A/N: OH MY GOSH! Aren't you proud of me? One week! I'm so happy! Private school is a BITCH, but I DID IT! Yay! Okay, on with the story. Also, I don't know if any of you care, but I've decided that this story will be a part of a trilogy (I sound like J.R.R. Tolkien, haha) but yeah, there's gonna be three parts to this story combined. This one has about two or three more chapters to go though, so don't be looking for a new one for a while. Alright, on with it!

"I'm a nervous wreck," I whispered into the phone.

"You shouldn't be. Everything's gonna work out, okay?" Ellie caringly consoled me. I felt so grateful, yet I was so nervous.

"Yeah. Okay." There was this silent pause for a moment. It wasn't an awkward one, it was one of those special silences when you can say all you want to and not utter a word. Ellie and I had a lot of those.

"I'm going to go, alright? Sean's picking me up for the movies in three minutes."

"'K. Thanks, El."

"Don't get sentimental on me, Del Rossi. You know I can't handle that shit."

"Right. How could I ever forget?" I suddenly felt my finger start to twirl around the phone cord.

"Bye. Good luck." Then she hung up without giving me any time to say a word back.

I walked back over to my desk and picked my brush back up. I was going bald from all the hair that had been lost on that brush in the past few hours, but I wanted to look perfect. It didn't matter if I looked like a complete loser for the rest of my life, but tonight, I had to look amazing. For him.

"Marco? Deelan's here to pick you up." I heard my mother knock on my door.

"Yeah, Ma. I'm coming." I put my brush down and smoothed out my jacket one more time. I looked so dorky in the black slacks and the matching jacket, but when I reminded myself that I was doing this for him, it made everything okay.

"You sure you don't want to take your father's car to your date's house?" My mother eyed me pleadingly when I opened the door for her.

"No, Ma. We're all going to go together." I started my way down, but she grabbed my wrist and made me stare back.

"I want you to have fun tonight, Marco. But you need to make good impression on this girl. You haven't seen a girl for who knows how long!" I felt terrible for lying to my mother, when she was so desperate to see her youngest son to do well in life.

"Okay, ma. I get it."

"Oh†I bet she will be taller than you, won't she? I still don't understand seeing a girl who is older than you." She clucked her tongue against the roof of her mouth and stared at the phone on the table outside my bedroom.

"Ma, haven't we been over this?"

"Yes, okay. Hold on, I go down first, I want to take your picture."

I stuck my hand to the top of my head and breathed out deeply. I was sweating already. It had taken so much precaution, so many lies, and so much time to figure out how I was going to be Dylan's date for his prom. Our final conclusion had been for me to be invited to by a grade twelve girl, which was the farthest plausible thing anyone could have thought of, but it luckily had passed my unsuspecting parents.

I began to quickly walk down the stairs leading to our front door anxiously, for if I didn't get out of there soon, I'd blurt out the whole thing, the entire truth, and I'd be sent straight to hell for it.

My mother began to exclaim, "Oh, Marco, you look so-" when Dylan quietly cut in.

"Gorgeous," he whispered. I warningly looked at him, but then my heart took over my senses. He looked just as beautiful as he claimed I did, although I wasn't going to tell my mother that.

"Did you say something, Deelan?" my mother caringly mispronounced Dylan's name.

"No, I didn't. But we do have to get going if we want to be early." He shined that loving smile at my mother, which made her smile just as well. It was hard to think that she didn't know that he wasn't only my friend, but my boyfriend. It was also just as hard to think that he might be her son-in-law at one point in time, and she was oblivious.

Oh Jesus. Son-in-law. I wish.

After my mother took one embarrassing snapshot of me, I hopped into Dylan's car and breathed heavily. This was going to work out. It had to.

"Phase one complete," he joked as he ignited the engine.

"Shut up. I'm doing this for you."

"That you are." He leaned in to kiss me when I turned my face away.

"No. Not here. Please don't ruin this five minutes into it."

Then he turned on the radio and started flying down the street, not saying another word to me. I wish this was easier.

We pulled into the parking lot about fifteen minutes later, me looking over the side of the car at all the girls dressed up in strapless, low-clinging wraps with a clashing corsage on their wrists because their dates didn't know any better.

Dylan was really silent when he turned off the engine and just sat there for a second. It made my heart break when I watched him sit there in complete remorse, making me think that he was thinking this was all a huge mistake. That I was a huge mistake.

"Dylan?"

"You wanna go home? I could take you back," he offered quietly.

I looked at him, offense and shock written all over my face. "Why would I want to go home? I'm here for you, remember? I told all those lies to my parents for you.

"I know. But that's just it. The fact that you have to lie to come to my dumb prom. It's not like I want to get married or anything."

I didn't know if I should have taken that as an insult. So I just casually looked away, the strapless, clashing girls coming into view again.

"Oh no. No, don't think that. I didn't mean it like that," Dylan stuttered when he finally realized what he had said.

"I'm sorry that I'm such a terrible boyfriend to deal with." I got out of his car and slammed the door.

"Shit," I heard him exclaim. Then came the ringing of his keys and his footsteps behind mine.

He grabbed my wrist and made me turn around in a similar way that my mother had made me do earlier. His face was smeared with worry all over, the way my face looked, I imagine.

"We're not breaking up, are we?" I said quietly.

"Only if you want to†which I would understand, since right now I want to break up with myself."

"This†is hard." I told him. I felt so jumbled up inside, I could barely breathe.

"Yeah, I know."

"Sorry, that sounded pretty stupid." I began to blush, realizing how much of a drama queen I just sounded like.

Dylan laughed, but didn't joke around this time. He pulled me into him and just held me, held me like there was no tomorrow.

"Come on, let's go in before it's too late," I told him.

"I don't want to go anywhere," he whispered into my hair.

"Dylan, it's your prom! You're gonna want to remember this night." I pulled back from him, but didn't let his hand reached out of my grasp.

"Trust me, I will."

And as if we were in some sort of fairy tale, the school's speakers started blaring out Selena's 'Dreaming of You'.

"Wow. I love this song," I told him.

"May I have this dance?" he asked, out of pure corniness.

I took his hand and pulled into him, holding onto him just as tight as he was to me. We both knew that we were never going to let go of each other.

That was the night that I realized that I had fallen in love.

Sitting on a cold bench with a small bag of groceries in hand, I reminisced that magical night. I could feel his hand on mine, his breath touching the back of my neck, his hair falling down onto my cheek, softly caressing it.

I wondered if it would feel the same now, after everything we'd gone through. I just wondered. I wondered how my life would have changed if I had been able to stay. If I had been able to take him to my own prom.

"Ow!" I looked over to the sidewalk, seeing a girl with her the heel of her shoe lying dead in her hand. "God dammit," she breathed.

I knew that voice somehow. I didn't know who she was, but I knew the voice.

"Er... you need help there?" I got up and set my bag of food next to me.

"Yeah, thanks." I helped her hobble over to the bench; her ankle was obviously hurt from when her heel broke off.

"You going to be alright?" I started to inspect her ankle.

"Yeah, fine." She moaned a quick yelp of pain, and then slid her newly-made flat back on. "I have to get this food to my brother or he'll have a hissy fit." She nodded to a bag in her hand, the same as mine.

"Uh... I've got time on my hands. You want help back?"

"Yeah, actually. I just got here this morning, I don't know my way around here very well."

"Here." I stuck her hand onto my shoulder and helped her hobble onto the sidewalk again.

"Um, I'm Paige, by the way." She smiled sweetly at me and held her free hand out.

"Marco." I took her hand, and then it hit me.

Right when I dropped her on the sidewalk.