king and queen

seventeen

Alexa's POV

I managed to fall asleep at a reasonable time and I woke up around 9:00.

I laid in bed for a bit until I heard dad get home.

I got out of my room and went to see him in the kitchen. "Hi, dad."

"Hi." He said quickly as he glanced over the newspaper. He set it down for a second. "Whatcha up to today?"

"Homecoming dance is tonight. I'm gonna head over to Melanie's to get ready with her and Charlotte."

He looked up at me. "The homecoming dance?"

"Yeah." I said getting my self some orange juice.

"Does that mean the homecoming court dances passed?"

I frowned. "Yeah. They were Wednesday."

"Oh, honey, I'm so sorry. I thought they were next week." He rubbed his head.

"It's okay. I won homecoming queen." I was still kinda hurt by it, but what's done is done.

"That's awesome, Lex! I'll make it up to ya. I'm just so busy."

"I know, dad. It's okay."

He was being oddly nice. He's normally grouchy and cold in the mornings.

"Umm... I might as well tell you now."

Here we go. There's always a catch

"I'm seeing someone."

I dropped my cup. "You are?" I asked in shock.

"Yeah. About eight months now. Her name is Margaret. I wanted to wait to tell you in case it wasn't working out. But it's goin' real well. And I want her to move in with us."

"What?" I asked again.

"Lex, I'm gonna marry her."

I stood there with my mouth agape. "You're gonna get remarried?" I asked in shock. "B-But..."

"Mom passed away eight years ago. It's time for us to move on."

He walked up close to me. "You can have another wife. You can have many of them. But I will only ever have one mother."

"I understand that. Margaret doesn't expect to be your mom."

I noticed all the pictures of mom were gone. Their wedding pictures, our family pictures... they were gone.

"I-I have to go. I'll see you later, dad."

I grabbed my stuff from my room and put shoes on before I went over to Melanie's.

I didn't know it at the time, but that was the last time I ever saw my dad.

Melanie, Char, and I got ready and did each other's hair and painted each others nails. They did a good job at keeping me distracted from what happened earlier with dad and last night with Dallas.

"Ready to go, girls?" Melanie asked.

"Let's get this party started!" Charlotte yelled.

Melanie's dad drove us to the dance and we all walked in together. Charlotte quickly went to go see her boyfriend and Melanie went to her lacrosse friends.

I spotted Johnny, Dallas, and Marina by the punch bowl.

"Hi, guys." I said to the three of them.

"Hey, Lex." Johnny and Marina said at the same time.

"Hi, Alexa." Dallas finally said. "You look beautiful."

I smiled. "Thanks, Dal. You sure do clean up nice, too."

Dallas' POV

Marina made us get there pretty early. Tons of people were still coming in after the three of us already downed a cup of punch.

Even through the crowd I saw Alexa walk in.

She looked amazing.

Her hair was done nicely in loose curls with a bright red lipstick to match her shoes that you could barely see peak out from under her dress.

She had a tight black dress on that was square at the top and went right to where her collarbone started. There was a small, vertical slit in the center of her chest and I could see every curve on her body.

She had these silky, white gloves just barely cover her elbow that fit so perfectly over her arms.

Her friends walked away and she came over to us. She said something, but I couldn't take my eyes off of her.

All I could tell her was how beautiful she looked.

Johnny and Marina made their way to the dance floor and it was just me and Alexa. "Alexa, I'm so sorry about last night."

"It's okay, Dal-"

"No, it's not. You don't deserve that, Lex."

"Really, it's okay. It's your last day here. Let's enjoy it. We've got our dance coming up in a few minutes as king and queen. You up for it?"

"As long as I'm dancing with you, then it's perfect."

Alexa's POV

Dallas was such a confusing character. He seems so uninterested and then he pulls this shit and he's got me back on my toes again.

"Can I please have our homecoming court to the front, I repeat, can I please have our homecoming court to the front."

"Well, that's our cue. Ready for it?"

"Let's do it."

We both put our crowns on and the pairs slow danced up in the front.

I put my arms around his shoulders and his around my waste.

We didn't say anything for the couple minutes we danced.

But nothing needed to be said.

I was so happy for him.

I'm happy that he's happy.

That he finally found a real group of friends. For getting away from this God awful town. For being himself.

He's probably never thought about any of that too deeply.

But I think about it a lot. Not just for him. But for everyone.

He deserves to be happy. His life wasn't easy. It still probably isn't, but he doesn't need any more negativity from this town and these people.

I wanted to kiss him one more time so so badly.

But with a hundred people watching us, I couldn't.

And I couldn't let myself get even more attached to him. In less than twenty-four hours, he'll be gone and I'll never see him again.

It hurts that my dad is getting remarried without asking me.

It hurts that him and Johnny are leaving.

But what really hurts is that I'm gonna be stuck here while Dallas gets to go back to where he belongs.

Called it jealousy, if you must.

I've had the best two weeks of my life and the person who made that possible is being taken from me.

He's going back to live his own life again and completely forget about me.

And I think that's what hurt the most.