It All Started Here

Chapter Seventeen

Kara:

“Kara, come on, we need to go or we’ll be late.” 

It wasn’t the first time Shirelle said those words to her. This time, she was talking about the appointment the girls had in town to get ready for the winter ball. As seniors, they’d finally earned the right to go off campus, and they were taking advantage of it. They were doing a full beauty treatment that included hair and nails and make up and anything else they could think of.

Kara grabbed her purse from her closet. “Okay, I’m ready.”

“It’s about time,” Shirelle joked.  

Megan and Mina were already waiting for them outside the dorm. So was Ethan but only because he’d offered to drive them into town.

“What took you so long?” Megan called as they came down the steps.

Rochelle rolled her eyes. “Kara was running late as usual.”

“You should be nicer to me,” Kara warned. “It is my boyfriend driving us to town.”

“That’s true,” Rochelle agreed.

Walking hand in hand, Kara and Ethan led the way to the parking lot. Megan and Mina walked on either side of them while Kara’s roommates trailed behind.

“So, Ethan, you think Rochelle’s checking out your ass?” Kara teased.

Megan giggled. “I was just thinking the same thing.”

“I could tell you what she’s thinking if you want,” Ethan offered with a sly grin.

“No, thanks,” Kara declined.

When they climbed inside Ethan’s car, Kara realized it was the first time she’d been in it since the night of the first football game. That was back in August. She wondered if it sat in the parking lot untouched since that time.

“Pretty much,” Ethan said. “Let’s just hope it starts.”

It started with no problem. Since he didn’t really use it, Kara couldn’t figure out why he even had it. It wasn’t like he needed it. He could just fly wherever he wanted, and that would be way faster than driving.

“Yeah, but it’d be really hard to carry my groceries home without it,” Ethan said.

Kara laughed. “You don’t buy groceries.”

“There you go getting hung up on details again,” Ethan joked, and they laughed together as he peeled out of the parking lot.

As she looked around the ball room, Kara couldn’t believe how packed it was. Even though it was an all grades invited event, she couldn’t remember it being this full in the past.

“Where are we supposed to sit?” Rochelle asked.

“There’s an empty table up front,” Mina pointed out.

“That’s weird,” Shirelle said.

“What’s weird?” Allison asked.

“It’s weird that there’s an empty table up front with as full as this place is,” Shirelle explained.

“Who cares?” Jeremiah countered as he smiled at Allison.

“Yeah, let’s just grab it before someone else does,” Rochelle suggested.

Kara knew no one else was going to grab it. That empty table was the same one Ethan and his group occupied for the last four years. It was the unofficial royal table.

“You wanna dance?” Ethan asked.

“What about pictures?” Kara reminded him.

“They can wait,” he said, already pulling her toward the dance floor.