Disclaimer: If you recognize it, I don't own it or make any money off it.
A/N:) :) :) :) :). That's how I feel right now, thanks to the people who reviewed... You guys rock. Majorly. I wrote this really fast so it might be a little below your expectations. I just realized that sometimes I can be really cheesy, so sorry about that. I fixed some spelling errors (December 13). Because I suck at spelling.
"So, Don, I was thinking..."
"Wow, that's unusual." He looked around the hallway in front of his locker again. Where was Lizzie? She was supposed to meet him here after school, and one of the star players on the softball team had him cornered.
"You're so funny, Don. Well, I was thinking, I'm going to the prom with a group of girls, and I since you don't have a date I thought maybe we could dance together. I'll meet you at eight just inside the entrance, OK?" She flipped her blond hair back and gave him a coy smile. Yuck. He was so glad Liz didn't flirt. She didn't do stupid things like that. He glanced at his watch again and hoped she was intelligent enough to take the hint.
"Actually I'm going with my girlfriend." He said, accenting the word girlfriend with his dynamics and an exaggerated accent.
"Which cheerleader are you dating?" she sweetly, even having the nerve to bat her eyes and step a little closer.
Now he started feeling just a little claustrophobic. What did he do to deserve this? He ran through the lists of possible reason . He got decent grades, chores done usually on time, obeyed his parents..."Who said my girlfriend was a cheerleader? See you around." If she doesn't leave now, I swear, I'll punch her in the nose. Or Liz will.
"Are you sure? Because, it's kinda expected for all the football boys to go with the cheerleader girls. It's actually kind of an unwritten rule. And since I'm one of the only cheerleaders who was planning on going in a group, I thought I could..."
"Eyegore!" Lizzie's voice floated above the crowd as she ran through the crowds of students and flung herself into Don's waiting arms.
"Froaderick!" he responded enthusiastically, grinning and picking her up off the ground. Their inside joke was interrupted by an unladylike snort of surprise and a loud 'huh?' from the offending softball player.
"Young Frankenstein." Lizzie tried to explain, but which drew a blank stare from the girl. "It's a movie." If she only had a brain..."You know, with Gene Wil-"
"Oh, really." the player- Brittany, or Courtney, or something like that- said condescendingly and turned to look at Don, who already had begun talking-to Lizzie, not her.
"Hey. What's up? You ready to go now?" He set her down gently on the floor, but kept his fingers tangled in hers. She nodded and started walking with him towards the exit. He remembered the girl, whatever her name was, and called back over his shoulder "See you around." Yeah, right. They walked side by side out the front doors of their school and into the bright sunlight.
"What was that all about." Lizzie asked quietly, but with a mischievous grin on her face.
"Stupid chick was hittin' on me." Don said with a smirk. Yup, he wasn't getting away with this one.
"Oh, yeah? What did you say?" she said with a tone of voice that showed that she was trying her hardest to keep the laughter in.
"Said I was already taken." They wove in and out of the crowd like true city kids, quick and not bothering if they happened to bump into anyone on the way.
"I like that answer." she whispered, as though not wanting anyone around them to hear.
"Me too." He wanted the whole world to know.
"So where're going?" she stated more than asked, in the jovial that showed she didn't really care, but just wanted to talk. It's not like we're gonna go anywhere interesting on a Thursday night.
"Peace, ye fat guts." He saw right through her, and he was going to prove her wrong.
"How can you quote Shakespeare at me, and almost fail English Lit last year?" she said quickly changing from conversation mode to fighting mode. "Okay, fighting/flirting mode." she admitted to herself.
"I only memorize useful quotations." he said with a smirk she could hear in his voice.
"Insulting ones, you mean." She would bet a million dollars that if she looked over now, she could see a smirk on his face the size of Texas.
"Yeah, pretty much."
"I gotta good one for your little friend back there." She was good at this game, and she wanted him to know it.
"Oh yeah, what?" He knew she was loving this. He loved it too.
"Her beauty and her brain go not together." she said with an exaggerated Yonkers accent, usually not so prominent in her everyday speech.
"Harsh. Thou crusty beef-witted giglet!" he exclaimed, saying the next best insult that popped into his head.
"Peace, ye fat guts. Do you even know what a giglet is?"
"Do you?"
"No, but that's beside the point."
"How so, Miss Gellar?"
"Don't call me crusty."
"I do believe I just won our argument, Cadet."
"Was immer..."
"See. Whenever you know you're gonna lose an argument you switch to German. I win! I win!" he shouted jubilantly.
"Oh really, Mr. Flack." She stopped walking and pulled him beside her a few feet into a small alley next to the street. She ran her fingers around his neck and pulled herself up closer to him. He placed his hands on her hips and kissed her- a long, hard, real kiss. She broke it off but kept her face to the side of his and tip-toed her fingers up his arms. She was driving him crazy. "Alas, poor ape, how thou sweat'st." she whispered into his ear, then pulled back and started to walk away.
He grabbed her left arm and spun her around, gently but surely, backed her up against the wall and kissed her again. This time he was driving her crazy. He broke it off before she was ready to, and whispered "Go rot." in her right ear.
"Truce?"
"Okay." They began walking back towards the apartment building a little more slowly than before.
"So what are we gonna do today?" she asked again, wanting an actual answer this time, and not an 'argument'.
"Your pickup back from the shop yet?" he countered, picturing her beat up red Ford four by four whose engine breaking system decided to quit working just over a month ago.
"Yeah, just got it back last week. Where were you thinkin'?"
"How 'bout one last time in Jersey?" He opened the door for her to go into their apartment building, and once inside she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him on the cheek this time, because there were people around. "I'm guessin' that's a yes."
"Heck yeah, it is. I'll have to ask my parents first, but they'll probably say yes if we get back before midnight."
"Should we ask Jan and Chip?"
"No!" He laughed at her vehement objection and she, flustered, tried to explain herself. "I mean, I think they'll be busy. Alright, alright, I don't want them coming. We see them enough as it is, I just don't need to have my baby sister and her goofy boyfriend around at all times. "
"And I don't need to have my goofy best friend- besides you, of course- and his little girlfriend around at all times either.
"Hey, but we should have one last bash on the roof before you go. After the prom?" she said, speaking of the once-frequent themed parties the quartet threw for each other on the roof of their building. They started organizing them in eighth grade, but had grown too busy during the high school years to throw more than one a semester.
"Sure. Hey, we can ask them now." Don said, pointing out the couple sitting outside the stairwell on their floor. "Yo, Chip. We were thinkin' 'bout throwing another bash tomorrow after the prom. You up for it? It's your turn to choose the theme."
"We were just thinking the same thing, and we decided on orange."
"The color of the food?"
"Both. Liz need to bring candy corn and you have to bring orange Fanta. We're bringing the surprise. Oh, we're gonna meet there at midnight."
"That's okay with us." Liz said, not bothering to ask Don if it was okay with him too. She already knew the answer was yes. "We're going to Jersey. See you tomorrow."
They continued on to their respective apartments, then to the garage below the building, then to the beach in New Jersey where they spent the day walking on the beach and talking about anything but the future.
The day and part of the prom night flew by quickly with dancing and laughing all around. Both Don and Lizzie knew they should be having the talk about the future, but neither of them wanted to bring it up. So they didn't. And all the sudden it was 11:45 and they had to leave the hotel the party was being hosted in and hurry home.
Just as they ran out of their apartments after changing into jeans and school-spirited sweatshirts, they heard the grandfather clock in Mrs. O'Leary's apartment down the hall strike midnight. They ran up the steps and burst outside with a bundle of energy and happiness. They looked out over the beautiful city and soon their arms were around each other and they kissed briefly, then broke off to get oxygen and get their emotions under control.
She knew now was the time to speak what was on her mind. "Don, I lo--" She was cut off by a loud screech of car breaks, and a huge crash.