Prom (Part II)

After the slow dance, I excused myself. I was slightly confused about my feelings. This isn't good. Henry was my friend and I wasn't supposed to be crushing on one of my friends. This isn't normal. I went outside to go find Brittany. I had to pull her away from Zack and practically dragged her into the bathroom. She was not happy.

"What?" she asked, her voice laced with annoyance. I felt bad for pulling her away from Zack.

"I think I have feelings for Henry," I whispered, making sure that no one but Brittany heard me.

"Oh," she said, not sounding surprised. "It was bound to happen, just like how Adam had feelings for you."

"What do I do?" I asked her, almost desperately. "I don't want to ruin my friendship with him like Adam did with me." I sighed.

"You just have to go with the flow, Court," she told me. "I'm going to go back to Zack. Have fun!" She hugged me and left me alone in the bathroom. I left after her and sat down at an empty table, watching everyone dance. I spotted Henry in the crowd with a girl in one of my classes, grinding up against him. I looked away, a little hurt.

You're being silly, Courtney. He can dance with anyone he wants. It's not like you're dating or anything. Stop being a baby. I told myself.

I felt a little sorry for myself. Everyone was having fun except for me. I went out onto the balcony to check my phone. Someone tapped my shoulder and I turned around.

"Hey, Logan!" I said, giving him an awkward hug. "How are you?"

"Good," he said, smiling. "Are you here with anyone?" I shook my head.

"No, Taylor and I broke up and no one asked me," I told him. I sounded a little pathetic, but I really didn't care. "Where's your date?"

"I decided to fly solo until college," he said. "There's really no point in starting a relationship when there's a good chance that you'll go to separate schools. We're graduating in less than a month. So.. I'm solo." I nodded.

"Prom is overrated," I said, rolling my eyes.

"It is!" he agreed with me. "Who wants to see people grinding on each other?"

"I'm glad someone agrees with me," I said, smiling.

"Since it's so bad, want to get out of here?" he suggested. "We can hop in my car and go to a diner or something."

I thought about it for a second. There was really no point in me staying. Everyone was having a good time here and I didn't want to be a Debbie Downer. Henry.. Henry had The Grinder to keep him company. Besides, it's just Logan.

"Sure," I said. "That sounds fun. Just let me tell someone that I'm leaving."

"Ok, I'll be waiting in the lobby," he told me. I found Sarah hanging out at the drink bar.

"Hey guys," I said, loudly over the music. "I'm going to go. You have fun."

"Wait, who are you leaving with?" Sarah asked me, with concern in her voice.

"Logan," I said, simply. I was trying not to laugh. I think Sarah thought that I was going to leave with a stranger. "We're going to a diner to get something to eat."

"Oh, ok," Sarah said. I couldn't tell if she was disappointed that I wasn't staying or if she had some hesitation with letting me leave with Logan. "Have fun!"

"Thanks," I told her, smiling.

Before I left with Logan, I took a glance at the dance floor. Henry was still dancing with The Grinder. My eyes locked with Henry's and I smiled at him. I waved and left.

Prom (Part I)

From left to right: my dress, Haylie's dress, Sarah's dress, Zoey's dress

This is a little embarrassing to admit, but I totally forgot about prom. Somehow, all of the announcements, big signs, and chatter about prom escaped my attention. If it weren't for Brittany jumping on my bed at 7am, I wouldn't have known. Luckily, she had anticipated that I would forget about prom and had bought me a ticket in advance. I have such an awesome sister who assumed correctly that I wanted to go to prom. I was oddly excited for it even though I'm going solo.

"Do you have a dress?" Brittany asked me, taking a bite out of her plain bagel.

"No, I don't! Do you think I can borrow one of the ones you're not wearing?" I asked, sheepishly.

"Sure, sis, let me bring both of them down," she said. Brittany couldn't choose one dress in the store and had figured to buy all three and then try to put together the perfect prom look at home to make the final decision. Again, I was lucky that Brittany hadn't already return the two dresses that she wasn't wearing.

I heard a honk outside and it was my cue to leave. Sarah, Haylie, and I were having a girls' day- getting our hair, makeup, and nails done. Apparently Haylie had the perfect gold heels to go with the short emerald dress I picked out. I grabbed my gold clutch and my dress and headed out the door.

Brittany has been giving me flack for hanging out with Haylie after the Logan incident. But honestly, I don't care anymore. It's just a boy. Boys come and go. Yes, her actions were questionable, but I don't really see the point in throwing away all the years of friendship over one boy. At the end of the day, I still love Haylie and she's my best friend.

Of course, it was an all day process to get ready. I had the whole gorgeous Taylor Swift curls going on, Sarah had her hair up in a bun, and Haylie had a half up, half down hairstyle that resembled something Carrie Underwood would have.

Apparently, we had rented a limo for prom. I didn't know until the driver came to pick us up. Justin, Henry, and Luke were already in the limo. I was surprised that Henry didn't have a date to prom. I know that a bunch of girls would have loved to be his date to prom. Our next stop was Adam's house. I wasn't surprised when he had walked out with Zoey as his date. Everyone looked amazing. The boys in their tuxs and the girls in their dresses.

"Group photo time!" Sarah exclaimed. We groaned and all tried to maneuver in the limo to get into the shot. We got some really cute couple pictures for Adam and Zoey, Sarah and Justin, and for Haylie and Luke. Suddenly, I felt a twinge of sadness that I wasn't going to prom with someone.

"We should get a picture of Courtney and Henry together," Justin said. I laughed and allowed him to take the picture. If anything, I can always lie and say I went with Henry. We arrived at the area where the prom was held right when they were serving the dinner. We had a choice between chicken, beef, or vegetarian. The vegetarian was amazing!

The place was decorated amazingly well. I noticed that the space we had was really roomy and there was a lot of space to mingle and move and dance. We had a balcony if we wanted to get some air. It had such a romantic feel to it. I think the first thing we did after eating was wait in the ridiculously long line for pictures. I think we had every combination possible. The ones that turned out the best was my picture with Brittany. Our parents were going to love them.

I think it was halfway through the prom, I just got claustrophobic. We had all separated- the couples headed to the dance floor to grind on each other (I was never really into grinding). I went outside to get some air. I think I've come to the conclusion that prom is overrated. I mean, the person who was in charge of pulling everything together did a wonderful job, but I wasn't enjoying myself.

"Hey, are you ok?" I turned around and saw that Henry had followed me out.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I told him. "I just thought that I'd be at prom with someone I was dating." I realized how desperate that sounded, but I didn't care.

"You don't need to be dating anyone to have fun at prom," he said to me. "You look beautiful, don't let it go to waste. Come on." He held out his hand. I took it and he lead me inside, where we had started dancing. Right when we got onto the dance floor, the song ended and a slow song came on. Henry pulled me close to him and I wrapped my arms around his neck. Oddly enough, I didn't feel weird slow dancing with Henry. It was weirdly comfortable.

I started to feel nervous. I felt like I had butterflies fluttering around in my stomach. I noticed ridiculously minute details like how his soft brown hair draped over his left eye and how cute his smile was. I couldn't help but notice how close we were. All I could think about was kissing him.

Oh my god, I think I have a crush on Henry.