I placed my hand gracefully on the banister of the stairs and let a big, almost real smile come over my face. Looking down, all the house occupants have come to a stop and were looking right at me. Amber seemed pleased with a hint of jealousy at her work and Nina was smiling. Fabian's mouth was gaping open. Joy was between a smile and a glare. I knew she was happy for me but in her mind, Fabian was hers. Moving on, Mara was glaring at me and clutching onto Mick's arm. Mick was more interested in the plate of food Trudy was holding then to be interested in my big entrance. Patricia was smiling like a proud mother, she would deny it later, but she did it. Finally the terrible twosome, Alfie looked astonished and Jerome looked speechless. Everyone started clapping. I felt my cheeks turn hot as I reached the bottom step.
"Sweetie, you look beautiful. Your dress is lovely!" Trudy said as she pulled me into a hug then pulling away looking at my dress.
"Thank you Trudy." I said giving her another hug before moving onto Jerome. I looked up at him as he smiled down at me. I felt the warmth radiating from his eyes.
"You look truly beautiful, Jude." He said extending his arm to escort me. He looked amazing in the tuxedo I picked out for him. We all went outside where a long black limo waited for us. The back door of the car opened revealing Desmond in a tuxedo with a gold tie to match the color of my dress. He held out a flower, a red rose.
"A beautiful rose, for my gorgeous date." He said walking over to me. I dropped my arm from Jerome's and met Desmond half way. He lifted my right hand and brought it to his lips. I smiled.
"Thank you, it's beautiful. You sure are over doing it with the limo, aren't you?" I say as he chuckles. The driver came out of the limo and to my surprise it was John Smith, "John!"
"Jude, well aren't you a sight for sore eyes. You look amazing." He walked over to the open door and held it taking his driver's hat from his head and held it to his chest. "Shall we get going?"
We all piled into the limo. It's a little cramped but we are only going across the property. We spent the short car ride in silence. Everyone was too scared to say anything that could ignite a fistfight between Jerome and Desmond. In this small of a space, it would cause all of us to get hurt. The ride felt like forever but soon we were at the main school building where the dance was going to take place.
We exited the car and I gave John on last hug and kiss on the cheek before I take Desmond's arm. The party had already started when we arrived. The girls were all dressed in their best dresses and the guys all were in suits. It looked like something out of an American teen show. Suddenly the entire dance floor stops and looks at me. The DJ takes the cue and points the spotlight on me. Oh, shit here we go.
I plaster a fake smile on my face and straighten up my posture. After all, I am the ringleader of this circus. There was a small staircase that leads up to the stage where the DJ was holding out a microphone for me, without a railing. I took the stairs as gracefully as I can in the ruby red high heels that Amber made me wear. I reached the top and took the microphone from the DJ.
"First of all, I want to thank all of you for coming tonight. This night will be amazing. Second, I want to thank Mr. Sweet for letting us have the dance on such short notice. Finally, I really hope you all have a wonderful time here tonight. I hope it is magical." I said handing the DJ back the microphone. I'm horrible with speeches.
I walk back down the stairs and take Desmond's arm. He leads me out into the middle of the dance floor where a circle of onlookers formed. The DJ then put on a slow song just as we reached the center. Wonderful, just what I wanted. It's one of those really cheese ones too! I look up at Desmond who had a slight smirk on his face. Either he was up to no good or he was about to do something really ballsy. Either way, I was screwed.
"I guess this means that we have to dance." I said nervously looking up at him. "I am so sorry for any stubbed toes."
"Don't worry, love." He said with an air of confidence, "I have got you."
I let him lead me around the dance floor and for the first time tonight, I take a look around at my work. I knew doing a take on Starry Night from Van Gogh was a risk but it turned out beautifully. Pretty lights hung from the ceiling making it appear to be an actual starry night. Colors of blue, yellow and black filled the room. It was everything that I pictured and more. Something was missing though.
"You look distracted," Desmond said pulling me from my thoughts and daydreams. I really hate when he does that.
"I was just appreciating how beautiful everything looks." I say as I took one final look around the room where my eyes landed on Jerome and Heather dancing together.
Let me tell you a thing or two about Heather. She is by far the stupidest girl at school and also the one who will do anything, and I mean anything, to get a guy. She is extremely pretty though. Her long, obviously fake bleach blonde hair falls to just above the small of her back which isn't much higher then where her dress hits. She is, admittedly, the perfect height for Jerome probably coming in at about 5'9'' tall. It was stupid of me to set her and Jerome up. My mental rant was ended when Desmond reaches under my chin pulling me to look into his eyes.
"It can't hold a candle compared to how you look right now." He said with a glint in his golden brown eyes. He is up to something, I knew it!
The song has just begun to reach its climax. I could tell because the music in the background was getting louder and louder. Desmond took a step closer to me and lowers his head. I, however, stayed in the same place. He moved closer and closer to me. I could smell his mint breath on me when I came to the realization he was going to kiss me. Suddenly, almost as if something was keeping me from making what I would assume to be a mistake, the song ends and I feel a small hand pull me away by my elbow. I looked back and saw that it was Joy pulling me over into a large group of girls, including Heather who was staring daggers at me, and Fabian, Alfie, and Jerome. The guys were all swaying awkwardly back and forth. I turned around to look for Desmond who seemed to have found someone else to dance with. Oh well, I'll just stay here.
We all dance together for at least ten songs, including all the really horrible line dance songs. Jerome during those songs tried to follow me but ended up running into me crashing him and I onto the floor. We laughed about it though. After we finished doing, or attempting to do, the Cha Cha slide another slow song came on. It's "My Heart Will Go On", yay. Jerome turned to me and offered his hand for the dance. I took it gladly as we began to dance.
I moved my arms to his neck shortly after we began dancing, which I can sort of reach with my heels on. I enjoyed resting my head on his chest listening as he silently sing along to the song for a short while. He, however, cleared his throat at one point to make me look up at him. Our eyes met and I saw something in his icy blue orbs that made me shiver. Was that love?
"Why did you choose him, Jude?" He asked suddenly.
"Because you had Heather, Miss Perfect, and I was alone. He asked me, Jerome." I replied trying to play it off that I was obviously hurt by him accusing me, or at least in my head it felt like he was accusing me of something. Shut up, invisible person I'm having a non-existent argument with in my head.
"I asked you too! I wanted to go with you, not Heather. She is far from perfect because, well, she isn't you." He said as his normally pale cheeks turned red. This is not the Jerome I know.
"Then why didn't you ask me again? Did you ever think that I wanted to go with you and I was only insisting that you go with Heather because I wanted to be selfless for once in my life?" I said slightly raising my tone of voice. I don't want to yell. This is not the day for that.
"You said no, Jude. I can't read your mind. I was going to ask you again but then when I was about to fucking Deshit asked you. You said yes to him and you looked so happy. I couldn't be an asshole and force you to go with me." I could tell he was struggling to keep his tone to a forced talk.
"I wanted to be with you, you moron! I put on an act. I was upset because, yeah I like Desmond but ugh! I can't believe that you didn't see that I liked you! How come I wasn't close with anyone else in the house except you?" I was trying to keep from yelling. "I still remember when you almost kissed me, Jerome. I've been through hell because I've stuck by you with the whole Mara thing! Remember? She hates me! I like you, ok? I really like you Jerome! I just wanted to be- "
Through my little speech, Jerome looked as if he was thinking about something. Then as I said that last part he leaned down and kissed me. His wonderful taste washed over me. I was taken back at first but I soon kissed him back. My hands reached to tangle themselves in his short blonde hair. I felt sparks go through me as we kissed. I felt my knees begin to buckle under me. Jerome quickly placed his hands on my waist to steady me. Everything was moving in slow motion while our lips moved together when Jerome suddenly pulled away. I open my eyes to see what is the matter just as Desmond's fist connected with Jerome's face. Jerome then fell to the ground in pain.
"That's what you get for dancing with my girl, Clarke!" He yelled down at Jerome before kicking him in the stomach, "And that's what you get for kissing her!"
"You asshole! Leave now!" I yelled at Desmond. He staggered out surprised yelling profanities at Jerome and me. Joy came running over to my side as I bend down to tend to Jerome.
"Go," she said, " I've got Clarke. Make that asshole pay!" So I take off after Desmond.
"You are going to pay for that Kite!" I yelled as I approached him. I turned him around with all my strength and punched him square in the jaw. He grabbed his mouth in pain. When he removes his hand, I see blood trickling down his chin. I shake out my hand from the pain before readying myself for the next blow.
"Oh, now you are going to pay." He said in a rage. A crazed look came in his eyes as they turned to almost black. Before I can react, he punches me in the gut leaving my breathless and pushes me out into the street that runs just in front of the school. I try to steady myself when I see bright lights coming to me. The last thing I hear before the world went dark is Jerome yelling me name. After that, the bright light washes over me and the world disappears.
YES! I have finally been able to update! I am so sorry! I wanted to upload this on Valentine's Day since it is the Valentine's Day dance but then things didn't go as planned. Like my laptop broke when I finally had this written and I only just today got Microsoft loaded on my laptop. I put on my play as well so I was busy. Lucky for us both, I think the last chapter will be uploaded in May. At least that's what I'm planning. Anyways, have all of you heard about Nathalia? I really hope you all loved this chapter because…well it was a huge one. By the way, I went with a Starry Night theme because well, its my favorite painting and its kind of my dream prom theme. Well, now I am going to get to the reviews! It's Review Return time and I have one review:
Grace: I threw in that part for you. I know you have been waiting for that since like the beginning. I just…well I really hope that you like this one! Something….huge happened as you know. Anyways, Thanks again for reviewing.
Well that's it! Really guys, since this and maybe two or three more chapters are left you should get your reviews in. I do reply to every one of them. For this chapter I have a few questions. A.) How should Hey Jude end? B.) Did Jerome and Jude's first kiss meet your expectations? C.) How should I handle the whole Jude getting hit by something thing? And finally D.) Should I do a sequel, if it turns out that this deserves one? Or Should I just do one-shots every once in a while? Well that's it for chapter 17. I can't believe its been a year in eight days! I will post a super special thing on that day. Maybe a contest or something. OH! And give me suggestions for what I should do for Hey Jude's first anniversary! Well I'm going to go! Thanks again for reading and don't forget to review! See you all next time!