Our Prom

What If Logan and Quinn had snuck out of prom to be alone like he had promised?

Quinn's Point of View

I was really starting to regret my decision of not having Logan accompany me to the prom. Riding on the back of Dustin's bike was not only uncomfortable, but also painful. My face was quite warm and red whenever I thought too much of my ride, and feeling like I was going to fall off at any moment wasn't helping the situation.

"This is so uncomfortable . . ." I wined.

"Will you quit complaining?" Dustin asked as he struggled to keep the bike upright.

I knew I was being unfair to Dustin. He was trying to make this date work . . . as much as a fourteen year old could. I had been dreading this night for a while; ever since Logan and I decided to pick each other's dates.

Of course, I understood why we had to do this elaborate masquerade. If our classmates found out that I liked Logan, or that he liked me . . . Well, lets just say my life at PCA certainly wouldn't ever be the same again, but I really wished things could be different. It didn't feel right not going to the dance with the man I loved.

Love . . . ? Where did that come from? I don't love him. I just . . . just . . .

I shrieked as Dustin brought his bike to a sudden stop. Losing my balance, I crashed against him and tumbled off to land on the ground with a groan due to the pain. The embarrassment increased as Dustin and his bike too lost their balance and fell like dominoes.

I sighed.

Leaving Dustin to clean up the mess, I caught up with Michael and Lisa, and walked into the dance auditorium with my friends. Being in their company made me feel a little better . . . until I heard a familiar voice calling out our names from behind us.

With a soft groan, I turned around to come face-to-face with Stacey . . . and Logan. I couldn't help the small smile that grew on my face at seeing him, but he barely even looked at me. A disgusted look was plastered on his face. Was Stacey already annoying him that much?

Knowing both of them, the answer was surely affirmative.

I listened as Michael greeted them before turning with his date towards the entrance. As Stacey hurried after them, I quickly grabbed my boyfriend's arm as he tried to pass me. Pulling him back, I dragged him away with me as we hurried off behind a tree to talk, hopefully away from all prying eyes.

"I can't believe you made me come here with Dustin," I started, letting go of him and putting my hands on my hips.

"Oh, and I'm having a blast with Stacey," he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. He made sure to add in some hand gestures to emphasize how irritated he was.

I looked back over my shoulder at all the couples that were arriving to enjoy the prom. Everyone else looked so happy to be here.

This wasn't right. It was our junior prom. We shouldn't be feeling annoyed at our dates. We should have been preparing to have the night of our lives.

Turning back to Logan, I shrugged my shoulders before hesitantly saying, "Maybe we should have just come here together?"

"And let everyone know that we like each other?!" Logan snapped at me, and the frown on my face deepened.

"No," I said, my shoulders slumping in surrender. "I couldn't take the abuse we'd get."

"Me neither." As I grew even more discouraged, he wrapped one of his arms over my shoulder and pulled me closer, holding me in his arms. "Hey," he said, "it's gonna be okay."

"Logey! Come on!" I heard a voice call from the auditorium.

"I'm coming!" Logan snapped back, releasing me from his hold. Lowering his voice again, he turned back to me. "Look, I promise. Sometime tonight, we'll find a way to sneak off and be together," he said, his trademark smirk on his lips.

I couldn't help but smile back at him. It was moments like this that made up for all the trouble we went through to keep our relationship a secret. Logan could be so sweet when he wanted to be, and it made my heart melt every time I got to see this side of him.

"I like you," I said before I could stop myself, and the smile on Logan's face grew. My heart started to pound in my chest as I waited for him to return my affection.

"Logan," Stacey called as she walked over. "What's the hold up, Buttercup?"

Buttercup . . . ?

I couldn't help the scowl I shot at her for coming over and interrupting our moment together. An ugly feeling rose from the pits of my mind.

Keeping his eyes on me, Logan stated, "I was just telling Quinn how much I don't like here." He raised his eyebrows, emphasizing the word 'don't' in an attempt to let me know that what he really meant was the opposite.

"You're such a jerk." I frowned back at him as my heart felt like it was plummeting.

That was the first time I told him that I cared about him, and not being able to hear him say it back was killing me inside. I knew what he meant, but it still hurt not being able to hear it without the hiding meaning.

Resting my elbow on the table, I used my hand to prop my head up as I frowned at the playing cards in my hand. I lifted my head up just long enough to play a card before returning to my position.

I glanced up at the young boy sitting across from me. It was my junior prom and this was how I was spending it? Playing cards with a fourteen year old? This night couldn't possibly get any worse.

With a heavy sigh, I turned to look at Logan who was still dancing with his date. Stacey hadn't let go of him all night.

"Hey, what time is it?" Dustin asked.

Turning away from the dance floor, I pulled my phone out of my small purse and pressed a button causing the screen to light up. "8:40," I responded, before returning it to my bag.

"I need to go soon," he said, taking another drink from his cup. "My curfew is at 9:00."

"Aww," I sighed, trying to make it sound like I was more upset then I really was. "That's too bad."

Dustin narrowed his eyes at me. "Stop it, you don't have to do that. I know you aren't having a good time tonight."

"What?" I sat up straighter in my chair. "Of course I am."

"Seriously, stop it." He set his cards down on the table. "You don't have to keep pretending. I know why you asked me here."

I blinked at him. "You do?"

How in the world did he know about Logan and I?

"Yeah, I get it," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "Mark just broke up with you a couple months ago, and you weren't ready to go out with anybody yet. You asked me to come with you just so you wouldn't have to attend alone."

I let out the breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding. "Sorry," I said, playing along. "I appreciate you coming with me. I was kinda lonely, and I didn't know who else to ask."

He sent me a shy smile as he listened to me ramble on, nodding his head slowly to let me know he was listening.

I shrugged before continuing on with the lie. "I really just needed someone I could talk to and trust tonight. That pretty much limits the choices. And who else could I ask? Logan?"

This caused him to burst out laughing, almost dropping the cards he was packing up. Somehow he managed to complete the task.

"No problem," he said, pocketing the box. "Do you want me to give you a ride back to your dorm?"

An image of having to go through yet another uncomfortable ride on his bike flashed across my mind, and I shook my head. "It's fine. I think I'll hang out here a little longer."

With a wave, I watched as my date walked out of the dance leaving me alone at the table.

Now what?

I couldn't help but sneak another look in Logan's direction. Stacey was resting her head on his shoulder. He looked like he was having an awful time as he moved back and forth to the music.

I sighed once again in frustration. It wasn't fair. This was our prom night. Everyone else was having such a great time. Why did we have to be the only ones miserable tonight?

"I promise. Sometime tonight, we'll find a way to sneak off and be together."

It was time to finally turn this night around. As a plan started to form in my head, I grabbed my purse and started to make my way over to my boyfriend.

Logan's Point of View

This was quickly turning into the worse night of my life. Of all the girls that I could have come here with, it had to be Stacey Dillson that was in my arms.

After having to listen to her lispy voice, fabric from her dress constantly getting in my mouth, blowing in my ear, and having her stick a Q-tip in my ear, I was quickly starting to lose my patience. The only thing that had been keeping me sane all night was being able to catch glimpses of my girlfriend from across the room.

Stealing another look in Quinn's direction, I saw her leaning her head against her arm. She looked so sad and lonely. I felt my heart sink at the sight.

That feeling had just started recently. Whenever I saw her looking unhappy, a strange ache in my chest would start bothering me. I loved her smile, and I was willing to do whatever I had to in order to see her face light up in excitement. My heart was telling me to go to her . . . but I couldn't. Stacey was my date tonight and it would look to weird for me to just leave her on the dance floor to go over to check on Quinn.

Reluctantly, I turned my head away from the tables and closed my eyes. Behind my eyelids, I was able to believe that it was Quinn in my arms right now instead of Stacey. Doing my best to hold that image in my mind, I continued to slowly move along with the music.

When my date pulled away from me again, I was forced to open my eyes back up, bring myself out of my daydream. Seeing her still here, I let out a low groan in annoyance.

"You smell so good. Like cinnamon sticks," Stacey explained, making the whole scene even weirder.

"Ahh . . . Thanks?"

What were you suppose to say to a 'compliment' like that?

A smile grew on her face. "Let's see if your lips taste like cinnamon sticks."

I stared at her, uncomprehendingly for a split second, and then raised my eyebrows in realization.

She didn't mean . . . ?

All thought ceased when Stacey suddenly jumped at me. I could feel her lips on mine. Stacey's lips!

Gross.

Repulsive.

I had to get her off me.

"Logan . . ."

Stacey finally pulled away from me, and I spun around to find out who had thankfully saved me from the nightmare of my date to find . . . Quinn. She looked like she was about to burst into tears.

"Quinn, I – " I tried to explain, but she turned on her heels and started to push her way back through the crowd. "Quinn!"

I started to take a step forward to follow her, but someone grabbed my arm holding me back.

"You can talk to her later. Stay and dance with me," Stacey said into my ear.

Shoving her arm off of me, I hurried through the crowd of dancers. I needed to find Quinn. I didn't care if this somehow caused people to question what was going on between Quinn and me. All I knew was that I couldn't lose her.

I had to find her . . .

I needed to explain . . .

Making my way around a girl in a dark purple dress, I finally spotted Quinn. She had made it out of the crowd and was starting to make her dash for the exit.

Shoving my way through the last group of people, I hurried over to my girlfriend. Not giving her a chance to react, I grabbed her arm and hurried us back behind the tree where we had are earlier meeting.

I was preparing myself to go off on her. What did she think was going on? How could she ever believe that I wanted that kiss? She knew Stacey had a huge crush on me, and she still told me to ask her to the dance. Why was she so upset about it? I was the one that had to live through it. It's not like I kissed her back!

But when we made it to our destination and I spun around to face her, all thoughts left my mind.

She looked so . . . unraveled. Strands of her hair were now out of place from her dash away from me. Her eyes were already starting to turn red, and a few tears had escaped and were now running down her cheeks.

"Quinn . . ." I attempted to reach out to comfort her, but she flinched away from me.

"Come on, Quinn. You can't honestly think I enjoyed that kiss."

She folded her arms across her chest. "It was a pretty long kiss . . ."

"Yeah, where I was trying desperately to get her off me the entire time!" I saw the muscles in her jaw starting to relax and knew I was getting through to her. "It's Stacey, Quinn! You know I don't like her."

I heard a low sigh come out of her mouth. "I'm sorry, I know you don't . . . It's just, when I saw her kissing you . . ."

"I know." I reached out to her again, and this time she let me take her hand in mine. "I get it, but you need to know that I'm never going to cheat on you. Especially not with Stacey," I added, a shiver going up my spine at the memory.

She nodded her head in understanding, and used her free hand to wipe away her tears. Pulling her closer to me, I placed a kiss on her forehead.

"Do you want to get out of here?" I whispered in her ear, and smiled when a felt her nod her head.

Hand-in-hand, I led my girlfriend away from the prom and in the direction of my dormitory.

Besides for the tearstains on her cheeks and a small sniffle every now and then, Quinn was back to herself by the time we entered into the lobby of the boy's dormitory.

I brought us to a stop when the hallway came to an end, forcing us to make a decision between right or left. I pointed toward the left. "Why don't you head down to the bathroom and get cleaned up, then come and meet me up on the roof. I'll have a surprise waiting for you," I said, sending her a smirk.

She smiled, her lips quivering a little. She nodded her head and turned to make her way down the hall. I waited until I saw her disappear into the bathroom, before turning to the right and hurrying down to my room.

My first act after entering the room was to dive for the ground, and I proceeded to blindly search for the box of white Christmas lights that I had thrown under my bed at the beginning of the year. It took a few seconds of feeling around to find the box, and I quickly pulled it out and tossed it on to the bed.

Getting back to my feet, I headed over towards the desk where the computer sat and quickly unplugged the speakers for my iPod, the device already sitting in the dock. Balancing everything in my arms, I headed back out to the hallway and hurried in the direction of the staircase.

I had a date to prepare.

I was just finishing stringing up the last of the lights when I heard the door open behind me and a small gasp in surprise.

"Logan . . . What is all this?"

I carefully climbed down off the stepstool and walked over to my girlfriend.

She had fixed her hair again, and had managed to wash the tearstains from her face. Her eyes were still a little red, but that was okay. The light blue dress that she had worn to the prom fit her body perfectly, showing off her curves. She looked beautiful.

I sent her one of my famous smirks, and gestured to the . . . whatever I had created on the roof. The Christmas lights had done a lot to add to the atmosphere and the slow music that was playing from the speakers really pulled the effect together.

"I know we couldn't go to our prom together, so I thought we could have our own private celebration," I explained, and searched her face hoping she would like it.

I wasn't disappointed. Her eyes lit up in excitement and she smiled brightly at me. "Logan . . . This is amazing."

The song that was playing drifted to a close, and the next one started up.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" I asked, holding out my hand to her.

Taking her hand in mine, I led her closer to the display of lights that were illuminating about a fourth of the rooftop.

As she reached up to place her hands on my shoulders, I placed mine around her waist and pulled her closer to me. After a slight hesitation, Quinn lowered her head to rest against my shoulder. Leaving a soft kiss on top of her head, we twirled slowly.

I couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief. This was so much better than the prom.

"You know, I heard a story once that's pretty fitting for us. You want to hear it?"

Quinn hummed softly against my shoulder and I chose to take in as an affirmative.

"Well, there was once this Prince and Princess, both were of rival kingdoms which were at war with each other. One day these two met. They did not know they were of rival kingdoms, so they became quick friends. The Prince often visited the Princess whenever he could. And the Princess, fearing her father's wrath – "

"Why did she fear her father's wrath?" Quinn interrupted. "You said they didn't know they were from rival kingdoms."

"Will you let me finish, Quinn?" I asked, sighing softly. "I was getting there," I added for good measure.

"Sure you were . . . " she said, giggling softly.

"Well, anyway, she thought he was a commoner. And her father would have been angry if she were friends with a commoner. The Prince would scale the walls of her house and come in through her window to talk with her. Soon their friendship grew into more . . ."

"One day, there was this royal feast where the two kingdoms came to set a treaty. There, the Princess and the Prince realized who the other truly was. They belonged to rival houses and were suppose to hate each other, but found out they could not because they had fallen in love. After the feast, they confessed their love to each other. There, on that fateful night, they promised they would be together forever."

"However, fate had other plans. Their families found out about their affair, and prohibited them from ever seeing each other. Lots of events happened, and finally it seemed as if they could never be together. So the girl came up with a plan. She wrote a letter to her boyfriend explaining everything."

"However, the letter never reached him, but she didn't know that and proceeded on with her plan. She pretended to be dead by taking some sleeping pills, and umm . . . her boyfriend found her not moving and thought she was dead and killed himself out of grief. When she woke up and found him dead . . . she killed herself, this time for real. Finally they were together. Forever."

She was silent for a few moments after I finished. I didn't dare break the silence.

Pulling away from my shoulder, she said, "What was that supposed to do?"

That was not the question I was expecting. It took me a few seconds to form a reply.

"Well you're supposed to be all touched and hug me . . . and kiss and . . . stuff?"

She giggled softly. "You are such a . . . I don't even know what to call you. Dumb? Logan, next time you want go all romantic, try flowers. Not a really modified version of Romeo and Juliet."

A blank look crossed over my face. "What's Romeo and Juliet?"

Suddenly she stopped dancing, and just stared at me. "You don't know what Romeo and Juliet is?" she asked, scanning my face.

"Oh, please," I scoffed, "of course I know what Romeo and Juliet is . . ."

"Uh huh, then what is it?" she asked me, definitely not believing me.

"Uhhhhh . . . It's a poem?"

She sighed. "You adorable idiot. That story you told, that's actually a drama written by Shakespeare called Romeo and Juliet. Where did you even get that?"

I ran my fingers through my hair, chuckling nervously. "Internet. I was just searching 'most touching romantic stories' and found it. Sorry . . ."

She shook her head in exasperation. "God . . . you . . . " Then slowly, she came forward and touched my lips with hers. We kissed as the music played around.

By the time we pulled away, we were both gasping for air, and we rested our foreheads against each other's.

"I love you," I blurted out, and we both instantly froze in shock.

I had never intended to say that out loud. It was true, I guess. I did love her, but Quinn was more practical than me. I never saw our relationship as just a high school fling. It meant something more to me, but I realized that she might not have seen it that way. I opened my mouth to apologize but she beat me to it.

"I love you too," she said, her voice a mere whisper, before kissing me again.

Four simple words . . . and yet they brought me more joy then anything else had before. I wrapped my arms around her waist; even more firmly, and she brought hers around my neck, pressing us closer.

Later that night, we were sitting in silence, wrapped up in each other's arms, staring up at the stars.

"Forever," she suddenly said, breaking the silence. It was a promise spoken just a few seconds before midnight.

I thought about it. "Well, I don't wanna die – " I began before stopping when she punched my arm playfully.

"Forever," I agreed wholeheartedly, wrapping my arms tighter around her.

Midnight passed and another day began.

Today was going to be a beautiful day, because it was the first day of our forever.