Dedicated to:ur_not_missing_out

Thank you so much love for so many votes and amazing, humorus comments and for all the sweet compliments! :D

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"Loved you yesterday, love you still. Always have, always will"

~Quotesgram

Claire's POV

I gaped at myself in the mirror but reflected back to the first chapter of my highschool life – when I first looked at myself and I remembered my messy bun, nails trimmed, dark circles under my eyes, a wrinkled T-shirt and a grimy pair of jeans.

I had changed so much since then.

Now I noticed myself wearing an elegant, glimmering white gown intricated with glitter – shimmering like waves fraught with diamonds. A diamond necklace rested on my collar bones, my neck tickling from the lose strands of hair that poured out of my delicately tied bun.

My mom walked into the room, covering her mouth with her trembling hands, her watery eyes scanning me from head to toe "My beautiful, beautiful daughter. Come here..." she opened her arms and I hugged her, rubbing her back.

"You look gorgeous Honey" she stroked my blonde bangs "Stop teasing your Mom and tell me who this mystery date is"

I chuckled at her impatience "You'll find out mom! And you'll love him"

"Okay, let's go downstairs; your father is dying to see you"

I clutched the material of my rich, heavily layered gown and descended down, meeting my father's intense gaze as he gawked at me.

He came upto me and, gripping my face in his hands, he kissed my forehead, mumbling a sweet compliment. He smiled proudly down at me "I have something for you"

He revealed a beautiful prom corsage from behind his back. I gasped at its beauty as he slipped the bracelet on my wrist "By the way, who's the guy?"

Before I answered, the bell rang ensued with my heart doing a somersault in my chest. I breathed the words out "He's here"

I took swift steps towards the door, my heartbeat pounding violently against my ribs on the thought of seeing him. Clutching the doorknob, I pulled it to reveal him to my parents.

Both of them gasped while Logan and I gaped dreamily into eachother's eyes. His lips parted as he looked at me, scrutinizing every inch, while I busily studied the expensive jet-black tuxedo he had on. His hair was pushed to the back, a stunning new hairstyle that looked so hot on him.

"Logan Walker is your date?!" my mom walked towards us "What? When? How?!"

"What a pleasant surprise Mr. Walker" dad uttered, bowing to greet him. Logan bowed back, classily and rather impishly adjusting his tie, making my scoff in amusement.

I smiled, linking my hands with him "Told you that you'll love him. C'mon Teddy" He sent a dubious grin in my way, noticing how I called him 'Teddy' in front of my parents. A blush crept up his cheeks when he waved at them.

I walked down the porch hand in hand with the only boy my heart ached for, leaving my parents staring astoundingly at me from the doorstep. His fingertips grazed my palm teasingly, shooting tremors up my arm, well aware of the effect he had on me.

My eyes fell on the road, I swear I would've been more astounded than my parents because there was a sleek blue Limousine parked right in front of me. "You ordered a freaking Limo?!" I almost yelled.

He shrugged "Yeah, I don't know. Dad got hyped after watching '13 reasons why' and believe me, you don't wanna know how I ended up with this ride"

I was still trying to process the fact that I was being taken to prom in a fuckin' Limo when he leaned down and said "You look beautiful"

Being his best friend and girlfriend, it was my right to tease him "I expect a few more advanced synonyms of 'beautiful' from a writer, you know?"

Then he gave me the giggle that always made my heart flutter "I might not really be in the right state of mind to think of anything else but you"

His words never failed to hit me right in the feels. Chewing my lips, I stared up at him, wondering what I did to deserve someone so breath-taking like him.

Like a gentleman he was, he ushered to the driver of the Limo to stay seated while he opened the door for me, helping me hop inside by holding my palm firm in his.

The ride there was short but it felt eerily long when I had him gaping at me all the while, whispering pleasing compliments into my ear, playing with my hair and my necklace.

We reached Whitney High's venue for prom, which turned out to be a massive hall with lights of different hues emanating from the interior. Our Limo arrived, attracting the attentions of the people standing around it.

The driver opened the door for me but Logan offered me his hand. I smiled enthusiastically, placing my hand on his, getting off the car. Everyone sneaked peeks at us while he gripped my palm and curled it around his biceps.

It felt like a dream to be experiencing this. I used to be a complete nerd who had no friends but only haters looking condescendingly at me but now I was the center of their attraction.

I squeezed his muscles tight, endeavoring to kill this newfound discomfort. I was who I was after all, no source of power or transformation could mask the fact that I still was a nerd. The insecurities were still there.

"You okay?" he asked, concerned as we climbed up the stairs.

"Yeah, I'm okay" I smiled, and after a long time I truly felt special "Actually, I'm great! Thank you so much for this"

He raised his eyebrows, a perplexed smirk spreading on his lips "Thanks for what? You're the one doing wonders here. You look like a goddamn princess, I just can't take my eyes off of you"

I rolled my eyes to show him he was flattering me too much, but from the inside, my heart was pirouetting into different dimensions like a lovesick puppy.

We entered the party and were greeted by several people, received a lot of appreciation for our attires and given more importance than I had expected.

Pop songs were blaring out of massive speakers lined on the ceiling that way far above us. The lights shifted from white to bright blue after regular intervals. The teenagers danced away zealously up front, shaking their hands in the air. I smiled looking at how happy everyone was.

Adriel had promised to come late into the party since James Hunter wasn't allowed inside the prom venue and she wanted to spend the most of her time with him.

What concerned me most was that I couldn't spot Breanna anywhere. Even though I hated her but after she cried and admitted her mistake following Logan's accident, I pitied her and now she wasn't even here.

And so wasn't Carlton.

I was hoping they hadn't gotten themselves in trouble when I heard someone's voice from behind me.

"Hey what's up, losers?!" Natalie came strutting up to us, intentionally pushing past others to piss them off "Holy fuck, you guys are killin' it! Claire, you look the prettiest and Logan, you look hot as fuck, I wanna take you right now" she smiled at him, sipping on her juice seductively.

"I'm sorry Nat, he's kind of occupied" I smiled at her, jokingly pulling him by my side.

"Ah don't worry your sweet head babe, he's all yours. My dinner is way down there, flirting with other girls" she pointed somewhere near the stage at a guy whom I recognized was from the basketball team. She whispered "My new hot boyfriend and he has a very big–"

"Okay no one wants to know that!" I yelled immediately before she continued.

"Very big shoe size Claire, damn you!" she laughed "Oh and I'm hosting an afterparty at my house. The entire highschool is going to be there. I will kill you if you don't show up and yeah, you might wanna change into casual clothes because there's gonna a lot of beer"

"Sure, we'll be there"

I rolled my eyes when she was out of sight "That girl is crazy"

"I bet she's not crazier than that" Logan said, griping my chin and turning my face towards something. My eyes searched the crowd hastily until I spotted them and let out a loud gasp. I blinked several times to let the view sink in. It really was them.

Venetia and Dylan were making out in a corner.

"They should get a room" Logan muttered but he had no idea about the things he didn't know about them. While I just shockingly squinted at them, wondering what miracle caused this. But at least, they were together now. I felt happy for Dylan.

Attempting to forget what I just saw and focusing on the more important things in life, I looked at Logan whose eyes were glued to the stage. Just when I was about to ask him what happened, someone spoke on the mike.

"Attention people!"

That voice was awfully familiar. My gaze shot in that direction and I beamed when I saw the person "Addy!"

Adriel had somehow managed to snatch the mike from the DJ and made him cease the music for a while. She was delivering a vote of thanks. Being the cheerleader, she was given this job but we knew why exactly why she had accepted to do this.

She was probably up to something crazy.

My heart skipped a beat when she looked straight at Logan and me and practically yelled "The time has come, for the couple that was an apple of our eyes, this year, to begin the final dance and the others join in!"

"Holy shit" Logan and I muttered together, trying to hide our faces from Adriel's treacherous glare.

"Logan and Claire!"

The moment she said that everyone around us dissolved into a loud round of applause, hoots, and cheers. When the spotlight beamed on us, making us stand up from the crowd, they all turned towards us.

I froze – that was a hell lot of attention. I shot a death glare at Adriel who was grinning at us mischievously and looked at Logan who had turned red.

I began to panic just like the old, nerdy Claire when everyone laughed at her, when everyone made fun of her, played pranks on her fragile soul. I had faced too much of loathing, too much of hatred but...this was my time.

I realized if we didn't do anything quickly, we would become the joke of the day. I gripped his cold hands making him look at me "Logan, they're waiting"

"Right" he forced a smile. Shyly, he placed both his hands on my waist while I wrapped mine around his shoulders, thanking my heels that helped me reach his height.

Everyone followed, taking their respective positions. The spotlight switched off and I heaved a long sigh of relief, looking around "That was stressful"

But Logan didn't respond.

"Wasn't it?" I asked, looking away at the darkened figures swaying along with the slow song.

When he didn't answer yet again, I looked at him and found him staring deeply at me but I spotted a hint of sadness on his features. Immediately, I asked "Is everything okay?"

"I'm unable to believe it"

"Believe what?"

"This...You...everything..." he giggled, his gaze drifting away into the distance "I'm not used to being this happy and it's kinda weird"

"Hey c'mon" I cupped his cheeks, squeezing them naughtily "It's hard to believe I know, but it's happening"

"Claire? Can I ask you something?" his voice got deeper as I nodded "Why did my mother hide my dad's financial difficulties from me?"

It kind of shocked me that at a time like this, this was what he was thinking about. But I let it go, knowing that it had affected him too much and it was my responsibility to soothe him. Placing my hands back on his shoulder as we swayed, I said "Maybe because she didn't want you to think that your real dad was...um...not capable of being a role model, I guess"

His head hung low as he nodded slowly, then he looked back up at me, giving me the best of his smiles.

To change the conversation and to ease the aura, I trailed my fingers on his jawline playfully causing him to smirk at me. I leaned closer up to him and whispered "Did I ever tell you how handsome you are?"

"Now that I think of it...you didn't"

I giggled, caressing his lower lip lovingly with my thumb as I looked into his eyes. I loved those time, those times when we merely stared at each other, reflecting on the beautiful memories that we had cherished and engraved into our hearts.

He suddenly asked "Do you know why I'm so possessive of you?"

I grinned "Yeah, of course, I do" maybe that wasn't what he wanted to hear because his smile faded and I laughed when it did. How I loved embarrassing him "Okay let's assume that I said 'No I don't' instead, what would you have said?"

Mirth of triumph invaded his face and he answered "It's because, whenever I look at you with the glint of happiness in my eyes; you have same the same kind of glint when you look at me and I don't want you to see anyone else that way. Except me. I want you to be only mine. Will you be...only mine?"

My mischievous grin had faded by the time he ended and I didn't know what to feel towards this boy.

This boy had me shaken, he had me wrapped around his little finger and everything he said to me, everything, ignited a never-ending fire inside me.

He made me feel what no one had ever made me feel.

I didn't even know I was capable of loving someone this much, this hard, and this bad, ever.

But, he...he was special.

I craved him, more than anything in this world. I craved him.

I gripped his hair and pressed my lips to his, kissing him lovingly. His hand tightened around my waist, clutching the material of my prom gown in his hand.

Right then, I realized the power he had over me – the power to manipulate my feelings.

Never in a million years did I ever think that pretend dating would get us so, so, far from what we used to be.

Maybe it wasn't really that bad of an idea.

It brought us closer and I know this part of our lives was going to be fossilized into our hearts.

Always.

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I'm literally bawling my eyes out dammit!!

This was the last chapter OMG. But wait, my long sentimental author's note is for the epilogue so I won't annoy you now XD

Do tell me what you thought of this chapter! If you spotted flaws then please feel free to tell me! I don't bite :P

Thank you thank you so much loves for being so fucking awesome! Do vote and comment :) See ya' in the epilogue!

Love, K

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