A Long Road Ahead

Chapter 2

Immediately as the last bell rings, I spring up out of my seat and out the door.

Only two more classes and then high school will officially be over and it will be the shortest summer of our lives.

That would be if any of us were staying until then, almost every senior is leaving now, with permission from the school, of course.

In just a few short hours, prom will be here, we will all be having the time of our lives, celebrating all we have accomplished in these four years.

"Hey," Massi says as he hugs me from behind as I finish shoving everything that has piled up into my locker in the last nine months into my backpack.

"Hey," I greet him with a smile as I zip up my backpack, closing my locker for the last time ever.

"You guys are meeting us at Bryan's at five for pictures, right?" He asks me.

"Yeah, I think so." I tell him.

Over the past few years, our friend groups have kind of merged, Bryan's place has kind of become our go to spot, as he has a really nice house and chill parents.

Bryan and Massi have been best friends since the first grade, so at first Bryan was a bit reluctant to share Massi with me, but he eventually came around.

"Alright, see you then." He tells me, giving me a quick hug before heading off to find Bryan while I go find my friends.

Massi and I have never been too into public affection, but pretty much everyone still knows that the two of us are together and have been for a while. We just tend to keep it off of social media and everything.

As far as my parents know, I am going to prom with my friends, Sabrina, Jennifer, Elle, and Rachel.

Eventually, I am able to find the four of them all already waiting for me.

Immediately, the five of us divide among Sabrina's car and my car before heading to my house.

For the last week, my room has been a complete mess. For some reason, my house was chosen as the 'getting ready' location for the night. Jennifer agreed to do everyone's hair and Rachel is doing everyone's makeup. Sabrina is driving everyone around and Elle gave herself the position of personal stylist for everyone.

So apparently that means my house is where it all happens.

Over the past week, everyone has been bringing over everything they need for the night, meaning I have had five prom dresses, five pairs of shoes, and way too many pieces of jewelry in my room for the past week.

Prom does not start until nine, so the plan is to meet at Bryan's at five, take pictures and just hang out until around seven when our dinner reservation is, then we go to prom at nine, leave once they announce king and queen because that is when everyone leaves, go get ready for after prom, then arrive there when that starts at midnight and then stay until five because that is when they make you stay until if you want your prize.

I am ready to be exhausted.

When it is finally my turn to get ready, Jennifer does a simple updo with my hair, pulling the top layer to the back and doing some braided thing with it, as my hair is way too long to do anything fun with. Rachel keeps everyone's makeup rather simple, but it still matches all our dresses rather well.

Before we know it, it is nearly five and we all have to rush to put on our dresses.

I zip up my purple dress before pulling my shoes on.

The five of us rush downstairs in order for my parents to take a few quick pictures of us before we head out, the only way I could get them to not come to our main picture-taking session at Bryan's, they of course think it is actually occurring at Sabrina's though.

After a few minutes, the five of us all manage to fit our dresses into Sabrina's car and we embark on the three minute drive to Bryan's.

Obviously, we are the last to arrive, so we head right to the backyard where everyone is already waiting for us.

Rachel's boyfriend is already there, Sabrina is going alone, and Elle and Rachel are going together, as they have been dating for almost a year now.

Obviously, I immediately head right over to Massi.

Let the hours of taking pictures begin.

*

I would like to personally thank whoever made the decision to bring in couches for after prom.

Once about three in the morning comes around, I am completely over this whole prom thing.

Some of our friends are still wide awake and full of energy, having fun with all the games set up in the gym, running through the inflatable obstacle course.

And then there is us. All I want to do right now is sleep. Massi and I sit on one of the couches in the smaller of the two cafeterias at our school that has been turned into a sort of lounge room for the night.

My hair is I am sure a mess, my makeup desperately needs to be removed, and thank goodness the expectation is to wear comfortable clothes to this thing.

Massi tries not to fall asleep while I am curled up next to him, using him as a pillow to actually sleep.

Around when three forty-five rolls around, someone comes around, telling everyone that they have to go to the auditorium in fifteen minutes.

At that point I make the decision that I better get up and head to the bathroom if I am going to sit through whatever I am about to sit through for an hour.

I meet up with my friends at the bathroom, everyone being so tired they can barely speak. We all pass around makeup wipes, ruining all of Rachel's hard work.

After that, we find the rest of the group we have been with all night, and we head up to the auditorium.

We all pile into two rows so we can all be close to one end. I make sure I get a seat next to Massi, obviously. Then, we all get comfortable and try to keep our eyes open as long as we possibly can.

They start with a poorly edited, low quality slideshow of pictures from the start of the year all the way through after prom, the most recent one being taken about twenty minutes ago, showing how recently this was all thrown together.

We all watch as our friends come onto the screen. People must have submitted prom pictures rather quickly, as a great deal come onto the screen.

At one point the group I went with even comes up on the screen, as a short montage of pictures of us come up, reminding me of how painful it was to get everyone to cooperate, it feels like that was forever ago, when in reality it has only been hours.

When a picture of Massi and I pops up, Sabrina just turns around and smiles at us, knowing that we probably didn't want a picture of the two of us on a giant screen in front of our entire graduating class.

At least we look cute though.

I wanna die. 

College sucks and my family is annoying.