Things weren’t looking so bright for DaeRi the morning of Prom. She hadn’t talked to Payton in a week, after a particularly disastrous fight. So it looked like she wasn’t going to prom after all....
Her mom called her out for breakfast, for the tenth time but DaeRi was not moving. She couldn’t stop staring at the gorgeous royal blue dress with the bow on the front. The one Tamarai had found. She didn’t usually like choosing other people’s choice but this dress looked gorgeous on her, she couldn’t deny that. and now no one was gonna get to see her in it.
She wished she could call Payton, but since he was mute that wouldn’t work. But she could text him, she realised. Would it be rude to suddenly just pop up a text like “hey I know we’re fighting but we’re still going to prom right?” Payton might be a bit offended.
DaeRi sighed and looked away from her dress, it was starting to hurt too much. She picked up her phone hopeing to see a text from Payton, but there was nothing.
She resisted the urge to throw the phone across the room and instead set it down softly. But what she really wanted to do was throw it.
“DaeRi!” her mom called for the eleventh time.
“Fine!” she called back. She trudged out to the livingroom where AeGuk and her mom were already seated. She reluctantly sat down and served herself some rice and soup. Her mom was staring at her the whole time which kind of unnerved her.
“Are you okay?” her mom asked.
“Dandy,” DaeRi lied.
“It’s day of prom,” her mom said, “Are you excited?”
DaeRi glared at her, “Excited? I’m probably not even going.”
Her mom stared at her instead of actually asking her why, something her mom did often.
“Fine, if you must know,” DaeRi sighed, “Me and Payton had a fight, so we’re not talking.”
“That is sad,” her mom said, not actually looking sad.
“I guess,” DaeRi shrugged. “It’s not like it’s my only prom.”
Her mom nodded, “now eat.”
DaeRi took a big bite of her food, to please her mom then she got up and excused herself.
“You have more food,” her mom said.
“I’m not hungry,” DaeRi said.
“Breakfast is important,” her mom said.
DaeRi sighed, “I’m not hungry. I’ll eat when I’m hungry.”
And then she went back to her room to wallow in her self pity. She remember last year, when AeGuk went to prom. She couldn’t help but think that AeGuk was a whole lot different back then. Nowadays he got more moody by the second.
She didn’t know why she suddenly started thinking about AeGuk, probably because he had went to prom his junior year too.
DaeRi checked her phone again, this time there was a text. She grinned, she just knew it was Payton. He couldn’t stay mad at her forever.
She was disappointed to see that it was actually Tamarai asking her if she was coming over to get ready for Prom. She hadn’t told Harriette or Tamarai about her fighting with Payton, so of course they thought the day was gonna go just as planned. It was just way too depressing for DaeRi so she set down her phone without replying and returned to her earlier position staring at the dress she was now never gonna get to wear.
--
Purity spent breakfast staring at Payton, hoping he’d say something about Prom and whether or not he was going. He never did, just ate his food silently without looking at anyone. Even when Phillip asked if they were excited for prom.
Purity grinned and said, “more than excited!”
But Payton just sat there staring at his food, not even giving a reassuring smile or a sad no because wasn’t going.
Purity knew that Payton had not spoke with DaeRi since last week when they had a fight, Purity knew all about the fight because she was there when it happened. Not exactly in the same room, but in the next room over.
She had just been minding her own business when she heard DaeRi’s raised voice complaining about how he doesn’t care about her. Purity hated it when they fought, because Payton was always so defenseless. She hated to see people defenseless so she got up and was going to go defend him for whatever he did but before she could Daeri was storming out of the room, yelling about how she was glad he couldn’t talk because she didn’t want to hear what he had to say anyway. That’s when Purity pushed DaeRi. She hadn’t meant to, it was like a reflex.
DaeRi just stared at her, as if she couldn’t believe that Purity had just pushed her. Purity crossed her arms and stared right back. Eventually DaeRi just shook her head, and looked at Purity one more time before storming out. Purity looked back to see Payton standing outside of his room looking spectacularly forlorn.
“Are you okay?” Purity asked.
Payton shrugged.
“I have never met anyone I disliked more than that girl,” Purity said, shaking her head. “Please tell me you’re gonna break up with her.”
Payton shrugged and signed “she is probably gonna break up with me.”
“Don’t let her,” Purity said, “You deserve ten times better.”
And with that Purity left and went back in her room to fume for a few hours.
So Purity was hoping with all her heart that Payton had ditched her and was either going to prom without her or not going at all. He had never even planned to go before he started dating her.
So after breakfast Purity decided she should probably just ask him straight up.
“Hey, Payton,” She said before he left and shut himself into his room, which she knew he was gonna do because that was what he had beend oing the past week.
He stopped and looked at her, waiting to hear what she had to say.
“What’s the prom situation?” she asked.
Payton signed, “I already bought the tickets.:
Purity frowned, “You’re not taking DaeRi, are you? Please tell me you’re not.”
Payton shrugged and Purity knew that he was and that she probably couldn’t stop him.
Purity frowned, “whatever.”
She went up to her room and tried to forget about that and remember that she was going to prom tonight, with Daniel. Her night was gonna be perfect.
She smiled at the white dress hanging by her mirror, it wasn’t the dress she really wanted but her dad’s had refused to spend that much money on a dress she’ll only wear once. So they went shopping another day and picked out a white dress with blacked embroidery detailed on the side.
It might not be the perfect dress but it was still pretty close.
Just looking at the dress cheered her up so she was excited again and completely forgot about her brother taking the biggest snob to prom.
Ugh.
--
Payton checked his phone for, what felt like, the hundredth time that morning. he kept expecting at least a text from DaeRi apologizing. The Prom was important to her, he didn’t think she would let it go that easily. But nope, no texts.
Payton had decided that unless she apologizes he wasn’t taking her to prom, but if she did, even if it was just a lame text, he would. He felt like he owed her that. It was clear that their relationship was over. Payton was graduating soon and he wasn’t even sure that DaeRi had even liked him in the first place.
To be honest he felt like DaeRi owed him a an apology.
--
Tiffany watched as Dreams went through her clothes picking things out and asking her if they were “Prom acceptable”. Mostly Tiffany had been saying no.
Dreams sighed after tossing another black t-shirt onto her bed, “I have nothing dressy.”
“You’re right,” Tiffany said. “You need a dress, do you have any dresses?”
Dreams shrugged, “I have the dress I wore to homecoming a few years ago when dad forced me to go because he thought I wasn’t enjoying myself enough.”
Tiffany stared at her as if she couldn’t believe that Dreams would even consider that an option before letting out a long sigh and flopping back onto Dreams’ bed.
“Why did you have to wait until the day of prom to go through this?” she asked.
Dreams shrugged, “I didn’t think about it much.”
”Well, you should have,” Tiffany said. “Do you wear my size?”
“You know I don’t,” Dreams said, looking at her much smaller sister, “And even if I did I would never wear anything out of your closet.”
Tiffany glared at her then stood up, “Well, then there is only one more option. Last minute dress shopping. We’re lucky it’s a Saturday so we don’t have to go to school.”
“I am not buying a dress for Prom,” Dreams said, she had promised herself she wouldn’t stoop that low. But even as she said it, she knew she was gonna.
So if wasn’t a surprise when she found herself at the mall with Tiffany rushing her around complaining about how little time they had.
“Trust me it’s not gonna take too long,” Dreams said following Tiffany into a store that had prom dresses displayed in the window. Dreams grimaced at all the bright colors and sparkles. This was not a place where she belonged.
Tiffany started looking through dresses, leaving Dreams to herself. Dream went to the closest rack of dresses and slowly look through them.
That’s when she knew that she did not want a prom dress. She would wear a dress but not one of these.
“Tiffany,” Dreams said, finding Tiffany looking through some dresses and frowning at all of them.
“What?” Tiffany asked, looking up from her search.
“I’m not getting something from here,” Dreams said, “It’s just not me, let’s go somewhere else.”
Tiffany frowned, looking over the shop. “What’s wrong with here?”
Dreams laughed, “Do you see anything that I would ever wear?”
Tiffany shrugged, “Yeah, I guess not.”
“Good,” Dreams said, this time she led the way out of the store and through the mall and to “DARE” the store that Dreams found most of her clothes at.
And after searching for a only a minute she found a dress that was good enough, and that Tiffany begrudgedly approved of. It was a simple a-line strapless black dress.
Simple. Perfect.
---
Darian ended up asking some random Senior to Prom. Her name was Hailey and she was your basic pretty girl. Blond hair, blue eyes, average height. Pretty.
Sure she wasn’t Harriette but Darian didn’t care, he reminded himself that he hadn’t even thought about taking Harriette to prom until Bachelor suggested it.
Hailey was running for prom queen and basically the only reason she accepted Darian’s invitation was because it would secure her tons of votes.
Sure, Darian had always pictured going to prom with the most popular girl, who just happened to be his girlfriend but instead he was single and taking some random girl. But whatever.
Preston, after refusing a couple times, was taking Brittany Schmidt, an exchange student from Germany. And yeah, even though he wouldn’t admit it, he wished he was taking DaeRi. He knew that DaeRi was annoying, clingy and bossy but for some odd reason seeing her with Payton just angered him. He almost didn't even want to go to prom when he figured out Payton was taking DaeRi. But he noticed that they didn’t even look at each other the past week, so maybe that plan was cancelled.
--
After shopping Dreams went to her room and told Tiffany to leave her alone as she put together an outfit, so Tiffany went to her room to work with her own dress.
Pink, glittery and slightly tacky. Yep she got the dress that Dreams hated, but her mom loved it. And after a while so did Tiffany, it was a lot like her actually.
She just couldn’t wait to put it on, get her makeup and hair done, and just look and feel gorgeous. So she didn’t have a date to the dance? She didn’t care.
Suddenly Dreams called for her to come into her room. Tiffany jumped up and quickly went to Dreams room. She was excited to see what Dreams had put together.
“What do you think?” Dreams said. She was wearing the dress they bought that day with a spiked belt and bright purple tights with crosses all over them.
“Punky...” Tiffany said.
“Is that good or bad?” Dream asked.
“It’s okay,” Tiffany laughed, “You look good.”
“Thanks, “ Dreams said.
Tiffany smiled, “can you believe we’re going to Prom?”
Dreams shrugged, “yeah?”
“Dreams, we’re gonna graduate,” Tiffany said. “Leave high school, go to college. Get real lifes. Have to take care of ourselves. Oh, god I don’t think I'm ready for all the responsibility.”
Dreams laughed, “I thought you were staying with mom and dad?”
Tiffany laughed, “Oh yeah. I guess I won’t have that much responsibility.”
Dream shook her head, “go get in your dress. we have two hours until prom and you know mom is gonna want tons of pictures.”
Tiffany grinned, “got it!”
--
It was two hours until Prom and DaeRi still hadn’t heard from Payton. She had spent the whole day laying in her bed staring at her dress. She was starting to remind herself of AeGuk, who she knew spent most of his time either on the computer or just laying around.
Every time her phone beeped to let her know she had a text she jumped up, sure that it was Payton. But every time it wasn’t. It was either Tamarai or Harriette asking what was up and why wasn’t she replying? And every time she ignored them.
After a while someone knocked on her door and she called them in. It was AeGuk.
“Are y-you okay?” he asked.
“No,” DaeRi said.
He was silent for a while before saying, “L-lunch is ready.”
“I can’t eat anything,” DaeRi said.
“C-come on. You you didn’t eat a-any b-breakfast.” AeGuk said.
“So?” DaeRi said. “I don’t feel like eating.”
She heard AeGuk sigh and her door close. Even her own brother was tired of her.
Her phone beeped again and she almost didn’t look at it but she clung onto a little bit of hope and picked it up.
1 new message from Payton
She grinned. This was it. Payton was gonna apologize and they would make up and they’d go to prom and it would all be perfect.
prom is still on.
Good enough.
--
After waiting all day for DaeRi to text him and apologize Payton just gave in and texted her.
prom is still on.
Only four simple words that should get the point across. Even while texting Payton didn’t like talking much. Payton was also getting a tad bit fed up with Purity, who was spending a lot of time staring at him and asking questions. Finally he just told her that yeah he was taking DaeRi to the prom and she just had to deal with that. She stomped away upset.
Payton only felt bad for a second.
It’s not that he didn’t care what Purity thought, it’s just that he didn’t like how he acted like he was a baby who needed taking care of. She has treated him like that ever the since the accident. He just wanted to tell her that just because he couldn’t talk didn’t mean that he was helpless. He could take care of himself.
He figured he should probably start getting ready so he went upstairs to his room. He stood staring at his tuxedo he rented for while before he was interrupted by David coming into his room and asking if he needed any help.
“Phillip is with Purity,” David said, sitting on Payton’s bed.
Payton shrugged, “help for what?” he signed.
“Getting ready?” David asked.
Payton shrugged, again, “I think I am capable,” he signed
David nodded, “alright, call if you need anything.”
Payton raised an eyebrow and David winced realising what he said. Payton smiled to show he wasn’t mad.
“Alright,” David said, patting him on the shoulder before leaving him to himself.Payton didn’t even know if he should get ready yet, it shouldn’t take him that long should it? He also wondered if he should take another shower and, like, do his hair or something. He realised he kind of did need his dad’s help. He had no idea how you got ready for a dance. He had had only ever been to one dance and he hated it. He didn’t like the atmosphere. He couldn’t believe that he was actually going to prom.
He decided that showering sounded like a good idea so he took a quick shower then stared at himself in the mirror. He didn’t look at himself much, so he was usually surprised to see how he looked. He noticed that his hair was longer than he thought it was and mentally noted that he needed to get trim.
There was a knock at the bathroom door and David’s voice asked him if he needed anything. Payton opened his mouth to say something then stopped and frowned at himself in the mirror. He couldn’t even tell David to come in. He could practically feel the weight of his disability on his shoulders.
Finally David poked his head through the door, looking apologetic. Payton signed that he was fine and David left again. Payton quickly dried his hair and went back to his room, trying to ignore the panicky feeling he had felt back in the bathroom.
He put on his suit and realized he had no idea how to tie a bowtie. He needed David’s help. He wished he could just mentally call David to his room but instead he had to go and find him.
He found David in his and Phillip’s room. He and Phillip were talking about Payton and Purity and how they couldn’t believe they were so old already. Payton knocked on the door frame to let them know he was there.
“Payton, hey,” David said, smiling at him.
Payton gestured to his bowtie.
“Ah,” David said grinning. He leaped up, probably excited that Payton finally needed help with something. Payton stood still as David expertly tied the bowtie into a perfect bow.
“There you go,” David said stepping away.
“Thank you,” Payton signed.
“Anytime,” David said, patting him on the shoulder. “You look great.”
Payton shrugged.
“You do,” David said.
“Except...” Philip said, scrutinizing Payton. “You need to do something with your hair.”
Payton frowned and gestured to his hair as if asking what was wrong with it.
“Let me style it,” Phillip said, practically begging.
Payton shrugged, why not?
Phillip grinned and led Payton into the mast bathroom where the counter with lined with a bunch of hair products. Payton just let Phillip do whatever he wanted, he didn’t even pay attention really. He just sat there thinking about nothing really. It was kind of relaxing.
Afterwards Phillip revealed it as if he was on some kind of makeover show. Payton liked it though, his hair. You couldn’t tell that he needed a trim anymore. Though it did kind of look like Phillip’s hair, which was weird.
“Thank you,” Payton signed.
“Anytime,” Phillip said.
Payton then went off back to his room, even though there was nothing else to do. He realised he was kind of nervous. He wished he would have went to more dances, then maybe he would have been prepared for this.
Prom wasn’t just some dance, it was PROM.
--
DaeRi arrived at Harriette’s house with an hour to spare, and she couldn’t even imagine how they were gonna get her ready in time.
“Why have you ignored us all day!?” Harriette exclaimed when she saw DaeRi.
“Sorry,” DaeRi apologized, “I was having a crisis. I wasn’t even sure that I was going to prom, so I was too depressed.”
“So, are you going to prom?” Harriette asked.
“Yes!” DaeRi said, grinning, “Payton texted me telling me that everything was still a go!”
“Even though you haven’t talked at all?” Harriette asked.
“Yep,” DaeRi said. “Come on, I have an hour!”
“We better hurry then!” Tamarai said.
“Yeah, I guess we should,” Harriette said, “Come on.”
Harriette led the way up to her room and told DaeRi to sit at the vanity so she could do her makeup. DaeRi was in much too good of a mood to be irritated with Harriette taking control, so she obeyed and let Harriette do her makeup. She just did a subtle blue eye look, with a small cat eye, pink blush and light pink lip gloss. Nothing too fancy. And as much as DaeRi wanted to hate everything Harriette did, she had to admit she looked gorgeous.
“Okay, get the dress on,” Harriette said, “Then hair.”
DaeRi quickly got into her dress. She could feel her excitement grow when she got the dress on, it felt real. She was really going to prom. And she could not wait.
She sat back down at the vanity and Harriette started curling her hair, after putting heat protectant in it first, of course. Then she twisted it up into a bun, with some curls framing DaeRi’s face.
“Done,” Harriette said, “Come stand in front of the full length mirror, oh and get your shoes.”
DaeRi put her shoes on, simple blue mary jane style heels, and went over to the full length mirror.
She smiled at her reflection, she looked gorgeous. She knew that when Payton saw her, he would forget that they were even fighting. It was gonna be great.
--
“You look... pink,” Dreams said when Tiffany called her in to ask how she looked.
Tiffany laughed, “I love it!”
She twirled around. She couldn't stop smiling, she was just so ecstatic about everything. They were going to prom tonight, she had a totally pink and obnoxious dress, and in a few minute she and Dreams would be downstairs posing for a ton of pictures. It was just like in all the movies!
“Girls, come down and let us see how gorgeous you girls are!” their mom called from downstairs.
“Come on!” Tiffany said, skipping, or as close as she could get to skipping in her heels, out the door.
She stopped dramatically at the top of the steps, with Dreams laughing at her.
“I’m savoring the moment,” Tiffany said, “This is our only prom!”
“Whatever you say,” Dreams said, but she was smiling too.
Tiffany grabbed Dreams hand and said, “Let’s go down together.”
Dreams laughed and together they went down the stairs where their parents were waiting, their mom already taking pictures.
“You girls are beautiful,” their dad said.
“Thanks,” Tiffany said.
“Now pose!” their mom said.
Tiffany and Dreams laughed, but complied to their moms wishes and smiled for the camera. This went on until Dreams insisted that if she kept smiling her lips would fall off, so their mom reluctantly put down the camera.
“Are you guys ready?” their dad asked. He was going to drive them to prom, since neither of them had their own cars yet.
“Yes!” Tiffany said.
--
Purity twirled in her dress, showing it off to her dads and Payton.
“Beautiful,” Phillip said.
“Gorgeous,” David said.
Payton just kind of stared. Purity knew he was mad at her, or something, but she wished he would put his feelings aside right now.
“What do you think, Payton?” she asked.
He gave her a thumbs up, but still wasn’t smiling.
“Thanks,” Purity said, forcing a smile. She wouldn’t let Payton ruin this for her.
She jumped when she heard the doorbell ring. Daniel. She grinned and practically ran to the door. She opened the door, smiling big.
“Hey, gorgeous,” Daniel said, taking a step in.
“Come on in!” Purity said, “And thank you, you’re looking dashing yourself.”
Daniel wasn’t wearing your classic tux, no, he was just wearing a dark blue dress shirt, a bow tie, and black dress pants. He looked amazing, Purity thought.
“Hello,” her dads said.
“Hey, Mr... Pai?” Daniel said.
“Correct,” Phillip said, amused.
“Don’t worry we’re not gonna pester you,” David said, “We just want to take a few pictures.”
“That’s cool,” Daniel said.
Purity smiled at Daniel, she still couldn’t quite believe that he was actually her boyfriend. It was so unreal.
“But first, I got something for you,” Daniel said, handing Purity a black box.
Purity opened it, revealing a corsage made of black and white roses.
“It’s beautiful!” she said, grinning at Daniel.
“Like you,” Daniel said.
Purity felt herself blushing, Daniel was so sweet!
“Pictures!” David said, waving a camera around.
“Alright,” Daniel said, slipping the corsage onto Purity’s wrist. Then he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her close, smiling at the camera. But Purity couldn’t take her eyes off of Daniel.
“Look over here,” David said.
Purity blushed and look forward at the camera and smiled just as Daniel tickled her waist, causing her to laugh.
“That was perfect!” David said.
Daniel grinned down at Purity who was still laughing. She was really ticklish.
“Alright we need a picture of Payton and Purity,” Phillip said.
Payton looked up as his name was said.
“Yes, you,” Phillip said to Payton.
Payton mimed taking a picture and then looked at Phillip questionably.
“Yes, we’re gonna take a picture of you and Purity,” Phillip said.
Payton looked at Purity, then at Daniel. Then he sighed as he stood up and walked next to Purity, who had recovered from her laughing fit.
Daniel stepped aside as Payton stood beside Purity. Purity smiled into the camera, glancing at Payton to see that he wasn’t quite smiling.
“Smile, Payton!” David said, “and get closer, you guys look like strangers.”
Purity sighed and side stepped closer to Payton, “come on smile so I can leave.”
Then Payton just furrowed his brow and looked at Purity.
“Smile!” Phillip said.
Payton finally smiled, so Purity followed suit and smiled at the camera.
“Good,” David said, “Now you guys can go, don’t stay out too late!”
“I won’t” Purity said, taking Daniel’s hand.
“Bye,” Daniel said, before he and Purity left and went out to his car. No fancy limo for them, because Daniel thought that limos were tacky.
Daniel’s car was just a classic two door sedan that his dad helped him paint blue, not the natural car blue, a really bright blue. Purity thought it was charming.
Daniel opened the door for her. Such a gentlemen, she thought. He got in and started the car, pulling out slowly and carefully. Purity stared at him the whole time, still feeling the unreal feeling that she had overcome her since she opened the door for him. She just couldn't believe that this guy, Daniel, could like her. Like really like her. It was unbelievable.
Her heart jumped when she saw A.L. High. The parking lot was bustling, but not nearly as busy as it would be later since they were a little early. From the outside the school looked like it did everyday, but Purity knew inside was a gym decorated to look like a candyland and a bunch of people ready milling around waiting for the real fun to begin. It was gonna be great.
--
When Purity left, Payton figured he should probably go and pick up Daeri. He texted her to let her knew that he was coming, then he was off.
DaeRi lived on the “poor” part of town, a fact that she tried to to hide up until she desperately needed a ride home one day and gave in to telling Payton her address. And even then she tried to tell him to drop or off a block away, so he wouldn’t see her house. But he refused, driving her all the way up to her, admittedly, small house. Payton was offended to think that DaeRi thought he would care about something as shallow as what her house looked like.
DaeRi’s brother answered the door when he arrived.
“D-daeri i-iss not here here,” AeGuk said, looking at Payton weird.
Payton, of course, said nothing just looked at AeGuk confused, waiting for him to explain.
But it didn’t seem that AeGuk was offering any explanation.
Payton signed, “where is she?”
But AeGuk just made a face, “wh-what?”
Payton sighed, frustrated.
“D-daeRi is at at Ha-harriette’s,” AeGuk said, finally understanding what Payton wanted.
Payton nodded, then went back to his car and drove off again. He checked his phone, wondering why DaeRi hadn’t text him back to tell him she was Harriette’s.
Payton only knew vaguely where Harriette lived, he went there once for a party that DaeRi dragged him to. He just hoped he wouldn’t get lost.
Luckily he didn’t but it did take a while and it had already been thirty minutes since he left his house. Broad Meadows was too small for it to take thirty minutes to get anywhere.
Finally he knocked on Harriette’s door. After a few minutes, in which he rang the doorbell two more times, Harriette finally opened the door.
“Payton,” she said, “hi, come on in.”
As soon as he stepped in DaeRi came up to him and asked, “What took you so long?”
Payton frowned, he wanted to say the same back to her about them taking so long to answer the door but since she didn’t know sign language he literally couldn’t say anything.
“Whatever,” DaeRi said. “Did you get me a corsage?”
Payton shook his head, he hadn’t even thought about it.
DaeRi glared at him for almost a minute then let out a long breath, “let’s go.”
Payton was glad that they left quickly without anyone stopping them for pictures. He found himself counting down the minutes to the end of the night.
“Are you excited?” DaeRi asked as they got into the car.
Of course Payton couldn’t answer, so he just shrugged.
“Well, I am,” DaeRi said, “I’m going to prom.”
Payton just listened silently as she spent the rest of the car ride raving about how she was sure that the only moment that would better this would either be next year's prom or her wedding day.
“I mean, definitely my wedding day,” DaeRi said, “Do you ever think about your wedding?” she only paused for a second, she didn’t really expect Payton to answer, “I do, I think I want to have a completely white wedding with only touches of bright red.”
Payton was actually relieved when they pulled into the parking lot of A.L. High, DaeRi finally stopped talking and just stared at the building.
“Here we are,” DaeRi said.
Payton, of course, said nothing.
--
The parking lot was full of cars and people. Cars trying to find parking, limos dropping people off. People streaming into the school, people hanging outside, laughing and talking, and a couple of people posing for pictures.
Tiffany could practically feel prom in the air as she stepped out of her dads car. She quickly said goodbye to her dad, and agreed to be waiting outside at eleven.
Then she and Dreams heading towards the school. Once inside they walked with a crowd of people heading towards the gym, there wasn’t many good places to have a Prom in Broad Meadows, so it always just in the school gym.
At the door people took their tickets and they stepped inside. Tiffany stopped to get a good look around the place.
“Wow,” Dreams said, not out of amazement, more out of shock or disgust. The whole place was decorated ceiling to floor with pastel colors. And an absurd about of “cotton candy”.
“At least I match,” Tiffany joked. People started nudging their way through them, so Tiffany and Dreams stepped more into the gym. On the edge was tables set up for the dinner portion, for the few people who didn’t eat out beforehand, Tiffany and Dreams being a couple of those people.
Then the center of the gym was the “dance floor” where no one was dancing at the moment. Most people were hovering at the side, chatting, taking tables, and such. Tiffany noticed the picture taking corner, the backdrop was what looked like cotton candy. She heard Dreams laugh and ignored her. Sure the theme was tacky, but it was also kind of cute. She could see there were props too, like fake huge lollipops and candy tiaras.
“Come on, let’s go sit,” Dreams said.
“Alright,” Tiffany said, following Dreams to one of the closer tables.
“So, they really went all out with the candy land theme,” Dream said.
“Yeah,” Tiffany said, “It’s kind of cute.”
“It’s kind of... pink,” Dreams said.
“Oh, shut up,” Tiffany said, “Pink is cute!
Dreams shook her head and and started laughing, She pointed to the centerpiece on the table, what looked like a small vase covered in pink fluff full of those huge swirly lollipops and other candy things on a stick.
“It’s cute,” Tiffany said.
Dreams took a big breath, trying to gather herself.
“I don’t think I’m gonna last in this place,” she finally said after a minute of laughing.
Tiffany just rolled her eyes and watched the people coming into the gym. All the people preparing for what was supposed to be the best night of their life. People ready to make some lifelong memories. Just like her.
--
Before going to prom Daniel took Purity out to dinner at a fancy restaurant, a place that sold fancy foods like steak and lobster. Purity just ordered a salad because she didn’t want to feel bloated at prom. Daniel went all out with steak and lobster.
“Wow, this place is amazing,” Purity said after ordering their food.
“Yeah?” Daniel said, “My dad owns the place.”
“Really?” Purity said, shocked.
“Yeah,” Daniel said, “He opened it because he thought Broad Meadows needed an extremely too fancy place to eat. I’m surprised there aren’t much, since everyone here is crazy rich.”
“It’s nice,” Purity said, “My parents like homie places more than this stuff though, I think lots of people do. That why they move here.”
Daniel nodded, ”But everything at this place is so expensive only one person needs to eat here a month to keep it alive.”
“Oh, I hope it’s not too much,” Purity said.
“Don’t worry,” Daniel said, “We don’t have to pay, I am the owners son.”
Purity giggled, “well thank you.”
“Anything for you,” Daniel said.
And again Purity couldn’t quite believe this was happening.
After they ate and talked some more they went off to the school for the main event. Purity could hardly breath, she was in the car with her boyfriend on the way to prom. It was unbelievable.
Daniel led Purity to the gym, handing the person at the door their tickets, then led her inside. Purity looked around, think that she hardly recognized the gym. There was fake cotton candy everywhere.
“Wow, they sure did go all out with the pink fluff,” Purity said.
Daniel nodded.
“Would you like to dance?” Daniel asked after looking out at the dance floor for a minute.
Purity blushed, “of course.”
Daniel took her hand and led her to the dance floor, not many people were there yet but Daniel didn’t seem to care. Purity couldn’t help but think that Daniel was probably the most perfect boyfriend ever.
--
DaeRi took a deep breath, preparing herself for Prom, before stepping out of the car, ignoring the fact that Payton didn’t do the gentlemanly thing and open the door for her.
She and Payton made there way to the gym, gave the people there tickets and entered. DaeRi looked around, at all of her and Harriette’s hard work. If only Harriette was here to see her dreams come to life. Too bad, Daeri thought.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” DaeRi said, looking at Payton. She waited for him to nod, or at least show that he was indeed listening but he just stood there.
“Hmph,” she crossed her arms and led the way to the food table, just to look. She wasn’t hungry. It was just some punch and store bought cookies. Nothing actually good because you were either supposed to eat dinner at Prom or out before prom.
She thought having dinner at prom was the epitome of lame, if her date knew anything about proper date manner he would have taken her out first. But since he was late anyway, they missed the Prom’s dinner. DaeRi had ended up eating at Harriette’s house. She couldn’t figure out what was more lame, dinner at her house or dinner at prom?
The real dance music was started and people were migrating to the dance floor, DaeRi looked at where Payton should have been, waiting for him to ask her to dance, but he had disappeared.
“Ugh,” she said, looking around for him. Finally she found him standing near his sister and her date.
“What the heck,” she said walking up to Payton, “you don’t just disappear in you date like that.”
He just looked at her, then back at Purity who had noticed DaeRi and was giving her a look that said “get away please”, but DaeRi wasn’t going anywhere without Payton.
“Oh, hi Purity and Daniel,” DaeRi said, putting on what surely looked like fake smile, because it was.
“Hey,” Daniel said. Purity stayed silent, Daniel cast her a weird look.
“Payton, don’t you want to dance?” DaeRi asked, turning back to Payton.
Payton shook his head, and DaeRi heard Purity laugh. She cast a quick glare at Purity then turned back to Payton, “come on!”
Payton stood there, not even looking at DaeRi. Now DaeRi was really upset, and felt angry tears threatening to come out. She really didn’t want to cry in front of Purity. She couldn't imagine anything more embarrassing.
“Fine,” she said, stomping away. She wished then that Tamarai or Harriette was there, or at least someone who liked her.
That’s when Hailey, one of the top contenders for prom queen, came up to her.
“Hey, DaeRi,” she said. DaeRi tried to remember if she voted for her, but she couldn’t remember.
“Hey,” DaeRi said, putting on her Popular Smile.
“You enjoying Prom?” Hailey asked.
“Totally,” DaeRi lied.
“Where’s your date?” Hailey asked.
“Oh,” DaeRi said, resisting to urge to say “I could ask you the same question” and instead saying “getting me a drink.”
“That’s sweet,” Hailey said, “So is mine.”
“Oh, great,” DaeRi said.
“Speaking of which, here he comes,” Hailey said just as Darian walked up with two drinks in his hand. He handed one to Hailey and took a sip of his.
“Hey, DaeRi,” he said.
“Hi,” DaeRi said, throwing on her Popular Smile yet again. She remembered when Darian asked Harriette to Prom and got turned down and had to cover a laugh.
“What’s up?” he asked.
“Oh, not much, just enjoying Prom,” DaeRi said. “You?”
“Same,” Darian said.
“Let’s go dance,” Hailey said. At first DaeRi thought she meant her and Darian but then she realized, as Hailey handed her drink to Darian and grabbed DaeRi’s hand, that she meant her and DaeRi. Well at least she finally got to dance. And Hailey seemed to have forgot about DaeRi’s date “getting her a drink”.
Hailey led her to the center of the dance floor where a couple of other popular girls were dancing in a tight circle, but Hailey budged them in.
All the other girls screamed, and some of them pulled Hailey into a hug as if they hadn’t seen her in years. DaeRi smiled, this was the type of stuff she was used to.
Not moody boyfriends.
--
“You can’t just disappear on your date like that!”
Purity grimaced at that voice. DaeRi. She turned to see an angry looking DaeRi storming over to Payton, who Purity hadn’t even noticed was over here. Purity glared at her.
“Oh, hi Purity and Daniel,” DaeRi said, putting on a completely fake smile.
“Hey,” Daniel said. Purity wasn’t even gonna dignify her by replying. She could feel Daniel give her a strange look for being so rude, which made her feel bad for a second.
“Payton, don’t you want to dance?” DaeRi asked Payton in an overly sugary voice.
Payton shook his head, Purity grinned and didn’t even try to hide a laugh. Which caused DaeRi to glare at her before turning back to Payton and insisting, “come on!”
Purity was proud of Payton for just standing there, not letting DaeRi push him around. He wasn’t even looking at her! Purity smiled at DaeRi, who looked terribly upset now but all Purity could think was that she deserved it.
“Fine,” DaeRi finally said, stomping away.
Purity looked at Payton who looked exactly the way he had looked through the whole encounter, blank.
“You okay?” Purity asked.
Payton shrugged.
Purity wanted to tell him that he should have never taken DaeRi here, but figured he already knew that so she didn’t push the point. Instead she turned to Daniel who looked kind of worried.
“Is he okay?” he whispered to Purity.
“Yeah,” Purity said, “Obviously he’s just upset because he brought the devil to prom.”
Daniel laughed, “You really don’t like DaeRi, huh?”
“She’s terrible!” Purity said, not caring if her brother could hear her anymore, “you should see the way she acts around Payton. What you just saw was only a fraction of it. She was probably toning it down because you were here.”
Daniel frowned, “why did he take her to prom then?”
Purity shrugged, “I honestly don’t know.”
--
Somehow Tiffany convinced Dream to dance with her, so there they were on the outskirts of the dance floor. Dream found the dance floor interesting, it seemed the closer to the center you got the more popular you were. Currently she could hear screams from the center and was glad she was not popular.
Even though Dreams hated the way it sounded, she didn’t really like any of the songs that the DJ was playing. It was just a bunch of top 40 stuff. Dreams wasn't exactly a music snob, she just preferred punk music to pop. So she wasn’t that into dancing right then.
But Tiffany was having a blast so Dreams stood there kind of swaying. Finally Tiffany looked tired so Dreams suggested they take a break.
Just as they sat down someone tapped the microphone on the stage. Dreams looked over to see one of the people who was on prom committee with her.
“Hello everyone!” she said, “I hope you guys are having a blast!”
The gym erupted in cheers, Tiffany being one of them. Dreams just laughed.
“Alright!” the girl said, “I’m sure you guys know what I’m here for?”
The gym then erupted in people chanting “Prom Court!”
“Yes!” the girl said, “I’m here to crown our king and queen, that you guys have chosen! Who will it be?”
More cheers.
“Alright, let’s go. Let’s start with king,” the girl said, taking out an envelope, “Preston Bass!!!”
--
“Preston Bass!!!”
“What the heck,” Darian said. He hadn’t meant to say it aloud and Hailey was giving him a weird look but what the heck. Preston? No way. Darian had it in the bag. Everyone had said it to him for the past week or so, “Darian there is no chance you won’t get it”, and “It’s in the back, man, in the bag”.
But this was not in the bag. The room had filled with cheers as Preston slowly walked onto the stage, looking confused. Well at least Darian can see that Preston hadn’t secretly campaigned behind his back.
Still Darian felt resentful towards Preston as he accepted the crown that was supposed to be Darian’s.
“Alright,” the girl said, “Let’s get to the queen... Drum roll please.”
The gym was filled with people trying to make drum sounds.
“Hailey Smith!” the girl said.
Hailey squeaked, “for real?”
Darian smiled at her, even though he should be up there with her, and pushed her lightly towards the stage.
People kept stopping her to give her a hug along the way and Darian just wanted this stupid ceremony to end.
Finally she was on stage, got her crown and smiled at the crowd, taking the microphone along the way.
“Thank you everyone for voting for me,” she said, “You don’t even understand how much this means to me.”
Everyone cheered.
Except Darian who was too busy feeling bitter to cheer, even for his own Prom date. He should be up there. With his prom date.
The crowd cleared the space on the dance floor for the king and queen dance. Preston was looking around, as if trying to find a way out. But Darian wasn’t gonna help him, he wasn’t feeling particularly charitable towards him at that point.
But Hailey took his hand and led the way to the dance floor, she said something to him that Darian couldn’t hear. Preston shrugged, the music started, and Hailey pulled him close. Darian decided that he couldn't stay any longer so he just left.
Once out in the halls he wonder absent mindly down the halls, the music fading lower and lower as he got farther away from the gym. The one thing that kept going through his mind was; how could he, Darian Bran the most popular guy in school, not get prom king. What happened, why didn’t people vote for him. Preston was campaigning for him. So how did Preston win instead?
Somehow Darian found himself outside. He looked around and considered bailing. Just leaving without telling anyone, but maybe that would make him look like a sore loser. Not that it matter now. He was graduating next week, and the opinions of all these people won’t even matter anymore.
Suddenly Preston was beside him.
“Hey, man, sorry about what happened back there,” Preston said, “I’m just as confused as you are.”
Darian shrugged, “whatever.”
“You coming back inside?” Preston asked, “Hailey’s looking for you.”
Even though Darian didn’t want to go back inside, he knew it was probably the right thing to do so he nodded and followed Preston back through the halls and to the gym.
Hailey found him straight away, “Where’d you go?”
“Needed some air,” Darian said.
“I’m so sorry you didn’t win prom king,” Hailey said, “I voted for you.”
“Thanks,” Darian said.
“Do you want to dance?” Hailey asked.
Darian shrugged, “why not.”
So they went to dance and Darian wondered, again, what went wrong.
--
Preston was shocked to hear his name. This wasn’t suppose to happen, they should be saying Darian’s name.
The next few minutes went by in a blur, Preston went up and got crowned then he stood for a while as they announce Hailey as Prom Queen. At least that went as planned. Then he realised, as the crowd cleared out a space on the dance floor, that he was supposed to dance with Hailey.
He looked around for Darian, who could probably get him out of it but couldn’t find him in the crowd.
“Come on, it’s just one dance,” Hailey said, tugging him to the dance floor. Preston looked around for Darian again, this time finding him weaving through the crowd and towards the door. That’s not good. Darian’s probably really mad.
Preston danced with Hailey like he was supposed to but split the second the song finished. Hailey followed him, asking if he knew where Darian was.
Preston shrugged, even though he did, and continued out to the halls. He found Darian outside, like he expected to.
“Hey, man, sorry about what happened back there,” Preston said, “I’m just as confused as you are.”
Darian shrugged, “whatever.”
“You coming back inside?” Preston asked, hoping he’d say yes, because if he did then he wasn’t that upset, “Hailey’s looking for you.”
Darian hesitated, then nodded. Preston let out of a sigh of relief and led the way back in. Hailey was obviously waiting by the door because she went straight up to Darian and corralled him to the dance floor after the obvious sympathetic words.
Preston looked around, wondering what to do next. He lost his date a while back, which was fine by him.
Then he saw her for the first time that night, DaeRi. She was here, which meant she was still with that Payton guy. But Preston didn’t see him anywhere so he walked up to her.
“Oh, hi, Preston,” DaeRi said, not really looking at him, instead she was looking around as if she was looking for someone.
“Hey,” he said.
“So, prom king?” DaeRi said finally looking at him, but only vaguely.
“Yeah, that was not supposed to happen,” Preston said.
“Oh?” DaeRi said, this time really looking at him, with interest.
“Darian was supposed to win, I actually campaigned for him,” Preston explained.
DaeRi smiled, “well I think you deserve it more.”
Preston shrugged, looking away. He could feel himself blushing and thought; how embarrassing is that?
“Aren’t you gonna say ‘thanks’?” DaeRi asked. And then Preston remember why he broke up with her.
“Thanks I guess,” Preston said.
“Hey, are you gonna ask me to dance?” DaeRi asked, “I haven’t danced all night.”
Preston almost laughed, he couldn’t believe she just asked him to ask her to dance. It was almost endearing how blunt she was.
“Oh, uhm, sure. You want to dance?” Preston asked.
“Of course,” DaeRi said, grinning.
After only, like, ten seconds of dancing DaeRi asked, “Why’d you break up with me?”
This time Preston couldn’t help himself, he laughed.
“Because you’re controlling,” Preston said. He wasn’t gonna lie or sugar coat it, he thought DaeRi could handle the truth.
“Oh,” DaeRi said.
They were silent for a minute, not really dancing anymore.
“I think I’m gonna go find Payton,” DaeRi said so quietly he almost couldn’t hear her. For a moment Preston worried he hurt her feelings. But he shrugged it off as he watched her walked away, he just told her the truth.
--
Payton sat outside on the steps. He had escaped not long after he heard Purity talking telling Daniel about what a “terrible” person DaeRi was. Sure DaeRi did some things that were considered mean, but Payton admired her drive. How she didn’t let anyone walk all over her. Payton just thought she was passionate.
He had been out there for, what must have been, at least an hour when he heard footsteps behind him. Her turned to see DaeRi coming down the steps.
“There you are,” DaeRi said, sounding subdued. She sat next to him and just stayed silent, which was a first for her. After a while she reached into her purse and pulling out a little notepad. Payton watched curiously as she wrote something down then handed it to him.
“do you think i’m controlling?”
Payton looked back at her, but she was looking away from him.
He wrote; “controlling? no. passionate? yes.” Then he passed it back to her. She read it, then looked at Payton and smiled. She wrote something on the notepad then passed it back to Payton.
“thanks, that’s what i think too.”
Payton didn’t know what else to say so he didn’t write anything. DaeRi was staring at him though, waiting for him to write something.
He shrugged and wrote; “what do you want me to say?” And passed it back to her.
DaeRi read it then looked at him and shrugged. She put the notepad back in her purse and stood up.
“Can you take me home?” she asked, breaking the silence.
Payton shrugged to say sure.
“Thanks,” DaeRi said.
Payton followed DaeRi to his car.
“Thanks for taking me,” DaeRi said once they were on there way to DaeRi’s house. “Even if it was a disaster.”
Payton looked back at the night and wondered if it was a disaster. He tried to think if at least one enjoyable thing happened and couldn’t think of one. He had spent most of the time outside. But he didn’t think it was a disaster.
--
Controlling. As soon as Preston said it it was all DaeRi could hear over and over again. It’s not like she cared, she had been called much worse things before, but to hear someone would break up with her for being controlling. Maybe it was the whole terrible night coming down on her, the realisation that this was stupid.
When Preston was announced as Prom King, the first thought DaeRi had was she wished that she was here with him instead. Then he came up to her and she thought why not just pretend she was, she hadn’t seen his date around.
And then the whole thing fell apart.
On her way to the front of the school DaeRi thought over her entire relationship with Preston. was she really that controlling? She remembered one conversation they had after school once.
“So what’s our plans?” he had asked, teasingly.
“We’re going out to get some coffee, then I was think we could hang out at the park,” DaeRi had said, not realising that he had only asked to poke fun at the way she planned everything out. But she had planned it out, today was coffee then the park and tomorrow they were gonna go over to his house, then after that was saturday and they were going out for dinner and a movie.
After she spoke he gave her a weird look, then sighed.
“I had plans with Darian,” Preston said, “we can hang out tomorrow.”
“But today’s coffee,” DaeRi said, “You hang out with you friends on Fridays.”
“You scheduled when I hung out with my friends?” Preston asked incredulous.
DaeRi stopped herself from thinking about that memory. She had been controlling. She wondered if Payton felt the same.
She felt a considerable amount better after Payton called her Passionate. She vowed that that would be her new mantra. Passionate.
That’s what she was.
--
Purity finally found some time to hang out with her newspaper friends while Daniel was talking to his friends.
“Daniel is looking extra delicious tonight,” Amanda said, “You’re lucky.”
Purity laughed, “I am aren’t I?”
“Hmph,” Jessica said, crossing her arms. “Where is Peter?”
Peter was Jessica’s date and he had disappeared only five minutes after they arrived, Jessica hadn’t seen him since.
“Yeah? At least you have a date,” Amanda said.
Jessica sighed, then uncrossed her arms, just to cross them again a second later, “this is depressing.”
“Guys, cheer up!” Purity said, “It’s prom night and you’re moping?”
Amanda and Jessica nodded.
Purity sighed and looked out to the dance floor, “come on, let’s dance.”
“We already danced,” Jessica said, checking her phone, “another hour then we can leave.”
“Well you haven’t danced with me,” Purity said, “And are you counting down the hours?”
“Yeah,” Amanda said.
“Let’s dance,” Jessica said after a while, “there’s nothing better to do.”
Purity smiled, “come on!”
On the way they ran into Hailey, the prom queen.
“You guys going to dance?” Hailey asked.
“Yep,” Purity said.
“Great, come with me,” Hailey said. She led the way through the crowd of dancing people to the center where the popular people were.
Jessica and Amanda exchanged glances then shrugged. It wasn't long till they were all enjoying themselves dancing the night away.
“Alright, now I’m having fun,” Jessica said to Purity.
“We’re dancing with Populars!” Amanda laughed.
Purity grinned. Prom had been everything she imagined so far. Daniel was the perfect date, and now she was dancing with her friends and the Populars in the center of the dance floor. Purity just wished she would have started living her life this way years ago. Then maybe she would have been a Popular too.
--
When his dads asked how his night went Payton just shrugged. Payton pretended to not notice the worried looks they were giving him as he went straight up to his room.
The drive to DaeRi’s house had been uneventful. Fortunately, because Payton was feeling exhausted. He hadn’t even done anything all night and yet he felt like he had jogged around the world.
Looking in the mirror Payton was shocked for minute, he had forgotten that Phillip had done his hair. That felt like a million hours ago. He ran a brush through his hair, causing it to hang down like it usually did. He already felt a bit better.
He changed out of his tuxedo and climbed into bed. He thought it would be easier to sleep but it wasn’t.
He sat there staring at the ceiling wondering what it would be like if he never got into the accident. If he could still talk.
Would it be different? Would he have had fun at Prom? Maybe he and Purity wouldn't have grown apart like they did. Maybe he would have never dated DaeRi.
He didn’t know if that last part would be good.
He heard Purity arriving, sounding excited as she talked to their dads. Payton thought about maybe going down there and listening to her stories about the night. But he stayed put, did it matter if he went down there or not?
He was tired of thinking.
He wished he was tired.
He heard Purity come up the stairs and pass his room. Again he contemplated going over to her room and talking. But he couldn’t really talk, all he could do was listen.
Right then he didn’t care about what he had gained from the accident, all he wanted was to go back in time and somehow stop it from happening. So he could get up and go talked into the night like he used to do with Purity.
--
Dreams sat watching Tiffany dance with some guy that had just ask to dance. Dreams was oddly happy for her. She was happy because Tiffany was having fun and so was she. So she wasn’t dancing with some guy, but just sitting on the side lines people watching was fine for her. More than fine.
So far Prom had been exceptionally better than she had imagined it to be. She wasn't standing around awkwardly while a bunch of popular people made fun of her. She didn’t know why she had thought that that would happen.
One of the girls from Prom Committee sat in the chair across from her.
“Hi,” she said. Her name was Chelsea and mostly Dreams remembered her for her childish voice and bright blue eyes.
“Hey,” Dreams said.
“Are you having fun?” Chelsea asked.
“Sure,” Dreams said, “More than I thought I would, even with the puke worthy decorations.”
Chelsea laughed and Dreams noted that she also had such a little girl laugh. It was amazing.
“The decorations are pretty adorable, aren’t they?” Chelsea said.
“If cotton candy is your thing,” Dreams said. “Personally I hate it. Once when I was little girl I threw a whole bag of it out the window.”
Chelsea laughed again, “really?”
“Totally,” Dreams said. “After that I could never have my window open.”
“Can you now?” Chelsea asked.
“Yeah, they learned to trust me,” Dreams said.
Chelsea smiled, “Would you perhaps want to dance?”
“Me?” Dreams said, shocked.
“Of course,” Chelsea said, sounding a little nervous which made her childlike voice even cuter.
“Sure,” Dreams said.
“Great,” Chelsea said.
So they danced and it was fun. Tiffany joined them later and they danced some more. They danced until Dreams was way too tired to dance anymore and people had started to leave. It seemed Prom was almost over.
“We need to get our picture taken,” Tiffany said.
“Oh,” Dreams said. If this had been two months ago Dreams would have said “heck no” but she was more accepting now so she followed her easily excited sister to the corner where the picture taking was happening. Everyone seem to have the same idea at the same time so the line was getting long, thankfully they got there fast enough so they weren't in the complete back.
When it was their turn Tiffany grabbed a one of the fake lollipops and turned to Dreams, “This reminds me of Girls Generation’s music video for Kissing You.”
Dreams laughed. She picked up the candy crown and put it on her head.
Tiffany laughed, “that’s the spirit.”
“Alright, pose,” the photographer said.
Tiffany did a peace sign and puffed out her cheeks, like a K-Pop idol. Dreams decided to imitate her and did the same. After the flash went off Tiffany burst out laughing.
“You copied me,” she said.
“I did,” Dreams said, putting the crown back into the box of props.
“Alright, here you go,” the photographer said, handing them a polaroids picture.
Tiffany took it and looked at it. “We’re super kawaii.”
“Oh man, I thought you were through that stage,” Dreams laughed.
“Never,” Tiffany laughed with her.
It seemed everyone else was leaving so Tiffany and Dreams followed the crowd through the doors.
“It’s weird to think that tomorrow we’ll wake up and it will go back to normal,” Tiffany said.
“Normal?” Dreams said, “Not really. We’re graduating in a week. We’ll be grown ups.”
“Yeah, but tomorrow it will feel exactly the same way it felt yesterday,” Tiffany said, “But without the hint of excitement for prom.”
Dreams shrugged, “Prom comes and goes. Everything comes and goes. It’s life.”
“That’s so philosophical,” Tiffany laughed. Once outside they saw their dad waiting in his car.
“The night is over,” Tiffany said, yawning, “I’m kind of tired.”
“How was it, girls?’ their dad asked as they got into the car.
“Amazing,” Tiffany said.
“It was good,” Dreams said.
“I’m glad you girls had a good time,” he said.
“Now I’m just tired,” Tiffany said.
“I can imagine,” their dad laughed.
The drive was short, so it wasn’t long before they were pulling up to their house.
“Alright girls, time for some sleep,” their dad said, “but first a questionnaire form your mom.”
Tiffany and Dreams laughed tiredly as they walked up and into the house. As their dad had predicted their mom had lots of questions for them. After relaying the whole night to her they went up to their separate room, saying good night before splitting up.
In her own room Dreams undressed slowly, realising just how tired she was as she flopped onto her bed hardly slipping under the covers.
She was asleep before she even had time to think.
--
Somehow Darian made it through the rest of prom, feeling bitter the whole time. He couldn’t help himself, the night had just not turned out as he planned. It’s didn’t help that both Hailey and Preston were the nicest people ever, so they they were so apologetic the whole time and trying too hard to cheer him up.
Darian was happy when finally the prom was announced over and he could leave, but he had gotten there with Hailey, Preston and his date in a limo which meant that was how he was going home.
Hailey kept bringing up the idea of going out somewhere afterwards but Darian said he was really tired. Thankfully Preston backed him up and said he was tired too. Preston’s date was missing though, they hadn’t seen her since the start of the night.
At one point in the night Preston started acting weird, all moody and depressed and despite it all Darian wanted to know what was up so he asked the limo driver to drop off Hailey first so he could grill him with questions.
“Thanks for being a great prom date,” Hailey said as they pulled up in front of her house. “I guess I’ll see you at Graduation.”
“Yeah, good night,” Preston said.
“Yeah, see you at Graduation,” Darian said.
As soon as they started moving again Darian started with the questions.
“So what’s up, dude?” darian asked.
“What do you mean?” Preston asked.
“You’ve been acting moody,” Darian said.
“I talked to DaeRi,” Preston said suddenly, “It was so weird, she’s exactly the same.”
“It hasn’t been that long,” Darian said, ignoring the fact that he usually shot down all conversations about Preston’s ex. He wanted to know what happened.
“She asked me to ask her to dance,” Preston said.
“Wow,” Darian said, “she’s crazy.”
“It’s kind of cute actually,” Preston said.
“Oh god,” Darian said, “don’t even start.”
“It doesn’t matter, I’m graduating,” Preston said.
“Yeah,” Darian said, “So that’s why you’re acting depressed.”
Preston shrugged, “it’s so weird. We’ve spent the last year obsessing over high school. Everything we did led back to that school. Everything we did led back to popularity. After next week it all won’t matter anymore.”
Darian nodded, “it’s relaxing to think that it’ll all be over.”
”But then we have college and who says that’s any different?” Preston said.
Darian laughed, “true.”
They were silent for a while, then suddenly they were in front of Preston’s house.
Preston looked out the window, “guess I better go. See you tomorrow?”
“Yeah, I’ll call you and we can go do something,” darian said.
“Alright,” Preston said, “Good night.”
“Right back atcha,” Darian said.
And then Darian was alone at last. Darian thought back at the night, it wasn’t that bad considering all that happened. Or didn’t happen
--
Daniel parked in front of Purity’s house. Purity noticed that Payton’s car was already there and couldn’t wait to get inside and tell him all about her night. But at the same time she never wanted to get out of this car. Outside of this car Prom was over and everything was slowly reverting back to normal. The world would start to lose the sparkle it had had all night.
“Do you want me to walk you up to you door?” Daniel asked.
“Sure,” Purity said.
“Well then you have to get out of the car,” Daniel teased.
Purity laughed, “alright, I’m going.”
Daniel got out and opened the door for her, offering her his hand. She took his hand and they walked up to her door. They stopped and stared at each other. Of course Purity knew what was gonna happen and it’s not like it was the first time. But she was still nervous and amazed as he leaned in for the kiss. It was short and sweet and left Purity feeling like she was in the clouds.
“Thank you so much,” Purity said. “For everything, for just being my boyfriend.”
“And thank you for letting me kiss you,” Daniel said.
“Anytime,” Purity laughed.
“Ah, I wish we had more time,” Daniel said, pulling her close by the waist.
“My parents are probably watching us,” Purity whispered.
“Alright,” Daniel said, kissing her again then letting go. “I’ll call you.”
“Alright,” Purity said, “Good night.”
And with that they went their separate ways. Purity practically skipped into the house, finding her dads sitting in the living room drinking tea.
“Darling, how was your night?” David asked.
“Amazing!” Purity exclaimed, “Better than I expected, and I didn’t even know that was possible. I had some pretty high expectations.”
“I’m glad,” Phillip said.
“Where’s Payton?” Purity asked.
“He went to sleep, you can tell him about your great night tomorrow,” David said.
“And include us into that, because I am exhausted,“ Phillip said.
“Alright,” Purity said, “I’ll tell you guys everything tomorrow. It was great.”
Purity went up to her room and stared in the mirror at herself. She thought she looked even better than she had at the start of the night, before she knew that it was gonna be the best night of her life. She was practically glowing.
She didn’t want to go to sleep, because sleep meant all this was over and the glow would be gone. So she took her time changing into pajamas and letting her hair down and pulling into a ponytail. She took all her makeup off and looked into the mirror again. Yep the glow was still there. She wondered if it would still be there in the morning.
She yawned unexpectedly.
“I guess I am tired,” she said to herself. She took one last glance in the mirror then she climbed into bed and shut off the lights. It wasn't hard to fall asleep after that.
Her dreams were full of Daniel, kisses, and cotton candy.
--
Another year, another prom. Time seems to go so fast.
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