Chapter Eleven —
Prom

Rosa and Grizz walked side by side into the school building, where they were immediately engulfed into the joyful atmosphere of prom.

Rosa wore a fitted wine coloured dress, which stopped just above her knees. She'd paired it with black heels, which she knew she was going to regret wearing by the end of the night. She hadn't had chance to buy a dress for prom before everything happened, so ended up having to borrow something from Sasha, which she didn't mind, since it was a gorgeous dress.

Rosa wasn't the biggest fan of the whole prom cliche, but did enjoy the socialisation aspect, and having the chance to dress up properly once in awhile.

Prom definitely came at a much needed time, giving the teenagers of West Ham an evening to properly let loose and enjoy themselves, forgetting about the events of the past two weeks. It personally came at an important time for Rosa too, who still felt a little shaken up after the ordeal in the kitchen a few days before.

Grizz wore a mint shirt, which, in all honesty, looked horrendous next to the colour of Rosa's dress – the two of them probably should have coordinated on that.

"We look stupid," Rosa commented, tilting her head to look up at her best friend, who laughed in response. "Seriously, we really should have thought about what we were wearing."

"Is this your way of saying you want to ditch me?" Grizz asked her, placing a hand over his heart in fake hurt.

"No, it's just my way of saying we look stupod," Rosa replied, bumping her shoulder lightly with his. "I'd never ditch you, Grizzy, it's tradition to go as each other's dates. Even if we do forget to colour coordinate."

"Well, I think we look great."

"Hey, hey!" Clark shouted over to the two of them, holding a few drinks in the air, the movement causing a lot of the liquid to overspill all down his arms. "It's my favourite power couple!"

Rosa and Grizz both cringed, taking a drink each from his hands, whilst Jason whacked Clark on the back of the head. "Dude, it's power friendship," he corrected.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Clark rolled his eyes, taking a sip of his drink. "By the way," he gestured between the two of them. "That colour coordination, really not working out for you guys."

Rosa turned to face Grizz, raising her eyebrows. "Told you."

"Rosa!" Sasha cheered, clearly already a little buzzed as she stumbled over to them. "You look gorgeous!"

"Thanks, Sash," Rosa smiled as her friend's arms wrapped around her. "You look great."

"And you..." Sasha's attention fell on Grizz, trailing off as she took in his full outfit. "Well, you could do better."

The boys both snorted at her brutal drunken honestly, and Rosa struggled to hold back a laugh.

"Thanks Sasha," Grizz said, throwing an arm over her shoulder. "Love you too."

The six of them chatted for a few minutes, until Rosa caught eyes with Helena across the room, who immediately dragged Luke towards them.

"Hey!" Helena beamed, bringing both Rosa and Sasha into a hug. "You look incredible!"

"Thank you," Rosa smiled brightly, as Sasha gave her a little twirl. "You look gorgeous, as always."

"Thanks," Helena replied, turning to Grizz, her grin widening. She tugged gently at the bow tie around his shirt collar. "You look so cute!"

"Didn't tell me I looked cute," Luke mumbled in playful jealousy, taking a sip of his drink.

Helena looked back at Rosa and Grizz, glancing over their mismatched colours. "So, uh, colour coordination not your thing right?"

Rosa gave Grizz a pointed look. He finally sighed in defeat. "Fine, you were right."

It wasn't long before they were all pulled to the dance floor by Helena. The boys even performed a routine, which Rosa hugely regretted not filming.

Grizz took Rosa's hand, twirling her around, both of them bursting into laughter when she somehow managed to get stuck. The group was enjoying their night, swaying to all the slow songs and jumping to the faster ones.

"You guys!" Clark practically bowled into Rosa and Grizz, flinging his arms around them both. "You know I love you so much right?"

"We know, buddy," Rosa replied, holding back her laughter.

"And I know prom is your tradition thingy," he slurred, using his fingers as air quotes. "And Rosa, don't tell the others, but you truly are my favourite drinking buddy. But, right now, I gotta steal my boy Grizz away for a while."

"Are you asking for my permission to steal my date?"

Clark paused for a moment, thinking it through in his intoxicated mind. "Yes, I think that's what I'm asking."

"Alright, but bring him back in one piece–" she teased, cutting off when she was suddenly engulfed in a huge hug by a very appreciative Clark. "Okay, okay," she patted him on the back, moving out of his grip before he squashed her. "Go have fun."

Grizz flashed her a smile as he followed Clark out of the crowd of dancing teenagers, leaving Rosa to her own devices.

She felt a presence coming up behind her, turning around to face Glenn. "Oh, hey."

"Hey." His gaze drifted over her. "You look...wow."

"Oh, thanks," Rosa smiled, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear. "You look really great too."

"Do you, uh," Glenn paused for a moment, glancing sidewards as he hesitated. "Do you wanna dance?"

Rosa nodded her head, holding a hand out for him to take. A huge smile flashed across Glenn's face before he could stop himself, and he took her hand, leading them both into the middle of the dance floor. As if on cue, the song playing faded out, and a much slower piece of music started instead. Glenn couldn't help but smile at the timing of it.

She wrapped her arms loosely around his neck, and Glenn placed his hands on her waist. "You really do look incredible tonight."

"I know right, this dress is doing wonders."

"You're telling me." Rosa whacked him lightly on the shoulder, shaking her head, though it did not stop the blush creeping onto her cheeks. "You're cute when you're flustered."

She tilted her head back to look up at him properly. "Are you flirting with me?"

He flashed her a charming smile. "Is it working?"

A smirk played on her lips. "Nah, you gotta try harder than that."

"Well," Glenn began. "I like a challenge."

Their eyes locked for a few moments, and Glenn's gaze soon flickered to her lips. Only, the growing intensity in the air was suddenly interrupted by Clark, who barged between the two of them, shouting about some drinking game that was happening.

"Fucking hell, man," Glenn muttered, cursing his incredibly poor timing.

"Come on!" Clark began to drag Glenn away, pulling him by the sleeve of his suit jacket.

Glenn turned back to Rosa. "I'll come find you later, yeah?"

"Yeah," she smiled up at him, slightly disheartened by Clark's interruption, but she knew there was no getting between any of those boys, so she left them to their own devices. "Go have fun."

Glenn gave her one last apologetic smile as Clark finally tugged him away from her, leaving Rosa alone in the middle of the dance floor.

She decided to give her feet a break from dancing, and made her way to one of the tables. Most of them were occupied, though she soon spotted Harry sat alone – at least, that was what she thought.

Rosa headed towards him with a small smile, taking a seat opposite him before realising he was with Campbell, who must have been obscured from her vision beforehand.

"Oh fuck. It's you," she grumbled, her discontent earning a smirk from the boy.

"Nice to see you too."

Rosa ignored him, and instead glanced at Harry, who was busy staring intently into the distance, his jaw clenched. She followed his eyes, spotting Kelly with a huge smile on her face, dancing with Will.

Rosa couldn't help but smile seeing Kelly look so happy and carefree, but knowing it was not with Harry must have been tearing him up on the inside.

"What is this?"

She turned her head at the sound of Harry's voice, watching as Campbell passed him something hidden underneath the table. "It'll numb the pain."

Rosa quickly snatched it from Harry's grip. "Drugs?" She asked, narrowing her eyes at Campbell. "Seriously?"

"If you wanted some, all you had to do was ask." Campbell directed a smirk her way, the arrogant look on his face making Rosa's blood boil. She remained calm, not wanting to make a scene at prom, of all places. Campbell reached into his inside jacket pocket, tossing a small clear packet across the table at her.

"Fuck you."

Campbell sat back in his chair, observing Rosa for a few moments, his smarmy gaze making her skin crawl. "It's all yours."

"Yeah?" Rosa challenged. "At what cost?"

Campbell held his hands up in defence. "No cost from me."

She glared at him, not believing his lies for one second. "There's always a cost with you."

Campbell raised an eyebrow at her comment, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly. "Well," he said, placing his hands on his knees as he began to rise from the chair. "Can't please everyone. I'll leave you to it."

Rosa watched him move away from the table, the muscles in her jaw tightening. Something about Campbell made her feel sick to her stomach.

Her hard stare followed him as he made his way over to Elle Tomkins. Rosa hoped the girl would be smart enough to decline his advances.

"Hey, pass me that," Harry spoke up, capturing her attention again. He leaned over the table, indicating to the drugs she'd snatched from him before.

Rosa looked over at him in astonishment. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

"What?" He snapped back in irritation. "Will you just pass me it?"

"Come on, Harry. You should know better than to get involved with Campbell," Rosa told him, levelling her eyes to meet his.

"Seriously, Rosa." He released an exasperated sigh, the firm look in her eyes suggesting that she wasn't going to back down any time soon. "Just give it to me."

"No." He reached across the table again, but she quickly snatched the drugs away. Rosa began to wonder exactly what was going through his head if he was that desperate for those kinds of drugs. "Harry, there's better ways of coping with things than this–"

"Right, like you know anything."

"I'm trying to help you–"

Harry ran a hand over his face in irritation. "Just give me the drugs."

"No."

"Jesus Christ," he groaned. "You're so fucking annoying, you know that right?"

"All right. Fine." She tossed the clear packet over to him. Harry grasped it mid-air just before it slammed against his chest. "There."

His eyes lingered on hers for a moment longer, almost as if he hesitated. Eventually he shook his head, chair legs scraping loudly against the floor as he stormed away from the table.

Rosa closed her eyes, a heavy sigh escaping her lips. "Fuck."

She glanced down at her lap, the drugs Campbell had given to her still resting there. Rosa swallowed thickly, knowing she should just get up and get rid of them straight away, but something deep down stopped herself from doing anything.

"Hey, you!"

At the sound of Sasha's voice, she quickly shoved everything into her bag, straightening up.

"Hey," she tried to smile convincingly, her heart racing as her friend sat down beside her. "You had a good night?"

"Great, thanks! You?"

"Yeah, it's been fun," Rosa smiled genuinely.

"I saw the boys on the way here," Sasha said. "Playing a drinking game I think?"

"Yeah, Clark's idea," Rosa chuckled. "You know what he's like."

"Hi," Kelly's voice sounded over the microphone, interrupting the music and their conversation. "Can everyone hear me? Well–" A high pitched whining sound emitted from the microphone. Rosa and Sasha to winced at the piercing sound. "Whoa! I guess so. Anyway, I just wanted to thank everyone for coming."

"We love you, Kelly!"

The crowd erupted into cheers and applause, and Kelly smiled softly at the response. "This hasn't exactly been a normal week," she continued, the room quietening down as she talked, clearly tipsy. "But I think we should be proud of what we've pulled off. What Cassandra has pulled off. To the prom committee, Gwen and Grizz, for organizing. To Bobby Aronson for letting us ruin your bar mitzvah! I mean, that's what we all thought prom would be, right A bar mitzvah," she paused for a moment, the atmosphere in the room beginning to dampen.

"Prom was supposed to be how we say goodbye. I mean, that's what it would've been. It's funny, because we are saying goodbye. Just not to each other. Saying goodbye to everything else, to our old lives. Our childhood. And it's not just disappearing, slowly receding into some distance where we can still see it. It's just gone."

A heavy pressure began to press down in the room, and Rosa began to feel as if somebody had just punched her in the stomach, Kelly's words ringing true within everybody. Prom was supposed to be a distraction from the nightmare they were living, but Rosa was naive to have thought it could stop her from thinking about everything. It was always on her mind, it was on everyone's. They just wanted to go back home.

"Um, we're gonna keep playing music," Gwen quickly stepped on stage, trying to rescue the evening before people got too down about Kelly's speech. "No one needs to leave just yet."

The music began to fill the room again, the chatter continuing. Most people seemed to allow Kelly's words to wash over them, forgetting about everything so they could continue having fun. Rosa glanced away, a heavy sigh slipping past her lips.

She couldn't simply forget about the situation they were in, put it to the back of her mind, and keep pretending that things were going to be okay, not anymore. This was real, too real, and Kelly was right, the town they used to know, the people they used to know, the people that they were – they were gone now. And Rosa wasn't sure if they were ever coming back.

A/N

Oof.