Just another cliche story

Flash back- winter formal two years before

2 years before- Lilly is 15 here.

Lilly smoothed down her dress as she looked in the mirror. The dress was pretty, a green shimmery skater dress, but she looked fucking ridiculous. Especially with that ribbon her mother had tied in her hair. That was never going to come out. Lilly laughed in spite of herself as she took in how different she looked with so much makeup on. She had felt like a canvas being painted whilst her mother had done her makeup, and Lilly was going to be extra careful not to spill water on the canvas and show people what she really looked like. Spoiled. A memory of something that used to be perfect. A canvas just waiting to be painted on.

The whole dance was cliché, Lilly hated dancing, and socialising for that matter. The only reason she had agreed to go was that her mother was making her- and because Ben had a date and she wanted to keep an eye on them both. She sat awkwardly on one of the gym benches, drinking in the scenery and music, wishing she was anywhere but here. That's when Archie came over, meaning that either he didn't have a date (which she highly doubted since he was gorgeous and charming. The worst kind.) or that he ditched his date to come to talk to her. the thought made her heart flutter.  He sat down next to Lilly, and the pair didn't speak for a number of minutes as there was a comfortable silence that neither wanted to break. She looked across at the boy who was her brother's best friend, and saw him already smiling down at her.

"You look amazing" he said, smiling and gently bumping her shoulder with his. She returned the gesture and blushed slightly. She was glad for the limited lighting within the gym, as he definitely would have pointed it out if he had seen it. "Me? have you seen yourself? You've never looked better" Lilly exclaimed, Archie, shaking his head at her as he blushed slightly."No date?" Lilly asked, smirking and raising a questioning eyebrow at the boy as she sipped the coke from her red plastic cup. Archie laughed and smirked at her in return, running a hand through his jet black hair and fixing her with his piercing eyes. "Na, no date, I didn't really feel like bringing just any girl to the winter formal. I was planning to ask this one girl, but she's way to good for me." he said, looking down to the trainers he wore with his suit. Typical Archie.

"Oh? And what girl has the pleasure of rising above the almighty standards of Archie?"  Lilly quizzed him, half sarcastic, and half intrigued as to who she would have to hate for the rest of her school life. Or something like that."That girl is you, idiot." He laughed, turning away from Lilly as she saw a slight tinge of red go to his ears as he revealed his secret. Archie turned back to her, awkwardly smiling  at her once again as he moved his hand, gently pushing a stray hair behind her ear. He leaned down as Lilly leaned up, right before Ben came over and ruined the entire moment. Luckily for them, Ben had hadn't yet noticed that Lilly was practically on top of his best friend, about to kiss him.

"Hey. my date isn't going so well, so can you like, pretend to be sick o-" Ben trailed off as he finally noticed the close proximity of his two best friends. "Oh. Ok, I guess I'll leave you to it then" Ben said, before awkwardly turning on his heel and exiting the dance, not turning back despite Lilly and Archie both calling after him. It had been the definition of awkward the next day when they all went back to school. Lilly tried to pretend that nothing had happened.  But, she was in love with this boy, and it seemed he was in love with her as well.  So, naturally, she completely avoided Archie and didn't even say goodbye when they moved away to Brighton.  That being said, what was she supposed to say to him? 'oh heyyy, person I almost kissed. I'm moving to Brighton but, how you doin'?' No. Lilly was notJoey from Friends. That wasn't going to work. So she left.  Left without even saying goodbye, because it was easier.  The best thing to do. Even if her heart was broken in the process.