My heart was pounding and so was my head.
“Hey Mags are you okay?” Emerald asked.
“Yeah…sure why?” I managed to choke out.
“You’ve gone white, do you need to sit down?”
“No no, I'm fine, just a bit woozy that’s all,”
“Ooooh haha. Someones a bit woozy from the boozy are they? I told you not to drink so much,”
Truth be told I hadn’t had anything to drink besides water and lemonade. I hated alcohol actually. I had had to many nights of hearing my fathers booming voice and then the thud of my mother's nearly lifeless body hitting the cold ground. I just wanted to go home to bed and put some soft music on. What was I saying? Three hours ago I couldn’t wait to get out of the house and now I want to go back. Maybe I am disappointed. I don’t know….I just excpected that a year 10 formal would be more…Formal? Y’know what I mean?
“Maggie….who are you looking at?” Emerald asked, trying to follow my eyes to this person.
I hadn’t realised that my mouth was wide open and I had a fresh trickle of drool rolling down my chin. I wiped it away.
“I’m not looking at anyone,” I lied.
I was actually looking at him. His face looked as if it had been shaped by the gods and his body looked as if it had been made with a chisel. When the gods were making him I guess they ran out of hair colours so they painted his hair gold. All of the girls went bonkers about him, even Emerald. I surely didn’t. Gold hair like that on a guy is just so..Feminine.
“I thought that you didn’t like Tyson,” Emerald said with a smirk.
“I don’t…it’s just. That hair is so unmanly!”
“Oh come on we’ve had this conversation before. It doesn’t matter what hair colour a guy has. And I mean Chris Hemsworth has blondish hair and you think he’s an absolute dreamboat!”
“I know I know, but look at it! It’s the same colour as Megans and that’s just not a good colour for a guy. Oh and I just thought of something else. The Lannisters are evil and they have hair kinda like that,”
We both began to giggle and soon we were in a heap on the floor.
“Excuse me ladies…But are you okay?”
“Oh hey Nick. Yeah we are just a little giggly,” Emerald said with a laugh.
Nick extended his gloved hand towards me and lifted me up. Even though he didn’t look that athletic, he was. He had nice arms too.
“Thankyou kind Sir!” I exclaimed.
“No worries ma’am,” he replied with a smile. He then tipped his top hat. He was wearing a very clean tuxedo and he had a cane hanging off his left arm.
“Now which one of you would like to dance with me?” Nick asked.
“Oh. No thanks Nick. I can’t dance and she’s too drunk,” Emerald answered.
“Not even one dance? And Maggie doesn’t really look drunk,”
“I’m not, but I don’t really feel well. And besides I have two left feet,” I lifted my leg and wiggled my left foot.
“I don’t mind really. After all I have two right feet so we are even. Please?” He begged.
“No. We don’t really want to dance. It’s okay I’m sure someone else will dance with you. That’s our answer. No,” Emerald said, her eyes full of passion as if she was ready to have a debate with Nick about dancing. Nick leant forward on his cane.
“Do you want to say that again?” he asked getting in Emeralds face. They were nearly touching noses so I stepped in between them.
“Nick,” I said sternly, “we said no and that means NO!”
He took a step back and let his cane drop on the ground. Quick as a wink he pulled me in close to him and before I really knew what had happened, his hands went up the front of my dress. I snapped out of it and slapped him right across that face, leaving a raised hand print on his cheek. I knew that all of the eyes in the room were burning into me now. The music seemed to drain from the room.
“Filthy women!” Nick yelled.
He struck the side of my face with his fist and I fell back into Emerald who caught me.
“Oh jesus, babe are you okay,” She asked standing me up properly.
I didn’t answer. I locked eyes with Nick. A tear slid down my face but I didn’t dare break my cold stare. I wanted to show him that you could not and would not knock me down. I was stronger than my mum. I wasn’t going to give him satisfaction. He broke first. He slumped his head and I thought that I heard him whimper. Tyson and his gang told him to get out before they killed him. I can’t remember much of what happened next, but I do remember heaps of people fussing over me. An hour later things had calmed down. My nose was still bleeding though so me and Emerald got changed out of our dresses and into some warmer clothes than we headed off to Megan’s house. We were going to stay at hers until tomorrow night when we would go back to Emeralds house. I didn’t really sleep much at Megan’s house. The nights events kept whirling around and around in my mind, haunting my dreams.
