One of the downsides of having our graduation the same day as our prom was the limited time we girls had for getting ready. Right after our ceremony, Declan's mother curled my hair into little circular shapes and placed a hairpin in the middle. Long hair had so many advantages, I changed my hairstyle whenever I liked instead of just being reduced to a bob.

It was damn near seven o'clock and I barely finished applying foundation over my face. Makeup was harder than I thought; those YouTube videos spread lies. The girl or man in the video always made it seem like the easiest thing in the world — Spoiler Alert it wasn't!

When I went shopping with the girls, I purchased a rosy pink short-length gown with ruffles along with the skirt. However, Mrs. Novak brought in a red satin floor-length gown with a provocatively high slit, leaving very little to the imagination. This dress was breathtaking, the way it felt when my hands gazed down left chills down my spine. Long lashes and perfect black liquid liner wings framed my cooling brown eyes.

My dream of being a Princess was coming true tonight.

I released every pin from my hair, causing my heatless curls to wander down past my shoulders like a silly string. My entire outfit was almost perfect, there was just one thing missing... but I couldn't put my finger on it. Staring at myself, I exhaled a deep breath I was holding, wondering what the heck was the missing piece.

"Lana, we should get going." Mrs. Novak knocked on the door, instantly gasping when she saw me. "Oh, my god! You look beautiful! I'm going to cry." She fanned her face, probably trying to keep herself from bawling.

"Thank you, Mrs. Novak, I love this dress! This means more to me than you'll ever know," I replied.

"One second, I have something that would go perfectly with this," she responded, rushing downstairs.

A minute later she appeared with a silver, bedazzled butterfly pin and clipped it on the left side of my hair. That was the missing piece.

"Are you sure? It looks extremely expensive!" I asked.

"My mother gave it to me on my prom night, so now it's my turn to pass it down to my future daughter-in-law," she whispered, the ending with a wink.

"I'm honored." I smiled. "Should we get going? Is Declan ready?"

"I'm not going," he stated, poking his head through my door.

Declan gazed over, eyes like chestnuts, and a ring of golden hung inside his iris, slightly darkening as we made eye contact. Uncontrollable heat rushed up to my cheeks, making the room twenty times hotter than before. Was it possible that Declan found me cute? Could this dress affect him?

"Don't be shy, Declan, why don't you compliment her," his mother teased, bumping her shoulder into his for effect.

"Have fun," he said, a half-smile forming on his lip.

"Thanks! We should go. I think Meadow and Ambrose are waiting for us to pick them up," I stated, grabbing my purse from my desk.

"Ambrose is going?" Declan asked, his eyebrow arched.

"Yeah, why wouldn't he?"

"Mmm..." he drawed out before leaving my room.

"Lana, grab your sweater and let's go," Mrs. Novak requested.

After I grabbed my jacket, I stretched my neck in both directions, instinctively checking if anyone was behind me. I opened my drawer and carefully placed my lucky charm photo in my purse. Never will I ever leave without it.

Ambrose was wearing an animal print collared shirt, unbuttoned at the very top and coincidently he somehow figured out the color of my dress and wore a matching red tie. This boy clearly couldn't match. Instead of his normal bowl-cut, his hair was all gelled up and combed to the side. It took both our strength to get Meadow's long mermaid train in the car; we were sweating by the end of it.

We've found ourselves gathered in a gigantic building with dazzling flowers surrounded outside, which would go great with pictures. People dressed all fancy, in every kind of prom dress I could imagine dancing and bump against each other. Our teachers chaperoned the dance, so the chances of our punch being spiked were low, but I wouldn't put it past my class to figure something out.

"Guys!" Catalina squealed, running in our direction, almost tripping because of her puffy dress. Now she definitely looked like Cinderella.

"Sorry for keeping you waiting, Meadow was being extremely difficult," I snorted, laughing at my joke.

"It wasn't my fault per se, it was the dress," Meadow clarified.

"Lana, come check out my masterpiece," Ambrose interjected, linking our arms together and dragging me to the buffet.

At prom, each class has its own buffet and we discuss together what kind of food to have for our special night. Of course, it doesn't mean we couldn't devour the other classes' tables, but the teachers liked the idea of having our own table. Since Ambrose was an amazing chef, we trusted his instincts on what food to get.

My mouth watered at the sight of tacos, enchiladas, and beef burritos. Everything on the table was screaming 'Lana, Lana, eat me, Lana,' tempting me to ruin my lip gloss two minutes into the dance. Oh, well. Snagging a beefy burrito, once I took a huge bite a bit of the beef dripped down my hand and luckily fell on the tablecloth.

That was a close one.

"This is to die for!" I moaned, enjoying every bite of the Mexican flavors in my mouth.

"It looks amazing, but could you have picked a better option for Prom?" Meadow complained, side-eyeing Ambrose.

"Whatever, I'm still stuffing my face," Catalina mumbled, reaching for a tortilla chip as an appetizer. 

"I'll just steal from another table that won't risk ruining this eight-hundred dollar dress," Meadow added, eyeing us with jealousy as we continued eating in front of her.

"Ambrose, you're the best," I declared, finishing up my burrito.

"Right? Thank you," Ambrose gushed, his cheeks turning a slight shade of pink. "Lana, you have some refried beans on your face." Without warning, Ambrose used the napkin in his hand to wipe the excess from my burrito off my lips. He was extremely close, his minty breath fanning my face, and I giggled to get past the awkwardness.

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" I asked, my entire body streaming hot from our close proximity.

"It's like stained to your face." He laughed, his finger tracing over my bottom lip, sending shivers down my spine.

Oddly, I felt eyes burning into me and as I glanced past his shoulder, my body instantly stiffened when I saw him.

"Declan."

My eyes bulged from their sockets and my stomach formed million teen-tiny knots. His irises darkened, staring at us with a stone-cold expression. My heart skipped a beat, suddenly feeling guilty even though I've done nothing wrong.

"What are you doing here?" Ambrose scoffed, his eyebrows rose in confusion.

"I decided to show up after all," Declan chuckled, leaving us to go join his soccer buddies.

Internally, my insides were screaming and not because of the Mexican food. What the heck changed his mind? Was he always planning on showing up and just lied to me? Oh no! Hopefully, he doesn't think Ambrose and I are a thing... We were being friendly, that's all.

Naturally, my eyes gravitated towards Declan's direction and my mouth fell open when I saw his class's buffet. Their cuisine was an elegant form of Chinese food with bite-sized hot and sour chicken, along with little sandwiches filled with items I wouldn't know. However, the streamed buns were what made my mouth salivate.  

"The food is basically sparkling." Catalina's jaw dropped.

"I'm definitely stealing their food," Meadow said.

Even with food, his class always somehow found a way to be better than ours. It seemed in any world our paths don't clash together. Ambrose sighed, his expression dropping to a gloomy one, probably feeling second best to Declan again.

"I love tacos! I'm about to eat this whole plate," I said, stuffing another taco in my mouth.

"She's right! Our buffet is much better," Catalina enthusiastically declared. 

"I don't care, I'm still going over to their table." Meadow shrugged her shoulders and strolled over to their table.

Cata, Ambrose, and I followed her closely, hiding behind her back just in case any smarter classmates tried anything. They haven't been nice this whole year, wouldn't put it past them to tease us. Thankfully, no one was paying enough attention, and Meadow stole a plate of bite-sized sandwiches.

"Thank you, Mrs. Humphery, you've been the best teacher in this school, the reason we could get excellent grades was because of you. I'm so thankful." A girl bowed to her teacher.

"No, no, I'm the thankful one. For four years, I could be the teacher for intelligent students like yourselves. I consider myself extremely lucky. So many of you were happy to get accepted into prestigious schools. I am so proud of you guys!" Mrs. Humphery replied obnoxiously loud. 

Suddenly, Mr. Griffin cleared his throat, adjusting his tie as he moved over to us. Hearing Mrs. Humphery's heart-felt message must have pulled a bitter string in his gut.

"Lana, Meadow, Catalina, and Ambrose, I wanted to say this loud and proud! Life isn't always about studying, especially during your young years. Academic performance doesn't define you guys as people!" Mr. Griffin proclaimed, earning cheers and whistles from us.

"A student that scored low on an exam has a difficult time entering colleges and eventually has a challenging time to get a job, let alone keep one. I'm so grateful that none of you will suffer like that," she countered his argument, sending a glare towards Mr. Griffin.

Mr. Griffin narrowed his eyes, and jaw clenched. "Hey! Just because you're smarter than us, doesn't make you any better than us," he protested.

"Hmm? I never mentioned anyone from your class," she replied, acting all innocent. "Did my conversation pinch any nerves for you?" Mrs. Humphery and her cult of students snickered together.

"They can't help it, Mrs. Humphery people with low-level mindset are always so paranoid," one of the girls-- Hailey stated, rolling her eyes.

Ambrose stormed over to the girl, his ear practically spewing out fumes of anger. "What the hell did you say?" he raged as he banged the table with his fist.

"Oh, and they always turn to violence," she added, a wicked smirk on her chapped lips.

"What?" Ambrose's eyebrows rose upward. "I haven't done anything."

"Your speech was proof enough for your outrageous tendencies," Hailey scoffed, recoiling like we were some sickness she was trying to get away from.

All of a sudden, Declan appeared behind Hailey as if he was her knight in shining armor and gently leaned against the table. Where did he come from? Was he there the whole time? Because I'll love to hear his point of view of this issue-- not.

"After all, the only way people like them can fight us is with muscles, especially our buddy Ambrose rumor is he failed to get accepted into anywhere," Declan sneered, his eyes boring into Ambrose's pained gaze.

Ambrose looked broken. The sight of his utter, speechless self shattered every piece of my heart. College was a sore subject for Ambrose; we all knew that. And the fact that Declan poked into issues that should have been left alone made my face tense. Ambrose lowly chuckled as he tilted his head to the side before stepping out of the room.   

"Ambrose! Ambrose, wait," I shouted, irritating gazing back at Declan for a split-second before running out. 

Frantically, I glanced in both directions, praying Ambrose hadn't gotten so far. Aching pain shot up my leg, probably coming from my extremely unhealthy tall heel. No swelling agony was going to stop me from finding my best friend.

"Ambrose!"  I shouted, running down the hall.

Abruptly, I froze, almost losing my balance when I saw Ambrose leaning against the wall. He swung around, his eyes glistening with tears as he wiped the liquid oozing from his nostrils.

"Ambrose," I whispered. "The teachers were probably drunk and lost their tempers. Let's get along since it's the last night." 

He angrily punched the wall, causing my body to startle from the roaring burst. My eyes burned as my vision became glossy from the tears building up from his attitude.

"We made a promise, remember? That we will find a career we are good at than whatever our classmates said would mean nothing to us," I stated, hoping my speech was enough.

Lightly, I wrapped my arms around his shoulder, laying my head in the crook of his neck. The citrus fragrance pouring from his neck as I inhaled deeply, wishing I could be the one in pain instead of him. His body stood still, and he used his black cuffs to wipe his tears.

"They are probably jealous of you," I whispered into his ear.

"You're right." he lightly chuckled. "I let my anger take control. Thank you for snapping me out of it." He caressed my arm.

Removing my arms, Ambrose spun around and instantly laughed, causing a snort to come from his throat when he stared at me. Oh lord, did I put on too much makeup? Do I look like a clown? Is my makeup smudged? 

"You have bean juice on your face again." He smiled.

He leaned down as my lips curled into a smile while he tenderly wiped my mouth. My skin tingled where his fingers brushed against it. Before I could even fathom what he was about to do, he grabbed my chin and pulled my face closer to his. My eyes widened as his eyes dropped down to my lips and he inched his way closer to me. I let out a small gasp as I felt his lip loosely brush past mine.

"Declan!" A voice-- Catalina yelled and I instantly moved away from Ambrose in utter shock.

His icy cold eyes shifted between the both of us, but nothing left his mouth. Awkwardness rushed through my veins as my cheeks flushed pink because of his burning gaze and attention on me. Curiosity thoughts penetrated my mind, but I shoved them away.

"I better go back." I smiled, swiping a lock of my hair behind my ear and running past the both of them.

Woah who got excited for the almost kiss between Ambrose and Lana? Do you guys think Declan is jealous? Or that he doesn't care ?

Can't wait for you guys to read the next chapter!!!

I hope you enjoyed and I can't wait to hear all your thoughts!!! Love you!!!!!