Hard Heart to Crack

Chapter 5. Prom

On Monday, I got on the school bus and ran to my usual seat in the back. Lucky for me, most of the kids seemed to be distracted. I didn't see Jaden so it must have been something else. All the girls were sitting together, whispering and looking over at the boys strangely. The boys on the other hand, were acting normal. There was no cat callimg or hollering, but there were a few attempted grabs. I evaded them and sat down in my usual seat. Jaden soon got on the bus, and all the girls stopped whispering. They just followed him with their eyes as he made his way to the back. He sat next to me and smiled. "Morning, Sweetheart."
"Hey Jaden," I said, my heart felt like it was going to explode.
I could feel a lot of eyes on us, but I didn't care. I intertwined my fingers with Jaden's, he looked down at our hands. He looked me in the eyes, and there I saw so much love. I heard collective gasps from the girls, but I ignored them. My heart was telling me to kiss this boy and kiss him good. But my brain still had doubts, so I hesitated. I decided to wait for the right moment. We pulled up to the school, I grabbed my backpack and made my way to the front of the bus. I thought that Jaden was right behind me, but when I looked back I saw that he had been stopped by a girl. I couldn't see her face, but I could see that she had a pink sparkly T-shirt, a black mini skirt, and bubblegum pink hair. I don't mean the bright, beautiful bubble gum pink that you're thinking of. I mean the washed out, almost white, pink bubble gum color. Jaden was shaking his head no, and the girl's shoulders drooped. She turned around and stalked away from Jaden. I went into one of the rows to avoid her but she stopped and turned to me. I knew her all right,this was Tiffany Briar,one of the most popular girls in my class. She had tears in her brown eyes, she gave me a disgusted look.
"Why would anyone ever want to date you?!? I mean, who even are you? I'm rich, I'm gorgeous, I am A-m-a-z-i-n-g!" I could hear the tears in her voice.
I shrugged, "Well," I told her, " Not to brag or anything, but me AND my ego can fit in the same car, Tiffany. Can you say the same?"
Her face reddened, she ran off the bus without looking back once. I looked at Jaden and raised an eyebrow.
"Okay?"
"Okay." He responded, then he smiled. "I telling you Sweetheart, we are the real life Hazel Grace and Augustus Waters."
I smirked, "Who's Issac then, Jaden?"
He shrugged, then smiled, "Greg?"
I laughed, we got off the bus and went to class.

In second period, Jaden passed me a note
How you holding up?
Is this class boring or what?
-Jaden
I smiled, I jotted a quick note to him.
Yeah,it is.
I'm holding up fine, how about you?
I put it on his desk, the response came a minute later.
I'm about to pass out.
HELP. BOREDOM ALERT. FRICKIN BOREDOM ALERT.
Oh that reminds me... Prom's this weekend...;)
-Jaden
I blinked, what the heck is Prom?
That's exactly what I asked him.
His response:
You don't know what Prom is!?!
Oh wait, that's right.
I'm in love with a girl who has lived under a rock her entire life.
Prom is a dance. Dancing, music(duh), and hopefully...FOOD!
Believe me Sweetheart, when you see my dance moves you'll fall even MORE in love with me.;)
-Jaden
I rolled my eyes, I thought about my answer, and responded.
I don't think I can go Jaden. I may have work,and I don't have anything nice to wear. Literally.
He didn't respond.

I walked into the cafeteria, as I walked by the first table, where the rest of the kids sat, they stopped talking. They just stared at me, I sat down at my usual table, some of the girls got up and started walking in my direction.
Don't come over here, I thought, Just please don't.
Of course, they did
Three of them sat across from me, two more on each side of me.
"Heeeeeey.... Ummmmm" One of the girls smiled at me shyly. "I actually don't know your name. What is it again?"
I wasn't going to tell her, "Get lost." I growled. She blinked inoccently, "Oh Sweetie, but I just want to be fri-" I cut her off, "Good bye." I got up and marched out of the cafeteria. I didn't know which way to go, i just wanted to get away,so I just kept walking. Those girls had been among the many who hated me, then all of a sudden they wanted to be friends? Not happening. No way.
I ended up in the music room where our music class was held. I sat at the piano, I didn't know what to do, I just put my hands on the keys and pressed them. A song came out of the keys I played, I recognized the song. Jaden and I had listened to it together on Saturday. Who was the artist? Oh yeah, Sia, the song was called "Chandelier". The words came slowly, then all at once so I sang them. I was singing and playing so hard, that I didn't notice when three people walked in. I played the song all the way thru. When I finished, I felt amazing. Then I looked around and saw three very surprised people staring at me. Jaden who looked shocked to his core. A smile slowly creeping on to his face. 'Greg' looking shocked and astonished. Then the third person was Ms. Thesis, our music teacher, who looked absolutely amazed. Jaden was the first to speak, " Chris...that was...you are..wow."
My face was on fire.
Ms. Thesis came towards me,"Darling, that was-"
"Fantastic!" A red faced 'Greg' stammered out
"Where did you learn play like that? Why didn't you tell me you could play the piano?" Jaden demanded.
I looked down at the black and white keys before me.
"I-i didn't know that I could." I laughed nervously," Believe me, if I had known I would have told you!"
"Wait, how did you guys find me?" I asked.
'Greg' spoke up, still a bit red, "I heard singing from my class room, I came in and saw you. I ran to find Jaden and Steph-"
"Hold on, " I said, pointing at my music teacher, "Your names Steph?"
She blushed, " Yes, my names Steph..."
"Cool" I told her.
"Anyway," 'Greg' continued, "we all came in here, and just kind of..."
"Watched the most amazing thing ever." Jaden said.

So after I talked with Ms. Thesis(AKA Steph) about private music lessons to learn the extent of my 'gift', Jaden and I went to our next class. After school, Jaden and I went to my house for a bit before I had to go to work.
"You don't HAVE to dress fancy for Prom, you know" Jaden told me.
I smirked at him, "This morning on the bus, Tiffany asked you to Prom, didn't she?" He shrugged, "Yeah, but I told her that I was taken." He smiled at me.
I smiled back, "You should have said yes."
He blinked at me, " What?"
"Jaden," I took his hands, "I might have work, I don't have anything to wear-"
"Then I won't go to Prom either" he said stubbornly.
"Jaden-"
"I go with you, or I don't go at all."
I sighed, "When's Prom?"
"Saturday, at 6:00 pm."
I looked him in the eyes, "Well lucky for you, I have work in the morning, and then I'm free. Next obstacle, I don't have any clothes."
"We can afford a dress, darling." My gran had been eavesdropping!
"Gran we dont-"
"Darling," my Gran said with a determined look on her face, "just trust me."
Jaden smiled, "Prom here we come!"
"Great!" I said, "now, I got to go to work."

The next week went by pretty quickly, all that the girls could seem to talk about was Prom, and Jaden of course.
It was finally Saturday, I was so nervous. I went to work at 8:00 am and got home at 4:30 pm. That gave me an hour before Jaden was going to come pick me up for Prom. When I got home, I walked into the kitchen expecting to find my Gran. She wasn't there, "Gran!" I yelled for her.
"I'm in here Darling." Came her muffled reply from our bedroom. I walked in and gasped. My Gran was sitting on my bed, sitting next to her was the most beautiful dress I had ever seen. It was dark blue with lacey sleeves, on the floor sat dark blue Mary Jane style flats. I tackled my grandmother, almost knocking her off the bed.
"Gran, how did you-"
"It was nothing Sweetie."
"How much did you spend on it!?"
"It was free, Sweetheart."
"FREE?!?"
She smiled, " What do the kids these days say? Oh yes, I have, uh, connections darling."
I blinked, my Gran had connections? Well, OK.
"Thank you so much, Gran."
She smiled, "Your welcome Sweetheart. Now, try it on! He'll be here soon!!" I went to the restroom and slipped on the dress. It fit perfectly, and fell to my knees. MY LEGS!!! OH MY GOD!
"GRAN!!!!!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. My legs, oh GOD. They were so hairy!!!!
My Gran came in with a razor and a bottle.
"I came prepared for the worst darling."
"Ha-ha Gran, JUST HELP ME GET IT OFF PLEASE!!!"
After we got our of that, um, hairy situation, I put the flats on. I ran a brush thru my curly hair. It fell to my shoulders, my Gran helped me make it look REALLY nice. I refused any kind of make up, deciding that I looked fine. Just in time too, there was a knock on the front door. My stomach did twenty back flips, I went to open the door. I opened it, Jaden stood there holding a bouquet of flowers. He looked stunning, he was wearing a long sleeved black button up, with a dark blue tie, he had a pair of his usual black jeans on and a pair of converse. His smile faltered and turned into a look of absolute amazement.
"Chris, you look..I mean.. Wow."
I laughed, "Thanks, you don't looks so bad your self."
His smile returned, he handed me the bouquet, I grabbed a vase and put them in it.
He put his hand out, I took it.
"You ready?" He asked.
I smiled, "Yeah, I'm ready."
We go into his car, he started the engine, we rolled out of my driveway, and headed to the dance.
How do I explain Prom? It was well, weird, akward, crazy, amazing. When Jaden and I walked in, some of the other couples stopped and stared. The girls looked like they were about to explode, the guys, well they just kind of gawked. Jaden and I drank and ate. The we danced, we danced to so many songs. Then Prom queen and king were announced. Prom queen was (of course) Tiffany Briar. She smiled and waved like a super model. Then Prom king was announced. Prom king was...Jaden! He went up on stage and refused the crown even though Tiffany seemed VERY anxious to greet the king. They weren't prepared for that, so it took another hour before a different Prom king was announced. Then we kept dancing, hand in hand. We talked and laughed so much. It was an amazing night. Jaden drove me back home after the dance was over. At my front door I hesitated, I wanted to kiss him, but I wasn't so sure that it was the right time for a kiss. So I hugged him and thanked him for an amazing night.
"It was only amazing because of you, Chris."
Oh yes, I really wanted to kiss him. I settled for kissing him on the cheek.
"Good night."
"Good night, Sweetheart."
I went in and got ready for bed. I had several picture of me and Jaden that had been taken that night. We had been looking at each other in one of them when it was taken. Another one showed me and Jaden caught mid-laugh. Another showed me and Jaden slow dancing. Another one, probably my favorite, showed me and Jaden holding hands, we had been walking across the dance floor to our seats, we were looking at each other with so much love you could feel it.
Oh yes, I loved that boy so much.