𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘀' 𝗣𝘂𝘇𝘇𝗹𝗲

Past (six years ago)

I lay in bed still in my pajamas knowing that today is a day I have been anticipating for, what I believe is, my whole life. I promised Crystal we'd go together and she just texted on the group chat her dad rented a limo for us, I can't hold in my excitement anymore and get off my bed, just as quickly my mom barges in, my dad standing in the door was behind her.

"Up, up you go. It's nearly 5 pm and you're still mopping in bed, this is unacceptable" she pulls me up and pushes me into the bathroom to start getting ready, it's not that I wasn't excited it just feels surreal and the idea it could be just another day makes me wonder if I'm overreacting,

"I hope you're under the shower right now" she yells through the door making me smile as I get in.
Once i'm done I walk out the bathroom to just my mom in the room picking out my accessories that we had decided on after we went dress shopping a couple weeks ago, she looks up at me and smiles making her way up to me, I shake my head as she cups it and places soft pecks all over my face,

"Mom! I thought we were in a hurry" I cry out so she lets go of my wiping off fake tears, I roll my eyes before I go ahead and get into my underwear,

"You know I went to my prom back in the day with your father" she says handing me my dress, we had picked out a pale green long dress mesh embroidered with flowers of different colors, it felt fairy like and I loved that, I had always imagined prom as a fairytale ball and my mom knew that,
"I wore a red dress strapless and so puffy and big, when we were dancing we were barely touching because of it" she smiled to herself, the memories probably felt so close yet they were from another time,
"Now thinking of it my mom probably picked it for that reason" she laughs, I smile at her and twirl in my dress, her hands cover her mouth and I know the tears are going to follow so I bend over to face her, my very emotional mother, and ask her to fix my hair. She looks at me through her teary eyes and nods, and so she plaits my hair in a loose braid letting a few strands dangle in front.

My dad walks once i'm all done and I can tell by the look on his face he's just as worried as he is excited this is the beginning of a new chapter in my life, i'll be out by September living a life away from them.
"My silly little princess is all grown" he places a hand on my shoulder, I just hug him and he sighs out a deep breath before letting go.

A honk from outside startles us and we rush down right before a couple knocks on the front door, my dad opens it while my mom fixes my dress, my hair, my posture..
Alex walks in first in gray suit with a green tie, then Helio, full black suit, I look around for the green and he lifts his fingers showing of the sage green polish on them, and everything seemed so perfect right there, Dad took pictures, so many pictures, even Samuel ended up coming out with Skye and joined in on some pictures before we finally left.

The Chauffeur actually came out to open the door for us, and there was Crystal with the guys from the skating rink last time, I never even caught his name,
"Omgg Juless you look perfect" she hugs me as I seat opposite her, I hug her back, her pink gown takes up half the space in the car with a flowy skirt lined with lace.
"Says you, your dress is so pretty omg" I squeal back at her,
"Ok ok ok that's enough, Crys you got some drinks back here" Helio asks interrupting me, I just roll my eyes and turn over to Alex who hasn't said a word since I saw him while Crystal lines up shots,
"You good?" He snaps back to reality turning briskly to me before nodding with a slight chuckle,
"Yeah yeah... you look beautiful by the way" the remark caught me off guard and I didn't have time to think of it with Crystal forcing a shot in my hand and the rest of the ride remains a blur.

By the time we got there we were all pretty drunk and we hoping it wasn't as obvious as it felt, we got in and immediately went on the dance floor, Crystal tripped on her dress like 10 times before we started doing russian squat kicks in a circle with every other senior, the music was loud and good and it felt like the time of our lives right there, I pulled Alex and Helio out of a mosh pit somehow and take them to the photobooth, I sit on Helio's lap and the pictures start, I kiss both of them on the cheek for two pic and the last is just us smiling. The machine only printed one copy even though we asked for 3 so we decided on Alex keeping it to make the copies at his place.