Cheat Sheets

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

We’re sat facing each other on my bed with textbooks in our laps and pot of pringles between us. Of course Brae’s hands are too big to fit in the tub, so every time he wants a chip I have to get one out for him. Just as I got to put a chip in my mouth, Braeden of the blue suddenly bursts “what are you wearing to prom?”

To say I do a spit take is an understatement. I practically cough chip spray all over him and our text books whilst staring at him in mortification.

To his credit, Braeden doesn’t immediately throw me out; instead he picks up as many of the damp crisp fragments and dumps them into my bin whilst smirking at me. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.”

I shake my head in denial and give a heavy gulp. “No, I’m sorry, that was all on me. Just, what did you ask me? I thought I misheard or something.”

Braeden smiles and slams his textbook shut. “I asked what you’re wearing to prom.”

“Oh” I nod dumbly and set our textbooks aside “urm, a dress. Isn’t that what most girls wear to prom? Unless you want us to wear matching suits; that’d be cool too?”

“No” Braeden denies, playing with a strand of my hair and wrinkling his nose in thought “you stick to your dress and I’ll stay in a tux or something. Just, I meant what colour is it? You know, so I can get a tie or something to go with it.”

Frowning slightly, I get up from my bed and move towards my closet. I haven’t looked at the dress since that day I caught Josh two timing. My fingers brush across it and I poke my head out of my closet to stare at Braeden. “You wanna see it?”

He grins at me guiltily. “Put on your dress for me sweetness, I wanna know exactly what I’ll be dealing with.”

With a tiny frown of confusion, I drape the dress in my arms and give him a shrug as I proposition him with my back and slowly creep towards my en suite. “Okay, I guess, I’ll be changing in the bathroom, so under no circumstances can you peek, got it?”

“I solemnly swear!”

In the bathroom I uncomfortably strip out of my jeans and kimono shirt and stand half naked before the bathroom mirror, wondering what on earth it is that Braeden see’s in me. Because I for one am nowhere near Candy Norton skinny. I’m plus sized and have too much hip to handle. I just look…

With a deflated sigh, I step into my prom dress, slipping my arms through the ¾ length lace sleeves and fluffing the full tea length skirt out around me. The Ivory colour compliments my olive skin tone and now that I’m in it I grin in confidence.

Without waiting a beat, I step out into the bedroom and give a twirl in front of Braeden. “What do you think? Can you work with this?”

I startle when he literally leaps from his seat and looks at me dumbstruck, his eyes casually roaming over my dress as he assesses me. “You can give me your honest opinion; I can always go back and get a different one if you don’t like it.”

Braeden gulps and his hands shoot out to grab my shoulders before I can return, crestfallen, back to the bathroom. “No, no, I” he groans in agony before pulling me to a stop and simply staring at me as if he can reach my soul “you look gorgeous, Keira. It’s perfect, I swear it, I just still can’t believe…”

As his words trail off, I play uncomfortably with my hem. “Believe what?”

“Believe how much I want to kiss you right now.” He announces, running his knuckles down the side of my face as my breath hitches in my throat. Leaning into his touch, I almost faint when his hand turns to instead cup my cheek, his thumb gently playing with my pouty lower lip as he considers me in awe. “You look like an angel in this dress. My angel.”