To Keep You Off My Mind

Chapter 15

Lily's POV

I avoided Chris for the rest of the week, and I mainly just hung out with Locke and Lincoln. On Thursday I realized that the Sadie's dance was the next night, and I didn't have a dress yet, so Mom and I hurried to the store to buy something. We found this long flowy yellow and white dress that was perfect. It was light, yet warm, which was good because it was November and it got semi-cold at night. After I got home I told Locke all about it via text, and he told me he'd also forgotten to buy a suit, but he thought he might have one from a wedding he attended a while ago. We talked about all the things we needed for the dance, and worked out all the issues. I couldn't wait.

***

The next day at school it was spirit day, so I wore a bright red shirt with green skinny jeans, my school colors. My morning classes were boring as usual, but lunch was fun. Locke and I had a contest to see who could catch the most grapes in their mouth, and I won. We talked more about the dance and I got more and more excited with each sentence. Then the bell rang and we had to go to class, luckily we had math together.

After math, I had history, which was boring as always. The final bell rang and I ran to my car. I saw Lincoln talking to some friends, so I grabbed him and pulled him to the car.

"Hey!! What are you doing?! I was talking to them!" He yelled as I unlocked the car and jumped in.

"Sorry, we got to go!" He sighed and got in the car.  We pulled up to the driveway and I jumped out of the car and downstairs to my room. I only had three hours to get ready for this dance, and I wasn't gonna waste a second of it.

I started with a shower, well it was more of a bath so I could relax, but then I had to get clean, so I took a shower. After the shower I blow dried my hair and started curling it. I grabbed a strand of hair on each side and made a braid crown. Then I started on the make-up, with some light foundation. I then used some dark eye-shadow to enhance my baby blues, with some eyeliner and mascara to cover. After brushing my teeth, I applied the lipstick, a light pink color, so it looked like my natural lip color. I packed all my make-up away and walked into my room to get my dress. I was the prettiest dress I've ever owned, so I was quite excited to wear it. I undressed and pulled it over my undergarments. I zipped it up and looked at myself in the mirror.

"Oh, this old thing? I just found it the other day and thought it'd look good." I whispered to myself as I spun around and admired my dress some more. The only problem was that my scars were showing. Locke had already seen them, but no one else had. What would they think of me if they saw them? I grabbed a white cardigan off a hanger and placed it over my torso, it didn't really fit the dress, but I didn't want people seeing my scars.

I sprayed some perfume on myself, and grabbed a pearl necklace off my jewelry box. I walked upstairs and grabbed my shoes, white wedges with yellow accents. I looked at the clock and saw I still had 15 minutes until Locke was coming, so I sat down to watch TV. Mom came in and almost started crying.

"Lily!! Oh my goodness, you look so beautiful! My little baby! Here, stand up, let's get a picture. Link, come up here and look at your daughter!" I stood up and walked over to our 'picture wall' as Mom calls it, because we take all of our pictures there. As Mom was taking some pictures, Dad and Lando walked up the stairs to see me.

"Wow, Lily. You look so beautiful." Dad said as he gave me a hug.

"Thanks, Dad." I smiled up at him. Mom snapped a few pictures of us before waving Lando over to join. He refused and ran back to his room. Just then, Locke rang the doorbell. Dad opened the door and Locke walked in, wearing a jet black suit and bow tie, and shook his hand.

"Good evening, Mr. Neal." He sounded so proper.

"Hey, Locke. Since when did anyone call me Mr.Neal?" We all laughed and Locke looked over at me.

"Wow, Lils, you clean up nice. You ready to go?" I smiled.

"Thanks. Sure. Bye Mom, bye Dad." Locke and I walked out the front door and to his car. He ran over to my side and opened the door before I could. "Wow, what a gentleman." I said as I stepped into his car. He ran to the other side and got in. He looked over at me and smiled.

"You look gorgeous, Lils." I smiled shyly and looked down. "I'm serious, you're the prettiest girl out there." I felt my face turn red with embarrassment as he spoke.

"Thanks. You don't look too bad yourself. I love the bowtie!" He smiled and started the car. We pulled out of the driveway and down the street. "So, dinner. Where are we going? You never did tell me." He looked at me with a smile.

"Oh, you'll see." I giggled, and he just kept driving.

We drove for a little while until we reached the restaurant Locke had picked out, a fancy Italian place called 'Piccolo Venice'. It was crazy expensive, and I told Locke I didn't want to waste his money.

"Lils, it's fine. I have plenty of money."

"No, really, let's go to like Olive Garden or something." I begged. He looked at me and sighed.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes! 100% sure! We can even go to McDonald's, I don't care!" He laughed and we left. We pulled up to a McDonald's and he turned the car off.

"Here we are. Do you really want to eat from here?" He said as he turned to look at me.

"Yes! In fact we should only order things off the dollar menu!" We laughed.

"Okay, your call." He got out of the car and ran to my side to open my door. We walked in and ordered some burgers and fries. Once our food was ready we sat down and started eating. "I must say, I enjoy this much more than that fancy Italian place."

"See, I told you!"

We both finished eating and got back into the car to go to the dance. Once we pulled up, Locke opened my door, I got out, and we headed into the gym.

"Okay, before we go in there, I need something." I grabbed his shoulder and pulled him towards me. "If we see Chris, we leave, don't say anythingto him, just leave. Okay?" He looked around and didn't respond. "Locke." He was still silent. "Locke McLaughlin, I swear if you fight him, I will hurt you." He raised his eyebrow in disapproval. "I know we don't like him, but you don't need to take out your anger at him, on him! We just need to handle this like mature adults. Turn the other cheek, okay?" I stared right into his eyes.

"Fine."

"Good. Now, let's get out there and shake some tail feather!" I grabbed his hand and started walking into the gym.