Ablaze

Twenty Six

Ashling's POV

It's prommmm night!

I'm so excited for prom tonight! I can't wait to see everyone all dressed up, and I can't wait to see the venue. I saw pictures of it online, and it's fucking insane. Our prom house isn't too far from it thankfully, and it's a beach house, which makes it's even better! I plan on having a fun ass time with my friends, and that's exactly what I'm going to do.

I spend all day getting ready, doing my hair and makeup myself since I'm pretty skilled in doing so. Akita came over to get ready, so I also did her hair and makeup.

My mom takes a bunch of pictures of us before we leave, claiming she's going to frame them and hang them all over the house. We're being picked up in a limo with Del and the others, which I'm so excited for since I've never been in one before. It's actually Del's family's personal limo... fucking rich people.

As I step into the limo, my eyes frantically search around for any sign of Kaen... only to find nothing.

There was a sliver of hope in me, that Kaen would be sitting right there. I'm fucking stupid.

I don't even know why I was expecting him to be here... he said he hated prom. Plus, he hasn't been in school so who knows what's going on with him. Seeing him would probably end in disaster, anyway. I know it's been two months, but I still don't know if I'm ready to see him again.

Ughh, what am I saying? He's the one who cheated on and broke up with me... I shouldn't be wanting to see him again. I should hate him... but I don't.

When we arrive at the venue, I'm absolutely amazed. It looks like a castle, and I feel like a real life princess walking into it. A giant chandelier hangs from the ceiling, and the walls are covered in mirrors. The decor looks like royalty, and the ballroom is huge.

It kind of sucks I won't be able to slow dance with anyone on it and feel like I'm in a movie, but that's okay. I get to be my friends' personal photographer.

**A few hours later**

After we ate some of the most delicious food, everyone was kind of just chillin' for a bit. We went outside to explore the gardens, which contained the most beautiful flowers I'd ever seen. Akita told me to pick some of the flowers and put them in my hair with the ones already in it, but there's a sign that explicitly states not to pick the flowers.

Of course she didn't follow the rules.

I wouldn't have done it anyway, I really like the flowers that are already in my hair. There was also a big, beautiful fountain that had koi fish swimming in it. This place really is so amazing.

We explored around some more, but decided to go back inside once it started getting dark out. They went back inside to the ballroom, but I decided to explore the rest of the castle by myself.

Everyone was doing something different. There were people in the photo booth, smiling, kissing, being funny. There were others hiding away on the tall, marbleized staircase.

I was in this big, beautiful castle surrounded by all of these people, and yet... I still felt alone.

I shouldn't be by myself right now.

I met back at the table with my friends, right as they were serving dessert. "This cake is so fucking good, I wanna bury myself in it."