His Overacheiver -- HIATUS

02 : School Dance

My favourite line from this chapter :
"I tried suggesting that I wear the black dress that I wore to my great-grandmother's funeral, but you immediately dismissed that"

I only really went to four places:
school, my home, the library, and
Julia's place.
One things for sure, I never would've expected myself to be standing in a boutique. But there I was, at 6:57pm on a Friday.
How could did have happened?

Approximately six hours ago
"Can you go to the school dance on Saturday with me?"
"Uhm, absolutely not. I haven't gone for the past three years, so why should this year be any different?" I said without even looking at Julia as I sipped my cold coffee. Julia was an introvert like me, but we had vastly different priorities. She'd always go to school dances for the so called 'magical experience'.
It never ends up being magical, she always comes back burnt out and incapable of doing anything involving socialising with other homosapiens.
"OK, hear me out. Remember that weird guy I was telling you about? He asked me if I wanted to go, and I got all nervous and said yes. I know, I need to work on my people pleasing problem.
I need somebody to be there with me."
I sighed, I would be much happier with my plans of staying at home and engaging in a very entertaining activity: listening to a spotify podcast and eventually having a minor meltdown over all the ads.
"Cmon, this is our last dance! You have to attend, I swear it'll be fun. Please, Briare? I'll make it up to you, I just don't wanna go alone"
"I've never gone to a high-school party and I don't plan on breaking that streak". I looked away from her and then back at her. She looked desperate, it was almost pitiful. "Okay, fine. But don't expect me to stay for long".

End of flashback
"I still can't believe you don't have any outfit suitable enough. I thought you'd have something other than cardigans, hoodies and that one pair of jeans that you always wear"
"It's not like I hate dresses or skirts. I just don't have occasions to wear stuff like that to, and thus don't own any," I begun as I gazed up at some garments "I tried suggesting that I wear the black dress I wore to my great-grandmother's funeral, but you immediately dismissed that."
"..."
"What? Aren't you going to help me pick out a dress or whatever"
"Uhm, sure...let's start picking out a dress." I nodded, and waited on one of the comfortable velvet arm chairs for Julia to pick out something for me.

"Oh my God, you have to try this on!"
She said, and threw a pink satin dress at me. I didn't wear cute dresses a ton, because majority of the time what I wore would be the ugly school uniform.

I tried it on, and I had to say, I looked quite nice. Maybe going to this party wouldn't make me want to be sucked into the abyss the moment I entered.
Apologies, I'm not good with being optimistic.

(What the dress looked like)

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I stepped into the party with Julia by my side as she somehow walked perfectly fine in her four inch heels.
Julia was a bit short and wore heels a lot whenever she needed a confidence boost. I'm guessing she felt the need to 'dress to impress' at our last high-school dance.
Though I didn't get the appeal of being somewhere where there would be atleast six couples making out in empty classrooms and painfully slow music.

Julia eventually made her way to a group of our mutual aquaintances,
but I felt a bit overwhelmed by all the obnoxiousness and retreated to a more calm and empty area.
Just as I thought I was about to heave a sigh of relief, I saw the familiar face that I hated use me as a chin rest.
"Hey, I've got to admit, I never thought I'd see you at a school dance."
"I never thought anyone would see me at a school dance. And get your chin off my shoulder."
He looked at me for a moment before lifting his chin off me.

I hesitated, but then said, "So, why are you here? I mean, I would've expected you to have stayed put in the heart of the party."
He scratched the back of his neck with an awkward smile on his face "You know I don't really do relationships, Bri. I come every year, but by now all of my friends have gotten girlfriends, even the ones I thought were going to the grave single! It was like social suicide thirdwheeling all of them, so I excused myself and now I'm here."
I looked him up and down (get your mind out of the gutter, not in a crude way!) and then decided it was safe to further inquire.
"If you were like me, it would be understandable why you didn't bother to be in a romantic relationship. But you're not like me. I hate to say it but you're effortless at everything (if you bring this up again I will deny it) so it's strange how you don't have a girlfriend."
He was about to speak when I interrupted him with a gasp followed by "Are you gay?"
He looked at me as if I had just said that the Earth is flat. (A/N : I'm not homophobic, just making that clear.
This was just supposed to be a funny scene <3)
He looked at me, bewildered, before bursting into laughter.
"You...you couldn't be more wrong. How did you even come to that conclusion?"
He asks in between chuckles, and I couldn't help but smile with my teeth as if his laughter was actually contagious.

Okay, seriously. Why don't you date any girl then? Most of the female population would willingly lick the floor if you asked them to, that too, with a smile on their faces!"
His laughter finally calmed down, and then his smile relaxed into an emotion I couldn't really determine. Was it...melancholy? No, why would he have anything to be depressed about?
He's Julius Mayfield, after all.
"I haven't told this to many people, but I've actually liked one girl for a couple of years now."
"What the hell, years?! You haven't told her?"
"No."
"I can't believe I'm giving you romance advice, but that's pathetic, Julius! There's a close to one-hundred-percent chance she likes you back."
"How should I put this...in a way, she's out of my league."
"There's people out of your league?"
He chuckled "Yeah, believe it or not. She just doesn't swing that way, you know?"
"So, she isn't straight?"
He sighed with a soft smile following after, "No, Briare. It's just...complicated." I felt my heart melt a little, my name just sounded so beautiful when it rolled off of his tongue. Then I felt it ache, I felt kind of bad for him. I found it a little hard to be empathetic, and usually just gave people my condolences and moved on. But right now, it came naturally to me.
I felt like I wanted to be there for him.
"I-"

"AND NOW, WE'LL BE ANNOUNCING THE PROM KING AND QUEEN!!"
The voice boomed over the loud speakers, bringing me and Julius out of our deep conversation.
Then suddenly, Julia came running towards me and grabbed my hand, completely ignoring her brother's presence.
"I've been looking everywhere for you! It made me very anxious, you know. Now come on, we have to enjoy the rest of the night together!"

I didn't really enjoy the rest of my night, and I caught me and Julius glancing at eachother multiple times.
Gosh, this was confusing. Why did I feel upset to be away from the guy I'm usually dying to get away from?

TBC...
A / N :
Hiiii ♡♡ If wattpad decides to f with me and not let the picture of the dress I provided for visualisation purposes appear, I'll be happy to share the link <3
Thankyou for reading, don't forget to vote! (Sorry for this chapter coming so late btw, I got busy 😅)