by Taylor Hart
Embarrassment took me by surprise. “Ahh.”
He laughed softly. “So I know you know I like rock music, I love basketball, I grew up moving.”
“Right.”
This was crazy. “Tell me something else.”
He sighed. “Okay, I had a twin brother who died when he was born, but my parents never had more children. My dad is retired military. My mom is a writer, so she’s always locked away and comes up very little for air, except for me. She’s always willing to do anything for me.”
“Your brother died.”
“Yep.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Me too.”
It was interesting how knowing more about him, made me like him even more. It was good. “You love your parents.”
“Of course.”
Another pause.
“Why did you ruin prom?”
“What?”
I laughed. “Why did you ruin prom?”
He stared at his hands. “She told you, I wanted to ask you and she threatened me not to. She thought you belonged with Marc.”
I looked him up and down. “What could Shay threaten you with that would make you not ask me?”
He let out a sigh. “I hate this part,” he mumbled.
Then I realized. “You’ve had to tell me before.”
He shrugged. “Too often.”
“Well.” I waited.
He closed his eyes for a second, then flashed them open. “She threatened that she would tell you about my…”
“About what?” I persisted, leaning forward.
He looked miserable. “About the book she found I’d written in about you.”
This took me by surprise. “What?” I stood up on the bed. “You had a prom diary?”
He laughed. “Get down, you’ll fall off, you have before.”
I didn’t move, but stuck my hand up in front of him. “You—were stalking me?”
He shook his head. “It wasn’t like that…it was…”
I pointed at him. “You had a prom diary, too?”
At this he frowned. “Really? Would you really like a guy that would have a prom diary?”
My curiosity would kill me. “You’ve got to tell me!” I insisted.
He took my hand, tugging me off the bed, holding me so I wouldn’t fall.
I sucked in a breath. Irish Spring. I took a long breath. It was wonderful. I grinned. “Tell me about your prom diary.”
He shook his head and gently pushed me to a sitting position on the bed. “It wasn’t a prom diary—it was poetry.” His face burned red.
Not at all what I was expecting, but I liked it. I wouldn’t deny that I really liked it. “Really. About me.”
His face went red. “Really.” He shrugged. “Some about you.”
I laughed. “And where is said book of poems?”
He shrugged. “Stinkin Shay still won’t give them back. She gets them and hides them every time.” He fumed.
The irony of it. Stinkin Shay was right. I laughed. “Ohmygosh.”
Abruptly, he stood. “It’s late, I need to go.” He opened the window, but looked back. “We have to focus on tomorrow.” He sighed and ducked out. “I want you to remember me for more than four days.”
Chapter 18
Dear Diary,
Today is prom. I know it’s pointless to write in this, but I wanted to say one last thing…today will be the day that changes our lives forever. Prom forever.
I drove to Shay’s and picked her up. She got in the car with a fierce expression on her face. She was dressed to kill with a tight, pink blouse and high heels and jeans so tight I didn’t know how she’d squeezed into them.
“Don’t even talk to me.” She held her hand up and scrounged in her purse for lipstick.
I ignored that, knowing that she really did want me to talk to her. “I guess you’ve gone through this with me before?”
“Too many times to count.” She applied her lipstick and popped her lips. “But, honestly, I don’t do this for you anymore.”
I frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“You need to get us out of here. I cannot plan your perfect prom for you for forever.” She laughed, breaking off her wail. “I totally cursed us. Prom forever. What a joke. What a nightmare.”
Her tone ticked me off. “You’re blaming me for your spell?”
She pointed her finger at me as I drove into the school parking lot. “I was trying to make your night perfect, Lacy O’Connell, don’t yell at me!”
I parked and slung my door open.
She waited for me and then kept her voice tight. “If you would have listened to me and never started obsessing with Drake.”
It hit me. I moved in front of her, making her stop. “It’s always been about that…you wanted your way. You wanted to control everything.”
She pursed her lips. “No, it’s not. We’ve tried it your way, but if you never would have obsessed over him, then he never would have ruined prom.”
“What?”
“And I never would have done that spell.”
Anger surged through me. “Do not blame your defective spell doing on him or on me. This is on you! You shouldn’t have been so obsessed with prom!” Another thought occurred to me. “If you wouldn’t have pushed me to Marc, then Drake never would have ruined prom to begin with.”
I stalked away from her.
“That’s not fair!” She yelled. “I did it all for you!”
I got to my locker, grabbed my books, and then made it to English Lit just in time for the bell.
Just in time to see Marc. Looking exactly the way Shay had described—like a kicked puppy.
Mr. Klam went straight into the last part of Romeo and Juliet, the very depressing part.
“What do you all think of the sacrifice that they gave for each other?”
Suddenly, I had an idea. I jumped up out of my chair, bolting for the door.
“Ms. O’Connell.” Mr. Klam called out to me. “Where are you going?”
I swung back to the room and met eyes with Marc. “I think that everybody always focuses too much on Romeo and Juliet.”
Mr. Klam blinked and pushed his glasses back. “O-kay. You do realize that is what we are studying in my class at the moment.” He waited.
I thought about the story. “Romeo and Juliet have all these sidekicks that keep suffering because of their actions. Everyone suffers because we hold Romeo and Juliet’s love higher than anybody else’s happiness.”
He blinked again. “Continue.”
“What if Romeo and Juliet could have realized that while everyone else ran around trying to make them happy, if they would have helped someone else, maybe Tybalt wouldn’t have been killed? What if Rosalind and Tybalt could have been together? Then the whole sordid thing could have been avoided.”
Mr. Klam smiled and combed his hand down his mustache. “That sounds interesting. Please take your seat.”
But I couldn’t take my seat…I had to find Henry and Drake.
Chapter 19
When I found them, which they weren’t easy to find due to the fact they were invisible at the moment, they weren’t immediately sold on my idea.
“Why would we want to re-do all the decorations so Queenie the witch, that stuck us in this time warp can have a good time?”
I tried to approach them from a point of being calm. “Think about it like this—maybe you guys have been missing something.”
Henry scoffed. “Right. Fish décor is what we’ve been missing.”
“I know what you mean.” Drake’s hand was suddenly touching mine. “Shay’s been so focused on doing prom for Lacy, maybe it’s time we do it for her.”
“Exactly.”
“But that witch made the spell, the spell that only gives us half our day being ‘seen’ at the moment.”
I shrugged. “Look, Henry, I don’t know if this is going to work or not, all I know is you have nothing to lose, right? I might have the per
fect kiss with Drake, I might not.” Nervous butterflies exploded as I thought about kissing him. “But why not give something to Shay.”
“Absolutely not.” Henry barked back.
“Why?”
“She doesn’t deserve it.”
I laughed. “Maybe that’s the point.”
Drake squeezed my hand. “We’ll get on it. At least nobody can get mad at us cause they won’t see us moving things around in the gym.”
Chapter 20
The humor wasn’t lost on me that I was still nervous, even though I guess this was my hundredth prom.
My father brought out his camera to take mine and Drake’s picture.
“Hold still now.” He peered into the hole and then snapped the shot.
Drake’s tie and cummerbund were candy apple red, just like the dress Shay had shoved at me this afternoon and told me to be grateful for.
I grinned and looked behind my father, into my mother’s room. The dress fit perfectly, capped sleeves, sequins down the front with little white butterflies leading to an empire waist that flared out with tulle material to knee length. Even though I knew I’d lived this before and it was silly, I still wished my mother was here to re-live it with me. Why couldn’t I have been stuck in a loop with her alive?
Drake lightly took my hand. “Are you ready?”
We walked out together, but when I turned back and saw my father, tears in his eyes on the porch, I ran back to him, pulling him into a big hug. I didn’t want to forget that look in his eyes.
“I love you, dad.”
His tear fell against my skin. “She would have loved tonight, sweetheart, you look so beautiful.”
Talking about my mother, only accomplished one thing—tears.
“No.” He swiped at my tears “No, she would not want you to cry.”
I blinked and hugged him again. “I’m sorry she’s not here, it all seems so meaningless without her.”
He held my shoulders an extra moment and stared into my eyes. “Your mother’s death taught me one important thing…every moment matters. So go enjoy this night.”
I strode to the limo and grinned at Shay, wearing a matching red dress with feathers woven throughout her hair in an updo. Happiness surged inside of me. My father was right, my mother would have loved tonight.
Since Shay had been mad and we’d decided to forego dinner, we went straight to the gym.
I was nervous for Shay to see the changes I’d made. I watched her face as we walked in the front door and two freshmen took our coats and checked us in.
Her eyes widened and she pushed past the front people, searching the walls, her jaw dropping open when she saw the large aquarium in the middle of the gym, fish swimming in a large walled circle. She grinned. “Oh! My! Gosh!”
I took her into a big hug, laughing. “What do you think?”
Tears blinked in her eyes. She stared at me. “You did this for me?”
“Well.” I shrugged. “Maybe you have put on like ninety-nine proms for me, I figured this is the least I could do for you.”
Her face was bewildered. “How did you find the budget?”
Henry and Drake joined us.
Henry cleared his throat and flashed a grin. “How come you think she’s the only one that can find budget money for an aquarium in the middle of a high school gym...it’s called ‘fundraising.’”
Shay laughed and eyed him. “You did this?”
I clapped. “He did it!”
Without warning Shay pulled Henry into a hug.
He looked just as shocked as Shay had looked when she saw the gym, but he laughed and succumbed to it.
The whole gym looked like a movie of an ocean, with projectors showing pictures of whales and sharks swimming around.
Even the DJ was wearing a blue tux and there was blue all over the tables, with glitter to match.
Shay turned to me, pulling me into a hug. “How did you do this?”
I laughed. “Hey, the vice president has a little pull.” I nodded to the guys. “And they did a ton of work.”
She erupted into giggles and then held to me and spun in circle. I laughed and spun with her.
A slow song started and Henry tapped Shay on the shoulder. “May I have this dance, your highness?” He said with his usual sarcasm, but his eyes looked happy.
Even though I knew Henry had only asked Shay to the dance because he was trying to keep tabs on Drake, it was interesting to see him put out his hand all official like and start dancing with her like someone on Dancing with the Stars.
Drake easily took my hand and spun me. Then he began doing his own very professional dance moves.
I was impressed. “Wow!”
He laughed. “Hey, you go to a hundred of these, you pick up some moves.”
I’d always loved to dance, my father used to dance in the living room with my mother on Sundays and I’d grown up with him teaching me all the classic dances—two step, tango, some swing.
But it appeared that Drake knew even more. At that moment, I wondered if he knew, that him being out here, dancing with me, would make something inside me shift, would make everything about him feel different. Less like a crush, and more like…true love.
I think he might have known. We might have relived this moment more times than I really wanted to know. He tugged me to him, his eyes on my lips.
But I stopped him, seeing Claire Winters enter the ocean-like gym with Marc on her arm.
I smiled at them, and both of them waved at the same time.
Claire gave me a smile and ran over. She pulled me into a hug. “Thanks for telling me to ask him. I was so surprised he hadn’t asked anyone yet.” She did a little clap. “He seemed almost relieved when I asked him today.”
I hugged her again and nodded to Marc. “You look beautiful, Claire.”
Drake gently took my hand and spun back to dancing. He tugged me closer and watched Marc. “She looks much better with him.”
I laughed. “I think you would think Marc would look good with anyone, except me.”
Drake laughed, too. Leaning in, leaning down.
Our lips met and my heart went into crazy palpitations, and then I felt like I was soaring, like a butterfly taking off for the first time. Living on air and breath and hot and cold chills that left me with a warm feeling all over.
He pulled back and his ocean blue eyes smiled down at me.
I knew if I hadn’t felt true love until this moment—that I did now.
Moisture filled my eyes. “Is it different this time? Did it happen?”
Drake blinked and looked around. The music was still going, people were still dancing and laughing. “I don’t know. We always have to wait until mid-night and everything resets to see if we are still stuck.”
I held to him, leaning forward and brushing my lips to his again. “Okay, then we’ll wait.”
Just at that moment, I turned and saw the thing I knew, had been missing from the puzzle the whole time.
“No way!” Drake exclaimed.
Chapter 21
Shay leaned up, closing her eyes. Henry leaned down, touching her face softly with one hand.
The moment their lips met, fireworks exploded all around us, whisking through the air, blue glitter thrown everywhere.
Drake and I held onto each other and heard the gasps and the cries of delight of other students.
We watched together as Henry and Shay parted, seemingly unaware of the flying glitter. They stood there. Staring into each other’s eyes. A smile on both of their lips.
Drake squeezed my hand. “I think you changed it.”
Relief and happiness washed through me. “It’s different then?”
Drake laughed and swung me around. “It’s completely different.”
Shay slammed into me, pulling me close. She grinned. “Did you see that?”
I laughed and hugged her back. “True Love’s Kiss!”
Shay stared at Drake and suddenly a loud gong sounded through the ai
r, signaling midnight.
Drake reached for me and Henry reached for Shay.
“Hold hands.” I cried.
We all took hands and closed our eyes, hoping this would be it. Hoping that I would remember, that the curse would be broken.
Nothing.
Wait. Wait. Wait.
Shay broke out laughing, hugging Henry. “It worked!”
Drake pulled me close and kissed me.
It worked! I pulled back and grinned at Shay and Henry and then back to Drake.
Drake kissed me, again.
“Okay, okay, that’s enough of that.” Shay stood there, smiling at us.
I put my fist up to her. “Prom forever!”
“No!” They all shouted back in unison.
I laughed and loved the feel of Drake Davis’s lips on mine.
Drake pulled back and grinned. “It may not be prom forever, but it’s the best prom I’ve ever been too.”
“Just remember,” Shay interrupted, giving Drake a stern look. “If I wouldn’t have stolen your Prom Diary—you never would have ended up together.”
Henry laughed and tugged Shay back into his arms. “No, Queenie, you wouldn’t have found me.”
Shay blushed and winked at me. “I guess this story is really all about me.”
And so true love was found and the curse was broken. The teenagers moved forward after prom night, living their lives, looking forward to the next prom. The next year…and hopefully the last prom.
I hope you enjoyed Prom Diaries!
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About the Author
Taylor Hart has always been drawn to a good love triangle, hot chocolate and long conversations with new friends. Writing has always been a passion that has consumed her daydreams and forced her to sit in a trance for long hours, completely obsessed with people that don’t really exist. Taylor would have been a country star if she could have carried a tune—maybe in the next life.