Him & Her

Ch.9

Ch9

At 4:00 Elizabeth had already put on her knee length green dress, put on the matching red jacket, with the matching red high heels, combed her long tangle of wavy light brown hair, put on her Christmas tree earrings, applied black eye liner to the bottom of her eyes, and put a layer of light red lipstick onto her lips.

She stood staring at herself in her mirror and sighed, why was she even going? Her whole class would be there, and of course Cole, why was she torturing herself like this? Her phone rang and she picked it up off her nightstand. It was a message from Henry: Hi, green or red tie? With a picture attached of him with a green suit. Elizabeth laughed out loud. He kind of looked like a leprechaun with his green suit and shortness.

Elizabeth typed: Nice suit. Red tie.

Then her dad stepped into her room. He stood at the door and looked at her, "You're beautiful."

Elizabeth smiled and put her phone back on the night stand, "Thanks dad." she walked over to him and kissed his cheek.

"There's a boy downstairs that wants to take you to the party in his car and I was just deciding how to kill him." her father said with a straight face.

Elizabeth laughed as he continued, "I think breaking his neck would be the fastest way, but it doesn't give him much pain."

"Don't worry dad, we're just going as friends. Plus, Henry's coming too."

Her dad laughed and kissed her cheek, "Alright, you might as well get going before I go crazy."

He walked her down the stairs and into the living room where Brandon was sitting on a couch talking to Elizabeth's mom and laughing.

When Brandon saw her he stood up and stared at her, eyes wide. He wore a normal black suit, except that there was a santa hat on his head. Elizabeth's dad cleared his throat and Brandon shook his head and said, "Hi, Elizabeth. You...look awesome."

"Thanks." Elizabeth said, hating all the attention she was getting, "But is my outfit a little too...Christmasy?"

Brandon laughed, "Not at all." His nose was red.

"Are you sick?" Elizabeth asked.

"Ya, but it's just a small cold, I'm fine." he added as Elizabeth's dad glared at him.

Elizabeth's mom smiled and said, "You two cute kids need a picture."

"No mom, please don't." Elizabeth tried to say as her mom began to push her and Brandon next to the fireplace.

Brandon laughed, "It's just a picture, Liz."

Elizabeth snapped at him, "My name's Elizabeth." but she quickly covered it up by laughing and saying, "I hate nicknames."

Brandon smiled, "Ok Elizabeth."

She didn't know why she said that. Cole called her Liz all the time and she didn't say anything to him...

Brandon put his arm around her shoulder as Elizabeth's mom grabbed the camera, but he let it drop back to his side when her dad clenched his fist and eyed him.

"Smile, my little elves." her mom said.

They smiled and Elizabeth's mom took the picture.

The next thing she knew she was out the door and in Brandon's car, waving goodbye to her parents. Brandon started the car and drove down the street to Henry's house.

At first there was an awkward silence between them, but then Brandon said, "Nice dress."

"Thanks, although I got it last minute," Elizabeth started to blurt as they pulled onto Henry's drive way, "I was so worried it would look stupid or something, and you can't BELIEVE how long it took to get my hair done. I was just-"

Brandon interrupted, "You look beautiful," he stopped the car and looked at her, "Don't worry." She stared into his dark eyes as he pulled something out of his pocket. It was a small red box. He opened it and Elizabeth's eyes widened. Beautiful red diamonds embedded into a silver bracelet rested in the red box.

"Wow." was all she could manage to say.

Brandon laughed, "Merry Christmas." He said as he took the bracelet out of the box and slipped it onto Elizabeth's hand.

"Brandon...this is amazing, but I can't accept it." Elizabeth said, "I would never be able to pay you back."

"It's not about the money." he said, "I think I l-"

Suddenly Henry opened the door and flopped into the backseat, cutting off Brandon from saying something Elizabeth was afraid to hear.

"Hi guys!" Henry said, "Let's go, par-tay! Am I right?"

Brandon and Elizabeth laughed as they looked back at Henry.

"Alright, let's go." Brandon smiled and started the car again. "Just keep it, please, for me." he told Elizabeth.

She nodded, "Thank you, it's beautiful." she said, which she hoped made him happy. And for some reason, she felt as if the bracelet was getting tighter and tighter around her arm, stopping the blood from moving to her heart.