Vanity Teens

Chapter Twenty-Two

A.N. MEET PANDORA VAN DER GORZ DE LA DARGUE (I went to town with this name) PLAYED BY NO. 1 SASS-MASTER MAGGIE SMITH. I had great fun with her character, and I hope you enjoy meeting her. What do you think about the head of the van der Gorz family? Do we like her? Don't we?

Chapter Twenty-Two:

Now's all we got, and time can't be bought. I know it inside my heart, forever will forever be ours, even if we try to forget, love will remember.

"You're shaking," Sam muttered.

"I'm not," I insisted.

"I know you. Selena Gomez is your neutralizer. She calms you down. And I can hear Love Will Remember blasting from your headphones."

"Shit. You know me too well. I'm shitting myself, I don't know what to expect. I'm not just meeting my bloody family, but I'm bursting through the doors arm-in-arm with my boyfriend. Shit. That sounded much less like a disaster in my head than it does out loud."

Boom gone, yeah we move on, even if we try to forget, love will remember you, and love will remember me. I know it inside my heart, forever will forever be ours, even if we try to forget, love will remember.

"I love this song so much," I heard him saying.

"I know. But what about you, aren't you nervous?" I asked, eyeing him curiously. "I mean, you were the one that was skeptical, at first, wanting to keep all of this a secret. Now you're so casual about it."

"Ari, I came out the day we got back from Cornwall," he muttered, his voice a whisper. It was a gentle tone, sweet and comforting, and it brought a smile to my face.

I turned and faced to him as he sat there on my bed. I couldn't resist, I pressed my lips to his. It was short and sweet, and I could feel the smile etched onto his lips. I loved his smile more than anything in the world, excepting of course, myself. But enough of me, let's get back to the subject of... me.

"Great, now that makes me the closet-boyfriend, who would ever have thought?" I sighed.

"Not for long," I heard him say. I found myself looking at the floor, until his thumb pressed lightly against my chin and drew my line of focus to his face. His perfect, flawless face, with such heavenly brown eyes.

"I love..." I began. "That shirt on you."

Being the complete dick that I am, I ruined that perfect moment we all dream of, where I tell him I love him and he mutters it back. Then there's a horse, and we're in a meadow, and we're riding off in the sunset with a castle of clouds building up in the sky.

Like the ending to Snow White. That was a perfect ending, although I was always personally more a fan of the Evil Queen. I mean, I got so emotionally attached to made-up characters, I wouldn't be surprised if I had fallen in love with Sam faster.

"You've got that look," he exclaimed.

"What look? There's no look! People need to stop saying there's a look, there's no look!"

"I meant the Disney look you get. Your face gets so upset, you're still sad the Evil Queen died?"

"No," I lied. "Well, yes, but that's not what I was thinking about." Three words, three syllables, eight letters, six vowels (depending on if you count Y as a vowel, which it technically is so fuck off), two consonants, and I'm being too specific. I was thinking about the big 'I love you' problem that I wanted to drop. Because I did love him.

"Then what were you thinking about?"

"This party," I immediately answered. "I'm so freaked out, not even my Selly G can fix me."