Prom Night
On prom night, Edd noticed that quite a few things were off.
The first thing he noticed was Kevin's constant attention.
To be fair, this was the first time he was willingly seen without his hat on. Edd had spent about an hour every night since Monday, trying to figure out how to get his wavy hair to look decent, and not a total mess. He tried a pony tail, the world's smallest manbun, numerous hair products, but ultimately decided on using conditioner and just letting his hair be, hoping it wouldn't frizz up too badly.
He was satisfied with the results, but had to go inside and apply water twice, thanks to everyone trying to touch his hair, or in Nat's case, rub his face against it.
Except Kevin. Kevin only raised his hand towards Edd's hair a few times, but quickly withdrew it. But he constantly stared, Edd sometimes catching him with his mouth agape, oblivious to anyone who was trying to talk to him.
The second thing he noticed was the carpool arrangements.
Because of the afterparty at Nat's, they had several overnight bags and a giant cooler full of camping food to arrange as well as themselves. By the time it was all settled, Nazz and Jimmy were in Nazz's car, and left immediately to go pick up Jimmy's date. Sarah and Ed went in Ed's truck, with Rolf in the bed of the truck, sitting next to the cooler. There were going to lock it in the cab of Ed's truck once they got to school. That left Nat, Kevin, and Edd, all in Nat's SUV, along with everyone's bags.
Though Edd enjoyed the car ride with Kevin, he was confused as to why he was here. Kevin could have easily gone with Nazz to pick up Jimmy's date. It would almost be like a double date.
The third thing he noticed actually occurred during the carpool shuffle. Kevin was holding a small brown paper bag in one hand, refusing the let go or allow anyone to touch it. However, at one point, Kevin caved to Nat's incessant nagging, and allowed him to peek inside the bag. Kevin quickly closed the bag and rolled the top down as Nat started squealing.
The fourth thing Edd noticed was when they got to the school and were waiting on Nazz and Jimmy to show up. While Ed and Rolf were locking the cooler inside his truck, Nat wanted to take pictures with everyone. When he got to Kevin, he held their ties together, yelling, "TWINSIES" as he took the first of several selfies with Kevin.
That's when Edd noticed that Kevin was wearing a different tie. It was hard to tell what color it was, due to the poor lighting in the parking lot, but judging by Nat's sparkly purple tie, Edd assumed it had to be purple as well for him to chant "Tie Twins!" repeatedly.
Edd struggled to remember if Kevin had a purple tie, wondering if he was just confused about the colors he saw in Kevin's closet. But he did know that Nazz was wearing a red dress; that hadn't changed.
The fifth thing Edd noticed, and possibly the most nerve-wrecking one, was the occupants of Nazz's car when she arrived.
As soon as Nazz parked her car and killed the ignition, she and Jimmy both got out of the driver's side of the car. Edd watched as Jimmy walked behind the car to open the door for his date, a small girl with a pixie haircut that Edd didn't recognize.
But what really threw Edd for a loop was Nazz, walking around the front of the car, to open the front passenger-side door for Marie. Edd couldn't stop staring, until he felt Kevin throw an arm around his shoulder.
"Crazy, right?"
"Indeed," Edd said weakly.
The final thing Edd noticed that seemed quite off was the dancing.
Nazz danced with almost everyone there, individually, even Edd. But what seemed off was that Kevin only danced with Nazz three times (not that he was counting). Furthermore, it wasn't just the two of them dancing, but when everyone was one the dance floor together, just goofing off (not that he was overanalyzing the situation that he also wasn't counting).
Edd shook himself and reminded himself to stop overthinking these things, but to just enjoy the moment for what it is.
Just then, a slow song came on. Edd fidget for a moment, before quietly stepping off the dance floor, unlike Ed who shouted the whole time he ran towards the punch bowl.
Edd stood against the wall and looked back on the dance floor. He eyes went wide and his jaw went slack when he saw Nazz spin around, but instead of being held by Kevin, she was dancing with Marie.
Edd quickly looked around the room for Kevin, finally spotting him as he was slipping out the gym, into the hallway, but not without taking one long look back towards the dance floor.
"Oh, no!" Edd whispered to himself.
Edd quickly followed suit, careful not to attract the attention of the chaperones, hoping to catch up to Kevin.
The halls of the school were eerily quiet, aside from the faint sound of music from the gym. Edd might have gone back inside if he wasn't so worried about Kevin, concerned that he may need comforting about Nazz.
Edd soon sees Kevin at his locker, fiddling with his jacket. As he approaches, Kevin reaches inside the paper bag he was carrying earlier in the evening, vision transfixed on whatever was contained inside.
Edd's shoe squeaks as he approaches, and Kevin quickly pushes the bag back into his locker and tries to ease the locker door shut without making a noise. He looks over as he locks it, and Edd could see his shoulder relaxing. "Dude. You scared me."
"The whole school is scary right now."
"I know, right?"
Edd walks up to him, concern clear on his face. "Kevin, is everything alright?"
"Yeah, sure. Not a problem."
"If there's no problem, why are you smuggling things inside your locker and not dancing with Nazz instead? Does this have something to do with Marie showing up?"
Kevin looked at him blankly for a while, before tapping the lapel of his jacket. Edd noticed a purple flower pinned there, that wasn't there while they were still in the cul-de-sac. "I got one of these… um…"
"Boutonniere?"
"Yeah, boutonniere… wasn't sure if I wanted to wear it, but decided I might as well…"
Edd felt like Kevin was avoiding the actual problem at hand. He placed his hands on his hips, attempting to look authoritative, and sternly asked, "So, you bailed on a slow dance with Nazz to pin on a boutonniere?"
"Bailed on… wait… was she expecting to dance with me!?" Kevin raised his voice in confusion.
Now Edd was even more confused than before. "Give me a minute here."
Edd leaned on the locker and tried to sort his thoughts but failed. He rolled his head towards Kevin and said, "I have no clue what's even going on anymore. Can you just please tell me? Why did you bothering learning how to dance for Nazz, if it wasn't to dance with Nazz?"
Kevin sighed, and leaned against the locker, shoulder pressing up against Edd. "Me and Nazz had a deal. If she asked out who she really wanted to go with to prom, I'd do the same. But Nazz was also worried about dancing at prom, so I attempted to go with her to lessons, albeit half-heartedly, but you saw how that panned out."
Edd stiffened, before pulling away from the lockers, to stand directly in front of Kevin. "Am I correct to assume that Nazz wanted to go to the prom with Marie?"
"Correct as always, Edd," Kevin said, with a small smile.
"Well, I be… I never saw that coming."
"You and me both. Apparently, Marie, too. Took Nazz quite a bit to convince her it wasn't a joke or some kind of Carrie-esque prank."
"Wow… Just wow."
Kevin laughed.
"I'm just going to be honest, here. It really seemed like you two were cozied up with one another recently."
Kevin leaned forward to rub the back of his neck, a habit Edd has noticed over the years. "Yeah, I can see that… not our intention… guess because of all our secrets, we've been getting kinda chummy. Plus, Nazz has been giving herself extra challenges, like coming out to her grandma."
"To Mrs. Fitzgerald!? When did she do that!?"
"You remember at the baseball game when Nazz pulled me away for a few minutes?"
Edd nodded.
"Then."
"Seriously!?"
"Yep. I didn't even know what she was doing until she did it."
"I'm assuming since she still fixed all our prom garb, she was okay with it."
Kevin started laughing hard. "Oh, it was hilarious… So Nazz has been running through all these scenarios of what might happen and what she would say or do in response. But she was not prepared for her Grams to say," Kevin cleared his throat and stood upright, prepared to do his elderly impersonation. "'Well, of course, boy are awful, no offense Kevin. I myself have been with a girl or two… closer to maybe 20… the 80's was quite the trip!'"
"She did not!"
"She did! It was like a hat trick for throwing Nazz for a loop!" Kevin started counting it off on his fingers. "Grams was actually okay with it, Grams admitted to being bisexual, then Grams delving into her same-sex sex life in far too much detail... I'm pretty sure Nazz is scarred."
"Understandably so," Edd said, unable to suppress his giggles. "So… if you didn't need to learn to dance for Nazz, why did you continue with the dance lessons?"
"To work up the nerve to ask you to prom."
My ears are malfunctioning. There's no possible way he really just said that.
Kevin turned towards his locker and opened it. He could hear Kevin rustling around in the paper bag, before he closed the locker and turned back to Edd.
"At first, I was just satisfied with dancing with you, not thinking I had a chance that you'd go to prom with me, when you didn't even want to go at all. But the closer the day came, the more torn I felt."
Kevin raised the item in his hand, another purple boutonniere, just like the one he was wearing.
"I know we're already here, and that prom is like halfway over, if not more, but, um… you want to go to prom with me?" Kevin said, voice teasing, but nerves clear on his face.
This is all a dream and I'm going to wake up tomorrow and it'll be winter break again, nowhere near prom.
"Yes." Edd breathes out softly.
Kevin eyes close for a second as he breathes out a sigh of relief. He opens his eyes and pins the boutonniere to Edd's jacket, only pricking himself once.
Edd reaches up to cover his face with his hat but starts panicking when he couldn't feel the fabric of his hat. He quickly calms down when he remembered he didn't wear it on purpose, thinking the suit would look better if he wasn't wearing a hat.
Kevin noticed this brief moment of panic and says, "Forgot your security blanket?"
Edd nods. "Seems so."
Kevin reaches a hand up tentatively, then lowers it, but Edd knows why.
"I feel that of all people from the cul-de-sac, my prom date should have the most rights to touch my hair if he wants." He tried his best to ignore the way his stomach swooped at the phrase "prom date."
Kevin smirks, "Damn right, he does!"
He slowly raises his hand again. "But seriously, I just wanted to make sure you were okay with it first."
Edd nods and reaffirms, "Yes, you can touch it."
Kevin slowly drags a hand along the side of Edd's head, and Edd unconsciously closes his eyes to the touch. Soon Kevin is using both hands, trailing along Edd's wide curls, raking his fingers through it, brushing it out of Edd's face, and tucking strands behind Edd's ears.
Edd tried to control his breathing as much as possible, but this task only became harder as Kevin held the back of Edd's head with one hand and tilted his chin up with the other. Soon, Edd felt Kevin's lips on his. It took a moment, but Edd soon remembered that he should kiss back, eliciting a breathy laugh from Kevin.
Kevin broke the kiss and pulled Edd flushed against him. He wrapped one arm around his waist, and started reaching for his hand with the other, when his grin faded. He let go of Edd and backed up until he was touching the lockers again. "I'm sorry. That was rude of me… Eddward, may I have this dance?"
Edd threw his head back with a sigh. He looked back at Kevin and said exasperatedly, "Yes! Of course! Now get back over here!"
"Demanding!" Kevin raised his eyebrows and smirked.
They can barely hear the music from here, but they can still hear it enough to know that another slow song was playing. However, they were only a few moments in to their dance, when they heard the music change. Neither boy even tried to stop but continued to slow dance.
"So, all this time, you were trying to ask me out?"
"Yeah, well, to prom at least. Didn't plan to ask you out on a date until after the semester was over."
Edd had no clue how to process this information.
"You really had no clue?"
"None. It was just mixed signals these past few weeks."
Kevin nodded, "I can see that… and sorry, by the way."
"Water under the bridge," Edd said, cheerily. "But this is a lot of information all at one. Your feelings for me, your intent, then pretty much everything with Nazz."
Kevin laughed, as he spun Edd around. As he pulled Edd back towards him, he said, "Yeah, when Nazz decided to come out, she wanted to do it big… by asking out her crush of the past two years."
"Two years!? Well, then that means… when you guys were…"
"Yeah. She had feelings for Marie long before me and Nazz got together. It was one of the reasons we decided to call it quits. She liked someone else and so did I, but we didn't see the problem in pretending to be straight until it started affecting us mentally and our families started getting involved, like me meeting her grandmother."
"Yes, I can see that being an issue, but still, she was with you this whole time, but had a crush on Marie for two years?"
Kevin shrugged, then quickly apologized for partially dislodging Edd's arm. Edd took the initiative this time and stepped closer to Kevin, who immediately held him tighter.
"Yeah, well, I can't really say anything about that. It was three years for me… so yeah…"
"Three, Kevin!? Three!?"
Kevin laughed and nodded. "Yeah, well, it was on and off, if I'm being honest. Only really consistent for the past year…"
"I don't believe you," Edd mumble.
Kevin squeezed Edd's hand, and slowly transitioned to a waltz. "Dude. You're brilliant, and handsome, and kind, and really fun to be around, and pretty much the sweetest person I know. It was just hard coming out, and then trying to find a way to get to you, with dorkier and dorkiest there."
Edd couldn't believe what was happening. Edd started this evening, confused with the lack of organization and the lack of common date etiquette between Nazz and Kevin. And now here he is, waltzing in the school hall with Kevin, who kissed him, and who's now bearing his soul.
When Edd didn't reply for a while, Kevin stopped dancing, and stepped closer to Edd, closing the gap between them. He ran his hand through Edd's hair again, before slowly tilting his head back. Kevin leaned in slowly, eyes quickly darting down towards Edd's mouth.
Oh gracious, he's going to kiss me again!
Edd closed his eyes, and could feel Kevin's breath ghosting on his lips, when he heard whistling.
"YEAH, MAN! GET IT!"
Edd's eyes flew opened and he quickly steps back from Kevin, blushing furiously. Kevin, on the other hand, was just furious. He glared at Nat, Ed, and Nazz, all walking towards them, cat calling, whistling, and making crude comments.
"The fuck, guys!? Seriously!? C'mon man, we were having a moment, can you just like… I don't know… FUCK OFF!?"
Nat runs up and throws an arm around both boys. "Yeah, sure, maybe later, I'm just excited you finally made your move!"
Edd quickly looked between everyone that was there, realizing that he was the only one that seemed confused or frightened.
"D-did everyone know except me?"
"Pretty much." Said Nat and Nazz at the same time, fist bumping after the jinx.
Nat looks at Kevin, "C'mon man, we all got blisters on our feet, so we're ready to split now."
Kevin shoves Nat's arm off his shoulder and pulls Edd away from Nat's other arm.
"Should have worn better shoes."
"Metaphorical blisters!"
"Well, we haven't gotten our metaphorical blisters, so just…" Kevin gestures for them to leave.
"Need I remind you I'm your ride tonight."
Kevin froze for a minute and thought about it. "How about you go try to steal some prom décor for the bon fire, while me and Edd get to dance to one more song."
Nat's eyes lit up. "Brilliant! Lumpy! We have a mission!"
Edd began to protest as Nazz ran after them, yelling at them to behave.
Kevin just shook his head. "Whether or not they actually succeed in petty prom theft, we should have time for a few more songs." Kevin opened his locker, propped his phone on the shelf, and started the music. "Waltz or tango?"
"Slow dance an option?"
Kevin grinned in reply, quickly pulling Edd close to him.
They danced to two more songs, almost completely uninterrupted. At the end of the second song, Nat comes running down the hall with an entire balloon arch.
"IF ANYONE ASKS, I WASN'T HERE!"
They continued to sway as he passed by, soon realizing that Ed was right behind him, carrying a tablecloth with who knows what inside.
Kevin just spins them around so Edd wouldn't be looking at the mayhem anymore.
They continue to dance through a third song, Edd resting his head on Kevin's shoulder as he held him close.
As the fourth song started, Edd looked up. "Should we make sure they haven't gotten arrested?"
Before Kevin could respond, they heard a loud POP coming from the end of the hall where Nat and Ed ran off to.
Kevin sighed, "I supposed it is time to check on the children."
Edd laughed, stepping away from Kevin. Kevin grabbed his phone and closed his locker.
As they walked towards the parking lot, hand in hand, Kevin looks over and says, "You think we can try learning salsa again on Tuesday? Or something else more… Latin?"
"Uh, but the prom is-"
Kevin gave him a smug look as he pushed opened the doors to the school. "Don't assume that just because prom is over, that I still won't find an excuse to dance with ya."
Edd smiled at him as they walked down the steps. "Okay, then! Salsa on Tuesday!"
"Choice!" Kevin said, before pulling Edd closer, and kissing him on top of his head, choosing to ignore the catcalls from their friends waiting in the parking lot.
-The End-