by R. J. Groves
“If she doesn’t want to go, she doesn’t have to go,” Mum said.
“But she should,” Fayne said. “It’s her last school dance. She’ll regret it if she misses it.”
“And you want her to go with you?”
“Yes.”
“And why, after finding you alone in our house with Emma, would you think that I would be okay with her going to the dance with you?” Mum asked, putting her hands on her hips.
“Mrs. Surrey, I have Emma’s best intentions at heart,” Fayne said simply. “I wouldn’t do anything to hurt her. And,” he added, when my mum was about to interrupt, “I would never take advantage of her.”
I watched the exchange in silence, wondering what she would say next, holding my breath.
“Do you have a job?” she said, raising an eyebrow.
“At the warehouse,” he replied promptly.
“Are you studying?”
“Law.”
She nodded, seeming to approve of his choice.
“You have a car,” she stated.
“I’m a responsible driver,” he shrugged.
“You like her.”
“I love her.”
My mum’s eyes grew wide and I wondered if I should intervene. They stood in silence, neither of them daring to say anything else. Mum’s face was unreadable. I rose to my feet and stomped on some steps before walking into the kitchen.
“Morning,” I said cheerfully, pretending like I hadn’t heard the conversation.
“You’re going to the dance, Emma,” Mum said, ignoring my salutation.
“What?” Fayne and I both said at the same time.
“And Fayne is taking you,” she said with a smile.
~x o x~
I nodded at the mirror in approval just in time to hear the doorbell ring. A masculine voice spoke to my mum when she answered it.
“Emma!” Mum called. “Your boyfriend is here!”
΅ ΅ ΅
“So, you’re going to the dance without a date?” Aimee asked.
I nodded. Since Fayne was taking Emma to the dance, Aimee had agreed to come over to my place, and we would get ready and go to the dance together. We were both supposedly dateless, but I knew that Aimee had arranged her date to meet her at the dance so that she could come with me, even though she said that she didn’t have a date either.
“Did you tell him to meet you there?” I asked, cringing at the rough tug on my tangled hair.
“I don’t have a date,” she said, her eyes wide.
“I know you’re going with – ouch!” Another tug on my hair.
Aimee shushed me, as if saying his name would ruin her carefully constructed plans.
“Does Emma know?” I asked.
“We still haven’t talked,” she said, her face disappointed.
“Do you think you will tonight?”
“I don’t think she’ll be there,” she shrugged. “And I doubt she’ll ever talk to me again if she is.”
Aimee took a step back and looked me over. I looked at her. She had her hair curled, and she wore a peach-coloured strapless dress. I wore a deep blue shouldered dress, my hair pinned into a wild bun.
“We’re done,” she said, smiling. We gathered our things and left for the dance.
It wasn’t long after we arrived at the dance that Aimee’s date had come to greet us, bringing a cup of punch for each of us.
“Your date’s not here yet?” he asked me.
“I don’t have one,” I said, and shrugged.
“Don’t worry,” he said, smiling and putting his arm around Aimee. “There are plenty of guys here who don’t have a date. I’m sure someone will steal you away for a dance.”
΅ ΅ ΅
“Nervous?” Fayne asked, glancing over at me.
“A little,” I said, straightening out the edge of my dress that I had been wrangling.
“Are you planning on making up with Aimee?”
“I think so,” I said. “A school dance just wouldn’t be the same without talking to her.”
“Hey, if you need to use a song to make up with her, I won’t mind. I’m not much of a dancer, anyway.”
I shot him a look.
“You convinced me to go and you don’t even dance?” I teased.
“I’ll dance with you,” he smiled. “But you have been warned.”
We pulled into the school carpark and watched everyone filing into the hall. Fayne got out of the car first and came around to the passenger door to open it for me. He offered his hand to help me out when I hadn’t moved. I took it, still hesitant, still not particularly wanting to go.
“It’s okay, Emma,” he said, holding my hand tightly. “I’m here.”
He led me towards the hall and didn’t budge at any looks from my classmates. No one else knew about Fayne. And apart from Renée, no one knew that we were dating. It didn’t take us long to find Renée standing near the punch bowl.
“Hey sis,” Fayne said, still not letting go of my hand.
“Oh, you made it!” she said, smiling. “The punch is terrible – you have to have some.”
She scooped out some punch and filled two cups, handing them to us. I had barely had a chance to take a sip when I saw them dancing. Aimee and Kane. And it wasn’t the kind of dance that friends do. They were dancing close, her arms around his neck, his arms around her waist, locked at his wrists. They were staring into each other’s eyes. His lips moved, saying something. She blushed and smiled back up at him.
They turned so that Kane’s back was towards us, and Aimee peered over his shoulder. Then she saw me, her face freezing and her body going rigid. She pulled away from him and started walking towards us, Kane following hesitantly. I realised that my hand had fallen from Fayne’s grasp, but he hadn’t noticed my own body becoming rigid.
“Can we talk?” Aimee asked, coming to a stop in front of me.
I glanced between her and Kane, who had now joined in with the conversation between Fayne and Renée, and nodded. We walked into the hallway together, away from the noise of the main room.
“Emma,” she started, turning to face me.
“Kane?” I asked. “You’re here with Kane?”
She swallowed and nodded, unsure of how I would react. Even I was unsure of how I would react.
“Do you like him?” I asked, a little over a whisper.
“I’ve always liked him, Em,” she said, her face apologetic. “But he never noticed me. Not like he noticed you.”
“Oh, he’s noticing you now,” I said, trying desperately to process what Aimee had just said.
She always liked him? My best friend had always liked Kane, even before he was my boyfriend, and she never told me?
“I’m sorry, Emma,” she said, fidgeting with her bracelet.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked, my voice shaking.
“I knew that you liked him, too,” she said. “And he liked you. I never thought I would have a chance with him, and I thought that I would be happy just being friends. But then we kissed, and I felt really bad, and he broke up with you because of it–”
“You kissed?” I interrupted. “You kissed before we broke up? When?”
“We didn’t mean to!” she said quickly. “It was at one of those Friday night parties – the one you didn’t come to because you were feeling sick. Someone spiked the punch, and we got a bit tipsy, and he told me about his trip to his dad’s and said that he couldn’t talk to you about it because you wouldn’t understand. Then he said that he felt like he could talk to me about anything, and we kissed. I’m so, so sorry, Emma.”
“He was supposed to still be at his dad’s when that party was on,” I whispered.
“They had a fight. His dad was drunk and told Kane to sort his life out. They argued and his dad punched him. So, he left. He had just come home and went straight to the party. He thought you would be there,” she explained. “I’m sorry, Emma.”
I finally managed to find some organisation in the cha
os that was my thoughts. Aimee was there for Kane when he needed it, just as Fayne was there for me when I needed it. Memories of our hang-outs as a group flashed through my mind and I could see it. I didn’t know why I had never seen it before, but Aimee had always liked Kane. And he always liked her. He was never mine. He could never love me because he was in love with someone else.
“Wow,” I managed out, trying to say more.
“I’m sorry, Emma,” Aimee continued. “I never wanted to lose you and I’ve missed you so much. Will we ever be okay again?”
I looked at Aimee, her curls framing her face. I’d missed her, too, and I didn’t know how we’d even survived being apart for so long. We had fought before, but never like this.
“We’re okay,” I said, smiling. “I’m so sorry, Aims! You and Kane were always meant to be together. I just never saw it.”
She pulled me into a hug, one that was well overdue.
“Are you sure?” she whispered.
“Absolutely,” I said.
I thought that I should have been mad at her, considering the fact that she was the reason why Kane broke my heart. But I was done with being mad. I needed my best friend back. Besides, my heart didn’t hurt from Kane anymore, and hearing this from Aimee gave me that final bit of closure that I needed.
“So, Fayne?” she asked, pulling away from the hug.
I laughed, nodding.
“Tell me about it!” she said.
΅ ΅ ΅
“Do you think they’ll be back to normal?” I asked.
Fayne was craning his neck to glance through the hallway door in an attempt to see Emma and Aimee.
“I hope so,” he said, resigning to the fact he couldn’t see them. “I’m over all this drama, and it’s not even my problem.”
“I’m glad that it’s worked out between you and Emma,” I said, nudging my brother.
He smiled at me and pulled me into a hug, breaking just as Emma and Aimee returned, arm in arm.
“You worked it out?” he asked, taking Emma’s hand in his.
They nodded, sending each other the knowing smile that they used to do.
“So, we can start the party now?” he said.
“Definitely,” Emma said.
She led him onto the dance floor and wrapped her arms around his neck as he held her around the waist. I turned my gaze back to Aimee, only to find that she, too, had made it to the dance floor with Kane again. Once more, I was standing at the punch bowl alone.
“Want to dance?”
I jumped as the words were whispered in my ear. I turned to see James standing next to me, a grin on his face and his eyes flashing.
“I mean, we don’t have to if you’re not up for it. We can just talk if you want to. But I heard that you didn’t have a date for the dance and neither do I,” he said. “So… do you?”
He offered out his hand and searched my eyes for an answer. I smiled and took his hand.
“I wouldn’t want to dance with anyone else,” I teased. “I thought you would have had a date, though.”
“I never got a chance to ask her,” he shrugged.
I didn’t know why, but I was disappointed at that. James was an attractive guy. It made sense that he would have girls swooning over him at every turn.
“Who were you going to ask?” I asked, not sure if I wanted to know the answer.
“You.”
΅ ΅ ΅
We swayed back and forth to the slow rhythm the band was playing, my arms wrapped around Fayne’s neck. He held my gaze and moved his fingers in a smooth, circular motion on my lower back. Everything was working out. I had Fayne, Renée looked like she was having a ball dancing with James, and Aimee had Kane. It would take me a while to get used to them being together, but I had to be okay with it. It wasn’t worth losing my best friend over. I concentrated on the striking man dancing with me and I knew that I had everything I could hope for.
“I thought you said that you couldn’t dance?” I asked, teasing Fayne.
“I never said that I couldn’t,” he said, twirling me beneath his arm before pulling me close to him again – this time holding one of my hands as though ready for a waltz. “I said that I didn’t.”
“You, sir, are a man of wonder,” I said, smiling up at him.
“And you, my lady, are incredibly beautiful,” he said, and smiled back.
He twirled me again, smiling at the sight of my reddened cheeks, and pulled me into a kiss at the end of the twirl. He urged my arms around his neck again and pulled me closer by my waist, our bodies touching. He pressed his lips harder against mine and kissed me deeper.
Yes, I had everything.
Epilogue
I stared in the dressing room at the curly redheaded girl staring back at me, dressed in a graduation gown with a cap on her head.
I made it. We made it. And what a year it had been.
I reflected on all that had happened since Emma found out that Kane was our cousin. One by one, her friendships were restored: first with me, then Aimee, then James, and finally Kane. Through thick or thin, we were all there for each other. And together, we had made it through the year.
I startled as Emma and Aimee both jumped on me.
“Can you believe it?” they said at the same time, turning me to face them.
I smiled at my best friends, glad that this time wasn’t like every other time. This time, I did find friends. This time, I truly was happy. And this time, I never had to move again.
“I can’t believe we made it!” Aimee said excitedly.
“I’m so glad we never have to sit in school ever again,” Emma said, relief spreading over her face.
It was only moments before we would be crossing that stage, receiving our certificates, and saying goodbye to high school forever. We heard a knock on the door, and my brother’s voice spoke.
“Is it safe?” he asked, poking his head through the door before walking in to see us.
He walked over to me and gave me a hug.
“I’m so proud of you, little sis,” he said, kissing my forehead and winking at me.
Letting me go, he walked over to Emma and gave her a kiss. At first, I’d found it awkward. But over the year, I had grown used to it. Besides, I knew something that she didn’t.
I looked back at Aimee, who was now lip-locked with Kane. That one I was still getting used to. When they officially became a thing, I was sure there would be another fight between her and Emma. But it never came. In fact, they could never have been happier for each other. I sighed.
“You didn’t think I’d forget about you, did you?” I heard a voice say, and felt two strong, tanned arms wrap around me from behind.
I turned to look into the eyes that I myself had fallen in love with as James closed the gap between us, kissing me in the way that I had grown accustomed to.
One by one, our names were called out. We gave our speeches and we were announced as the twenty-fifth graduating class of Leverand High.
We made it.
΅ ΅ ΅
I looked up at the emerald green eyes staring back at me. I couldn’t believe the year that we had just been through – the journey. Looking at us now, no one would be able to tell that our group had spent time apart. We were stronger now than ever. My history with Kane was in the past. He was with Aimee now, and I was happy for them. They were suited to each other. They were in love.
Like I am with Fayne. I smiled. Even my mum had come to like him. I felt Fayne’s lips press gently against mine before he pulled me into a hug.
“Congratulations, beautiful,” he said. “You made it.”
I smiled as I rested my head against his chest. I had made it. And I knew I couldn’t have done it without him, my rock, my best friend, my Fayne.
“I have something for you,” he said, whispering in my ear.
I felt him let out a shaky breath as he placed some distance between us so that we were facing each other, my hands in his.
“Emma–” he st
arted.
“Hey, Surrey!” James said as he and Renée ran over to us, hand in hand. “And Fayne,” he added with a smile. “One last party at my place. You’ll be there? Both of you?”
I looked at Fayne for an answer; he was looking at Renée, frowning, hinting. Her eyes widened, and she grabbed James by the arm.
“They’ll be there!” she said, pulling him away.
Fayne took a breath.
“Yes?” I asked, intertwining my fingers with his.
“I just like the sound of your name,” he continued, with a smile. “I never want to stop saying it.” He stroked my cheek with his fingertips. “You’re beautiful, do you know that? I want to wake up every morning to see your beautiful smile and feel your touch.”
My heart stopped.
“Fayne,” I whispered.
“You’re my everything, Emma,” he said. “I love you. I always will.”
He took a step back and knelt down on one knee, pulling a small, golden box from his pocket and opening it in front of him.
“Fayne,” I said again, tears threatening to spill from my eyes.
“Marry me, Emma Surrey,” he said, his eyes pleading. “Be mine forever. Let me spoil you how you’re supposed to be spoilt. Let me love you unconditionally for the rest of my life.”
I couldn’t stop the tears – or my smile – and my desire to kiss him deeply, passionately, uncontrolled. I nodded.
“Yes,” I whispered.
He froze before jumping to his feet and pulling me into his arms.
“Yes,” I said again.
His lips met with mine like they had never done before. I was in love. I was engaged. I had found the man I would spend the rest of my life with.
My forever.
My Fayne.
From the author
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