The Trouble with Love

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

Skylar, Vanessa and Elena's dresses ^ or -->

(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

"You look beautiful, Lena," Raine said. Then she frowned. "You haven't had dinner yet."

"It's fine, I can always eat when I get back and I'm not that hungry." I had snacked a fair amount while studying so I'd be fine. "Thank you, Raine."

She grinned. "Maybe you shouldn't thank me yet. Every moment we've spent getting you ready, Kaden's been interrogating Ashton."

I groaned. "He's probably so annoyed or scared right now that he won't even want to go to the dance with my anymore." I started towards the door, but before I could get very fair, Raine stopped me.

"Clutch," she told me.

"Right, thanks." I stopped, and grabbed the clutch she had brought, putting in my phone and wallet. I glanced up to see Raine grinning at me widely. "What?"

"Nothing." I gave her a doubtful look. "You're just acting like so much of a teenager, worrying about her date getting questioned too much..."

"Kaden can be terrifying," I muttered. "I wouldn't be surprised if Ashton ran out ten minutes ago. You know, if he did, then all of this," I gestured to the dress, and hair, and makeup. "Will have been a waste."

"No, if he ran out, which he wouldn't have, because he clearly likes you," Raine said. "Then you go with the other guy who asked you. Jacen, was it?"

He wants to kill me. Literally. I hadn't talked to Jacen since he had told me about that. Not that he had made it very difficult, it had been more like I hadn't had the chance to talk to him, though I probably wouldn't have even if I had had the chance to. He hadn't been at school the past two days.

"Come on, I want to head down in case Ashton hasn't ran yet and Kaden's starting to get really scary," I told Raine.

Her smile widened, which I hadn't think was possible.

"What?" I asked again.

"You really like him, don't you?" she said.

I blinked. "I- I don't know."

Raine simply smiled, not saying anything else as we made our way downstairs. Ashton -hey, he was still here- and Kaden were at the bottom of the stairs, heads bent together and looking deep in conversation when got there. Kaden was the first one to look up.

He frowned. "Why is that dress so short?" he asked. "I'm not letting you out of the house like that."

I gave him an incredulous look. The dress reached my ankles. Okay, only part of my dress did, since it was asymmetrical, but the short part wasn't that short.

He grinned. "Just kidding."

"You're not funny," I muttered.

"You look gorgeous," Ashton said softly.

"Thanks." Against my will, I felt a faint flush crawl up my cheeks. "You look handsome." And he did, even though all that had registered was surprise when he had first come into my bedroom. I glanced at him, he didn't look traumatized. Maybe Kaden had gone easy. "Your tie matches my dress."

Ashton chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, I wondered why Skylar dragged me to the mall yesterday, but it makes sense now."

Kaden cleared his throat.