CHAPTER 8

PROM AND A WEDDING?

Two months past much the same with Nora spending every moment with Patch he didn't spend with Dabria. One thing that hadn't changed was the way he still came and stayed with her when the night terrors would hit, even if he was with Dabria when he got the call. In fact, he was still the one there for her when she needed him for anything aside from comfort over her feelings for him, which grandma was still giving her. He was keeping his promise that she would always be his Angel, that wasn't going to change regardless of how much whining and complaining Dabria did or how many monumental fits she threw and things she accused them of. She didn't understand the way they relied on each other, how much they both valued their friendship. Dabria told Patch that Nora was lying about the night terrors, that she was only using them to manipulate him, to make him feel guilty for falling in love because Nora was selfish and only wanted him to herself, even if it meant ruining his life by ruining their relationship. She said that Nora was a stupid little girl with a cheap crush that she just needed to get over. The age gap between him and Nora was one of Dabria's favorite subjects, she knew that Patch struggled with that, he didn't have to say anything it was obvious to her. While Patch didn't believe for one instant that Nora's nightmares were fake or that she was trying to come between him and Dabria, Dabria had succeeded in making him think the feelings he had had for Nora were wrong, he was back to seeing her as a kid sister and chalked up the whole wanting to be with her as a dance induced hormone high since salsa dancing is so sexual.

It was Nora's first day of summer vacation and she was enjoying it pool side soaking up the heat and sunshine of the clear blue skies. A soft smile graced her lips as a gentle breeze blew by making her shiver slightly. Suddenly a shadow fell over her and she sat up. Patch. For an instant her face lit up, he looked so happy he was wearing the biggest smile she'd ever seen and her heart did a little flip. She was about to ask him what had him so happy when he handed her an envelope she hadn't noticed him carrying. Her stomach dropped immediately, please let this be a bad dream she closed her eyes praying that when she opened them the envelope would be gone. Unfortunately, that didn't happen, with shaky hands she opened the pristine paper, trying to return Patch's big smile lest he pick up on the waterworks threatening to spill. If she hadn't had so much practice masking her feelings over him and Dabria the last few months he would have seen right through her. As it was he didn't notice and she counted the moments until she was alone and could let go of the latest round of misery to encase her.

The wedding invitation was intricate and obviously expensive, no surprise there since Nora had long since learned that Dabria enjoyed the 'finer' things in life. In other words she was a pretentious stuck up rich snob who cared more for money and designer labels than people and feelings. They were getting married. Patch, was getting married. Her Patch was getting married. She felt the air leave her lungs as her chest closed and her heart pounded out a rhythm so fast it felt ready to burst and she was nauseous. Her dreams were over. She had planned on spending more time with him this summer now that she was out of school, she had planned on more time with him before things heated up anymore between him and Dabria. Now he would be busy planning their wedding. Their parents had won. She must have looked ill because he asked if she was okay, a look of concern clouding his face where the smile had been. She lied, something she never did, not to Patch. Nora told him she was just a little light-headed, probably too much sun. He bought it. After quickly excusing herself to go lay down she threw herself on her bed and let loose the storm of emotions that were swirling inside of her. She knew he was happy, or at least he thought he was and isn't that all she could ask for? She needed to know that things with Dabria were real, that Dabria was worthy of the love Patch was giving her. She would investigate like grandma had told her, in the meantime, she needed to move on, at least try to move on.

When Clista met Dabria for the first time she was sure that what she had feared was happening here indeed was. She was furious at the parents, her own son, for using their own kids as business pawns to amass their own wealth that was already more than they could spend in a lifetime. In fact, it would support several generations or more of their heirs already. Clista had felt all along that Patch and Nora were destined to be together...that was before Dabria. Dabria was gorgeous, angelic even, she knew how to charm people to get what she wanted, she was flirty while giving the appearance of being a very proper and well-bred lady. Patch was hooked believing he was in love with her immediately and wedding plans were set in motion. Honestly, Clista saw it in two things: first there were many ways the girls were similar, both were lean built with long hair, Nora's was more often than not curly with a carefree style and as her granddaughter joked it was able to hold its own against any flatiron. Dabria wore her hair perfectly straight, there was nothing carefree about her, both girls had brown hair, but Nora's was a mahogany with brilliant red highlights made even more stunning under light, especially sunlight while Dabria's was more of an orange toned red that Clista thought was dull and as lifeless as the girl herself. Nora's eyes were a soft gray, changing depth with her emotions, Dabria's eyes never looked soft or kind. Truth be told Dabria looked a HELL of a lot like Nora in a washed out form and a little older. Meeting Dabriafor herself the first time she could have mistaken one for the other from the back, that is if you didn't pay attention to what they were wearing. Dabria was older and her clothes, in Clista's opinion, were decidedly sluttish and she wore entirely too much make-up. She knew that it wasn't only age that kept her granddaughter from caking on the make-up and dressing for that kind of attention. Nora had a more conservative personality and style that suited her. Nora didn't need make-up to create beauty, she already was beautiful. The other major difference was Dabria was the crèmebrûlée to the Cipriano's. Whenever Patch was within earshot the adults raved of the perfection that was Dabria and listed countless reasons she was worthy of his love and affection.

When Patch wasn't looking Dabria's normally flat looking eyes took on an evil glint that shot death rays towards Nora. In his presence she had an all too sweet love struck look that was so over the top syrupy you wanted to gag. She must have learned that from her mother, Clista thought wryly. As far as her smile the fullness of her curvaceous mouth should have matched her granddaughters, instead it held the look of a cat that had gotten the canary with a smug look like she had an ace up her sleeve no one knew about. Nora had warned her grandma that she wouldn't like or trust Dabria when she had come to her house in tears after the dance contest that had started out as the best day of her young granddaughters life and turning out to be one of the worst she would ever experience.

Nora never in a million years thought that Patch would give his heart to anyone else but her. She was heart-broken and shattered followed by pissed after meeting this "Dabria". She had bad, bad feelings when she met her and they had steadily gotten worse the longer his fiancé was in the picture. Nora tried to move on by convincing herself that it was probably just her overactive imagination making her think something was up with Dabria, brought on by having her heart ripped out. It wasn't just that Patch was her soul mate, the kind of love that was epic, he was her BEST FRIEND and she felt she owed it to him to find out what was behind this new girl, what her devious eyes were hiding. What plot did she have and was she planning on hurting Patch. She would deal with whatever Dabria dealt her, but she would not stand idly by and let her hurt her best friend. With Clista's help they started monitoring Dabria's every move.

The rest of the summer both flew by and drug, when Patch wasn't helping Dabria with wedding planning, which was often since not surprisingly Dabria had almost complete charge of everything. She was a perfectionist and a control freak. That actually worked out in Nora's favor because with Dabria preoccupied Patch had free time to spend with her and that's what they did.

Rixon was back to spending time with them, happy that his brother was getting married, that officially cleared up the fears he had of losing Nora since he didn't consider anyone else a threat to him. He 'knew' Nora would be his now. Patch had mixed feelings about that. He wanted his brother to be happy, to feel what he was feeling, but Nora was his best friend and he didn't want her spending her life married to someone she wasn't in love with, even if that was his own little brother. She deserved her happy ever after just like he had found his. Now she might just be at the mercy of their parents and that was making him very ill at ease. He'd always protected her from them, taken her away from the pressure when it was too much. They toyed with her emotions and with him getting married how close of an eye could he realistically keep on things in her home? He'd always be there, but would it be enough? On top of these questions was the nagging feeling in his stomach that things with him and Nora were different, that she was acting different, almost as if he had hurt her, REALLY hurt her, but for the first time he was too busy to give it much thought. He had all but forgotten all the feelings he had experienced two weeks before meeting his fiancé, the one's that had him wanting to win the heart of his friend, the one's that had him worried that he was being 'friend zoned'. In his head she was the little girl next door he loved and protected, no longer even a woman like she had been the night he took them all dancing to win the bet.

School began for Nora and Prom was in the air all around, it was all anyone wanted to talk about. Rixon was bugging her to go along with a few other guys. Dante who was the quarterback for their all state champion football team wanted her to go with him. He had a bright future in front of him with college scholarships anywhere he wanted to go and a promising future as an NFL player. The girls at school were envious that Nora had the attention of both boys. It didn't matter to Nora though, she wasn't interested in any of them. The only one she wanted was already officially taken and was soon to be legally bound to someone other than her.

Through it all she had plastered a smile on her face and let him live in his happy place. Her grandma refused to let her give up hope saying that he would need her at his side when his world crumbled because both her and Nora saw that in his future. Warning him at this point when they had nothing firm would be futile, he would either not believe them or be angry at their accusations and they would risk losing him, that wasn't an option.

With all her hopes for her and Patch gone and the pressure of Prom and Rixon, Nora decided to date for the first time. She didn't accept Rixon's request, she didn't want to encourage him with something that was never going to happen so she said yes to Dante. He seemed like a reasonable choice, as good as any when there's no one you want that you can actually have. They had many things in common and he seemed well liked. What you see isn't always what you get. In reality Dante was a real douch, no one warned her of that, not even Rixon who figured Dante was a phase she would get over. What Rixon didn't count on was what would happen on Prom night, or why Dante had pursued Nora in the first place.

Prom was set two months before Patch's wedding. Nora had asked Patch to take her virginity when 'all the kids were doing it' and he had declined, in fact the playboy had lectured her about not having sex until she was in love and with the right person, to save herself and make it special. She had saved herself from then on for someone special, as in Patch. With Nora being eighteen and Prom being two months before his wedding she had nothing to lose...well, besides that, so she threw herself into getting ready for the big night shopping with Vee. One of Vee's favorite things to do was to use her little sister as her own personal size Barbie. She never understood the younger girls aversion to dressing up everyday. They had money so why her sister preferred jeans, a t-shirt and a pair of J's with a leather jacket was really beyond her comprehension and definitely not up to her standards. Dressing her for Dante was a dream for Vee, she thought the football star was a huge catch and talked non stop never noticing that Nora herself was saying very little. Nora knew she was settling with Dante, what hope did she have, her soul mate was getting married it was time to move on. With that in mind Patch's long ago safe sex...don't lose your virginity to anyone you don't want to spend your life with...your too special for just any guy speech was no longer valid. Boys were really showing interest now that Patch was preoccupied and not threatening them, had he not been he would have crushed all their dreams by now. The few one time dates she had been on were arranged by Bella or Shadow. No one had really asked Nora out, she figured they weren't really interested and that was okay by her since she wasn't interested in them. Reality was they were very very interested, but Patch had eyes and ears EVERYWHERE and any interest in HIS ANGEL was quickly forgotten after a talk with him. Not even the men in town wanted to be on the receiving end of a warning let alone more. Patch had a reputation for getting a little...rough. Needless to say, no one was anxious to test him in a fight. It wasn't that he wanted Nora alone all of her life, he just didn't think any of those boys were good enough for her, he wanted her to have a guy he felt actually deserved her.

While Vee and Nora picked out the perfect dress and accessories preparing for her night, Dante was off renting a cheap hotel room at the local Motel 6, bragging about how HE would be the one to finally take Nora's V-card and there would be no Patch to stop him now that he had a wedding in the works. Dante knew Patch was 7 hours away from home that weekend, that made this all the easier. Nora, for the most part, had resigned herself to her fate and was ready as she could be to give into Dante, even though she didn't know of his plans per se, or that he had bragged about being the one who was finally going to 'break the ice princess'. What Dante hadn't counted on was being overheard in the showers after football practice by Rixon who called his big brother to let him know what Dante's plans were. Since Patch was now officially off the market he was of no threat so calling him in for protection just seemed the right thing to do since he didn't want anything bad to happen to Nora. Rixon had done some changing that year and instead of being so forward he had actually become quite shy, he didn't want Nora to end up as a cheap conquest even if she didn't want to be with him. He loved her enough to not want that for her.

Dante arrived promptly the night of Prom to pick Nora up. He was welcomed by the Grey's as the son of the town's Mayor. Dante was spoiled and used to getting what he wanted. Since no one had been able to get anywhere near Nora Grey that's what he wanted. She was just another notch on his bedpost, a trophy on his wall, albeit a gorgeous one.

When Patch received the call there weren't words to express the rage he had at this Dante kid, he was even kind of angry at Nora for being what he felt was naïve and not waiting for that 'perfect' man she would settle down with like he knew she had always wanted. He was angry on top of that because Nora had once asked him to take her virginity, he had said no at the time feeling that she was too young still and he was too much like an older brother, but things had changed, Nora had grown which had been obvious when they danced so even though he was getting married and had no right, the idea of some other boys paws on HIS ANGEL drove him mad. He told Dabria there was an emergency, jumped in his car and floored it to make it in time to save HIS Angel and teach little Dante a lesson. Grown men didn't want to fight Patch on his good days, but get his temper going and he had the potential to be lethal. One way to spark his temper was to find something he was passionate about and when it came to HIS ANGEL he was VERY passionate about protecting her, even if he was mad at her and thought she was making a very bad spur of the moment choice..

With the dance underway, Patch's time was ticking away, he had the engine open the whole way. While he drove Nora was faced with what she knew was going to happen, Dante's hands knew no boundaries, but was she supposed to care when she'd been planning on sleeping with him anyways? Why did this still feel so... wrong, there was no synchronization like with Patch, Dante's body didn't fit with hers it felt awkward and his hands felt wrong... it just felt...wrong. She figured it was nerves, cold feet and a broken heart. She was resigning herself to her fate when there was a tap on Dante's shoulder, when he saw who was standing behind him his face turned white. A voice as melodic as angels, smooth and sexy as sin and equally as diabolical spoke up, a voice she would recognize anywhere demanded to cut in.

When Dante took a sideways step Patch got his first view of Nora that night and stopped breathing. He had come ready to save the little girl next door, to protect his little sister but this... this was no little girl, in fact this made the young woman he had salsa danced with look... plain. Standing before him was a woman as much a goddess as an Angel. Nora was wearing a black one shoulder sleeveless sheath long slit cut-out open back prom dress. The 'one shoulder' was actually a design pattern that sparkled like diamonds that connected to a form-fitting black velvet bodice that rose to meet the shoulder design on the right side and dropped slightly lower diagonally to the left side below the underneath of her arm. It left from the center and across her left chest and shoulder bare as well as a triangle section on each side between the bodice and the skirt that was connect only in the center by a matching design made of the same zirconia jewels as the shoulder piece. Other than the connecting piece her creamy taut stomach was exposed for his eyes to drink in. The black velvet skirt was made to fit like a second skin around the hips and thighs and flair ever so slightly near the very bottom. There was a slit running up the front of her left leg stopping high on her mid-thigh. The dress hugged her every curve accenting her full breasts that he had never noticed, her waist was small and her hips round. Her legs went on for miles. She had her nails painted black with a matching stone and design on each nail, she wore diamond earrings. Nora's eyes were a smoky silver and black, not dark like Dabria's make up, rather soft to accent the beauty she already was. Her cheeks were slightly flush and her lips were shaded a soft pink. Nora's hair was slicked back, part was pulled into a ballerina bun with the rest having been braided then looped around the bun. Vee had left a soft cascading ringlet of hair on the front that hung down the right side of her face. Patch was speechless, stunned by the beauty before him. How had he not noticed THIS?! His body, if not his heart, were having definite reactions to this young woman before him.

"Hi." She said nervously. What was he doing here?

Patch had to swallow before speaking. Her voice had even changed, it sounded like music, silky and smooth.

"Hi." When he didn't say anything more she raised an inquiring eyebrow at him.

"Would you like to dance?" Dance. It was the only thing he could think of, the first word that came to mind.

"Yes, thank-you." She giggled and offered him her hand, he bowed gently and kisses on the back of each knuckle with the graze of his lips.

"The pleasure's all mine." Patch's focus was solely on Nora having forgotten a very confused and shocked Dante standing next to him.

Nora stepped into his arms and he pulled her close, their bodies starting right where they had left off. When he moved she moved, they were smooth as water flowing together as they danced to John Legend- All Of Me...

What would I do without your smart mouth?
Drawing me in, and you kicking me out
You've got my head spinning, no kidding, I can't pin you down
What's going on in that beautiful mind
I'm on your magical mystery ride
And I'm so dizzy, don't know what hit me, but I'll be alright[Pre-Chorus:]
My head's under water
But I'm breathing fine
You're crazy and I'm out of my mind[Chorus:]
'Cause all of me
Loves all of you
Love your curves and all your edges
All your perfect imperfections
Give your all to me
I'll give my all to you
You're my end and my beginning
Even when I lose I'm winning
'Cause I give you all of me
And you give me all of you, ohoh

How many times do I have to tell you
Even when you're crying you're beautiful too
The world is beating you down, I'm around through every mood
You're my downfall, you're my muse
My worst distraction, my rhythm and blues
I can't stop singing, it's ringing, in my head for you[Pre-Chorus:]
My head's under water
But I'm breathing fine
You're crazy and I'm out of my mind[Chorus:]
'Cause all of me
Loves all of you
Love your curves and all your edges
All your perfect imperfections
Give your all to me
I'll give my all to you
You're my end and my beginning
Even when I lose I'm winning
'Cause I give you all of me
And you give me all of you, ohoh[Bridge:]
Give me all of you
Cards on the table, we're both showing hearts
Risking it all, though it's hard[Chorus:]
'Cause all of me
Loves all of you
Love your curves and all your edges
All your perfect imperfections
Give your all to me
I'll give my all to you
You're my end and my beginning
Even when I lose I'm winning
'Cause I give you all of me
And you give me all of you

I give you all of me
And you give me all of you, ohoh

When the song ended Nora's eyes were sparkling with tears she promised herself she wouldn't cry.

"Do you want to get out of here?" Patch asked her. She could have sworn his voice had dropped an octave sounding almost thick with something she hadn't heard... desire? He was looking at her bottom lip she was lightly nibbling on, a nervous habit of hers without thinking she ran her tongue across it and his eyes followed and she saw him swallow. A shiver ran through her.

"Yes." She whispered and without another word he led her to his car.

He had made the... mistake? Of turning her down once before, nope, if anyone was going to touch HIS ANGEL it would be him. He was the one who knew her inside and out, he knew what to do and what not to so it wouldn't hurt her as much as it might if at all, he would make it special, a night to remember he would know that she enjoyed her first time... Hell, he planned on ravishing her and ruining her for any and every man after him, secretly he was hoping there never would be a man after him! Patch shook his head a little ,no, I'm getting married but I will do this because she deserves her first time to be special, not with some football player trying to score another point and most DEFINITELY NOT in some cheap sleazy motel room. She needed to be with someone she trusted and who loves her and there was no one closer to her than him. No, only the best for HIS uh...lady? Angel... They drove in complete silence, though not uncomfortable to either of them. They both knew what was coming next and even though this was Nora's every fantasy coming true she couldn't help but be nervous and even though this was exactly what she wanted she knew in the morning she would have to let him go, she would have to watch him go back to Dabria and that hurt... a lot.