[Edward POV]
My blood boiled as I saw the bizarre sight in front of me. I clenched my fist while walking into the girls bathroom, but before I could lose my temper, Abby looked in my direction and hurriedly grabbed my arm.
"Ed. Look at me." She said as she tried to gain my attention. After she called me a few times, her efforts managed to bring me back to reality, otherwise I would've followed my idol; Kazuma's example of true gender equality.
"It's fine. I'm fine." She said with a smile as she gently held my face. Right then, the principal broke through the crowd and was shocked as he saw the scene.
It didn't take much questioning to see what had happened here with the scissors still on the girl's hand, and the scattered black hair on the bathroom tiles.
"(Dramatic Gasp) Miss Olten! You! What have you done? What WERE YOU THINKING!?"
The crowd gasped as they realized what she had done, and Kennifer ran away crying under the gaze of the crowd.
Anais walked towards Abby before she said in an angry manner, "Hey. Do you want me to shave that girl's head? Just say the word. I WILL do it."
"There's no need for that. I…I just want to get out of here now." Abby said in a depressed manner.
I nodded and grabbed her hand before I walked away with her. "Come, let's go."
"Wait! I'm coming with you guys." Anais said as she followed us from behind. We didn't go out of the school, but instead went to the rooftop as per Abby's request.
Anais helped Abby to style her hair with a choked up voice, making it a twin bun instead of a twin tail.
"I'm sorry." Anais said in a depressed manner while touching Abby's hair.
"No. It's not your fault." Abby replied. Anais suddenly said, "I wasn't talking to you. I was talking to your hair."
The abruptness made Abby laugh for a bit, and Anais decided to leave us alone after helping Abby calm herself.
"Now, are you going to tell me why you're being so weirdly and scarily calm? You look like a psychopath in a horror movie who hides everything behind a smile?" I asked her with a concerned expression.
"I am calm." Abby replied. "I just think that the whole situation is funny."
"Funny how?"
"It's funny cause I realized that that girl, and me, we aren't actually that different after all."
"Huh?"
"We are both…delusional." Abby said with a heavy sigh.
"It's like the Universe is currently slapping me awake, telling me that… you'll never be mine. No one…in the world wants us to be together…" She muttered as she held back her tears. "So yeah. I'm not mad at her. I'm mad…at myself…for my stupid decision when I let you go before."
She turned her face away from me and decided to sit on her favorite spot in the school. I scrunched my eyebrows before I sighed and decided to sit at the edge of the roof, dangling my legs in the air as Abby and I sat together, watching the night sky.
Abby suddenly said, "I know."
"Know what?"
"About what started the fight." She said suddenly.
"Abby, I didn't mean to lie-"
"I know that too. I know you care about me. When I think about our story, it is ironic how this all happened. I was scared…that you would turn out like… like my dad so I decided to leave you before I got too attached to you…Well that turned to shit, and it was also the stupidest decision I had ever made in my life."
She laughed a bit, which made me smile. "I know. I'm awesome after all." I joked.
She continued after rolling her eyes, "And now, when I know that you really lied to me, the world-shattering feeling that I experienced before didn't come. Instead, my heart…is filled with happiness."
"That was when I realized that I was feeling more than …" She blushed a bit and didn't continue, which made me quite baffled.
"Hungry?" I guessed, which caused me to get hit by her as she threw a mock punch at my bicep.
"Why is that the first thing that comes to your mind!?" She said angrily.
I chuckled and said, "You're the one who didn't finish your sentence."
She smiled and looked at the sky again before saying, "So don't worry about me anymore. I'm already okay with it. It took me a while, but I finally managed to move on."
"Well, sorry to break your self pity party, but we don't actually know what's going to happen in the future."
"What are you talking about Ed? We both know our story is going to end after I go back to New York." Abby said in an annoyed manner.
"I'm sorry, but I'm a firm believer of communism."
Abby froze and her entire mind blanked out before I added, "Rom-communism."
"Ugh. You… you little-...What is that?" She was torn between getting angry and being curious, but clearly the latter won the struggle.
"Well Abby, rom-communism is a worldview…that I learned from someone amazing."
"Oh. Who's that?"
"A coach from the south." I replied before I explained, "This worldviews…reminds us of romantic comedies with good looking people, such as Ryan Reynold, Sandra Bullocks, etcetera…"
"Jennifer Lopez." Abby added.
"Her too…if ALL those attractive people with amazing apartments and interesting jobs, usually in some… creative field, can go through some light-hearted struggle, and still end up happy, then so can we."
Abby widened her eyes in surprise before slightly nodding her head in agreement of what I just said.
"Believing in rom-communism, is all about believing that everything is going to work out in the end." I said as I held her hand.
"So, when you feel like everything is going wrong in your life just remember that It's fine. Consider that you're going through the dark forest. Fairy tales do not START nor do they END in that dark forest. That setting usually shows up in the beginning or in the middle part of the story."
"So don't be sad. Your story is just beginning. Both our stories are.."
She leaned her head on my shoulder, and after a while, I said, "You know I…care about you right?"
"Yeah. I know." Abby replied in a casual manner. "I care about you too." She said.
"So, what do you say? Want to go back to the event?" I invited her. "You still owe me a last dance."
"Alright." She nodded slightly before she smiled and said, "Last one there is a rotten egg!" Then, she ran away quickly as I stood there baffled as her change was too drastic.
"Wait What?!" I realized it too late and she was already gone. However as I took a step forward to chase after her, I found myself unable to do so.
[Abby POV]
I knew he wouldn't be able to choose me. I was being selfish when I made him invite me to prom, but I didn't want to go with anyone else.
Our relationship was cut short because of me. If I didn't freak out that day, would we still be together? My heart shattered when I thought about that day. But as they say, there is no medicine for regret.
As I thought about it, maybe it was for the best that we had broken up before. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to act together with Taylor or to kickstart their whole career in such an explosive way.
I always knew Ed had a weird obsession with money. I would hate to be the one to hold him back. Taylor is better than me in that regard. I just hope that she will always be there for him.
Although I was clear on that, I still allowed myself to hold on to a tiny sliver of hope. The girl attacking me in the bathroom made me realize that I was delusional.
But then, something interesting happened.
'What the hell was that? Rom-communism!' I thought funnily as I ran away from Edward.
The hope that was dying in my heart was ignited once again. Maybe not now, or maybe not even 5 years from now. As he said, we don't know how things might turn out in the end.
"So what if I have to move away? It's not like the time we spent together is going to be erased from existence."
Now, I have a new kind of hope. Not the hope that he would end up together with me in the future.
But the hope that if we meet again later on, we won't be held back by our circumstances, and maybe… just maybe we could finally say what we truly want to say to one another.
…
[Edward POV]
"Moron!" I cursed myself after Abby had disappeared from my sight.
It was all my fault. I was the one who let that happen. It was because I was being selfish, and now Abby had gotten the brunt of it.
Although I was clear of the potential repercussions as I invited Abby here, I thought that I would be able to protect her from getting hurt again.
But now, I couldn't even move my legs as I watched her disappear from my sight.
What would I do when she truly goes away? Would I still be able to protect her like I did right now? My chest tightened as I thought about it.
I thought I was prepared to say goodbye, but I still kept finding myself making irrational decisions. I could've said No when Abby hinted about prom, or I could've distanced myself from her as I need to make sure to stabilize my 'star crossed secret lovers' relationship status with Taylor.
I let out a long sigh before I finally walked towards the dance hall slowly with a complicated feeling in my gut. When I arrived, the students were looking at the stage as the student council president was speaking.
"Ed! Over here!" Dylan called from afar as he stood together with Anais and Abby. My date couldn't look me straight in the eye as I walked towards her.
"And now…the winner for the prom king….*dadadada* Edward Newgate– Wait guys! I told you not to vote for Edward!" Miranda said in exasperation through the thunderous clapping of the crowd.
"Huh?" I was confused when I suddenly won, but then someone cleared up the situation for me. A skinny boy who was holding hands with a braces wearing girl said, "You made us get together. So we will vote for you, even if you weren't part of our school students."
Dylan was so excited and he pushed me to the stage. He really did look like an over-excited puppy, and Miranda stared contemptuously at the crowd beneath her as she angrily said, "I can't even call out the second place up here as you morons all voted for Ed or freaking South Park. Are you guys fucking with me?"
The students laughed at the pitiful student council president. It wasn't Miranda's whim that she wanted a senior or a junior grade student from the school to win the Prom King position, but it was specifically added to the year's school prom rules.
"WHO ELSE IS GOING TO BE KING IF NOT LORD FLUFFY OF FLUFFY SHIRE?!"Anais suddenly teased from the crowd. I blushed a bit as I shrugged her off, but a lot of the crowd was agreeing with her, which made Miranda perplexed and didn't know what to do.
"Miranda. It's fine! Don't worry about it. In fact, it would look weird if a famous person didn't win as our prom king." The principal said haughtily before adding, "Continue with the prom queen!"
"Ugh. This better not affect my transcript!" Miranda said before saying, "Now…Whoever's the one lucky enough to be elected as the Prom Queen for our 'Whatever in the budget' night Prom Event, please remember to act with decorum as you guys stand on the stage."
"And the winner for the Prom Queen election is…!! *dadadada* Abigail Rutherford!!!"
"Huh? Who's that?" Dylan and Anais looked around puzzledly, but then the principal nudged Abby towards the stage, "They are calling you!"
"Wait. No one knows my true name!" Abby asked in confusion, but the principal wiped his sweat and said, "Nonsense. Of course everyone knows it. Why wouldn't they know it?"
Miranda was also confused, "Abigail Rutherford? Who's Abigail Rutherford? If You don't respond, I need to call out the second place winner. Abigail Rutherford? No one? Seriously? No one?"
Although I knew who the girl was, I could see it in her eyes that she would rather die than admit her name was Abigail.
"So following the rules, Abigail will be kicked out from the competition. The true winner of the event is….ABBYY!!!!!"
The crowd cheered in excitement as they heard it. Not only did Abby work together with me to help the kids get a date before, the incident in the bathroom also had made her receive some pity and admiration votes from the crowd.
"Oh. I did something useless." The principal mumbled before Dylan and Anais excitedly brought Abby to the stage. The committee placed a crown on her head and a satchel over her shoulder as they did to me.
"KISS HER!" One of the crowd members shouted. A few girls instantly protested and quickly accosted him, but one by one, the agents of chaos inside the room became more excited because of the girls' reactions. The boys in the crowd chanted to instigate them, pressuring Abby.
"Well…we can't disappoint them." I said in a casual manner. Abby rolled her eyes in annoyance and said, "Did you rig the votes? How in the hell did we win?"
"I don't know. Maybe the crown just loves me." I replied as I waved gently at the crowd in a royal manner. The true story was, the nerdy boys and girls who were helped by Abby and I to get a dance partner had voted for us as they felt that somebody actually cared about them.
The total votes Abby got didn't exceed 10, but as a lot of the girls inside the halls had voted for themselves, she became the automatic winner for tonight.
Abby blushed and she inches closer before she kissed me on the cheek just to shut them up. The crowd cheered explosively, and that was how her prom night ended today. The modest kiss also brought down the scandal between us down, and probably bought Abby some good will since most of the people who didn't believe that we were just friends, or Taylor's fanatical fans were finally reassured that nothing was actually going on between us.
After the event was over, a few students asked for a picture together with the prom royalty, and we didn't say no. Dylan won the Dance King title, and when he was on the stage, he pulled Anais with him and they made out right in front of the crowd.
The limousine arrived soon, and this time, it was only Abby and I who got in on it. Dylan and Anais were heading back to his place – which was actually an studio apartment Dylan had rented after he moved out of his mom's. The money from his work on the cruise allowed him to be more independent, and that was the first thing that he did after buying a cheap car.
"So he got a lot of 'nightly' tips?" Abby asked in disbelief after hearing the story of how Dylan got his money.
"Yeah. If the guests were cougars, he would usually find more than 300 dollars tucked in his underwear at the end of the night. And the best part is, he didn't even know how they managed to slide it in his pants in the first place." I said jokingly.
Abby laughed in pity before we suddenly fell silent as we looked into each other's eyes.
"Ummm…So…" Abby stammered while fanning her flushing face. "What are we going to do now?" She asked.
"Well right now I'm going to take you home." I replied in a casual manner, which made her face get even redder.
"Whatcha thinkin 'bout you dirty girl? I'm just sending you home." I said teasingly as I reached into the mini fridge and took out 2 cups of different tastes of pudding.
"I KNOW THAT!" Abby shouted in embarrassment as she snatched a cup from my hand and started to eat the pudding angrily. I laughed and sat right next to her, and suddenly said, "I think that there's something wrong with my tie. It keeps choking me."
"Hmm? Let me see." Abby leaned in with concern and tried to look closely at the knot. But as she was near, I snatched a kiss on her lips, making her freeze in disbelief.
"Ahh Abby, you can tell me if you want to kiss me. You don't have to be so coy and pretend to look at my tie." I joked as I easily loosened my tie.
Abby was bewildered and she smiled in disbelief before saying, "Coy? I'm the one who's playing coy?"
I licked my spoonful of pudding before I pointed at her with the plastic utensil and said, "Yes." She pounced at me instantly like a startled cat, trying to get even.
When we reached her home, I escorted her to her door like a gentleman while the limousine drove away.
"Do you want to come inside?" Abby asked while biting her lower lips.
"Yes, and yes." I replied. "Huh?" She tilted her head in confusion, but then ignored my peculiarity as she led me inside. Suddenly, Abby received a text from someone.
"It's Anais. Umm…." Abby's face flushed red instantly and I could imagine that smoke was coming out of her ears as she read the text. I got curious and I snatched the phone from her hand despite her protest to look at it on my own.
"Dylan is in the hospital. His entire body cramped out after ejaculating- Alright, Delete text, and also deleting this from my memory."
Although he did manage to 'seal the deal' after the dance,well… kind of… his 'deal' at least but he had to spend the night being warded instead. The poor guy didn't even get his 'deal' out of any actual action but as a little side effect of his accident earlier that evening. I texted Dwayne to tell him that Dylan was in the hospital, and also texted Frankie as she was responsible for managing the employee's health insurance.
"Lucky guy." I pursed my lips with a small smile before I said to Abby, "Well. I better get going."
"Wait." She suddenly grabbed my hand.
"Hmm? What is it?"
"Well, despite the risk of being selfish again, I have to remind you…that you promised me I would get the FULL…prom experience today." She said shyly while looking at the floor.
My blood rushed to my face before I coughed awkwardly, "Well…I know. But I thought-"
"No need to think so much. This is all part of the prom tradition. There's absolutely nothing more hiding beneath it."
"Well if you say so."
We gazed into each other's eyes, and slowly inched our faces together. But then, I suddenly received a text from my dad, disrupting the atmosphere.
"Huh. That's weird. He said he's not coming back home today."
"That is weird. Wait…Where's my mother?" Abby finally realized that her mother wasn't here, and after texting her, she received the same kind of text as I did.
"Huh. Weirder and weirder. Oh well." Abby and I shrugged our shoulders before she wrapped her arms around my neck and I around her waist as we wrestle our tongues together.
She tried to unzip her dress, but was unsuccessful, so she turned her back towards me and said, "Help me with this."
"Alright." Then, I smoothly pulled her zip down and then we continued with the prom tradition in her bedroom.