Locked Up

Chapter 38

Locked Up – Chapter thirty-eight

Lily Brooks

"Got everything?" my dad asked me after the sound of the doorbell had rung through the house. "Cell, money, USB?"

"Yes! Although I'm not quite sure about the camera footage," I admitted.

My dad gave me a warm smile. "You don't want to embarrass Brad in public, I assume."

I sighed. "I guess so. I will probably never see him again after prom, you know? We both go to different universities... I don't want to part as enemies. It doesn't feel right."

"I understand, Lil. Really, I do," dad assured me. "At least promise me you'll have lots of fun tonight. This will be the last time you are all together. Like you said, you and your school mates will part after tonight. Try to remember what it was like in high school, because believe me, you are eventually going to miss the time you are living in now."

"Of course," I nodded. "I will."

"Good," dad smiled. "Now, go and have fun!" he urged.

"Don't worry, dad. I've got this," I reassured him, giving him the thumbs up before making my way over to the front door, my heels clicking against the floorboards and the trail of my green dress rustling behind me.

Tonight was the night every girl in my year had been looking forward to for a long time. Tonight was prom night. To my own surprise, I felt kind of excited. Last week had been too long. Tim hasn't gone to school, which was worse enough already, and to top it all off we hadn't been doing anything productive. We all had to bring movies with us to pass the time with.

After school, I'd been busy going through footage of the school's security cameras. The system manager who had the footage stored fell for my stupid story. I'd told him I wanted to find out who had locked Tim and me up weeks ago – I already knew there weren't any security cameras near the old locker rooms – and begged him to let me go through the footage because I couldn't stand not knowing who did this to us.

He'd felt so sorry for me and let me go through the footage almost instantly. He even gave me some privacy, which worked just fine with me. I searched for the right date, the right cameras and there he was, freaking out over his now ruined car. I rewound it, watching myself rounding the car and scratching it with my keys.

The only thing I had to do was cut out the part I needed, copy it and drop it onto my USB. I'd felt hella smart doing that, even though my dad came up with the whole plan. Brad would never think of asking for security camera footage to find out who scratched all over his beloved vehicle. Of course, I deleted the part in which I was visible.

Just before I was about to open the door, I turned around one last time to throw the USB in my dad's direction. He caught it succesfully.

"Here, go watch it yourself. It's quite funny to watch," I told him before turning to face the door again.

Fortunately, Tim decided not to back out and still be my date to prom. And right now, he was standing on the other side of the door, waiting for me to open it. I looked down at my dress, holding onto my matching clutch. I could do this. I didn't look horrible. Actually, the dress fit me even better than I thought it would.

"What are you waiting for? Don't leave the poor boy waiting!" my mom urged, standing behind me, next to my dad.

With that, I opened the door to reveal Tim standing there looking like sex on legs. That suit... For a moment, I thought I'd lost it. Black dress pants, black suit jacket, white dress shirt and a green tie that matched my dress. I'd known what he was going to be wearing, but to see him wearing it, standing right in front of me...