Cherish

I look at my sister in the mirror while she curls my hair. "Are you sure you don't want to come?" I ask for the third time since I started getting ready for the prom.

Ella flashes a smile at me. "I'm so sure. You know I'm not much of a people person, and I'd much rather be home, hanging out with mom and dad anyway."

I'm silent for a minute before nodding my head begrudgingly. "Okay. If you're sure."

We fall quiet as she finishes the final curls and sprays my hair with the heavy duty shit, since my hair doesn't always stay the way it was meant to. The curls will at least partially be there by the end of the night instead of leaving me with frizzy hair.

I stand and move to the floor length mirror and examine myself in the dress my mom made for me to wear. It's a baby pink sleeveless with a deep v-neck. There's a slit down the middle from high up on my thigh to almost make it indecent. It almost gives the dress a cloak feeling.

In short, the dress is pure perfection, and I have to agree with Zoe and Lucy. My mom always makes the best dresses.

"You look beautiful, Cherish," my sister says with a large smile gracing her face.

I give her a hug and hold her tightly to me. "Thank you for helping me get ready." I pick my phone up from the dresser beside me and check the time. "Shit. I've gotta go get Lucy and Zoe. I'll see you later?"

She chuckles. "Go have fun. Let me know how things go."

I give her one last quick hug before putting my phone, money, and license in my bra - best fucking purse ever when you don't want to carry one around, just saying.

I grab my keys off the counter on the way out of the house, stopping to give my parents each a quick kiss on the cheek. I carefully put the bottom of my dress in the car after sitting, making sure it doesn't get shut in the door.

It doesn't take long to get to Lucy's house, where she and Zoe got ready. I stay in the car, deciding not to fight with my dress a second time and honk the horn to let them know I'm here.

Three minutes later they walk out, dressed in the dresses they had picked out at the mall last weekend. Zoe wobbles slightly on her heels while she walks to the passenger side. They get in the car and buckle themselves in while I start to pull out of Lucy's driveway.

"Remind me again why it's a requirement to wear heels," Zoe asks, making Lucy and I laugh.

"Because your dress is a little bit too long for you to be walking around without them when you'll fall flat on your face if you don't wear them," Lucy explains.

Zoe pouts the entire way to the school, much to my amusement. Lucy rolls her eyes when we get out of the car and she sees that Zoe's still pouting about having to wear her heels.

"Buck up, Buttercup," Lucy says to Zoe, linking her arms through mine and Zoe's.

"I'm totally bucked up," Zoe lies. We laugh.

"Zoe, since you have a bag, would you mind putting my keys in there?" I ask. "I didn't bring one, but I don't want weird lumps in my boobs from my keys."

Lucy eyes me up and down. "You decided to use your boobs as a purse tonight?" I shrug. "By the way, we were totally right. Your dress is absolutely gorgeous. As usual."

"Mom did really good with this one," I admit, proud of my beautiful floor-length gown.

"She did!" Zoe agrees with a smile. "Do you think I could get her to make a graduation dress for me?"

"Oh, and for me, too?" Lucy's face lights up at the idea.

"Yeah, I can ask her. If she says yes, she'll most likely need you guys to come over for fittings to get your sizes down."

"Perfect!" Zoe exclaims happily.

Lucy jabs my ribs with her elbow. "You've got admirers again. How the hell did they get tickets so last minute?"

I frown and look in the direction Lucy's referring to. Sure enough, there's Kade and his friends, Xander and Andrei. I haven’t talked with Xander or Andrei, but I've talked to Kade the one time before I got suspended since he sits next to me in one of my classes. Weirdly, I've got at least one of them in each of my afternoon classes according to Zoe and Lucy, but only Kade in one of my classes in the morning.

"I'm not sure, I thought the tickets were sold out," Zoe says thoughtfully.

Lucy snorts. "Oh my god. We're not the only ones who noticed their interest in you either." She lifts her chin to the entrance of the school where Adam's standing. His face is twisted in an angry scowl as his head goes from me to Kade, Xander, and Andrei. He does not look happy.

"He looks supremely pissed off by the attention the three new guys are giving you," Zoe says, her head tilting to the side. "Weird."

I take my eyes off the group of hot-ass guys watching me and swivel my gaze to Zoe. "What do you mean weird?" I ask, though admittedly, I wasn't really paying attention to what she was saying.

"It's weird because he cheated on you, but he's acting like he's jealous. You think that maybe he doesn't want to see anyone else show any interest in you?"

We get to the entrance to the school and Zoe hands our tickets over to the attendants and we continue through. We had her keep them since there's less likely of a chance that she'd lose the damn things. If it were at my house, it would have been thrown away on accident. If it were at Lucy's house it would have probably just been lost in a mountain of papers.

Ignoring Adam, we walk past him and into the school. I can’t help but smile at the bandage at the bridge of his nose and bruising from when I punched him.

“Let’s go dance!” Lucy shouts excitedly, practically dragging Zoe and me into the gym that they had transformed for prom.

When we get inside we spot the area where the other girls had put their shoes to the side and ditch ours the same way. I’ve never understood the whole point of wearing the shoes if we’re just going to take them off to dance in the first place, but it works.

The music pulses around us, and I feel a wave of apprehension shiver down my spine. I turn and watch everyone on the dance floor for a long minute before Lucy grabs my hand and pulls me out of my daze.

“You okay?” she shouts over the music, hips swaying to the beat.

I nod and flash her a smile, not wanting to lie out loud that I have a bad feeling about tonight.

Lucy twirls me around, making me laugh as I spin. “C’mon! It’s prom night! Dance, Cherish!”

I laugh and bump my hip against Zoe’s as she comes close, almost making her stumble because I startled her. Lucy points at Zoe and laughs at the irritated expression on her face.

We lose ourselves in the music, our bodies moving to the beat. I freeze when I feel a pair of hands settle on my hips, and a hard body lines themselves up against my back. Turning my head slightly, I smile softly when I see Kade’s grinning face.

“What are you doing?” I ask, feeling breathless.

“Dancing,” he says with a shrug. He brings his mouth down to my ear. “You look absolutely stunning, Cherish.” Heat rushes to my cheeks. He grabs my hand and twirls me out in front of him before pulling me back into his body.

“Where are your friends?” I ask after several minutes of dancing with Kade.

He nods his head to the side, bringing my attention to the two gods leaning against the wall, watching Kade and me very, very closely.

“They’re not going to dance?”

He shakes his head. “Nah, they’d rather just watch you dance.”

I frown at his choice of words. An idea comes to mind, and I hold my finger up to him in a one minute gesture. He nods and steps back. I ignore Lucy’s shit-eating grin and make my way to Andrei and Xander.

“Hey, you guys going to come dance, too?” I ask sweetly.

They exchange a look before Andrei shakes his head. “No. I’m fine right here.”

“I’m good,” Xander says, a hint of amusement in his gaze as he watches me.

I purse my lips and grab their hands and start dragging them to where my friends are dancing next to Kade. “You’re dancing,” I announce, not giving them a choice.

Kade bites his lip, almost like he’s fighting a laugh.

Andrei glares at him while Xander outright laughs. “You’re sure a bossy one, aren’t you, Princess?” Xander asks.

“There’s no one more bossy than I am,” I admit proudly, smiling at the nickname. “Now dance!”

Andrei groans, seeming pained. Guess he doesn’t really like dancing. Xander and Kade start dancing next to us with Lucy and Zoe. We alternate between the guys, laughing and dancing, just having fun. I laugh everytime Andrei has to dance with one of us because his eyes keep darting off to the side, like he’s looking for an escape.

After at least an hour of dancing without stopping I finally grab hold of Lucy and Zoe’s hands, pulling them away from the guys and to me. “Drinks and bathroom.” The girls nod and Kade raises a brow at us.

“Everything okay?” he asks.

“Yeah, we’re going to get drinks and use the restroom,” I assure him. “We’ll be back.”

We turn to leave without waiting for a response and rush out to the bathroom.

After using the restroom we walk out and stop at the sight of Gloria glaring at me.

I inwardly roll my eyes. “Hello, Gloria.”

“Stay away from them,” she snarls.

Lucy steps forward, stopping only when I place a hand on her shoulder and shake my head at her.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I say calmly.

“Adam and the new guys. Stay away from them.”

I raise a brow at her. “I don’t want Adam, Gloria. You’re more than welcome to have my leftovers. Do you even know the new guys’ names?” I ask, curious.

“Of course I do! Their names are Kaden, Xavier, and Andrew.”

Lucy laughs outright, a loud–almost giddy–sound. Zoe snickers behind me and I have to fight the urge to laugh. Although from the flush starting on Gloria’s face I can’t stop the smile from gracing my lips.

“Their names are Kade, Xander, and Andrei,” I say slowly, like I’m talking to a toddler.

Gloria’s fists clench at her sides. “They’re not for you to have,” she growls, not acknowledging that she got their names wrong. She was close. But it was still wrong.

I point to myself. “Does this look like the face of someone who gives a shit about your twisted little head and what it deems is yours?”

Gloria glares at me. “Just stay away. They’re mine.” She turns to walk away, and as soon as she’s out of sight, I lose the battle. I laugh. I laugh hard.

“What the fuck has gotten into her?” Zoe asks.

“I don’t know, but it was entertaining as fuck.” Lucy gives us a thumbs up while she’s doubled over from laughing. “That was awesome!”

I roll my eyes at my friend. “We should get ba-“ I start but my words are cut off by me bumping into none other than Adam. I groan loudly. “What the fuck? Is it shit on Cherish night?” I ask no one in particular.

Adam flicks his gaze across Lucy and Zoe before facing me again. “Can I talk to you outside, Cherish?”

I blink at him. What? “I’m sorry, what?”

“Can I talk to you outside?” His eyes flit back to the girls, and he adds, “Alone?”

I raise a brow at him. “That’s what I thought you said. Are you serious right now?

“Deadly,” he says softly.

I roll my eyes. “Fine. Whatever.”