Okay, so it's bee a really long time, and I really should have updated, I'm sorry. The site was giving me trouble last week, and then I was really busy, and then I was going through a bit of a rough time, so...

Anyway, enjoy the chapter. The next one (27) is going to be the big one for this story!

Chapter 26:

Felicity POV ~ 11 April 2003

March had gone by faster than it had any right to. It was a stupid month anyway. It had started warming up again, but Felicity rarely ventured outside to enjoy it. She knew Letty especially thought that she was being ridiculous, since she'd only been with Nathan for a week, but Katie had only sympathy in her eyes. Having that much time on her hands, Felicity tended to overthink things. Which is how she came to the conclusion that she lacked closure, and that's why she couldn't just move on. Maybe if she'd gotten an explanation from Nathan as to why he felt he needed to run all the way back to England to get away from her, she could have just forgotten about him. She just wanted to know why.

But she'd learned to push that from her mind. She focused mostly on school work these days, though she still hung out with her friends. Even though Katie had been pretty angry when she'd found out that Felicity had erased their entire collection of romance movies.

"Hey, you still with me?" a voice intruded on her train of thought. Felicity shook her head and realized where she was. Though how she could have forgotten was a mystery, considering the strong odor of hair spray that hung in the air.

"Yeah, I'm here," she replied to Letty's question. Letty, Katie and herself were all seated at the salon, having their hair done. The big day had arrived, and everyone was abuzz with excitement.

"I don't know why I let you two drag me into this, I could have just stayed home," Felicity said, maybe a little morosely. Well, almost everyone was excited.

Katie rolled her eyes. "It's prom, Lissa, you can't not go!" she protested. They'd had that conversation a million times already, and Felicity should really know better by now than to even try to argue with her best friends.

Letty caught her eye in the huge mirror and winked. If it wasn't for her, Felicity probably wouldn't go. But as it was, Letty didn't have a date, so she'd suggested they go stag together, and Felicity didn't want to let her down.

Feeling uncomfortable, Felicity fiddled with the curlers in her hair, poking and prodding at them, hoping they'd get a little looser. Letty was getting her hair cut a little shorter, but she was leaving it down, and Katie was opting for a completely 'up' look, but Felicity had been outvoted, so she'd gotten stuck with half up-half down. "Your ponytails are cute, Lissa, but this is prom, and I'm not having you look like your everyday self," Katie had objected, and had promptly put her foot down.

Felicity had already had her make-up done, and she had to admit that she looked better than she'd ever had before. She would even be wearing contacts later that night, which was going to be… interesting, to say the least. She'd put them in for the first time two weeks ago, and had been practicing with them ever since, but the act of basically shoving your finger in your eye never got easier. It was just so damn creepy.

Another attendant came up to them and started working on Felicity's nails, while another girl focused on Letty's hair. The attendant put a deep red color on her nails, which made Felicity frown. Katie had said that she'd had one of her old dresses reworked so it would fit Felicity, but she wouldn't say which one it was. Katie's wardrobe was so big it was hard to keep track. She supposed that's what happened when you had a fashion designer as one of your dads.

Soon enough, they were ready and made their way back to their room, with Letty tagging along. They only had a little over an hour before the dance officially started, but nobody ever showed up on time anyway. Either way, they'd have to hurry, because their dinner reservations wouldn't wait for them. But when Katie showed her the dress she'd gotten for her, Felicity really wanted to stall.

"I can't wear this, it's far too…" she trailed off, holding the silky fabric in her hands.

"Gorgeous? Sexy?" Letty suggested. She was grinning over the magazine she was pretending to read. She was wearing a gorgeous black and while high-low gown. It hugged all the right curves, and she looked extremely confident.

Katie on the other hand, was wearing a short, dark forest green dress with a sheer overlay that was bound together at the waist in front, and brushed her ankles at the back. Crystals beaded the waistline and reflected the light. "I still can't wear this…" Felicity said, tracing the beading at the waistline gently. It was so pretty, and she had no doubt it had looked amazing on Katie, but Felicity was a good deal shorter, and the same kind of dresses didn't always look as good on her, no matter what her best friend claimed.

"Nonsense. It's a gorgeous dress, and I had it tailored for you, so you should just thank me and put it on," Katie protested, touching up her mascara in the vanity mirror.

She was officially out of arguments. With a sigh, Felicity slipped into the gorgeous dress and stepped up to the floor length mirror. She couldn't help her jaw drop and her breath leave her. Without her glasses, and with her hair half pinned up, lips a cherry red, she looked… like someone else entirely. She looked beautiful.

"Oh, don't tear up, you'll ruin your make-up," Katie said gently, walking over and putting an arm around her shoulders. Felicity felt a little chilly because of the bare back, but it was so pretty, she didn't really care.

"I'm trying," Felicity breathed. "Katie, I… Thank you…"

Katie smiled. "You're welcome. You look gorgeous, like I knew you would."

Felicity threw her arms around her friend's neck and hugged her tightly. "You know I love you, right?"

"Okay, too much estrogen, we need to go, before Cody dies of old age outside," Letty interrupted, still grinning.

Katie gaped at the Latina. "Cody is here? Why didn't you say anything?" she shouted and quickly ran out to the hallway. Letty just rolled her eyes, grabbing a light sweater, and followed suit. Felicity remembered to grab Katie's purse as well as her own, but decided to forego a sweater. The one time she was wearing a bare backed dress, she wanted to show it off.

When she closed and locked the door behind her, she figured prom might not turn out to be so bad.

/*/

Oliver POV

"Relax, Ollie, it's prom night!"

Oliver looked up at his date. He'd been staring out over the dancing crowd, looking for a certain brunette, and he hadn't been very attentive towards his date.

Mallory rolled her eyes. "She's not here yet, Oliver." Perceptive as always. He was kind of glad he'd asked Mallory to go to prom with him. She was gorgeous, so the pictured would look good, and she wasn't expecting anything of him. After they'd broken up in November, they'd remained fairly good friends. She'd been angry with him at first, because of Laurel, but she'd gotten over it. She was actually dating someone from her home state now, so she didn't want to find a proper date.

"I'm not waiting for anyone, Mal," he replied automatically, though it wouldn't do any good. Mallory had figured out about his feelings for Felicity after Nathan had entered their lives. She had told him rather dryly that he was pathetic, and then went right back to her lunch. He liked that about her, she basically just rolled with everything.

"Sure you are. And there she is," Mal said, pointing to the entrance.

A photographer stood at the ready to take pictures of Cody and Katie, followed by Felicity and Letty. He'd known that Felicity wouldn't have a date of course. Katie still claimed he was a stalker, but he just ignored her most of the time.

Oliver craned his neck to see them better, but the crowd obscured his vision. He could make out Katie well enough, though. Of the three girls, she was by far the tallest, but she didn't seem to mind, seeing as her boyfriend was still a head taller. Cody played on the basketball team with Dean, so Oliver figured it was like a rule that you had to be over 6 feet to join.

"You want to dance?" he asked Mallory, keeping his eye on Cody, while holding out a hand to his date. He didn't actually like to dance, but he was fairly good at it, thanks to a dance instructor his mother insisted on.

He could see Mal grinning from the corner of his eye as she took his hand. "I thought you'd never ask. But after this I'm ditching you, I think Christine is about to make a fool of herself in front of her crush, and I'll need to run interference," she said easily, following him onto the dance floor. Christine was a rather overly dramatic friend of Mal's that Oliver was glad he didn't have to be around very much.

The song had a heavy beat and was louder in the middle of the dance floor. Oliver twirled Mal around and let her set the pace while he kept an eye on Cody and Katie. They were dancing a few feet away from him, and he could just make out Letty's black curls near the bar, so he figured that's where Felicity was.

"Mallory!" a girl shouted. Oliver stopped dancing in time to recognize Christine. He rolled his eyes at Mal and slipped away after she nodded at him. Taking Mal to the dance was probably his best idea yet.

Worming his way through the crowd, he gradually made his way over to the other side of the room, trying to get closer to Felicity. They had carefully started hanging out outside of their tutoring sessions, but it somehow felt a little… off. Movie nights were still a thing of the past, but they had an occasional coffee date, and sometimes they stayed late after a tutoring session. Oliver lived for those moments – and yes, he was aware of how sad that sounded.

He found Letty where he'd last spotted her; by the bar, ordering something that was probably not supposed to be alcoholic. She was just turning around with two drinks in her hands when she spotted him. She rolled her eyes at him, but walked over anyway.

"Oliver. Shouldn't you be hanging out with a ditzy blonde?" she asked, a little venom in her voice. She'd taken to either ignoring him or glaring at him during their flying classes together, but it seemed prom could soften up even Letty.

He grinned at him, more for show than anything else. "My ditzy blonde is dutifully consoling a friend, so I'm free to mingle."

"And you chose me? I feel so honored," she said sarcastically. Oliver had a feeling that if she hadn't been carrying two drinks, she'd have put a hand on her chest dramatically. Speaking of…

"Are you looking to get drunk or do you need to have something in your hands so as not to throttle everyone in here?"

Letty glanced down at her hands. "They're non-alcoholic, unfortunately, and I'm holding one for–"

"Letty, there you are!"

Oliver turned around at the familiar voice he'd been looking for. And when he did, his mouth fell open. He'd seen Felicity in a beautiful dress at Christmas, but this… the silky fabric was a deep crimson, with a high split up the side. He took a second to admire her leg before letting his gaze trail up the bodice and to the face. She looked so surprised to see him, her deep red lips a perfect 'o'. For a second he was distracted because her lips weren't their usual bright fuchsia.

"Oliver," she breathed.

A/N: Leave me a review, you wonderful people!

Review replies:

Lisa: I agree with you, but this story sort of has a life of it's own. I can tell you that they're not going to get together in this story, but only in the sequel, so I hope that helps...

Stacey: First of all, thank you, I had a great birthday! Second; She is going to find out at some point, but you're going to have to keep reading if you want to know her reaction to it!

Krissie: My exam went terribly actually, but it's okay, I'm ready for a new year full of horribly boring classes! Thanks so much for the review!

Guest: I'm already planning the sequel! It'll take place during season 1 of the show. And yeah, the Green Arrow side was something I wanted to show that was always inside him. The island just brought it out.

Keren: Because she's not naturally a blonde, and as shown in the show, she only started dying it blonde after Cooper had 'died'.

BugsBunny: It's okay to miss an update every once in a while, but I'm glad you're back! I'm glad you liked the chapter and what I did with it! Thanks so much for your review, and for the birthday wishes!