"Kane, don't stop by here again before the dance, okay?"
"Why?"
Pandora bit at her bottom as she looked away from Kane. "Well, um..." she forced her eyes back on him. "You're taking Alyssa to the dance, right?"
He took a step closer in between them. "Yeah?"
"Y-you can focus on her, plus I don't want that bad juju in my house," she quickly answered as she took an attempt of a casual step back.
"I can tell her I'll meet her at the dance," he easily compromised. "What else?"
Pandora's lips moved as she tried to compensate for the lost time she could've had to think due to Kane's quick answer.
"I doubt she would be okay with not taking pictures with her date for her last Winter Ball."
"That can also be done at school."
"I doubt she would be okay with that."
Another step forward. "Really?" Kane challenged and Pandora faltered as she gave him a look of suspicion.
"Yes?" she answered slowly. It was obvious and Kane's challenging only made her more nervous.
"Pandora..." Her name rolled off his tongue as he took a step towards her. Pandora took another step back. "Sweetheart." More steps from him only made her move back more. She was finally stopped by a wall behind her.
Pandora sucked in a breath as Kane put his hands on either side of her face. He took his time lowering his head down until his lips reached her ears. "Princess," he whispered.
She helplessly sighed and felt herself leaning into him. He barely backed up to meet her eyes. The tips of their noses were a hair width apart and their lips felt even closer.
"Kane..." she sighed. She absentmindedly raised her hand to hold his neck. 'What is this?' The question bounced around in her mind. One of Kane's hand moved from the side of her head and held her lower back. She squeezed the hand on his neck. "Kane," she whined this time as she squeezed her eyes shut.
"Yes, Princess?" his voice was rough now. He moved his lips to her cheek. "Why are we doing this?"
She paused with a shakey breath. "Doing what?"
"Why are we stopping ourselves from doing what we want?"
"Y-you know why..."
"No, I don't," he countered as he pushed her hips against his. She gasped. "We don't have to be like this. I don't want to be like this."
"Then what should we do?"
"We just have to-"
A phone ring loudly interrupted Kane. Pandora jumped back and lifted her hand from his neck. He roughly sighed against her skin. He let go of Pandora to grab his phone. He finally backed up as he answered it.
"Yeah, Alyssa?"
It was Pandora's turn to sigh, turning her body away as she crossed her arms over her chest.
"Yeah... Of course..." he glanced up at Pandora. "Yeah, my house at six is fine... I'll see you then."
Pandora fixed her mouth to a pout as she tapped her foot.
"You'll meet her at the dance, huh?" Pandora lowly grumbled as she walked towards her front door. She stopped and opened it for Kane. "You can go, Kane. I'll see you at the dance, okay?" she said as she kept her head down.
Kane stayed silent but she hear his sigh before he finally began walking. Before he left he gingerly held the side of Pandora's face.
"I'll see you," he told and finally left. Pandora could finally breathe again.
🌻
"Pandora?" Phoenix called out and Pandora snapped up straight. She hummed as an answer. "You done?"
She posed in her mirror, examining how her sparkling floor length emerald dress with a slit up her right thigh, looked on her. "Yes..." she slowly answered as she made sure her silver rhinestone gladiator styled heeled sandals went with her dress. Her dress was low cut so her silver rhinestone snake necklace compensated and her earrings matched the pendant. Her hair was curled and half up, half down. Her makeup was a regular beat and exaggerated eyeliner and dramatic lashes with a shimmering green applied under eye. "Yes," she answered firmly.
"Then let's go, our dates are waiting for us," Eve announced as she grabbed her clutch. She wore a white lace mini dress with ruffles along the shoulders and even down the cut in the front with pointed glittery gold three strapped heeled sandals that gave her a fairy effect. She was going with a boy she had been talking to and been hoping that him asking to be her date was a step toward something.
Laurel wore a plain black satin halter top floor length dress with a slit on her right thigh. She wore white three strapped heeled sandals. Her date was a personal friend of hers that she forced to go with her because he was so "adorable."
Phoenix, of course, had to go all out considering her date was Alex. She wore a satin black mini dress with an asymmetrical cut along her whole right thigh covered by a fringe made of silver rhinestone fringes. She wore red pointed toe pumps to complete the look.
A hand slapped against the door for three quick sessions.
"Come on, Disney princesses. We gotta get this moving," Liz pressured from behind the door before her footsteps could be heard retreating. Pandora scrunched her face with pouted lips at the door as if Liz could see.
Zac was waiting for her downstairs.
'Kane is probably with Alyssa,' Pandora silently mentioned as she started to walk downstairs.
"Eck," she audibly expressed at the thought then shook her head.
"You good?" Phoenix asked by her side as they stopping in the hallway.
"Yeah," she lowly answered before continuing all the way downstairs.
Her eyes immediately met Zac's and she was able to smile. His own eyes lit up as he watched her go down the stairs. Jay had to shove him ahead to motion his to meet her at the bottom of the stairs. He stumbled on his way eliciting a laugh from Pandora. He put his dazzling smile on his face as he held his hand up for Pandora to hold. Pandora raised a single eyebrow as she hesitantly placed hers in his waiting hand.
"You look so gorgeous," he whispered then softly placed his lips on the back of her hand. Her face heated up as she giggled.
She fought to snatch her hand out of his grip. "Stop, you're so embarrassing," she gushed as he walked her the rest of the way down the stairs and more into the living room. They walked back to the end of the line with the rest of the waiting dates.
Zac finally let go of her hand to wrap his arm around her waist and hugged her tighter. Jay cleared his throat and the pair looked up to meet a pointed stare. His eyes darted down to Zac's hand resting more on Pandora's lower back. It didn't take long for Liz to follow suit of her boyfriend. Pandora rolled her eyes as Zac slowly moved his hand respectively on her waist. He gave the couple an unsure smile. Liz nodded before the protective pair finally looked away.
"Ignore them," Pandora told as she tried to move Zac's hand back down.
"You didn't hear the chat your big bro gave me, Baby Girl," Zac argued as kept his hand in place.
'I wonder if Kane would act the same way,' Pandora couldn't stop herself from thinking. 'No, Pandora this is you and Zac now,' she argued at the thought. She laughed before hugging him tighter.
🌻
One thing the school, or more the school's student council, could do right was dances. The gym was beautifully designed to look like an ice wonderland. The music bumped throughout the gym as students were seen standing or dancing. Pandora and Zac has moved farther away from the speakers as a break.
"Oh shit, I forgot you and Kane went to the same school!" Zac exclaimed over the music causing Pandora to quickly look the direction he was looking at. He waved his hand above his head. "Yo, Kane!"
"Please don't call him over," Pandora begged as she tugged at his shirt.
"Oh yeah, you guys have your little beef," Zac commented as he finally put his arm down but it was too late.
"Zac!" Kane yelled before rushing over. Pandora groaned as she turned away from the impending scene. "Pandora didn't tell me she was bringing you as her date."
"Now why would I tell you that, Sport?" Pandora impatiently questioned as she crossed her arms over her chest.
"I would've find you to bother you sooner," he happily answered. "You know Zac is my man."
She gave him a tight lipped smile. "And everything in me wishes it wasn't like that." Zac laughed as he wrapped his arm around her waist.
"You're so mean, Sweetheart," he teased before planting a kiss on Pandora's forehead. Her heart dropped as she froze in his arms. Her eyes nervously dart to Kane and could see his genuine smile drop and be replaced.
Pandora panicked to find something to say. She forced a laugh as she lightly tapped his chest.
"S-shut up," she stammered as she looked away from Kane's hurt expression. "We're going to get a drink from the caf," she frantically announced before rushing away from the scene.
"Are you okay?" Zac asked by her side as they reached the hallway.
"You know I hate that nickname," she mumbled.
"Oh," Zac laughed. "I forgot you said you didn't like that one."
"Especially in front of Kane," she groaned as she covered her face with both of her hands. "It's so embarrassing," she forced more laughter.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he apologized with his same dazzling smirk that Pandora loved.
She could finally genuinely smile. "Yeah, yeah, just please don't do it again."
"I promise." He held a hand to his heart and held up his other hand.
She laughed as she rolled my eyes. She grabbed the hand he was holding up and held it. "You're embarrassing." She led them the rest of the way to the cafeteria. They reached to meet a decent amount of students inside both sitting or standing and some taking pictures while doing either. "The food is pretty eh, but we do have cold pizza and room temp Chic-Fil-A nuggets," she said as she made a mocking grand gesture towards the food table.
"I think I'll take the room temp Chic nuggets," Zac decided and she chuckled as she nodded and guided them the rest of the way to the table.
"Have you decided if you're gonna come with me to the diner?" she asked as began to pick up her food.
"And it's gonna be with your friends too?"
"Yeah."
Zac was standing behind Pandora as he wrapped his arm around her waist. "Can't we just hang out by ourselves?" Zac asked in a low whisper, lowering his mouth to her ears. "We haven't been alone together in a while." Pandora let herself sink in his arms as she bit her lip in poor attempt to hide her smile.
"I know, baby, but I already promised my friends." she absentmindedly rubbed his arm with her free hand. "But I don't have any plans tomorrow. We can do something together then, 'kay?" she promised with an arm part and walked out of his arms.
"Sounds good," he beamed as he joined her side again. She rolled her eyes at his quick change of behavior. She held his cheeks and kissed one side and then the other.
"You're so needy," she teased as she squeezed his face and pouted her own lips at him. Zac jumped up to give her a quick kiss.
"When it's you, I can't get enough of you," his voice was muffled as he gave her a dopey smile. She widely smiled back before kissing the tip of his nose. She let go of him and held his hand. "Are you okay? You never act like this," he questioned as he followed behind her.
"You want me to stop?"
"Of course not," he denied urgently. "Keep it up." Zac kissed the back of Pandora's hand. She laughed as she lightly patted his cheek.
In the corner of Pandora's eye, she could see girls dragging their dates back to the gym. She could hear the distant guitar playing of Best Part by Daniel Caesar. She gasped and grabbed Zac's wrist.
"Come on, they're playing Best Part," she gushed with an accompanying tug.
"But the food..."
"It'll still be here," she promised with a final pull and he finally followed behind her. "I've always wanted to dance with someone to the song."
The music was louder in the gym and it began to grow crowded as new couples including Pandora and Zac joined.
"Happy I'm the first then," Zac expressed over the music. Close to the center but not too much inside seemed good enough for Pandora to stop and dance.
"Lead the dance," she urged with a smile as she held her hands up. He smirked as he held her hand and placed her other hand on his shoulder before wrapping his other arm around her waist.
They started rocking back and forth and singing the lyrics to each other. They both had wide grins on their faces, especially as Zac was purposefully singing horribly. Pandora laughed cutting him off after he finished the chorus. She laid her head on his chest as he followed suit.
At one point they had stopped spinning in a slow circle and was just rocking back and forth. Pandora's eyes lazily scanned the gym as Zac began to normally sing the lyrics. She was about to give up until they stopped on no other couple but Kane and Alyssa.
She instinctively deeply inhaled as she saw how Kane's arm was wrapped around Alyssa waist, probably similar to how Zac was around her. Alyssa looked content in his arms as they slowly spun.
They spun until Pandora could see Kane's face. He looked bored as he looked around the gym. His suddenly stopped and stopped right on Pandora's. He perked up as he smiled. Pandora could feel her own smile widen.
She found herself starting to sing the lyrics again.
"You're my water when I'm stuck in the desert
You're the Tylenol I take when my head hurts," she happily sang.
"You're the sunshine on my life," Kane continued with a big grin.
"I just wanna see how beautiful you are
You know that I see it
I know you're a star
Where you go I'll follow
No matter how far," they continued to sing to each other. Suddenly Alyssa moved back to look at Kane pulling his attention from Pandora. Her smile slowly dropped as she sang the last part of the chorus.
"If life is a movie
Then you're the best part," she finished off by herself.
She looked back down to Kane's arm around Alyssa's waist. The scene made her heart sink as the best way she could explain it. She hated it.
She hated that Kane's arm was around Alyssa's waist.
She hated that Alyssa could kiss him boldly.
She hated that Alyssa could hug him so tight.
'I hate that I'm not Alyssa,' she mentally concluded.
Her own thoughts caught her and she froze.
"Oh shit."
🌻
Y'all sit tight now, I swear I have more coming soon. I wasn't sure how to insert the lyrics so you see that awkward mess. Please feel free to suggest how I should fix it. On another note, I say it all the time but I really can't even come up with any excuses for these long ass breaks anymore. I really do apologize 😔. But hope you guys enjoyed nonetheless.
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Temporary Riddance✨