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Prom dresses and afterparty outfits at the bottom!

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I gently place the last clip in my hair as I look into the mirror at my reflection.

"Honey, you look gorgeous," my mom breathes as tears run down her face. I smile at her through the mirror and turn around, walking towards her and giving her a hug. "My baby is all grown up," she blubbers into my shoulder.

"Mom, stop, you're going to make me cry," I pout, looking up at the ceiling as tears gather in the corner of my eyes.

"I'm not crying, you're crying," she replies sarcastically.

I fold my arms over my chest, "Real mature."

My closet opens and Olivia struts out with her prom dress on. "Oh, Olivia," my mother starts tearing up again.

She grins at my mom and then looks down at herself, "I know, I look hot," she chuckles, walking over to my mom and hugging her tightly.

My mother pulls back but keeps her hands on her shoulders, "I wish your mom could have been here to see this moment," mom gives her a watery smile.

Olivia looks down at her feet, nodding her head. She lets out a laugh that soon turns into a sob and she places a hand over her mouth and uses the other to try and stop the tears from ruining her makeup. My mom pulls her in for another hug, squeezing her tightly. My heart breaks a little, witnessing my best friend cry but I smile because I know that my mom loves her like she's another daughter.

After a few minutes of hugging, they pull away. "Okay, enough crying, I need to look good for the pictures," my mom says, fully pulling away from Olivia.

Olivia scoffs with a grin, dabbing under her eyes, "Yeah, you need to look good for the pictures," she rolls her eyes with a laugh.

My bedroom door slams open, "I'm here!" Courtney walks into the room but her dress is so long that she has to yank it into the room, "Stupid thing, stop being a pain in my ass," she curses as she walks further into the room.

Quinn walks into the room in a beautiful baby pink dress, her hair is pulled on top of her hair in an artfully placed messy bun, rolling her eyes at Courtney, "I told you that that dress was going to annoy you."

"My babies are so beautiful!" my mom starts tearing up again as she walks over to Quinn and Courtney, showering them in hugs and kisses.

"Charlotte and Olivia, you two are gorgeous," Kerry, Quinn's mother exclaims as she walks into my bedroom. The noise downstairs has gotten louder at the sound of our families coming into the house, waiting to take some pictures.

A round of deep laughter resonates from downstairs and I find myself grinning at the thought of Nathan in a suit.

"Are they all here?" I ask referring to our dates.

Kerry shakes her head, "Lilly will be here in a moment, her mother said that they had a little issue with her dress but they're on their way."

"Courts, where is your mom?" Olivia asks, noting that Courtney's mom is not up here with the rest of them.

Courtney rolls her eyes with a sigh, "She's schmoozing Nate's mom, they got here the same time we did."

"Of course she is," Mom winks at us, smoothing out pieces of my hair that won't stay down. Curse you cowlicks! "Okay, are you girls ready?" We nod our heads and move out of my bedroom.

"Where's Seb?" Olivia asks, eyeing his bedroom door as we walk past it.

"I kicked him downstairs," mom smirks, "I made him ring the doorbell and everything, so it would feel like he's picking you up, like they do in the movies," she grins, winking at Olivia.

"Thanks Momma C," Olivia laughs, hugging my mom quickly.

"Anything for my girls," she squeezes our hands.

I look over the banister and see Sophie standing with Tessa, talking to Carly, Nathan's sister, as Mia and Maddie run around the living room. All the dads are standing in the middle of the living room drinking out of frosted whiskey glasses, laughing at something Olivia's dad had said. I can't see any of the boys but I can hear them messing around in the foyer.

"Come on girls," mom calls to us and we all scurry over to the stairs.

I look down the stairs and see that Nathan, Sebastian and Lucas are standing around Lilly as Katherine, Nathan's mother, takes pictures of them. I smile at seeing them compliment Lilly on her dress as they pick her up, lay her across their arms and hold her up as she squeals loudly. "Don't drop me!" She laughs loudly, posing for the camera.

"You're a cheerleader, Lil, why are you so afraid?" Lucas teases, pretending to drop her, making her yell out as Nathan and Sebastian burst out laughing.

"I'm not afraid of cheerleaders holding me, just you three," she grins at Katherine as snaps more pictures.

I turn to Quinn and see her face still in awe, with a small smile as she gazes at Lilly. Courtney rests her head on Quinn's shoulder from behind her, "Let's go save your girl," Courtney grins, pulling her along to the top of the stairs with her. Quinn laughs, holding onto Courtney's hand as they descend the staircase.

The general noise from the living room quietens down as they get to the bottom. Lilly shuffles up to Quinn, "You look breathtaking," Lilly grins, hugging Quinn tightly.

"You look absolutely gorgeous," Quinn says quietly, kissing her on the cheek softly. Snaps from cameras shutter throughout the room.

Courtney looks over at Lucas, "I better get better adjectives than that," she points at Quinn and Lilly.

Lucas chuckles nervously, grabbing her hand and whispering something in her ear. Her face turns red and she hits his chest with a giggle. "Okay, you win."

Olivia grabs my hand tightly and we look over at each other with grins on our faces. Nathan sees us walking down the stairs and slaps Sebastian on his arm, making him look over at us. Sebastian's jaw drops as he stares at Olivia, who has a smirk on her face, knowing what she's doing to the poor boy.

Nathan takes a step closer to the stairs and holds out his hand for me to grasp as I step onto the foyer floor. From the corner of my eye I can see our moms shaking with excitement, snapping pictures.

Olivia lets go of my hand and moves over to a still silent Sebastian. Nathan pulls me closer to him, kissing me on my cheek softly. "Is it weird that I don't have any cheesy compliments that could describe how stunning you look right now?" My heart melts at his words and I open my mouth to reply but Sebastian's loud voice cuts me off.

"Damn woman, are you trying to kill me?" Sebastian exclaims dramatically clutching his chest as Olivia gives him a twirl.

Olivia grins widely, her face turning red. He gives her a cheeky smile, grabs her hand and pulls her closer to him, kissing her head. "I love you," she mumbles into his chest.

Nathan looks at them and back to me, "Yeah, he's got the right idea," he chuckles, pulling back, twisting our arms so that I twirl.

"Okay, picture time!" Katherine claps her hands together, getting all of our attention.

"Courts, I want you and Lucas at the bottom so that I can lay your dress out, Quinn, I want you and Lilly up one step and then Liv and Seb, finally Lottie and Nate at the top," mom directs as she maneuvers us onto the staircase, eliciting groans from all of us. A loud crunch is heard around the room and everyone turns to look at Sebastian eating a bag of chips that came from nowhere. Mom narrows her eyes at him, "Where did you get those? You're getting crumbs on your suit," she scolds, wiping his suit jacket, trying to get rid of all the crumbs.

"Noh-where," Sebastian mumbles as he chews quickly. She shakes her head at him and turns around to talk to dad. Sebastian nudges Olivia, who opens her clutch purse, which is packed with a bunch of different snacks, and he shoves the chip bag into it as quickly as he can.

"Okay, smile!" Katherine shouts.

After at least one hundred different photos and even a couple family ones where Tessa ended up jumping on Sebastian's back and he fell onto the floor; which led to mom reprimanding them with a lint roller as she tried to clean up Sebastian.

"Lottie, Harry is on FaceTime, he wants to chat before you go," Mom calls from the kitchen and I rush to her, seeing her holding the phone too close to her face.

I grab it from her and turn it to face me, seeing Harry's smiling face, "Thanks mom. Hey bro!"

"Hey sis, sorry I couldn't be there, finals are a bitch," he groans into the phone and looking at the dark circles under his eyes, I can tell how exhausted he is.

"That's okay, I'm talking to you now," I grin, giving mom the phone and making her turn it to face me so Harry can see my dress.

"Is that my little sister, what the hell happened?" Harry jokes as I laugh and take the phone back and walk out of the kitchen and into the foyer where everyone is waiting.

I lean my head on Nathan's shoulder, as well as I can since I'm shorter than him and he says hello to Harry.

"Look after her tonight, man, I trust you!" He tells Nathan, pointing a finger at him.

"Hey bro, no worries, Bass in on the case," Sebastian claims, taking the phone from me and he fixes his tie in the camera.

"Which is why I'm double-checking with Nathan, he's in charge tonight," Harry laughs at Sebastian's wounded expression.

"Rude," he glares at the phone. Olivia moves to stand next to Sebastian, looking at the phone.

"Olivia, you look nice," he says with a scowl.

She smiles brightly at him, "Thanks asshole."

"You're still a bitch though," he rolls his eyes.

"And that is never going to change," she flips him the bird as she walks away. Sebastian watches her walk away with a smile on his face.

"There, I tried, are you happy?" Harry's sarcastic voice is directed at Sebastian.

"Baby steps, bro, you did great, she'll come around eventually, the scowl really sold the sentiment," Sebastian gives him thumbs up and hands the phone back over to me.

"Okay, I better go so you guys can leave, have fun, guys. Love you, Lottie," Harry says waving at the camera.

Maddie bursts into the room, "Harry, Harry!" she squeals ripping the phone from my hands and looking at the screen, opening her mouth wide, "I lost a tooth!"

"No. Way," I can hear his shocked voice as she shuffles into the living room, talking about how Grayson had hit her in the face with a soccer ball at school last week, which resulted in her tooth coming out.

"Okay kiddos, limo is here," my dad says clapping his hands and moving over to the front door. He holds my shoulders he we walk out of the house, "you look beautiful, Lottie."

I feel tears prick my eyes as I look up at my dad, "Thanks dad," I reply in a whisper as I pull him into a hug.

"Now what happens if the school scolds you for wearing that dress?" Johnathan, Olivia's dad, asks as we walk outside to the limo parked in the driveway.

Olivia looks up at him with a grin, "You didn't pay for it."

He high-fives her with a laugh, "That's my girl," he pulls her forward, kissing her forehead before pushing her in the direction of the limo.

We all climb into the limo, squeezing in, "It's Prom, bitches!" Courtney yells out, making us all cheer loudly as the driver leaves the driveway.

* * * * * * * *

"This... is such a let down," Courtney says what we're all thinking as we walk into the hotel where our prom is being held.

"What the hell kind of prom is this?" Olivia yells out, echoing through the lame area. The place has been beautifully decorated but the vibe from the students brings the whole atmosphere down. Students are sitting around the room at their tables, looking bored out of their minds. The room is packed but the music was bad enough to bring anyone down.

Olivia lets go of Sebastian and marches up to the DJ booth, "You! Play something we want to listen to, not this oldie crap."

The DJ looks terrified of her expression and he stumbles over his words as he replies, "B-but the s-school gave me a strict l-list of music I could play," he shrugs helplessly.

She leans over the turntable and grabs his collar, pulling him close to her face, "I don't give a fuck about the school, if you haven't noticed, we're not on school property nor is the school's name written anywhere," she gestures around the room, "So, I say, play some damn good music or I will," she threatens. She hands over her phone, "pick something good." He nods his head and she looks back at me, darting her eyes to the teachers that are forced to chaperone us and I nod my head in understanding.

I take short breaths, trying to make it look like I've been running, making our group look at me like I've lost my mind, as I rush over to the teachers standing in the corner. "There's... students upstairs that are drunk and vandalizing the hotel!" I pant out. The teachers' eyes widen as they rush towards the exit in an all-out panic. I take a deep breath and turn around with a smile on my face.

Olivia struts up to me with an evil grin and a high-five, "That's how it's done," she waves her hands to me and I bow as our friends clap.

"You didn't tell them what floor the 'students' were on, this hotel has sixty floors," Lilly voices from next to Quinn.

"Exactly," I shrug with a smirk.

Every time that you get undressed
I hear symphonies in my head
I wrote this song just looking at you oh, oh
Yet the drums they swing low
And the trumpets they go,"

"FINALLY!" I hear a bunch of students yells as the song starts playing. A lot of them get up and start moving over towards the open dancefloor, the mood of the room lifting up significantly. Courtney and Lucas rush off to the dancefloor with grins on their faces. Quinn and Lilly move over to the refreshments, talking to a few of their friends.

Olivia places her hands on her hips as she sees the students mingle around the room, laughing or dancing, "Damn I'm good," she nods her head.

"Babe, I'm going to go request our song, quick," Sebastian says, kissing her head as he walks through the crowds, stopping to say hello to a few people.

"Your song?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.

"Kiss Me Thru The Phone, duh," she says as if it was obvious.

I laugh and Nathan, grabs my hand, and then offers his other hand to Olivia, "Just until Sebastian gets back," he says, pulling her with us onto the dancefloor.

"Nathan, I know you love me, but you need to move on," she says with a mischievous grin on her face.

"So no more pickup lines?" He asks with a hopeful smile.

"I would never take that away from you. Are you a parking ticket? Cause you've got fine written all over you," she winks, grabbing his hand as we move further into the center of the dancefloor. I laugh loudly at the awkward expression on his face.

"And how would Sebastian feel if he heard you saying that to me?" Nathan asks with a raised eyebrow.

"Are you kidding me? He's the one that told me to use that one on you," Olivia keels over, laughing.

Nathan sighs deeply, "Of course he did," he mutters.

"Show me your move, Hayes," Olivia opens her arms to the side, "Come at me, bro."

"Oh, it is on like Donkey Kong, Grace. Sprinkler!" I shout out, going into immediate sprinkler dance moves.

"Oh god, no," Nathan mumbles, shaking his head with a grin.

"Shopping cart!" Olivia yells pushing her arms in front of her.

"Running man," Sebastian shouts as he appears in front of us, doing the dance move.

We look at Nathan, waiting. His eyes dart around the room before he groans, "Moonwalk," he says doing the perfect moonwalk.

"What the fuck, no, you can't be a good dancer, that's not allowed!" Olivia yells at him as Sebastian tries to do a moonwalk but slides his shoe across the floor, almost landing in a split.

"Ah, fuck, help me!" He squeals as I laugh loudly, trying to pull him up before he starts crying.

An hour later the teachers had still not come back, leading the students to believe that they are now in charge of the prom.

"Yo! What is up Northlake High Students?" Carter calls into the microphone on the stage. The students shout in reply. "Don't forget to vote for King and Queen, voting will be closed in thirty minutes-I mean I think, who the fuck knows. Now, I know that this party started as a total snooze-fest, so let's turn up the heat!" He points to the Dj and the music starts playing again.

"Ugh, these shoes are killing me," Olivia groans, leaning one arm on Sebastian as she takes off her heels and hands them to Sebastian, "So much better," she moans.

"Amen to that, sister," I agree, pulling off my heels.

"That is nasty, you don't know who has walked on these floors," Courtney scrunches up her nose at our bare feet.

"Courtney, remember what we said about your high maintenance," Olivia wiggles her fingers in front of Courtney with a grin.

"I am starving, is there food here?" Lilly asks, looking around on her tiptoes. Tiptoes?

"Lilly, where are your shoes?" I ask.

"Girl, I took those off twenty minutes ago," Lilly laughs, waving her hand through the air.

"You are what the world needs as a leader," Olivia tells her, pulling us girls onto the dancefloor again.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"The fun has arrived!" Olivia sings as she walks into Freddie's afterparty three hours later.

"May I present, Their Royal Majesties, King Nathan, and Queen Charlotte!" Sebastian yells over the crowd as Nathan and I walk into the party with our Prom King and Queen crowns on our heads.

Cheers erupt around us and a couple of the guys in the party bow dramatically. I giggle and bury my head in Nathan's chest as everyone congratulates us as we move through the party.

"The funny part is that you weren't even going for Prom Royalty and look how that ended up," Olivia laughs as the boys move towards the kitchen to grab us drinks.

"I honestly thought Courtney would get it," I shrug looking over at Courtney.

"I already know I'm royalty," she flips her hair over her shoulder and I raise an eyebrow at her, "Oh please, I won it our Junior year, once is enough for me, I voted for you," she winks, kissing my cheek as she moves through the crowd to find Lucas.

"Yeah, we've kind of been campaigning behind your backs since you got together," Lilly informs me and my eyes widen at her.

"But we broke up on New Years," I reply.

"Yeah, could you imagine how awkward that would have been if you hadn't gotten back together?" Quinn asks rhetorically with a laugh, leading Lilly outside.

"Come on, Your Majesty, time to go greet the peasants," Olivia links her arm with mine and leads us around the room, saying hello to everyone.

Nathan and I are dancing in the living room and I reach up a hand and wipe my sweaty forehead, "I need some air, I'll be back in a minute," I breathe, pulling him to me by the back of his neck so I can talk into his ear due to the pounding music throughout the house. My crown is lopsided on my head, and Nathan lost his when Olivia stole it from him a couple of hours ago. He nods his head, moves his hand around my waist, and leads me out of the living room.

"Nate, dude, come check this out, Freddie totally just destroyed his mom's favorite rug," Lucas shouts, hitting his hand on Nathan's shoulder.

"Wanna come?" Nathan turns to look at me, tugging my hand.

I shake my head gently, "I'm going to head outside, take some pictures," I kiss him quickly and walk towards the back door.

I step out the back door and breathe in a deep sigh, walking down the patio steps. A few people are sitting around the pool or the firepit placed in Freddie's backyard.

I walk over to an empty picnic table and sit down, lifting my feet onto the bench, sighing in relief. I look up at the clear sky, listening to the laughter and general chatter around me. Peace at last.

Looking over at the pool, I watch as Michael, a senior on the football team, throws Kate, my track friend, into the pool. I chuckle as she comes up for air, screaming profanities at him.

A throat clears next to me and I jump in fright, looking over at Summer. Spoke too soon. "Can we please not do this, it's been months and I am over it, Summer."

"I'm not here to apologize, I'm here to cease and desist," she replies, stiffly, placing her laced fingers on the picnic table.

"How generous of you," I reply, sitting up and putting my feet on the ground.

"You sent out my rap sheet," she replies.

"I didn't send out that rap sheet, I got my hands on it, yes, but I thought that after you publicly outed Quinn, she deserved to be the judge of what happened to it," I smile sarcastically, lacing my fingers together. "No one deserves to be outed like that, friend or not. If you were after me, then you should have come for me, not my friends."

"She was fine, after it-," I cut her off.

"That is not the point."

"I know, okay! I know that I did something stupid and I paid for it but you took Nathan from me-."

"'I took Nathan from you?' He was never interested in you. You can't have this claim over him-," I reply outraged but she cuts me off this time.

"He was my best friend, and once you were in the picture, he wanted nothing to do with me," She glares.

"I never told him to stop hanging out with you, even after all the hell you put me through when we were kids, I told him that I didn't want to get in the way of your friendship. But you never wanted to be just friends with him, Summer. You could have just spoken to him about it, told him how you felt about him," I shrug, feeling pity for her.

"Yeah, because that would have worked out well," she replies sarcastically.

"Well if you knew what the outcome would be, then why try and sabotage our relationship?" I ask in disbelief.

"Because you don't deserve Nathan," she replies, smacking her hand on the table.

"Not this bullshit again," I mumble, "And you're the person who gets to decide that? How about letting him make the decisions for himself?"

"Because he can barely make decisions for himself now and he's eighteen," she states in a clipped tone.

"And how is he supposed to learn or grow when you held him on a leash, pretending you were doing what was best for him?" I snap back.

"I didn't hold him on a leash-."

"Oh please, he was more of your pet than your friend, everyone could see the way you manipulated him into doing whatever you wanted," I reply, tilting my head slightly, challenging her to deny it.

"Can you just stop with these stupid comments, you didn't deserve him then and you don't deserve him now," she crosses her arms over her chest.

"Fine, I don't deserve him, but let the people in the relationship, decide what's best for the relationship. Just stay out of it," I lean back on the bench, looking up at the sky again, "You can go now."

"Rot in hell," she spits standing up.

"I'll see you down there," I reply with a wave, "Maybe in college, you should focus more on yourself, than on someone else, I wish reality would smack you in the face one day, Summer," she looks back at me over her shoulder. "And I hope you have the life you deserve." She scoffs as she walks off, hopefully for good this time.

"What was that about?" Olivia asks as she takes a seat next to me, offering a drink. God, please be alcohol.

"Just burying the hatchet," I reply, chugging my drink.

"Did you bury it in her?" Olivia asks hopefully.

I chuckle, looking over at her, "That's a little gory, don't you think?"

"Eh, to each their own," she smiles, hitting her plastic cup with mine in a toast.

"She just needs to get over this insane obsession with him, it's not healthy," I tell her, leaning my head on her shoulder.

"Well she was always a jealous bitch, even when we were kids, and once you started dating Nathan, I guess she just... snapped," Olivia says, leaning her head on mine.

"What am I going to do without you in college?" I ask her, looking back at the party going on around us.

"We'll have our good days and there'll be some bad days, but we'll come out on top, we always do," she wraps her arm around me and I do the same, hugging her closer to me.

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Wow, this took me all week to write... I guess its just the epilogue left and a couple bonus chapters, emotions are high people! This is not a drill!!

**Tell me what bonus chapter you want to see! I am all ears!

Have a great week everyone, sending all my love!

Until next time,

Sammipott xx