"Turn just a little to the left." Angie ordered, gently grasping my chin and applying the last of my makeup. Unfortunately for her, no amount of makeup was going to make me look alive. My eyes were too red and puffy, my cheeks too sunken in. It'd be a miracle if she could get me to look halfway decent without a filter.

I let out a very audible gasp when she spun me around in Garrett's computer chair so I was facing a mirror. She had very much livened me up. The blue dress had already brought out the different hues of blue in my eyes, but the accents of colors she'd used for eyeshadow and her perfect application of eyeliner made my eyes pop even more. So much so that it drew the eye away from my face-which was just as perfectly made up, but my cheeks still made me look sickly. She'd managed to tame my mess of dark blonde waves into an updo that allowed a few loose hairs around my temple and ears so the permanent scar across my left temple wasn't as visible. Even Angie's incredible makeup skills couldn't completely mask it.

"You look gorgeous." She touched her hands over her chest. "I did such a great job."

I nodded and stood, grabbing Miles' Letterman from the back of the chair, and allowed Angie to loop her arm through mine and lead me down the stairs.

"You idiots better be ready!" Angie shouted down, and not even a second later Javi was stepping into the hallway, tie askew, hair slightly disheveled, and what looked like chocolate on the outer edges of his mouth.

"Wow, Ev." Javi said as soon as we reached him, looking me up and down, "You look incredible."

"Thanks." I whispered, shifting awkwardly. I'd managed to have one thing my way tonight-flats. There was no way in hell I was wearing the hell shoes that were heels when I didn't even have the desire to go tonight. "You clean up pretty nice too."

Angie huffed out angrily and swiped her thumb across Javi's lips and fixed his tie. "He would, if he actually managed to not get into everything like a five-year-old."

Javi mocked her and winked at me over her head. "She's just jealous I look better than she does even when I'm a mess."

Angie flipped him her favorite finger and pulled her phone from her small white clutch, running a hand over her black dress to smooth out any wrinkles and thrusted it into her friend's hands. "Take photos, bozo."

"Yes, Ma'am." he saluted her and took a few steps back before getting into various positions to get us from every angle. Something I was sure Angie must have insisted on sometime before they'd gotten here. As soon as the phone was back in her hands, she looked my way and raised a brow.

"Do you mind if I post them?"

"I don't mind." I whispered, but added quietly, "But I don't want you to be harassed for being my friend."

She stared at me for a moment before a smile inched its way across her face. "Everly, girl, do I look like someone that's easy to harass? I'll destroy those keyboard warriors."

Javi snorted at the comment. "Yeah, because people are so scared of a five foot nothing hundred- and ten-pound girl."

"That's the power I harness being hidden behind a phone screen, Jav. They'll never know."

They continued their banter as she handed the phone back over and headed across the room so he could get pictures of her alone. He sent me an irritated eye roll but trudged along behind her like a puppy into the dining room. But with their entrance came Garrett's exit and I understood in that moment why Angie was so insistent that all men were secretly children.

Though Garrett looked breathtakingly handsome in his tux and hair slicked back, he, like his best friend, was a mess of crumbs and chocolate and his blue tie was even worse off than Javi's had been. He halted to a stop a few feet away, a chocolate croissant halfway to his mouth, eyes widening the moment they'd fallen on me. I understood it, as he'd never seen me in anything but the school uniform or all of Miles' oversized clothes. The fact that there was a pretty girl hidden under all of it seemed to take him by surprise.

"Wow." was all he managed to get out, blinking repeatedly as if he thought I was a figment of his imagination.

"Wow is right." Angie said with a dramatic hair flip, eying him disgustedly. "Come on, Gare, fix yourself. Your mom's taking pictures and we don't need you looking like. . . like you raided AJ's junk drawer."

Garrett, being yanked back into reality, smirked at his friend's words. "You're so God Damn annoying, Angie. You know that?"

"Yep." She made sure to put emphasis on each letter and stepped forward so she could clean him up the same way she had Javi. "You two are embarrassing, you know that, right? Can't take you anywhere without you stuffing your faces."

"We're growing boys, Ang." Garrett defended. "We gotta eat."

She waved him off and grinned as Felicity entered the room. I wrapped my arms around myself, feeling exposed. I wanted desperately to put the Letterman on, and Garrett must have seen it because he walked over and pulled it from where it was dangling from my right hand. He then draped it over my shoulders, whispering as he did so.

"He's here with you tonight, Ev." He breathed softly.

I looked at him, tears stinging my eyes, and touched my fingers to the necklace around my neck. If anyone else had said those words it would have sent me spiraling into a breakdown, but staring into Garrett's eyes, seeing the sincerity in them, for the first time in months I felt the warmth of Miles around me, smelt the faint scent of his cologne, and heard his voice in my head.

"You look absolutely beautiful, Evie." Miles whispered. "How the hell did I get so lucky?"

**

I was on edge the entire night, my heart racing every time I heard a drunken yell or loud laughing. I half expected Miles and Brady to walk in at any second and for Naomi Chao and Brady to be crowned Prom King and Queen again. But the crown went to Garrett and some girl I'd never seen before, and by the time he'd found his way back to me, the cheap crown had been discarded on to one of his teammates head.

"Dance with me?" he asked, extending a hand. I was ready to deny it but was interrupted before I could.

"Nope. You've got her the rest of the night." Javi stepped between us and bowed, took my hand, and kissed the top of it. "May I have this dance?"

My eyes flickered to Garrett for help over his shoulder, but he only flashed a quick smile and took a bite of a chocolate covered strawberry. Before I could agree with Angie over the boys inability to go anywhere without eating, Javi had me in the middle of the crowd of our classmates. Most of them were unfamiliar to me out of uniform and with makeup on, but a few I'd known in passing or my classes nodded or waved at us.

"Angie did this." Javi said into my ear, hand grasping my waist tighter. "I know it's going to be hard for you to watch. But she thought you'd appreciate it."

I started to open my mouth but he gently turned me, so we were staring straight ahead as a projection screen dropped. The moment Lincoln Heights appeared on the screen, I had to blink tears from my eyes. Javi wrapped his arm around my shoulders and hugged me against his side as I Hope You Dance by Lee Ann Womack blasted echoed through the eerily silent room. A moment later the first picture appeared, and I had to touch the back of my hand to my mouth.

It was my background photo. Miles and me at his Senior Prom last year with Brady photo bombing in the background. It transitioned into the photo of Miles dipping me on the dance floor and staring at me lovingly before zooming in on him alone, then to Brady and Naomi, and continued through every single person lost. Both their Prom and Senior photos used. I hadn't realized I was crying or that I was shaking until it ended and all eyes in the room went to me. Javi immediately pulled me into his warm embrace and whispered. "You're okay, Everly. We're here. We're all here."

I tried to find the words to explain to him he had no idea what he was saying, but before I could get a word out, Angie and Garrett approached from either side and rested a hand on my shoulders. But that wasn't what finally opened the flood gates. It was everyone else in the room moving in unison toward the four of us and bowing their heads slightly as the end of the song faded, all grieving and mourning those lost. All comforting me in the best way they knew how.

"They won't be forgotten." Angie whispered, reaching up to wipe the tears from my cheeks with her knuckles. "Neither will your story, Ev. We love you."

Those words were it for me and Garrett, as always, saw the shift in my expression and intercepted me before Javi could lose grip as I sunk to the ground. He caught me under my arms and all but picked me up and held me against him.

A year ago, I would have been embarrassed for the rest of my life and thought it was ending having this many people hear and see the uncontrollable mess I was becoming, but now I didn't care-and neither did they. They all stood and held on to their date, tears in their own eyes, as they watched.

"They're here." Garrett repeated what he had earlier tonight. "Right here with you, hugging you, loving you."

I shook my head into his chest but when I lifted my head from his chest and looked toward the door, I saw them. Brady and Miles, both leaning against either side of the door frame, grins on both of their faces. When I blinked to rid myself of the image, Miles was closer now, directly over Garrett's shoulder, the smile faltering as he shook his head. My Miles. Not the mess he'd become on that floor.

He touched his hand to his chest and nodded. And though no words left his mouth I understood those three words as if he'd shouted them at the top of his lungs.

I love you.