Fablehaven Randomness #3
Seth was wearing his ashen-black tux, with shiny black shoes, a pitch-black bowtie, and a pale blue flower clipped to his lapel, his six-foot-two skinny frame almost dwarfing his date. She was five-four, but she looked like she could be taller. The black high-heels helped the idea. She wore a sleeveless pale blue dress that slowly faded into pitch-black. She wore a bracelet of pale-blue flowers on her right wrist, her hair held up with bobby-pins and hairspray that smelled like roses. She had blush and lipstick that was a shade darker than her natural lip-color. The close-fitting dress fit her snugly, her slim body poking out in all the right places. She had a pale-blue jacket with navy blue on the lapels, with white on the breast pockets. She had a few snowflake pins, and some of her hair was coming loose.
Seth wanted to pull the pins out and watch her beautiful chocolate-colored hair slide to its place at her shoulders where it always was. He loved her hair like that. Seeing it up was… odd, but she looked… better than beautiful. More than beautiful. She looked… Magical.
It was the Winter Formal, and everyone was dressed up like it was the Prom. She had never been to the Prom—to any dance, really—and she was nervous. She was fidgeting with the lightly frosted flowers on her arm and her dress, braided into her hair. She was wearing dark blue eye shadow, mascara, and liquid eyeliner that she had successfully made look wonderful.
But she looked hotter without the makeup on. Her nose wrinkled and her freshly tweezed eyebrows drew together—he didn't understand how girls did that. Was it like some type of hazing ritual or something? She shivered, and he took off his coat, showing off his royal blue vest with turquoise snowflakes, and wrapped her up in the jacket.
"Think they'll have any slow songs?" she asked in the dimly-lit room. Loud dance music blue through the speakers. She hated the fact that she could never dance to any "new song" the radio played—she never new what to do. She liked oldies music—Styx, Credence Clearwater Revival, stuff like that. But she did like OneRepublic, Linkin Park, and some Lady Gaga songs (she still couldn't get over the meat dress, and laughed every time she thought of it. "Do you think they can make bacon out of it now? It's been contaminated.")
"Do you wanna be a wallflower for the moment?" Seth asked her, gesturing over to the wall. She looked at him sadly; obviously pained that she took away from his fun.
"Are you sure?" she mouthed over the loud music.
Seth nodded. "I'm sure. I'll even join you. These people are killing my feet."
She laughed. She had been so bad at even the slow dance that he had stepped on his feet half a dozen times before he said that she should try backing away rather than getting up close. But she had ended up close anyway, and even touching faces at one point—cheeks, though. Nothing too serious.
Taking his offered hand and even allowing him to kiss it, Chelsea followed Seth over to the bleachers and waited while Seth got some punch and cookies. Kendra had allowed Seth and Chels to wonder about freely, but they had to be well in the range of a chaperone, otherwise she was taking both of the sophomores out before they could say collage. Or something like that.
Seth came back with chocolate chip, sugar, and peanut butter cookies, three of each, and two plastic cups of punch, one a deep red, the other a deep blue. Chels took the deep blue one.
"What is this, blue raspberry?"
"Yeah. I told them my girlfriend has a reputation for bad things to happen when she sees red, and that's why I never take her to the Fall Formal."
Chelsea laughed. "What'd they say to that?"
"They said they have a Spring Formal and you can come anytime you want, so long as you don't come to the fall one."
"There isn't a Fall Formal. They're can't be."
"I think they meant at a different school, but I'm not sure."
"I'm your girlfriend, now, huh?"
"Chels, you are the most brilliant person I have ever met and I mean that when you don't have weird powdery pastes and stuff all over your face. Your personality brings out the best of yourself, and you don't need makeup to do that."
Chelsea blushed considerably, and smiled. Leaning forward, she snuck him a kiss on the cheek, and seemed to forget her lipstick. She saw the print, and looked startled. "Oh, Seth! I got lipstick on your face!"
Seth smiled. "It's OK, Chels. It'll come off."
"Yeah, just like that smirk on your face when you realize you're dancing with my girl," a gruff voice said. Looking over at the person who spoke, Seth realized who it was before he even had to speak. It was Devin Jones, a football linebacker or something who thought that every good-looking girl was his to do with as he pleased. The idiot.
"What are you talking about, nimrod?" Seth asked, glaring menacingly at him.
"I said, you're dancing with my girl."
Chels frowned. "I would never be your girl, you calamitous freak."
Seth's chest swelled up with pride. She was smart, hot, and great with getting those idiot bullies to leave them alone. "Yeah, Jones, leave us alone."
"Why? So you two can make out under the Chester Tree out in the courtyard?"
The Chester Tree was named after a guy named Chester Nutwell (nice name, isn't it?) that got tragically rejected by a girl that he was best friends with and he had taken it to the next level. She didn't want to. The Chester Tree was reserved for people that wanted to break up—and be rather public about it.
"We want to be alone so we don't have to see your sordid face," Chels answered.
"Sordid?" Devin screeched. "Sordid? Is this being filmed?"
"That's candid camera, you twit," Seth almost shouted. His voice boomed a little over the music. Chelsea grabbed Seth's arm and held it tightly. Seth got the message: don't give in. But getting the message didn't mean he had to listen. Glaring menacingly at his archnemisis, Seth took a step forward, and without thinking, a spark of black electricity shot across the space between them, making Devin fly up in the air, twirling like a ballerina's pirouettes, flipping him upside down and smacking his rear right in the punch.
Seth was so surprised at what happened that he didn't realize another spark of midnight-black electricity twisted itself from his hands and overflowed the electricity so much the already dim room went black. The emergency lights didn't even turn on.
Adrenaline kicking in, Seth gently grabbed Chelsea's hand and pulled her out of the main gym. A flood of students stood there in the gym in some sort of mass hysteria and confusion. It took about half an hour to get the lights back on.
Seth and Chelsea sneaked outside, Seth wanting to get a breath of fresh air, Chelsea just wanting to get some cool air from the heat of the over-cramped gym.
Looking around at the cement benches, it took the two a second to figure out they were in the courtyard. Looking over at a lonely tree on the side of the courtyard furthest from the gym, Seth led Chelsea over to it, and sat her down. She put her head down on his, and looked up at the tree. It was a silver maple, all broken down and dead from the winter. The snow had been cleared off the cement bench, but some was still there. While in the process of getting out of the gym, Seth had grabbed Chelsea's jacket. Putting his own suit jacket on the bench and making sure Chels was warm, he sat her down on the jacket and took his spot next to her. He put an arm around her, his cold hand brushing her shoulder. Her jacket felt soft. It was pure cotton, soft and pale blue on the moon light. Pulling a pin from her stubborn hair, she looked up at him, wonderment and confusion evident in her eyes.
Seth blushed. "You look better with your hair down."
Chelsea blushed, a tiny splatter of freckles showing. But someone had to be really close to see any of them. Especially in this light. Really close.
Seth pulled out a few more pins, and Chelsea let down her chocolate hair. She pulled on his tie, fiddling with his collar until Seth couldn't stand it.
He pulled her in, bracing her for a kiss. He stopped, pulling away when she flinched. But she pulled him back… and they were lost in each other's warmth…
Kendra, in her light grey and dark blue flowy dress, watched as Seth and his date snuck out of the gym. Where were they going? What were they doing? They were never going to be able to go on a second date at this rate! What would she tell Mom? What would she tell Dad?
Pulling away from Albert, she started toward the door. Al caught her at the wrist, surprised he had actually caught his date. In this darkness, it could be anyone. "Where are you going, Kendra?"
"To get my little brother."
"Aw, come on, Ken. Just let him be. For tonight."
"I can't let him be. It's like I can't leave him alone for one minute, lest something goes wrong."
Al smiled. "Seth won't do anything wrong. He's a good guy. Give him a chance."
"I gave him a chance at the seventh grade dance, and look how that turned out."
"Kendra."
"What? All he wanted to do was leave. He thought it was boring. And his date—oh… Don't even get me started on his date."
Albert gave his semi-sad smile again, pulling her closer toward the light box. "Don't you think you're a little too controlling? He's your little brother. Of course he's going to make mistakes. What do you think lives are for?"
Kendra scowled at him. "Stop taking my brother's side, Albert Jeffries."
He held his hands up like he was being arrested for something he didn't do. "Sorry."
They made it over to the light box and it didn't take long for Al to figure out what was wrong. "Must have blown a fuse." He looked at the ground and noticed the plug was pulled out. "Or somebody is really bad at dancing."
Since Albert was on Stage Crew and loved working with mechanics, he knew a lot about what made things tick. He was very logical, which was what Kendra liked about him, but his odd interest in his brother's affairs scared her a little.
Seth isn't actually adopted and I'm dating his biological brother, am I? That would be creepy.
After the lights were back on and people stopped screaming, there were a dozen more slow songs until the DJ finally picked a different song. But Kendra and Albert were long gone before the DJ picked it.
Stalking about around the school, Kendra looked around for her brother and didn't find him until they searched the courtyard. Chelsea was lying against his chest, half asleep, and Seth was leaning against the arm of the cement bench, leaning back against it, his eyes half lidded, looking like he was going to fall asleep, too.
Kendra pulled the two of them up, dusted them off in that mother hen way, and marched them back to the car in the parking lot, Albert trailing after them. She had spouted off more than three dozen times that she had wanted to go home, and now they were in the super-crowded parking lot, actually doing it. Albert had been sad at the fact, but he was OK with it. It was Kendra's parents' car, which she was borrowing, but she hadn't wanted to drive, so she'd made Seth do it. The boy that had just barely passed his driver's test the first time.
She made Albert drive home because she didn't want Seth to get them in an accident.
There was radio silence the whole way home. Albert pulled into the drive way, got out, opened Kendra's door, walked her to the door, gave the keys back to her father, and sat at the door, telling Kendra what a night it had been. Her father did not permit kissing. With the way Seth and Chelsea were acting, it was like they were high.
Albert knew it was because they were tired and they had shared their first kiss with somebody they really liked. As in, very first. Big night for both of them. And not just kiss-on-the-cheek kind, either. Full-on, lip kiss.
If Kendra found out, she would be pissed.
"So… you didn't like it so much, I imagine."
Kendra shook her head.
Didn't say much in the car, not gonna say much now.
"Sorry it didn't go so well."
Kendra's lips shrugged, and so did her shoulders.
Albert said goodbye, and turned from the door.
"Albert." Her first word since she got back. Albert turned around, fully expecting her to be crying and telling him to never come back, but she was bright red, and she pecked him on the cheek, and slammed the door in his face after he looked up at her after she pulled away, her face getting even redder in the yellow light of the front porch.
Albert's smile widened considerably.
He walked back to the driveway, and realized that Seth and Chelsea were still there… and they were kissing each other again. That kind of drowsy, sloppy kiss where you don't realize what's going on and you don't come up for air until you black out. The way Seth towered over Chelsea made Al feel a little bad for her, but at least Seth was a nice guy.
Al tapped Seth on the shoulder. "We need to get your pretty little lady home, Seth. She needs to go to bed." He paused and looked at Seth. "And so do you."
Seth smiled. "Take her to bed. Right."
"No, Seth, take her home." Al sighed. "All right, I'll be your chaperone."
Seth laughed, and Chelsea giggled. "OK, Mr. Chap-a-rone, sir," she squeaked. She gave a small salute, and Seth smiled, planting a kiss on her cheek. She kissed his cheek back and planted a hickey on his neck. Seth smiled, clearly enjoying it.
"OK, lovebirds. Let's get you home."
After a few more hickeys and about a dozen more kisses, Chelsea was safe in the comfort of her bed, stripped of her dress and jacket and put into bedclothes, courtesy of her mother (who was a little concerned at the sight of the hickeys, but when confronted with Seth's behavior, thought he had drank alcohol but she couldn't smell anything, and she thought he had been using, but there was no puncture wound, and she could find no traces of snorting or scarfing. He was clean. He was just tired… Tired and aroused.
Walking back to Seth's house, he helped him up the stairs while his mom watched, amused by his super-tired behavior and Al's attempts at getting him up the stairs. She got him into bedclothes, Al said good night and Kendra and Seth's Mom bid him goodnight.
But before she closed the door, she asked, "Where did all the hickeys come from?"
"His date."
"Was she acting the same way?"
"Yeah."
"Do you think he'll remember?"
"He fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, ma'am. There's no chance either of them will remember."
"Do you think it'll scare him if I say it's an STD or something?"
Albert laughed. "You're cruel."
Seth's mom laughed. "Sometimes it's good to lie, don't you think?"
