The doorbell rang and my mom opened the door before I could reach down.

"Good evening, Mrs. Evans," I heard Sal's voice as I descended the stairs.

"Oh! You must be Sal. Come in dear," my mom beamed and gestured Sal to come inside.

Sal saw me standing at the bottom of the stairs and gave me an all-toothed grin.

"Hey," I smiled back.

"Hey. You look really pretty," he said while running his hand through his hair which messed them up.

"Aww, thanks! And you look better with messy hair."

"Oh shoot! Well, I atleast made it to your house without running my hand through them."

Sal was here to pick me up for the Dance. At first I'd thought of going to school myself but then decided against it as it would have made Sal feel bad. My dress was a dark blue strapless which ended just a little above my knees. I had bought it a year ago, for God knows what reason, and had never worn it once. So I thought why not wear it to the Dance and put it to some use!

"Let's go then!" I went over to put on my black heels.

"Have fun you two," my mom chipped in.

"We will Mrs. Evans."

"Call me Julia, all of Rachel's friends do."

"Mom thinks Mrs. Evans sounds older," I joked, but it was true. She had told me once herself.

"Okay," Sal laughed and stepped out of the house, "bye...Julia." It was clearly visible that he felt awkward saying my mom's name and this made me laugh even more.

"Bye Julia!" I sing-songed and mom punched me playfully before I could step out.

After spending two hours with Sal at the cafe the day before yesterday, I no more felt uncomfortable around him. We made small talk in the car for a while and for some unknown reason, Sal couldn't stop smiling.

"Is everything alright between Amelia and Aaron?" I asked out of nowhere.

"Huh?"

"I mean, after what happened yesterday in the parking lot?"

"Yeah, I think they're alright. Amelia has the habit of getting hyper over petty issues."

Tell me about it!

But Aaron had been called to the police station. That wasn't a petty issue, right?

"What did the police need anyway?" I asked, even though I knew he had been called due to The Chat, which I had given them.

"He won't tell us. Not even Amelia."

"So are they coming to the Dance...like together?"

"Of course. Do you think Amelia would come alone?"

"She can easily get a new date with the snap of her finger!" I said, not hiding the venom in my voice.

Sal obviously noticed it and gave me a sideways look, raising his eyebrows a little. We were silent for a couple of seconds before Sal spoke again.

"Chill. I know you don't like her much," he gave a little smirk.

It was my chance to raise my eyebrows. I was not expecting him to say that. I just shrugged my shoulders in response as I had nothing else to say.

We reached at our school and headed straight towards the basketball court which had been completely transformed. The whole place was dark with disco lights and strobe lights illuminating it in intervals. There were already a lot of people dancing on the floor.

"Rach!" Someone shouted my name and I turned around to see Sarah walking towards us. Her dress looked truly pretty as F on her, as she had described. It was black with full hand netted sleeves and was shorter than mine.

"You. Look. Awesome!" I had to raise my voice over the loud music.

"Thanks," Sarah hugged me, "and you look hot!"

Devon, the guy with the weird afro whom Sarah had asked to be her date for the Dance, walked up from behind and gave us a smile. To be honest, his afro didn't look weird anymore and was actually suiting him.

After chatting for a few minutes, Sal lead me to the dance floor and Sarah and Devon followed too. We danced like crazy animals to various fast paced songs and I couldn't stop laughing at Sal's weird dance moves. He really was bad at dancing and the dance lessons from Vanessa weren't helping him much. But still, he looked cute trying to imitate our moves.

After some time Vanessa and Kyle joined us. Kyle said Hi to all of us but Vanessa as usual ignored us. I didn't mind much though, because I was having a good time with Sal and Sarah. But still, there was something that was holding me back. Something major that was missing. Hannah. 

Various different thoughts started flooding my mind suddenly. Where is she right now? What is she doing? Is she safe where ever she is? Is she thinking about me and Sarah? Or about Sal? What will she do if she finds out that I went with Sal to the Dance? Does she even has feelings for Sal anymore after what she did with Aaron?

"Earth to Rachel," Sal waved his hand in front my face.

"Sorry," I realized that I had stopped dancing.

"What's wrong?" He asked looking concerned.

"Nothing. Just a little out of breath." I looked around and saw that neither Sarah and Devon nor Vanessa and Kyle were dancing anymore.

"Let's just sit for a while and I'll get you something to drink." Sal said and went towards the snacks counter.

I dodged my way out of the dancing crowd and sat on one of the bleachers. Where was Sarah? I tried spotting her but she was no where to be seen. Please don't tell me she was already making out with Devon and his afro! Even Amelia and Aaron had not arrived yet.

Sal came back with a light pink coloured fizzy drink and I gulped it in one shot. Man, that felt like heaven!

The loud music suddenly stopped and everyone started booing when the DJ announced that it was time for slow dancing. The first song was an instrumental track of Love Me Like You Do by Ellie Goulding. Sal held out his hand with a huge smile on his face and I couldn't resist not dancing to this song.

I placed my left hand on his shoulder while he took my right hand in his. For someone who didn't dance well, Sal was doing pretty fine now. We swayed to the music looking at each other. Though it was dark, I could see that he was blushing. He let go of my hand and placed it on his right shoulder, and wrapped both of his hands around my waist, slowly pulling me closer. Okay, what's going on?

Feeling a little uncomfortable, I could no more look strainght into his eyes so I focused my attention on the little entryway door which was behind Sal.
A brunette wearing jeans and a hoodie jacket rushed out of the door. Who the hell wears that to Homecoming? But those wavy brown hair seemed too familiar. Before I could say the name in my head, the brunette turned her head a little and I froze in my spot.

"Hey?" Sal asked when he saw my shocked expression.

I wiggled out of his grasp and ran towards the door without saying anything, being careful enough not to fall due to my high heels.

I heard Sal call out my name but decided to ignore him for now. When I reached the doorway, the brunette was gone.

I am sure of what I saw. I am sure I wasn't dreaming this time.

I am sure that girl was Hannah.

Dun dun dun. Okay, that was cheesy!

What do you think of Rachel and Sal? Do you think Rachel should give him a chance or is it completely against the 'bestfriends rule book'?

And do you think that was Hannah or just some random brunette?

Let me know your thoughts, opinions, critics and comments. And yes, do press the VOTE button if you enjoyed!

If I reach 500+ reads today then I'll post a mini bonus chapter tomorrow which will have someone else's POV. Haha, so spread the news.

Thankyou for reading!

Love you all :)

Riya.