Lizzie

It's like a magical fairyland inside the gym. The organizers must have spent hours and hours on making it so magical. Everywhere I look, there are fairy lights across the walls and lacing through the white and gold curtains that hang from a center point in the ceiling, cascading down to the floor, like a large Moroccan tent. It's a paradise in here. Gold and white balloons hang everywhere, and I can make out that they have The Class of 2023 on them.

"Wow, would you look at this." I breathe. Brandon squeezes my arm.

"It's stunning, right? Your favorite color mix too." He winks, like the kind of wink that he knows something I don't.

"Absolutely, I love white and gold together; it's just so classy and elegant."

"I know." He smiles and places a small kiss on my right cheek. My skin burns, and I shudder, but that kind of nice shudder, you know, the one that goes right down to your toes.

"Going to check the punch out." He says, "You be okay?"

"Sure, I'll be with Tammy and Lilly. No problem." He grabs Tobias and Denver by the arm and drags them to where there is a bar set up. It's a long set of tables with white tablecloths, and smaller gold cloths on top.

Music is already pumping; they're playing Drake right now, and boy do we all love this artist. He's an explosion if ever there was one.

"Oh. My. God. Just look at all this, it's so beautiful." Lilly's voice is breathy like a whisper.

"You match, girl," Tammy says jokingly, and it's true; Lilly's canary yellow dress fits right in with all the gold and the white. Denver, I noticed, has his cummerbund around his waist, his yellow rose and his bow tie all matching her dress. They look absolutely stunning together, and I am one hundred per cent sure this couple will be crowned.

"I'm thirsty. Did anyone bring some Vodka with them for our cups?" Tammy asks. We look at her and frown.

"You're not supposed to be drinking anything, Tammy," Lilly says.

"One or two isn't going to hurt. C'mon, it's prom, for fuck's sake. I want to chill a bit." The thing is, we can't trust that Tammy will stop at just one, and after what happened to her a few weeks ago with way too much alcohol in her system, I know that both Lilly and I are concerned she'll end up doing something stupid again.

"Besides, Tobias is here with me, so I'll have him keeping an eye on me. Okay?" I look at Lilly, who has a dubious look on her face. Tammy can be pretty willful when she's had too much to drink. I'd rather she didn't.

"And what happens if you get drunk, Tammy? That's not fair on Tobias, is it? He's waited so long to even be noticed by Tammy, and to be escorting her to prom must be like a dream come true for him.

"I have the Vodka in my bag. But it's only a small bottle. None of us wants to end up getting wasted." Lilly says. I, for one, will only have a couple of shots. I'm not much of a drinker, and having seen what it does, I can assure you I am not interested in getting wasted. Especially not tonight, when I kiss Brandon, which is making me have heart palpitations; I want to feel it, not be under the influence. I want it to be as magical as this gym is.

"Here you go." Brandon is back and hands me a small cup of punch. It's a pinky-orange color. I taste it. Heaven, it has mangoes in it and orange and something else I can't make out.

"Lilly, you got the Vodka?" Denver asks as he slips one arm around her slender waist. She nods and opens her bag, which matches her dress; it's canary yellow with diamantes on it. We huddle together so she can take it out without one of the teachers seeing us, and she starts pouring some into each cup, making sure it's only a drop for Tammy.

We hold our cups up together against each other's, "Congratulations, guys, we made it to prom all together. Friends always." Brandon says. We take a sip, and I shudder; it tastes vile and burns my throat. Told you, I'm not really a drinker.

I glance around, taking everything in. The gym is filling up, and all the guys look so handsome in their black or white tuxedos; the girls in stunning dresses, some short, some long, all colors you could possibly imagine. Everyone looks so damn glamorous, and I am happy that I chose this red dress.

"You stand out more than anyone in this room," Brandon whispers into my ear. His breath is warm against me, and I feel like I'm about to melt at his feet.

"Thank you." I glance sideways to distract myself from his closeness and see Sandra-Lee staring at us. I can see the envy and anger in her eyes.

"Did you tell Sandra-Lee you would take her to prom, Brandon? Only, she's giving me dagger looks right now." He goes to turn his head. "Don't look. She'll know we're talking about her."

"No way. I didn't tell anyone I'd take them to prom. Honestly, Lizzie, you know I'm not interested in hooking up with anyone else but being here with you."

"So, why is she giving me filthy looks then?"

"Maybe she's jealous."

"You had a hookup with her, didn't you?" Brandon shrugs his shoulders. I slap him playfully on the arm. "For goodness sake, Brandon. Is there anyone except Tammy and Lilly in this damn gym you've not fucked?" He laughs.

"Of course. You." He smirks and exposes his adorable dimple. My knees go weak.

"Let's dance." Tammy grabs my wrist; she's holding Lilly by the hand. I give my cup and clutch bag to Brandon, who obligingly takes them and heads over to the already packed dance floor.

"I love this so much, I never want to leave." Lilly smiles, and it lights up the room.

"Me neither. I want it to stay prom forever." I say. "I don't want us all to go off to college and be split up."

"C'mon girls, let's just have fun. We don't need to talk about heavy shit like that for now." Tammy starts moving to the song; they're playing Uptown Funk, the one with Bruno Mars. She's strutting her stuff and moving her hips wildly. Lilly and I giggle, but Tammy knows how to move and dance. That's because she had dance classes from the age of five or something. In any case, like, forever.

We try to follow her moves, but it feels alien to me. I'm not much of a dancer; however, I am looking forward to the slow dances because that is when I plan on making my move on Brandon.

He's been saying some real nice things, and my heart flutters when he says anything; it's as if I am here on a real date with him.

The track changes to Tainted Love by Soft Cell.

"I love this track." Lilly goes wild; we all do.

I feel arms slip around my waist and pull me in. "Hey, beautiful. Having fun?" I almost die as Brandon's lips catch my neck. The intensity of this moment is too much. I can feel the heat off his body, the firmness of his stomach as my back rests into his. He has his face close to mine, side-on; I want to turn and kiss him.

My heart is aching so much; I never want this second to end. And I wish we weren't kind of faking it for tonight.

This moment, this second, this closeness, his breath on my neck sending shivers up and down my spine. This I want to last forever.