All's Fair in Love and HoCo (ONC 2022)

Chapter Thirty-one: Right Where We Left Off

I pulled the light pink spaghetti straps of my homecoming dress over my shoulders and waited patiently for my mom. She circled around me, and I felt the dress cinch together as she zipped me up.

"You look beautiful, Emmy," Mom said.

I glimpsed into the full-length mirror on the inside of one of my closet doors. Loose curls cascaded down my back. I had enough hairspray on me that I could possibly be considered as flammable. My eyeshadow was smoky, my eyeliner was black but without the resemblance to a raccoon, and my lips were a dusty rose. I dapped a line of a lighter pink gloss down the center of my bottom lip. I wasn't sure my lips looked fuller, but I'd seen it on TikTok and thought it worth the try. Not bad.

My fingernails weren't quite what I'd wanted, but Mom refused to splurge on a French manicure. Instead, I got her version: a swish of white at the top of the nail, followed by a light pink overcoat. It was missing the cute sparkles and bling.

A car drove onto our cul-de-sac. Hopefully it was just an MP. I looked out the window to find the SUV I'd made out in two days earlier parking in front of our house.

Riley was here. His mom would want pictures, so I needed to hurry with the final touches. A quick brush of blush along my cheekbone and a spritz of a shimmering body spray along my collar bone, and my look was complete. I stepped into a pair of my mom's gray dress shoes and prayed I wouldn't break my neck descending the stairs.

I caught a glimpse of Riley and his mom talking to my dad as I passed the small window in the stairway. His mom was in a nice dress I'd seen her in the day the general showed up to tour the school. Riley was in a dark gray suit, his pants a little short. His eyes met mine, and he gave a small wave, surely to hide that my dad didn't have his full attention, and I almost lost my footing. The boy was beautiful, and with the way he looked tonight, we were destined for a repeat of what happened at the bonfire. I blushed at the thought. His mom probably had already taken all keys from him. Hopefully she'd moved past it...and she wouldn't tell my dad.

When I stepped outside with Riley's boutonniere in hand, I gave a little shiver. The dress was too small for the October cold. Riley's eyes widened and he mouthed an appreciative wow. Apparently, he approved of my look.

His mom had lost her sternness, but she didn't exude warmth, either. She was going to take some work to win over.

Photos snapped as Riley tied the corsage, a rose that matched my dress accented by pink and gray ribbons, around my wrist, and I pinned the boutonniere to his sportscoat. And then the pictures really began. His mom was there for pictures in front of the house, but she had to leave to set up for the dance. Mom required better pictures, so Dad drove us down to the city park and we posed in front of the pond, trees, and anything else Mom deemed beautiful.

Forty-five minutes later, we were back in the house, and Dad was slipping one of his old button-ups over Riley's clothes. I shrugged into another of Dad's old shirts. Spaghetti probably was not the wisest choice Mom had made when it came to dinner, but it wasn't her sausage and sauerkraut casserole, so I'd take small wins whenever I could get them. We just needed to keep from wearing dinner.

Riley heaped a ton of spaghetti onto his plate and went back for seconds, possibly still hungry from the appetite he'd worked up from yesterday's football game. It had been a nailbiter, but our team had pulled through in the last seconds of the game to score the winning field goal.

When we finished eating, the button-ups had a few splotches of spaghetti sauce on them. Thankfully, our dress clothing was clean. I rushed upstairs to brush my teeth and take one last look in the mirror before we left for the dance.

After we climbed out of the car, Riley removed his sportscoat, carefully draping it around me. He bent to my ear, and I instantly warmed. "You look amazing, Emily. Just beautiful." He brushed his lips against my ear, and I turned to goo. How did he do this to me every single time?

I melted into him. "You look amazing, too."

He pulled out his phone and took a selfie of us. "So, we easily have twenty minutes before most people start showing up."

I read between the lines. He wanted alone time with me. The feeling was mutual. "Where do you have in mind?"

He laughed. "There's the gazebo at the USO, but we'll spend half our time walking there." He fished keys out of his pocket. "I did manage to sneak my dad's set, so my mom's car is an option. She's going to be busy and as long as we're in there by 8:30, she won't suspect a thing."

So we had an option of being seen walking to the gazebo or to his mom's car, which was much closer, but...that hadn't worked out so well for us at the bonfire. Would she suspend her own son if she caught us together again?

In a matter of minutes, we were back in the car, starting from right where we'd left off. His lips were on my mouth, his hands were everywhere they shouldn't be, and I was straddling his lap. His fingers worked their way to my back, and I felt the top of my dress loosen as the zipper lowered.

He lifted the skirt of my dress and his eyes caught on my black lace panties. He touched them and winked. "I believe I've seen a part of these before."

"Riley, I don't want to do this right now."

He moved his hand, but kept kissing me, this time making his way to my neck. A shiver escaped me. "Are you sure? Because you're acting like you want this as much as I do."

I took a deep breath. "Oh, I want this, but this is not exactly how I envisioned this happening." I slid off his lap. "I'm sorry."

His lips pressed into a straight line and I wasn't sure how he was going to react. After some long seconds, he finally said, "No, I'm sorry. I thought you wanted this." He shook his head. "I'm an ass."

I stroked his cheek. "No, you're not. I'm just not ready to take that step tonight."

He zipped me up, and we climbed out of the car and went inside the school. His mother smiled when she saw we'd arrived. Hopefully, the parking lot didn't have cameras.