The Trouble with Love

❝ i just wanna be by your side ❞ [part one]

(unedited)

Oh, lights go down,
In the moment,
We're lost and found.
I just wanna be by your side,
If these wings could fly.

"Wings" –Birdy

"What do you mean you don't have a dress?" Vanessa demanded.

I shrugged. "I haven't gotten a dress."

"The formal's tomorrow!" she exclaimed. "We have to get you a dress!"

"I don't think I'm going to go," I told her.

"What?" she shrieked. I cringed when everyone in the hall turned to stare at us. I turned away from their eyes, shoving my Calculus and Biology binders in my locker. "You have to go! It's the Winter Formal. You can't just not- oh hey, Skylar."

I looked up to see Skylar leaning against the locker beside mine, an amused expression on her face. "What are you guys talking about?" She glanced at Vanessa and raised an eyebrow. "You look ready to have a seizure."

"Elena says she's not going to the Formal," Vanessa told her.

"What about Jace?" Skylar asked, turning to me.

I shrugged. "What about him?"

"He asked you," she said.

"I told him no," I replied.

"What about Ashton?" Vanessa asked. "Didn't he ask you?"

I shook my head.

"Then what'd you guys do after you dragged him out of the cafeteria? You guys never came back," Skylar said. What? I had gone to Kit's with Jacen for an explanation, so yeah, I had ditched, but where had Ashton gone?

"We didn't go anything. He apologized and then walked away," I told them. Which I still didn't understand. Why had Ashton said sorry?

"He apologized?" Skylar repeated.

"For what?" Vanessa asked.

I shrugged. Skylar muttered something under her breath and shook her head. "You should still come to the Formal," she said.

I shook my head. "I don't really like dances."

"Have you ever even been to one?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No," I admitted.

"What?" Vanessa shrieked again. This time, though, most people had gone to the cafeteria for lunch, so only a handful of people gave us a brief stare. "Okay, now you have to go, and you have to get a dress."

"Okay, okay, I'll get one after school," I muttered in attempt to get them to stop talking about the dance. I didn't want to go, I didn't have a dress, and I wasn't planning on changing my mind. I wouldn't get a dress after school, but I'd lie if it meant them dropping the topic.

"We should leave now and have a girl's day!" Vanessa exclaimed. "It's been a while since we've had one of those."

No, no, no it's all good, I don't even want to go to the dance, we don't need to go dress shopping to get a dress for a dance I'm not going to. "What about school?" I said instead.

"It's exams next week," Skylar replied. "We're not going to be doing anything anyway."

"But I wasn't- I don't want to go the dance," I sputtered.

"You have to go! There's only the Formal and Prom left. Prom can't be your first and last high school dance!" Vanessa protested. Prom... Which I won't be going to. At Blaire Academy, at least. I wasn't going to tell Vanessa that, of course. She'd probably have a heart attack. Not to mention the fact that I wasn't supposed to tell anyone about LA.