready," Olivia warns me. "We're leaving in thirty minutes."
"That's plenty of time to put on a dress," I shrug, rubbing my empty stomach.
"What about your hair?" Evelyn asks, carefully straightening Olivia's hair.
"Did you even wash it?" Vivian asks, examining my head. She drags her thumb near the roots of my hair and turns her nose. "Jeez, Wendy. It's so greasy."
"Oh, that's what I forgot to do this morning." I had been too busy watching animal shows with Wilbur and Charlotte again.
"Come here," Vivian sighs, grabbing the can of dry shampoo to spritz my hair. "Jeez, how am I supposed to fix this?"
"Just braid it," I suggest.
"Oh, yeah," Vivian smiles in relief, working my hair into a fishtail. "Since when did you braid your hair?"
"I don't really like it, but Vin-"
I pause and everyone goes quiet.
"Trying to impress Vincent huh?" Ally smirks.
"No!" I protest, fiddling with my thumbs.
"Fine, don't admit it. We already know you are."
"I still don't get why you guys broke up," Evelyn says.
"Why didn't you ask Logan to prom?" I ask Vivian, changing the subject. It works and Evelyn quickly turns her attention to Vivian.
"Yeah, I thought you guys would go together," she agrees. Olivia and Ally nod.
"Logan and I are just friends," Vivian denies.
"You guys are like the new Vincent and Wendy. It's annoying seeing two people who like each other but won't do anything about it," Ally sighs.
"Vincent and I weren't like that," I say defensively.
"Then why'd you guys break up?"
I realized we rounded back to the topic I was avoiding, so I flip it back onto Vivian.
"It's not too late, Vivian. Logan doesn't have a date," I inform her.
"No, I'm serious. We're just friends," Vivian insists, though her cheeks were already pink, and she hasn't even started her makeup yet.
It takes my friends longer than expected to get ready, and we become half an hour late. Luckily, the limo called and said they'll be an hour late, so we wouldn't be charged extra. Since we wanted to eat at our favorite diner, we decided the meetup place would be at its parking lot, so the limo could drop us all off there for dinner. Us girls would carpool there and the boys would carpool themselves, with the exception of Greg who said he'll drive himself to the diner.
We get to the parking lot and start filing out the car. The boys, including Greg, were already there and talking among themselves while waiting for us. Carson was busy joking around with Luke until he saw Ally emerge from her car, making his jaw nearly drop to the ground and roll onto the road.
"Like my dress?" Ally asks, showing him a flirtatious twirl.
"No," Carson breathless answers.
"What?" Ally scowls, folding her arm across her chest.
Carson approaches her and grabs her by the waist. He leans in to kiss her, but Ally pouts and dodges him, turning her cheek away.
"What I meant was that I don't like the dress as much as the girl wearing it," he smirks.
Ally grins, but she tries to pretend she was still pissed. Carson catches onto her act and cutely rubs his nose on her shoulder, pouting his lips.
"Where's the corsage?" Ally asks, no longer pretending. She excitedly looks around.
"Oh!" Carson claps his hands and Luke runs up like some butler with the corsage box sitting on a pillow he probably pulled off the couch in his living room. Nevertheless, Ally is amused and smugly smiles as Carson carefully ties the flower arrangement on her wrist.
Olivia and Evelyn go back into the car to take out the corsages they had hidden away to surprise each other. They giggle profusely as they tie the flowers on one another before puckering for a massive kiss. The rest of us singles watch awkwardly and are forced to endure the sight of the two lovey-dovey couples as well as taking pictures of them posing in front of the limo once it arrives.
Luke nudges Logan and passes him something from behind. Logan takes it, but whispers something back, shaking his head. Luke nudges him again, but Logan continues to argue. Giving up, Luke finally shoves Logan forward and shouts, "Hey, Vivian! Logan's got something for you!"
Vivian, who was busy snapping picture for Olivia and Evelyn, looks up in surprise. She nervously hands off the photographer position to Ally and slowly approaches Logan.
"Hey," she quietly greets him.
"Hey," he says back in the same tone. He stares at Vivian speechless for a bit, before coming back to his senses. "Oh, this is for you." He holds out the clear box with a red corsage inside.
Vivian takes it and her cheeks becomes as red as the flowers.
"Thanks." She takes the box and awkwardly stands with it, not knowing what she should do next.
"Tie it for her you idiot!" Luke whispers to Logan, though it's so loud everyone can hear it and they try to hide their chuckle.
Logan's hands are unsteady as he tries to tie the corsage for Vivian, but no one steps it to help. Instead, we exchange glances with each other, secretly rooting for him through telepathy.
Vivian had always been a direct person. Even when she liked Vincent, she always approached him. However, around Logan, she is bizarrely shy and awkward, unlike her usual confident and cool self. That made it even more amusing to see Vivian's face glow redder every time Logan's fingertips slightly brushed against her hand.
Last year, Vincent had gotten nervous and forgot to get me a corsage. To be honest, I didn't know much about the formalities in the first place, so I felt like I wasn't missing out on much anyways. However, it would've been nice to get one this year just to know the experience.
"Wendy," two voices call out. I turn to see Vincent and Greg holding a box in each of their hands. they exchange glances before turning back to look at me. I walk up to both of them, making sure to stand in the middle between the two.
"Hey, guys," I smile with closed lips.
They extend their hands out and open their mouths to speak, but seeing each other do so stops them.
"Are these for me?" I ask, seeing how none of them had spoken up yet.
"Yeah," they reply, overlapping each other again.
"Mind putting them on for me?" I hold out both arms, one for each of them. They look at me in surprise, but nonetheless tie their corsages on my wrists. On my left wrist is Greg's light blue corsage, and on the right is Vincent's cream-colored corsage.
"Wow, I've never seen someone with two corsages before," Luke says, poking his head over my shoulder. I see Luke holding another corsage with gray ribbons, which I assume Ally had instructed him to prepare for me just in case.
"Is that for me too?" I ask.
"It was supposed to be, but it's mine now," Luke jokes. "I'm not letting you have this too you corsage hog."
"Fine," I laugh. "I'll tie it for you."
Luke wasn't willing to let the joke die, so he holds out his wrist and I tie the corsage for him. He walks around, posing for the others to take picture of him, making sure to show off his corsage.
Finally, we get into the limo and begin the drive to the hotel where prom is held. The limo we rented had a karaoke system, so the entire ride was filled with awful singing.
This year's theme was "Starry Night". It wasn't that extravagant or unique of a theme, and the decoration consisted of mostly white Christmas lights dangling from the ceiling, various sized stars stuck on the walls and as table centerpieces, and a giant, crescent moon cut out for the pictures. It was still nice and much better than the Under the Sea themes last year that ended up with people tripping over piles of blue streamers on the floor.
We first take a group picture, which Luke made sure to show off his corsage in every snap, before stepping aside for Ally and Carson, Evelyn and Olivia, and even Vivian and Logan, who protested only a bit before embarrassingly giving into the groups' demands.
The school had set out a long table with some snacks such as cookies, bags of chips, pretzels, and candy. They have rows of glass, drinks dispensers instead of a punch bowl for sanitary reasons, as well as to prevent anyone from spiking, and some plastic cups off to the sides.
There isn't much to choose from, but I feel relieved to finally see food. I practically run to the table and snatched up a bag of chips, tearing it open, and shaking a bundle of the salty deliciousness into my mouth.
"Wendy, no!" Ally tries to rip the chips from me. "You're getting salt grease all over your dress!"
I stick my foot out to keep her a distance from me while still munching on my chips. She looks at me in shock, like I had suddenly turned into a rabid animal.
I sigh in relief after swallowing the chips, and pick up another bag. As I tear it open, Ally doesn't bother to stop me this time, giving up. With a victory smile, I proceed downing this bag as well.
"Fine, I'm going to go now."
I wave to Ally with one hand and continue shaking chips into my mouth with the other. Greg comes up to the table and pours water from the dispenser with sliced strawberries inside. He waits for me to chow down the bag and hands me the cup. I happily accept it, gulping down the refreshing drink.
"You're acting like someone starved you," he chuckled.
"That's because they did!" I complain. "They made me eat oatmeal for breakfast and a salad for lunch. I think my stomach ate its own lining because I didn't feed it." I frown, rubbing my stomach apologetically.
"Isn't that a normal meal?"
"WHO CAN SURVIVE OFF OF THAT?"
"People..."
"When are we getting dinner?"
"Wendy, we've only been here for five minutes," Greg says, checking the time on his phone.
"Really? Why does it feel like forever?" I mope, taking another bag of chips.
"Let's slow down a bit," Greg suggests, cautiously reaching for the bag of chips. He tugs it away, but I pinch onto the bag tightly. When he raises an eyebrow at me, I sigh in defeat and forfeit my chips.
"What am I supposed to do now," I whine, looking sadly at the hoard of chips begging for me to devour them.
"I don't know. Do what people usually do at prom."
"Like what? Dance?" I laugh, expecting Greg to do the same. Instead, he just stares at me. "Oh, you were being serious."
"Yeah. It's prom. Don't people go to these things to dance?"
"Not me. My friends forced me to."
"Then why'd you tell me to come along?"
"Because if I'm going down, you're going down with me," I evilly grin.
"Payback time," Greg flashes a sinister smiles before grabbing my arm and leading me to the dance floor. He pulls us into the middle of the crowd, preventing my escape.
"I'm not dancing," I say, trying to stand my ground.
"You don't have to dance. Just, I don't know, bounce around. Like this." Greg demonstrates by jumping up and down with his curly hair flopping all over. "See?"
"You look stupid, and you suck at dancing."
"I'm not dancing though. I'm bouncing," he corrects me, bouncing in a spin. "People can't say you suck at dancing if you're not dancing," he winks.
"Fine, but you still look stupid."
"Of course I do if I'm doing it alone." Greg looks expectantly at me, silently convincing me with his eyes.
"Fine," I sigh. I slip off my heels and dangle them from my hooked finger. Slowly, I begin to bounce slightly beside Greg. Before I knew it, we were jumping as high as we could in the air. We looked stupid, but it felt better being stupid together.
Once we were exhausted and out of breath, we return to the refreshment table to get some water. As we're gulping down our cup, the music changes to a slow song.
"Would it be too embarrassing to bounce to this one too?" I ask jokingly.
"Calm down you rebel," Greg jokes back. "Besides, I think's someone's waiting for you."
"Who?"
Greg motions his head in the direction behind me and I turn my head over my shoulder. Vincent is looking at us, but once he sees me glancing over, he diverts his eyes in a random direction.
"Do you think Vincent wants some water too?" I ask.
"No," Greg groan, face-palming. "I'm saying he probably wants to dance with you."
"Oh," I glance back at Vincent and then back at Greg. "But we should all hang out together."
"No, Wendy. I'm fine. Just go. I need to pee anyways," Greg says, walking off without waiting for me to reply or agree.
I awkwardly look at Vincent and see that he is looking at me as well. Nervously, I try to plan out what to do next. I end up grabbing a cup of water and walking up to Vincent with it. He sees me approaching and stands up straighter, his body facing me but his head turned to the side, staring at something on the ceiling. I look up, but there's just lights like everywhere else.
"Hey," I say.
"Hey," he says back.
"Um, I got you some water." I hold out the cup for him. "It had some strawberries in it. I don't really taste it though."
"Thanks," Vincent smiles, taking the cup from me. We stand there for a bit, both staring at the cup of water in Vincent's hand.
"Aren't you going to drink it?" I ask.
"Oh, right," Vincent slowly lifts up the cup for a sip. I watch intently as the water slowly slides down towards end of the cup, nearly touching Vincent's lip when he suddenly stops. "Are you going to stare at me like that while I'm drinking water?"
"I don't see why not."
"Okay then..." Vincent tries to ignore my stare, tilting his head slightly up as he gulps down the water. After he's done, we go back to standing silently, now staring at his empty cup. I get tired of standing around, so I take the cup and throw it in the trash. Taking a deep breath, I build up the courage to march back to Vincent and look him straight in the eye.
"Doyouwantodancewithme?" I rapidly ask.
"What?"
"Doyouwanttodancewithme?" I ask again, no slower this time.
"What?"
Frustrated, I grab's Vincent's wrist and pull him to the corner of the dance floor. Spinning around, I put one hand on his chest and the other on his back, making him stand straighter. Afterwards, I place his hands on my shoulders and place mine on the sides of his waist. Vincent is bewildered, but he slowly starts to follow my lead. We look like kindergartners trying to ballroom dance, holding each other at an arm's distance and roughly stepping around.
"You know, you swapped the hand positions," Vincent tells me. I realize why it felt so weird to be holding Vincent by the waist and him to be holding my shoulders. Still, it wasn't too bad since Vincent is taller than me, so it did feel slightly natural.
"I know. I like it this way," I say, too embarrassed to admit my mistake.
We dance around a little bit more without saying much.
"I'm sorry," Vincent suddenly blurts out.
"What? Why?" I ask, surprised by his random apology.
"That I forgot to get you a corsage last year."
"Oh, that. It's been a year. I'm over it."
"But I'm not," Vincent looks at me seriously. I feel bad for making light of it, as if that night didn't mean much to me.
"I didn't mean it that way, Vincent."
"I know. You just didn't want me to feel bad, but I still did. That's why I got you one this year. I didn't want to make you uncomfortable or anything, but I still wanted to make it up to you this year."
"I wasn't uncomfortable," I reassure Vincent. "To be honest, I really wanted one," I sheepishly smile.
"I wasn't sure what color dress you were wearing, so I got you one that matched the dress you wore last year."
"The one you bought me?"
"Yeah," Vincent smiles. "You looked pretty in it," he quietly says to himself. He realizes I heard and quickly adds, "Not that you're not pretty in this one. Actually, the moment you walked out in this dress I felt-"
Vincent's eyes land on mine and our faces turn red in unison.
"You look pretty dapper yourself," I say, trying to dissipate the awkwardness.
Suddenly, Vincent yanks me forward, pulling me into his chest and placing his hand on the back of my head. A cardboard star cut-out falls down behind me.
"I was waiting for the decorations to fall apart like last year," I laugh.
Even though there wasn't anymore falling decorations, and it probably wouldn't have hurt me anyways, Vincent kept me pressed against him. I try to step back, but Vincent held me firmly.
"Let's stay like this a bit longer... You owe me hugs for life anyways," he says.
My heart thumps against my chest.
I was pretending I was fine for a long time, but Vincent always manages to make me fall in love with him again and again. Then again, he could just breathe and I would fall for him every time.
"Wendy, you are not going to believe this-" Ally yells as she approaches us. However, she halts her steps and we quickly break free from each other. "Sorry, continue what you were doing," she smirks.
"No, Vincent was just helping me from getting hit with the falling decor," I explain, pointing to the cardboard star on the ground.
"Sure he was," Ally rolls her eyes. "Anyways, let's go eat. I just read the card for prom king and queen and Carson and I didn't win. Stupid Jenny and Derrick won, and they only started dating for prom. The thing's rigged I swear," Ally sighs.
"It's just a plastic crown anyways," Vincent shrugs.
"I know... but it's a pretty one," Ally pouts. "Ugh, never mind. Already over it," Ally stomps away, meaning she was definitely not over it.
We get into the limousine and sing some more terrible karaoke. After dinner at the diner, the boys and girls split up into our own car. It was already really late at night, so my friends and I had already planned to have a sleepover at Ally's house. However, Greg caught up to me as I was getting into the car.
"Wendy, I have something to tell you. Can we go somewhere for a bit?" he asks.
"Um, sure." I agree, turning back to tell my friends, "I'm going somewhere for a bit with Greg. I'll see you guys back at the house."
"Oh, okay," they say. They give each other glances, which means they're thinking something, but I don't know what.
I follow Greg into his car, and we drive around for a bit. He's not joking like he was earlier. Now, he was quiet and kept his eyes on the road. After a while, Greg starts to talk, but he keeps driving.
"I'm leaving tomorrow," he announces.
"What? Leaving? Where?"
"Back to California."
"What?"
I was shocked, but more importantly, a little upset and betrayed. Out of everyone else, I felt like I was Greg's closest friend, so I would assume he would tell me something this important sooner, not the day before.
"My agency says that I got a really high-budget movie offer. I can't pass it up or I might as well forget about a career in acting," he explains.
I was still unsatisfied.
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?"
"I didn't want it to be a big deal."
"But it is a big deal!"
He tightens his grip on the wheel.
"What about graduation?"
"I talked to the school. I still got my diploma. Just look in the glove compartment."
I flip the latch and the compartment opens. A ribbon-tied piece of paper rolls onto my lap. I don't bother to open it.
"It's not the same if you're not walking down the stage," I argue.
"It's a little too late to change my mind now."
"I know," I sigh. "You made the right choice anyways. An opportunity like that can't be passed up. I'm going to miss you though."
"I'm not the person you should be saying that to."
"What do you mean? You're leaving. Of course I'll miss you!"
"What about Vincent?"
I pause.
"What about him?"
"You know you're upset he's probably going to some far away college and so are you. You know how you feel about it, but you won't say anything..."
I pick up the diploma from my lap and place it back into the glove compartment before closing it shut.
"I'm going to say some stuff and I want you to just listen to me. It might be a lot of rambling, but just hear me out."
"Okay," I agree, a bit nervous.
Greg takes in a deep breath.
"I feel like if I don't say this, I'll probably regret it, so I'm just going to say it... I like you, Wendy."
I look at Greg, who switched back from his seriousness to a dorky smile.
"Don't give me that sorry look. I know you don't like me back. But to be honest, I liked you since elementary school and middle school. I guess after I saw you at the water park, I decided to enroll back in high school here. I did it even though I didn't know if you still lived here, but you did. I took a chance."
He takes another deep breath before continuing.
"I guess I was a little late though, because you already had a boyfriend. To be honest, I wanted to be a scumbag and snatch you away from him, but I knew you too well. I realized you were already in love with him. But it doesn't matter, because it was still worth it. You make high school worth it for me as a friend."
"Greg..." I sniffle, tears welling up in my eyes.
"Jeez, I barely got started and you're already crying. There's some tissues in the glove compartment too."
I reopen it and pull out a small pack of tissues, taking out one to wipe my eyes with.
"If anything, I'll really regret it if you let go of Vincent. Losing you to Vincent I can accept. But if any other guy steals your heart, it'll seriously hurt my ego" Greg chuckles. "I'm jealous of him, but even I have to admit I've never seen anyone adore and love another person as much as Vincent does. The poor guy's borderline obsessed with you."
The car stops and I look out the window to see Ally's house.
"I know you like to rationalize everything, but sometimes you just have to say and do whatever you feel, even when it seems idiotic."
I nod. My voice was too raspy from holding back tears to reply.
"You should go inside now," Greg says. I get out of the car, but I hold the door open.
"What time are you leaving tomorrow?" I manage to ask with a hoarse voice.
"Don't worry about it. And stop crying, jeez. I'm moving, not dying. Save those tears for my funeral," Greg jokes.
I slowly close the door and wait for Greg to pull away. Instead, he rolls down the window.
"Make sure you tell Vincent how you really feel, or you'll definitely regret it. Trust me. I can read your mind better than anyone else," he grins. "Also, don't invite me to your guys' wedding. I'm not a sore loser, but I have to keep my pride."
*****
I know I keep having to saying sorry for my late updates. School's becoming a bit hectic and it's hard to keep up. Also, my summer sport started, so I'm even busier now. I'll be even busier with the SAT and AP tests coming up. Luckily, there's two chapters left, and I'm hoping I finish before then, so I won't keep you guys waiting for the ending. Don't worry. Once summer starts, my updates should be more consistent. More information on that in the future, so stay tuned!