New chapter, y'all!


Audrey twisted the pink sapphire bracelet around her wrist. She had spun it around her wrist nearly fifty times now. She huffed a sigh and turned to her mother. They stood outside the doors to the ballroom of Aurora's palace. Beyond the high oak doors, music pulsed and laughter and chatter rose and fell in waves. Her guests were having fun without her already. She had been expected to start the party with a dance with Jay, but after thirty minutes of waiting on him, she had allowed the DJ to start the music without her.

"I just can't believe this!" Audrey snapped. She crossed her arms over her chest to avoid more constant fidgeting with her bracelet. "This is getting ridiculous. Should I just go in?"

"I told you," Aurora sighed at her. "The driver picked up Jay. But he wanted to run an errand first."

"An errand," Audrey muttered. How dare Jay want to run an errand of any sort on the night of her party. He had certainly bailed. This was his way of getting back at her for being so rude to him. Maybe this had been his plan all along since she asked him to be her date to her party. She knew it had been a mistake. She shouldn't have asked him. By now, going dateless would have been better than being stood up.

The entrance hall doors opened, and Jay strode into the palace. Audrey's breath caught in her throat, no longer sure where she had been in the middle of an inhale or exhale. Jay wore a suit of black and a pink tie that matched her dress. She had seen him try on the items at the boutique, but it was quite different seeing the whole outfit together at once now.

As he approached, Audrey saw he had pulled his hair back into a low ponytail at the base of his neck. Not a single hair was out of place. He looked quite nice...put together...handsome.

Audrey shook her head, frowning. "You're late. Very late."

Jay smiled softly and gestured to a clear box he was holding. She hadn't even cared to notice it; her eyes had never left his face. "For a good reason. The florist had misplaced your corsage."

Audrey's gaze fell to the box. Inside the clear plastic was a corsage of pink roses and baby's breath. "You...what? Why did you get this? It wasn't...it wasn't necessary." Her cheeks felt as if they had taken on the color of her dress.

Aurora swept over, smiling. "I told you he had an errand. I'll go signal the DJ." She winked and opened one of the doors to the ballroom. Music and voices swelled for a moment as Aurora slipped inside. The door shut, dulling the sounds of the party once more.

Audrey couldn't look at Jay, horrifically ashamed of her assumptions of his reasons for being late. "It really isn't necessary," she whispered to the floor.

One of Jay's hands found her chin, and his fingers pulled her face back to look at him. A soft smile lit his features. "To me, it is. You deserve all the flowers in the world. You have so much in common with them." He lowered his hand and opened the box to lift out the corsage.

"How so?" Audrey asked. She hesitantly offered him her wrist without the bracelet, and he slid the elastic band of the corsage onto her wrist.

Jay closed the empty box and walked over a few paces to place it on a table in the entrance hall. He returned to her side before answering. "You're both beautiful and the more you try to catch that beauty, the quicker it slips away. I realize I have to accept that I will never be able to hold onto you. I keep trying, and you keep pulling away. You'll never be comfortable with this, and you deserve a relationship you have no doubts about. It would be wrong to ask you to give in to only half of yourself when the other half rejects even the merest idea of me. It will just prolong the inevitable hurt for me."

"I-"

"Audrey." Jay shook his head. "You've made it pretty clear, so I've made up my mind to stop trying. But I agreed to escort you tonight. As friends. I'll hold to that, don't worry."

Before Audrey could respond, Aurora poked her head out of the ballroom doors. Audrey hadn't even noticed that the music had changed from upbeat dance music to a slow waltz. "We're ready, dear," her mother said.

Jay smiled at Audrey and offered her his arm, clearly acting as if he wasn't hiding his pain behind a mask that Audrey could see straight through.


Their opening dance was smooth and delightful. Audrey stepped with Jay at all the right moments, and he spun and dipped her at all the appropriate times as well, and they completed the Auradon Waltz with zero stumbles or mishaps.

"Where did you learn to dance like that?" Audrey asked now that they were no longer the center of attention. The upbeat music had returned to replace their waltz, and the other Auradon Prep students had converged on the dance floor once more to form a mass of moving bodies. Jay and Audrey, however, had simply shifted to the very edge of the dance floor, holding each other in a slow and swaying embrace. Audrey's arms were around his neck, and she didn't seem ready to release him. If she did, it was as if a spell would be broken and he might dissolve into nothingness. He would no longer pursue a relationship with her if she let him go even once.

She was not leading him on. She didn't believe in such things. But while she wanted to simply let him go and forget their time together, she couldn't. Something inside her would not permit a loosening on the emotions she held for Jay. And she wasn't even sure what those emotions were anymore!

"Let's just say I didn't get a lot of sleep last night," Jay answered coyly. He grinned.

Audrey raised an eyebrow. "I'll guess..." She mulled over names in her mouth before continuing, "that Ben taught you. Am I right?"

Jay laughed and nodded. "That obvious? Actually...how was that obvious?"

Audrey smiled. "We take ballroom dance in eighth grade here. Ben was the best in the class because he's had lessons since he was little. If anyone could teach you in a single night, it's Ben."

"You've got me there then." His eyes were warm as he studied her, and he pulled her closer. His eyes were suddenly serious, sober. He lowered his voice. "I promised not to pursue you or press you further, Audrey. But, please...just tell me outright that you feel nothing. Do it, so I can move on. I don't want to continue to feel warm and happy even as daggers pierce me every time I look at you and think about what I can never have."

"I..." Audrey swallowed and slid her hands from his neck. But she stopped with her hands pressed to his chest. She closed her eyes, trying to gather her thoughts together over the pounding of the music. "I can't," she told him. "I can't tell you that I feel nothing for you. Because it would be a lie."

"But you're still not totally comfortable with this," Jay said.

"Perhaps."

A moment passed in which the only reason Audrey knew Jay had not left her was because she was still touching his chest and his arms were still around her waist.

Another second slid by, and Audrey felt Jay press closer, could feel his face next to hers, his cheek touching hers.

"Tell me to stop," he said into her ear. He pressed a kiss to her jaw, slow and deliberate. Then another, and another, and another, working a path down her jaw to the corner of her mouth. "Tell me," he breathed, "to stop, Audrey."

But Audrey couldn't. His kisses had lit her skin on fire, and a longing had burst into being in her chest. His mouth was a centimeter from hers. So, in reply to him, she tilted her head up a fraction, and her lips met his.

Instantly, his hands moved to cup her face, and he was kissing her with such fervor that she stumbled into him. Her hands gripped his shirt, wrinkling the starched fabric.

Then Lonnie's chiming giggle punctuated the air close to them, and Audrey pulled back, wrenched back to reality. All their friends were around them. No one was looking at them, but they were surrounded. Instantly, the thoughts bombarded Audrey again: What would people think of her being with Jay? Had anyone seen that kiss? It couldn't happen again.

She saw the sadness in Jay's eyes as she shook her head. She took a step back and gathered her skirts into her fists before taking off for the door.


Thoughts on this chapter and their romantic moment? Leave your thoughts in a review. They seriously motivate me to write so much. Have a great evening, lovelies!

Foarrin