Saturday, the day of the prom, finally came and Danielle was
preparing for it. As
she began to slip on her dress, she thought of Matt. She had
not seen him for the past
week. She wondered what he was doing. Was he getting ready
for the prom also? She
did not know.
She stepped in front of her full length mirror and surveyed
herself. She had on an
ankle length black velvet dress that was off the shoulder and
had a split on the side. The
dress accentuated her figure with the slim design of the bodice.
To complement her
dress, she had on black velvet shoes, a gold filigree bracelet,
matching necklace, and
shawl. Her hair was done in a French roll with little ringlets
on the side; she looked
great.
When she finished surveying herself in the mirror, she left
for the prom. She did
not have a date. If she could not go with Matt, she would not
go with anyone.
At the hotel where the prom was, Matt was standing with Allison,
taking prom
pictures, when Matt saw Danielle come into the banquet hall. He could
not believe his
eyes. He tried to act as though he did not notice that she came in,
but he was having a
tough time. "She looks so hot," Matt thought as he nonchantly watched
her. He looked to
see if she had a date. "Good, no date. Maybe, I can get at least one
dance with her before
the night is over."
Dani walked over to the table where the pictures were paid for,
then over to where
Matt and Allison were standing.
When Dani saw them, she greeted them politely, "Hello,
Matt. Allison."
"Hi."
"Hi, Dani," Matt greeted.
"How are you? I haven't talked you in a while,"
asked Dani.
"I'm fine."
"I'm fine too," Allison added, in an effort not to feel left
out of the conversation.
"That's good. Well I have go to now, I have to get my
picture taken," said
Danielle. Then she walked away. As she walked away, Matt's eyes
followed.
Allison observed Matt´s reaction to Dani ever since she
came over to them. "He
can´t take his eyes off of her," Allison thought as she looked
her date. She had to think of
away to get his attention back on her. "There´s no way in the
world I am going to let him
out of my sight. I´ll spend all night getting him to notice me
if I have to."
"Matt, let´s dance," Allison suggested one of her favorite
songs started to play.
"Allison..."
"Oh, come on," she said as she pulled him out on to the floor.
They started to dance, but Allison could still see that his attention
was still on
Dani, who was talking to a few people on the side lines by the drinks.
Allison sighed in
frustration and kept dancing.
Dani was talking to Randy and Renee when their song came on.
"May I have this dance, Milady?" Randy asked as he bowed to Renee.
Renee smiled and courtsied. "Why yes, kind sir," she answered
as she elegantly
offered her hand to him.
Randy took her hand and looked at Dani. "We shall return anon,
mi-other-lady,"
he said as he led Renee onto the floor.
Dani just smiled at her two friends. "He is so silly," she sighed
as she watched her
two friends dance in each others arms. Her eyes immediately went to
Matt and Allison
who were also dancing. "Allison´s lucky. I wish I could be with
him tonight," she thought
as she looked away. She went over to the punch and was about to pick
up a cup, when she
was intercepted by Chris.
"Dani, I just..."
"Excuse me, Chris," Dani interrupted as she brushed past him.
Chris grabbed her arm to stop her. "Wait a minute," he requested.
Dani looked at him, then at his hand on her arm.
Chris immediately let go not wanting a repeat of the last
time. "Sorry," he
apologized. "But don´t go. I wanted to know if we could finish
this song."
"I...come on, Chris," she said as she took his hand and led him
onto the dance
floor.
She and Chris started to dance. He held her firmly, but gently.
Dani felt so
comfortable with him, that she had forgotten about the last time they
spoke. She rested
her head on his shoulder.
"I´ll be your wish, I´ll be your dream, I´ll
be your fantasy. I´ll be your hope, I´ll
be your love, be everything that you need. I love you more truly, madly,
deeply.." Echoed
through out the banquet hall as all of the couples slowed danced to
the ballad.
The song finally ended. Chris let go of Danielle relunctantly.
He wanted to talk
about their last date, but he decided it was not a good moment. He
needed to redeem
himself first.
"Thanks for the dance, Danielle," Chris said as he grabbed
her hand and kissed it.
Dani smiled, "You´re welcome." Then another song started.
Chris offered his hand. "One more dance?"
Since she had no other offers, Dani took his hand and he led
her out onto the
dance floor again.
"Lady, lady, lady, for the rest of our lives. Can you take forever?
Till the end of
our time. Lady, lady, say you´ll be mine always..." Chris sang
along with the music.
Dani rested her head on his shoulder and just let him lead.
Matt watched Dani and Chris as they danced in time to the music.
"How can she
be with him? He doesn´t care about her, the way I do. He´s
no good for her."
"This is a great song, don´t you think?" Allison asked.
"Why is she with him?" Matt asked not hearing Allison´s
question.
Allison looked towards Dani and Chris. "At least she´s
not over here," she
thought. The whole situation was starting to get on her nerves. "I´ll
have to try another
approach."
"Matt, what do you think of my dress?" Allison asked.
"She looks hot in that dress," Matt answered.
Allison stopped. "I´ve had enough for tonight. I´ll
never make this work while
she´s around, so I might as well have a little fun."
"Matt, let´s sit out for awhile," Allison suggested.
Matt looked at her. "Okay," he said as he led her off the dance
floor.
"He would hear that," she thought as she looked around. "I´ll
be right back," she
said as spotted a group of her friends.
Matt and Allison parted.
Matt walked over to Renee. "No dance partner either?" Matt asked.
"Nope," Renee answered as she nodded towards her boyfriend and
her bestfriend
dancing.
"How about me then?" he asked.
"Sure, why not?" Renee replied.
* * *
Dani walked from the Ghent Club House, where the after prom party
was held
that year. She was not in a real party mood. She only went to show
her face and see a few
people. The prom was not so bad, at least she danced a lot. But she
never got a dance with
Matt. He seemed to be avoiding her. Everytime she got close to him,
he was with
someone else or she was on the dance floor.
Dani pulled her shawl around her as the cool breeze blew across
the
commons."He looked handsome in his tux," she thought as she headed
towards her car. "I
wish...well at least we´re friends." As she opened the door of
her car, she thought she
heard her name being called. She looked around and did not see anyone.
So she got into
the car and headed towards home.
Matt made it to the parking lot of the club house just as Dani
pulled out of the
drive-way. He had been calling to her, but she could not hear him or
she was ignoring
him.
As he watched her go down the road in the direction of her home, he
sighed and started
back for the club house.
* * *
Monday morning Dani was at her locker getting her books for the
day, when
Chris came up.
"Danielle, I am really sorry for what happened. I was angry.
I was not going to
hurt you, I just wanted to patch things up right away before it got
worse. Forgive me?"
"Yes, Chris I forgive you."
"Are we cool?" asked Chris hopefully as he stuck out his hand
so she could dap
him.
"Yeah we´re cool," she answered as she dapped him
"All right!" Chris exclaimed as he picked up Danielle and spun
her around.
"Chris, put me down," Dani laughed.
"I have to get to homeroom," said Chris as he put her down.
"Me too," Dani replied as she shut her locker and put her arms
through the
shoulder straps of her back pack."Bye."
"Bye," said Chris as he walked away.
After school that day Matt ran into Allison. He had been
meaning to ask her did
she have a good time. "Hi, Allison."
"Matt."
"I have been meaning to ask, did you have a good time?"
asked Matt. He wanted
to know because all he could remember after pictures was... Danielle.
"I did for a while," said Allison indignantly.
"What do you mean ' for a while?'"
"What I mean is I was your date. You danced with
me and talked to me, but
your mind was on Danielle. I ask you to dance and you barely
pay attention to me. I ask
you do you like my dress and you reply 'She looks hot in that dress,'"
Allison replied a
little hurt.
Upon hearing this Matt blushed. He had not
realized he had voiced some of his
most intimate thoughts about Danielle out loud or that he had neglected
Allison. "I'm
sorry," said Matt sheepishly.
"It's okay, Matt," Allison assured him." It's quite
common for friends of
opposite sexes to start have other feelings for each other, but never
lasts long."
"That's not always true," said Matt defensively.
"Name one."
"Um..." Matt could not think of a single couple
who had started as friends and
were still going out or even still friends.
"That's what I thought," Allison gloated triumphantly.
She had instilled doubt
in him. She just might win him yet.
Matt was worried that Allison might
be right. He could not stand anyone else
to be with Dani and he did not want to lose her. There seemed
to be no way to win.