A few lines in this chapter are all Ally's! You'll recognize them, but I've italicized them as well!(; It helps me to keep connecting the original story to my AU, and I hope y'all like their incorporation.

This second chapter wasn't as horribly awful as I remember thinking it was, so I've made some changes, but I've kept it pretty similar. I think it was chapter 3 that will be requiring a major overhaul? Anyway, enjoy!(:


Dear Diary,

I've decided I'd rather be forever alone than settle for a love that I'll never feel satisfied in. I don't want to be another one of those divorce statistics even if that means I sit at home with twenty-seven bridesmaid dresses in my closet and not a single white one fit for a bride. I want that kind of love that leaves me wanting more in the most delicious way. I don't want to left wanting more from him; I want to left wanting more of him. You know?

Still wishing on falling stars,

Cammie


"Please remind me how you talked me into this."

Macey just laughed, "That's not important." Her face dropped all humor as she turned back to the rack in front of us with an expression I imagine someone wears when making a life-altering decision as she said, "What's important is if we're wearing gold and black or silver and black tonight."

"You've got to be freakin' kidding me."


"Let's just get in and out, can we?" I begged. I tried tugging the too-short sequined dress down to cover a little more of my legs while keeping the neckline from plunging too far, but Macey swatted my hand away before I made a lot of improvement. She had decided on gold and silver after making many consultation calls to her stylists and changing her mind at least four times.

Bex glared at me, already fed up with my complaining. "Absolutely not. You, Cameron Morgan, are going to enjoy yourself tonight, and we're not leaving until at least after midnight. So put a smile on that pretty little face of yours and have fun!"

I knew my limits with Bex, and, as frustrated as she was with me, I had not yet reached them, so I decided to push my luck just a little more. "Why did I have to come and not Liz?"

Macey closed her compact mirror, smacking her lips in satisfaction- apparently finally finding the perfect lip gloss shade- before whirling back around towards me, her hair flying through the air in the process, and letting me know in a no-nonsense way that "Liz had other plans. She and Jonas had been invited to some fancy dinner by some fancy science organization."

I pouted, knowing that all of my arguments would be fought down as a moot point. We were standing in his front lawn for crying out loud.

Bex kept glancing at the doors, the bass pulsing from the house drawing her like a siren's call, but her eyes cut to me now. "What's your problem anyway? It's usually just the wardrobe decisions that have you in a fit, but tonight you're like some social pariah!"

I tugged on my dress again, before mumbling something about a headache. She gave me a look, and I knew she didn't accept that excuse, but I just grabbed their wrists and pulled them towards the house. As much as I didn't want to be there, I didn't want to explain why I didn't want to be there even more.

Making our way up the stairs, we paused at the oak doors. And, I had to admit, this party would definitely be talked about for the next few months- set the par for every other party this year.

Macey looked around and sighed in contentment before she smugly said, "I totally made the right decision with the black and gold."

We had just grabbed sodas from the cooler- I was still trying to shake the freezing water off my hands from digging around to find a sprite- when the real reason for me wanting to skip out on this party came into view.

I had a bad feeling about him from the start.

Macey started to pull us towards him, "Look! It's the new guy. Let's go introduce ourselves."

I knew if I made a comment about not wanting to that they'd see right through my act, so I followed them without complaint.

It wasn't that I didn't want them to know about meeting him earlier. It just really wasn't important, but that wouldn't stop them from teasing me and reading into every little detail.

So I calmly followed Macey, trying to discreetly adjust my dress to cover as much as it could. I didn't manage to pull it down more than a centimeter before we were already standing in front of green-eyes.

Bex, always the flirt, cocked a hip and raised an eyebrow, and started the conversation, "Nice party. You might just survive the high school social bloodbath yet."

There was honestly no other way to describe the expression on his face as anything but a smirk (and I promise I've tried) as he said, "I'm not worried."

I rolled my eyes, about to thrown in a witty remark, but Macey beat me to it. "I'm Macey. Senator's daughter- blah, blah blah." She rolled her eyes. He smiled just a little, seeming to appreciate her attitude.

"Zach," he replied, finally giving me something else other than Mr. Smirks-A-Lot and green-eyes to call him.

She smiled, fluttering her eyelashes just a little. "This is Cammie," Macey continued, gesturing towards me.

He smirked, and I couldn't help myself. "Do you have any other freakin' facial expression than that annoying smirk?" A grin was already working its way onto his face, but it exploded into a full-fledged smile when I stomped my foot in frustration.

I'm not going to lie. His smile was gorgeous. Breathtakingly so. If this were a movie, that would be the moment where the sun suddenly shined brighter, the music started to play, and the leading actress seemed stunned and speechless, floundering for a coherent thought.

Not me. I was still irritated… And only a little stunned.

He let his gaze wonder back to Macey and infuriated me even more, talking like I wasn't there, when he said, "Oh, we've met."

And with that, I saw it click in Bex's brain. She knew exactly why I didn't want to come to this party, and she most definitely wasn't going to let me off easy.

Grinning that devious smile of hers that I learned long ago to be extremely terrified of, Bex said, "Oh, have you now? Well-"

I narrowed my eyes at her in warning, cutting her off when she didn't look like she was going to stop, "Zach, this is Rebecca Baxter."

If looks could kill, I'd be dead. But, they can't, so I stood there breathing quite comfortably and fairly satisfied with myself.

Bex on the other hand cut her eyes away from mine and gave Zach an equally terrifying glare, which he managed to withstand wonderfully. "It's Bex," she spit out.

He chuckled just a little, "Noted."

Bex dropped the glare, turning to me and smiling, which scared me so much more than the glares. "Well, Macey, I'm famished. Let's go see if we can find anything to eat around here." She paused for just a second as the music changed to a new song. "Isn't that perfect? Cammie, it's your favorite song!"

I knew where this was headed. Dread filled me and I desperately sputtered, "No. No, no. It's not. Really. I hate this song."

I really should learn to stop trying to beat Bex at her own game.

I always lose.

Bex placed my hand in Zach's, sending me a smirk of her own. "Well, why don't y'all go dance anyway?" she suggested. "Go have fun, kids. But not too much fun," she winked and pushed us towards the crowd of dancing, sweaty teenagers.

As soon as they were both out of sight, I tore my hand out of Zach's, wiping it on my dress.

"Someone's still not being too nice, are they?"

I rolled my eyes, ready to walk off, but Zach grabbed my arm and turned me back around, pulling me close against his chest. He leaned down to whisper in my ear, "Gallagher Girl. Let go for just a second and have some fun."

A shiver rolled through my spine, and I fought to keep myself upright. Something about his voice mesmerized me, and I couldn't find the will to argue, so I let him lead me into the middle of the dancers.

I took Zach's advice and let go. I didn't worry about how stupid I may have looked dancing, about the length of the dress. I didn't even worry about how close Zach and I were getting.

That is until I felt a little pop in the back of my dress. Suddenly the dress that was so tight it almost felt like it had been sewn on got a little bit looser. I felt my face heat up, my eyes opened wide, and my body went completely rigid.

"Gallagher Girl?" Zach hadn't missed the sudden change in my demeanor. "What's wrong?"

I let my mind run through the different options here. I could either walk off now, leaving Zach no less the wiser, but I would risk the possibility of having more stiches pop out and possibly facing the embarrassment of my entire dress falling down in front of everyone in the room. Or I could tell Zach what was happening, humiliate myself completely within the first twenty-four hours of knowing him, and have him help me out.

As tempted as I was to take my chances with the first option, I chose the latter.

Trying to not move more than necessary, I took as deep of a breath as possible without moving my dress, and motioned for Zach to lean in so I could tell him.

"Don't laugh."

He was still so shocked and worried about what made me freeze up that he didn't hesitate to nod. I was impressed with seriousness, but I wasn't counting on it lasting long.

"The stitching holding the zipper to the fabric of my dress is ripping, and there's a very real possibility that if I move too much, I run the risk of everyone seeing way more skin than they already are now."

I saw the laughter start to bubble up in his eyes, but then they met mine and saw the panic- and the warning- there. Even the smallest of movements was starting to cause stitches to pop, and I knew my dress would soon be holding on by just a few threads.

Still looking me in the eyes, he asked, "Do you trust me, Gallagher Girl?"

My mind screamed no. How can someone earn your trust in less than a day? But, in this situation, I had no choice but to trust him.

But, honestly, I know that, no matter what the situation, something about him would've made me answer the same way.

"Yes," I whispered.

He nodded and whispered, "Just so you know, Gallagher Girl, I'm going to kiss you now."

Somehow, despite the warning, the last thing I expected was to feel his arms sliding around me, to sense the whole world turning upside down as Zach dipped me in the middle of the song and pressed his lips to mine.

And I thought my mind went into overdrive when threads started popping.

But, while I had been lost in the feel of his lips against mine, he had been gathering my dress into his fist. I was impressed by the way he made it seem like he didn't know what he was doing and was just lost in the passion of the kiss. I was even more impressed by how he still managed to keep me somewhat modest.

When he pulled away, only a few people had noticed us. He swung me up into his arms, carrying my like a groom carries his bride over the threshold, and still managed to keep a decent hold on my dress.

I was still breathless from the kiss, but I managed to let out a laugh for everyone watching so it looked like we were just having some fun.

He carried me out to the yard, pausing to look around the parking lot, "Which is yours?"

My eyes went wide, "Dang it. I rode with Macey."

We both glanced back at the party, which was in full swing. There was no way we'd be finding Macey anytime soon, and Zach couldn't really carry me around to look for her anyway.

Zach turned back around and headed back into the house.

"What are you doing?" I screeched.

He ignored me and kept going. He maneuvered us through the crowd and up the stairs. He opened a door, and it was pretty obvious that we were in his bedroom.

There were too many dirty clothes on the floor for it to be his parents.

He put me down on his bed before he started rummaging around his drawers. I was busy trying to keep my dress together when a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt hit me in the face.

"You can borrow these. This is about the best I can do. They're gonna be a little big, but it's better than nothing right? I'll let you get dressed." He turned towards the door, but right before he shut it, I lifted my head up.

My cheeks were tinged with pink, but I called out, "Zach?"

He turned back around to face me.

"Thank you. For not making this more embarrassing than it had to be. And for coming to my rescue even though I was so rude earlier."

He nodded, "You're welcome," and shut the door behind him.

AH! Guys. I'm so excited. SAT scores came back, and I met all of my goals! I'm a little late on taking it seeing as that was my first one, and I'm a senior this coming year, so I've been ready to throw up waiting on these. But, I had a goal of 650 on all three parts because I need to get into the 700s if I want to get into Vanderbilt. And, thank God, I got a 710 on critical reading, 650 on math, and 660 on writing. So, I can bring those up the next two times I take it in the fall.

If you chose not to read that, I don't blame you. Haha! I'm just so excited I had to share with someone!

~Mary Katherine