Over the next 2 years, Remy had managed to antagonize Bella enough to make her father call off the engagement claiming that forcing his daughter to marry Remy would be the 'most regrettable thing' he could ever do to his poor little girl. Jean Luc however was determined to have things go as planned so behind Remy's back, he, Henri and the Guild hatched another plan.

XXXXX

"You really won't come to prom with me, Remy?" Cyndi asked desperately as she tugged annoyingly at his trench coat sleeve.

"Remy's not de prom-in' type." He smirked.

"That's not a word, ass." She pouted as she gave up tugging at his coat and turned to look through a rack of dresses.

"Mon ange...ya wound dis Cajun wit ya words..." He said as he held his chest, namely just above his heart.

"My words aren't gonna be the only thing to-" She began to mumble under her breath as she looked through prom dress after prom dress. Remy only allowed himself to hear snippets of her angry rant, he hated upsetting her but he couldn't imagine himself getting all properly dressed in a tux just so that they could dance in her high school's gym. Even the prospect of engaging in a slow dance or two with his Chere didn't sweeten the idea to him. It all seemed too orderly...too supervised for his taste. He was likely to go crazy or get a cheerleader pregnant out of sheer boredom.

"...shove my boot up your dumb Cajun ass..." She continued to mumble as Remy tuned back into her rant. He smirked and came up close behind her, wrapping his muscular arms around her slender waist and propping his chin on her shoulder.

"Why ya even goin'?" He asked. Though things had gotten better once she had started high school, Cyndi still wasn't fond of her graduating class. She had grown close with a bunch of girls and had even played on JV and Varsity softball for her entire stint at McAdams High...but she never forgot the way she used to be treated by some of her classmates in middle school and it jaded her. It kept her just distant enough to avoid getting hurt.

"I dunno. It's what you do. You graduate high school and you go to prom. It's an unwritten law." She sighed.

"Remy never cared much fo' de law, Chere." He smirked as he buried his face in her neck, his warm breath breezing over her skin in soft and steady puffs. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. Her skin smelled of jasmine and vanilla and he wanted nothing more than to stand their and sniff her all day.

"Either you're here to help me or you're leaving. I don't need your sass today." She replied only half-seriously as she perched a hand on her hip.

"Remy sass ya all day an' nigh'..." He murmured huskily against her neck as he placed an open mouthed kiss just below her ear and lowered his mouth to nip at her neck playfully.

"That's it, Cajun. Go away!" She chided as she peeled his arms off of her, turned around and pushed against his broad chest.

"No flirtin' today?" He asked disappointedly.

"No flirting...EVER." She replied as she turned around and picked a random black dress off of the rack and escaped to the fitting room. He chuckled and sat down at a chair just outside of the fitting room, waiting for her to come out so he could sweet talk her into submission. Remy smirked to himself as a petite saleswoman walked past him who was obviously intrigued by the handsome young man and openly gave him a wink as she slowed her strut for him to watch her. Just as he was about to get up and introduce himself to the sales-vixen, Cyndi came out of her fitting room stall and got in front of a 3 way mirror. Remy snapped back to attention and looked inside at her dressed in a figure hugging evening gown that was strapless and clung to every curve Remy dreamt of clinging to himself.

"If you can avoid being a jerk for a minute, can you come in here and zip up the back of my dress?" She called out to him, holding the dress up as it was not completely on her yet and would've fallen down if she had let go. He bit his lip at this and shot up from his seat to help her. He couldn't imagine this beautiful young woman going to her prom dateless. He simply couldn't let this go on, it was far too tragic. It was simply devastating for all that beauty to go to waste. But, he couldn't go to a prom...it wasn't his style but he would definitely have to do something about this.

He came up behind her and zipped up the dress, allowing his fingertips the pleasure of brushing against her bare back as he did this. She looked so amazingly sexy. Gone were the days when he would call her angelic and truly mean it like he used to. There was nothing holy about the way she looked just then and there was certainly nothing Christ-like about the way Remy was looking at her. Nothing chaste about the voluptuousness that had taken over her figure. Every muscle, every single bone in his body ached for her at that moment and it was all he could do to keep from pouncing her like a wild beast.

"Well?" She asked softly as she turned around to face him. But he didn't answer her. There were no words.

"Remy?" She said gently as her arched eyebrows knitted together in concern.

"Sorry...ya look very belle." He mumbled, knowing the words he chose were nowhere near close to what he was feeling.

"You hate it, don't you? You can say it; I didn't spend any real time picking it out. You saw me just grab it off the rack. You won't hurt my feelings." She chuckled.

"I's quite de opposite, Chere. Ya look incredible." He admitted in a soft voice that Cyndi hadn't heard in so long. Remy had grown to be quite a confident, handsome young man, women wanted him and he was more than obliging when one struck his fancy which was often. He had grown cocky. Sexy. Obnoxious. Even charming. All the things he wasn't when they had first met and when this man got quiet or soft-spoken...it meant something. It meant that she had broken past the cool facade he had invented and made him feel something real for a change but whatever he was feeling...made him look at her in a way that she hadn't seen in a long time.

Her face softened as she turned around and motioned towards the zipper of her dress which he unzipped for her. She sighed and walked back into the fitting room to put her clothes back on. Remy sighed as well and went to sit back down on his chair outside of the room.

"What are we doing, Cajun?" She asked softly as she came out of the fitting room moments later and hung the dress on a rack of unwanted garments.

"Wha' do ya mean, Chere? Ain't we shoppin'?" He asked softly as he looked up.

"Are we dating? Are we not dating? Are we friends? More than friends?" She said as she stood in the doorway of the fitting room and faced him with arms crossed over her chest, eyes staring directly into his covered by his sunglasses.

"Remy t'ought dat we were very...well, extremely loosely datin' one another." He replied honestly. He didn't know how else to describe their relationship.

It was unconventional at best.

"Then why are you the way you are?" She asked.

"Wha'? Wha' way?" He asked.

"You know exactly what I mean. Lord knows you're not a virgin anymore...but here I am, stupidly saving myself for you. I feel like an asshole." She replied. Her words stung, but he knew she wasn't lying. It was true; he hadn't been an angel as of late. And he often tossed around the pros and cons of waiting for her, but somehow in his thick head...the cons outweighed the pros...Especially when a hot little thing (whose name he could never seem to remember) practically threw herself at him last year. He had been a sexual beast ever since. It wasn't completely selfish though, Remy always reasoned that sex let him release any sexual frustration that he held for Cyndi...so his wanting of her didn't physically ache him like it used to. But, on the other hand...what he was doing could be considered cheating...if they were in a normal relationship, that is.

"I can't do this anymore, Remy." She sighed as she pushed away from the wall and started to walk away from him. Remy jaw dropped and he shot up from his seat to chase after her. She couldn't have meant it...right?

"Chere...mon amour...mon ange..." Remy called after her as he struggled to keep up with her, her feet seeming to have been equipped with rockets as he couldn't catch up to her like usual.

"Just go away. Aren't you tired of this?" She asked finally as she turned around and let Remy meet up with her.

Tired of it? It hadn't really begun. And how the hell could he be tired of her? He loved her.

"Non. Remy been waitin' fo ya ta tell him ya were ready ta really be wit' him. All dis time; Remy's been waitin' on you." He said gently.

"Maybe making you wait was the smartest thing I could do. You obviously don't want anything more from me than-" She began.

"Don' even say dat, Chere!" He found himself practically yelling at her in the middle of the crowded mall. A few people turned around to watch and be nosey as the two fought.

"What am I supposed to think?" She asked incredulously.

"I can't tell ya why I couldn' wait fo ya, Chere. But, I can tell ya dat I love ya. And not'in bout Remy's love is a lie or fake! But den again, Remy's love has never been de decidin' factor in any o' dis, has it, Chere?" He shot back angrily, all of his frustrations about her…all the years of wanting her, loving her coming out in one angry sentence after another.

This silenced Cyndi and she simply sucked in her bottom lip and stared at him. His eyes were practically on fire with the passion he was emitting and she felt like the biggest fool. Not for waiting to have sex with him, but to have taken his feelings for granted for so long. When she felt her eyes begin to pool up with moisture, she ran off. She couldn't cry in front of him…not after this.

Watching her leave him, he couldn't help but feel low about yelling at her. But what he said had been true and it felt good to have let it out despite the outcome. After letting out a long sigh, Remy turned to leave. Even though he was angry, he still wondered how she would get home since he had driven her there…but satisfied his thoughts knowing that her Aunt would come or something and that it was ok to leave.