Settle For Less (A Before You Exit Fan Fiction)

Un La Familia

“Zoe! Are you ready, honey?” Mom beamed from behind the door, peaking like a child.

               I did one last twirl to check if my outfit was perfect. The customized white strapless lace ball gown perfectly fitted me and its silver white color brought out the brown of color of my eyes impeccably. My hair inspired by one of Blake Lively’s hair styles. For a second there, looking in the mirror, I felt like a princess.

                “Yeah,” I said.

                I followed her to the stair case balcony overlooking the whole party. A moment later, Chloe arrived and that’s when Dad called everyone’s attention. All the guests stopped what they were doing and turned their heads toward the balcony where I stood beside Chloe who made me look like a backup dancer with her elegant feather ball gown. Our parents were standing at the highest peak of the stair case forming a triangle with us at the center and the Cambriels at the further bottom. While the whole crowd of guests will be wearing black,the first family will be wearing white—including the Cambriels, my mother’s side of the family.

              Looking through the crowd as Dad delivered the speech he’d been practicing for quite some time now with Mom, I caught a glimpse of Howard who was staring at me with a wide smile on his face. I returned his smile and immediately broke eye contacts. The next pair of eyes weren’t much better than the first. However, those blue eyes were so beautiful that it hurt to look away from it. Luke winked at me in a way that most girls would kill for. Problem was I was not like most girls. To his credit, it gave me the slightest goose bumps that I blushed.

                As I glided down the stairs, eyes still locked with Luke’s, he met me at the foot of the stairs where he held out his hand and led me to the dance floor for the performance we’d practiced for weeks. I could see Daniel and some other guy Sam brought as her date were doing the same thing. Sasha and Trevor, Nora and Austin and a few others met us at the dance, waiting for Aunt Kaylah’s cue.

               As the piano hit its intro, the guys bowed and the eighteenth century waltz began. The piano was then harmonized by the cello playing “A Thousand Years” by Christina Perri. Luke guided me with his graceful moves. The world spun around as he twirled me around. It felt like we were flying through the air in a leap. I lost myself in his eyes which were boring me into a dream. We were swirling around in the beat of the music, gliding across the floor, deep into each other’s gaze as if we were the only two people left on earth. Not even sure whether I was dreaming or not, all I knew was that dancing with Luke had been achingly familiar that it made me feel like a I was a miracle he’d been asking the gods for.

             It didn’t last long. It was only a ten minute long dance. But somehow, it felt like forever. The partners bowed and when Luke lifted up his head to look at me, I blushed unknowingly. “Do you wanna talk a walk outside to catch some fresh air?” He asked ever so casually as if I was one of his girls.

               But I did need a break from the crowd, so I followed him to our back yard garden that looked was inspired by Chicago Botanic Garden. As we walked the zigzag path over a small fish pond, Luke kept glancing at me. When finally I held his gaze, he looked at me with such passion, it didn’t even look real. But I knew it was because the look he gave me was the exact way Connor looks at me. And it ache to think that he was still ignoring me.

               All the emotions I felt the night Connor broke things off with me went smashing back at me. And I didn’t even notice I was crying until Luke cupped my face with his hands, brushing my tears away with his thumb. For the past few days, I’ve frequently been crying to Luke and every time he watched me cry, I saw it in his eyes, he felt the pain I was feeling too. The gesture was so familiar, I could’ve sworn I’ve seen it before.