It's Not A Game Of Chance When It Comes To Love

Epilogue

Epilogue…

Lydia fussed around my hair and despite how annoyed I would normally be by that, I couldn’t help but smile happily. The loose curls Lydia had expertly styled hung perfectly and I knew that without her help, my hair would be a disaster, like the many times I’d tried to do it by myself in preparation.

Mel’s and Grace’s looked just as nice, of course, and as we all crowded around the huge mirror in Mel’s equally enormous house, I could barely recognise any of us. Including Lydia, who had made just as much of an effort herself - being Grace’s date to prom.

We’d figured it out so that Lydia and Matt would be able to join us at prom and not miss out on all the fun. After consulting Mrs. Danks and making sure we reminded her of all the hard work Grace and I had put at school and just how well we’d done on our final exams, we’d managed to persuade her to let us bring dates from outside the school.

We’d decided it would be best not to mention just who they were, after all she’d seen Jord and Matt fighting, which hadn’t exactly given her a great opinion of him. And as far as she was concerned, Lydia was the girl who’d been Jord’s girlfriend and cheated on him with his own brother.

They didn’t seem like very likely candidates when it came down to the lies she’d been fed over time.

Unfortunately, Jord was the only person I couldn’t officially go with, despite him being my obvious first choice. I might be living happily with him, I might have defied government enforced laws to be with him, but going to prom was the one thing I’d never be able to do with him. That had been a big downer on the day.

Of course he would be there, but it wouldn’t be the same knowing he’d be flocked with other girls the entire time. Other girls he’d have to be polite to, possibly even dance with.

I once again shuddered at the thought and held back a grimace knowing prom was going to be more of an ordeal for me than anyone else. I’d have to avoid Jord and watch him being flirted with by every girl who thought they had a chance with him now we’d officially graduated.

We had decided it would be easier to just keep us a secret, for risk of annoyance from the rest of the school who had finally decided that Leonie’s rumours were just that. As much as prom would be annoying if I had to avoid Jord, if I had to listen to snide comments from the rest of the year it would be even worse - especially from Leonie.

After that, though, I wouldn’t have to see any one of them again.

He was downstairs with Matt at the moment because he’d decided that even if we didn’t get the actual prom together, he wanted to see me beforehand. I was glad of that and I could feel the nerves creeping up on me even now; even if there wasn’t really anything for me to be anxious about.

I’d faced a lot worse than this in my life so far, in the last year, even. One night would be nothing.

I ran my hands down my dress to calm myself, even though I wasn’t stood up. Everything would be okay now, this was like the milestone of mine and Jord’s relationship. This was the point where afterwards we could just be a couple, two people with no need to stay apart from each other in public.

Lydia smiled in achievement and finally stopped fiddling and spraying the huge can of hairspray she’d managed to lug up the stairs. I took a final glance at my cascading locks and grinned. There was a reason I was only a receptionist at the hair salon and she was the real thing.

I touched the loose curls and grinned at Lydia through the mirror in front of me. “Thank you!” I exclaimed ecstatically, half because I was sick of sitting still and half because of how great she’d made it look.