I'm Gonna Do It Right - An Emery Kelly Story

Chapter 20- The Formal & After

When we arrive to the formal, we park the car and Emery helps me out of it. He takes my hand, and we walk into the country club where the formal is being held.

"You okay, Em? You look a bit... I don't know, scared," I say, seeing the worried expression on his face.
He swallows, "I'm fine."
"If you say so," I say.

We put our things down at our table.

"Oh my God," I say, taking Emery's hand and leading him to the dance floor after hearing one of my favorite songs of all time start playing.

He laughs, relaxing from his prior worried state, and we start to dance to the song. We dance to a few other songs before finding Clare and Ricky.

"Awe. Clare you look so pretty," I say, while hugging her.
"Zoey, are you kidding me? You look beautiful," she says.
"Girls," I hear Ricky mutter.
"Oh, you look so manly Emery," he then says as a joke.
"Ricky, stop it. You look so handsome," Emery says, trying to hold back a laugh.
"Don't go gay for each other now you two," I laugh, letting go of Clare to look at them.

We all sit at our table and talk for a bit before we go back onto the dance floor.

"I'll be right back," Emery says to me before pecking me on the lips and leaving us.
"Where is he going?" Clare asks.
"Whoever knows with that boy?" I laugh.

He comes back about three minutes later with a big smile on his face.

"You're happy. Should I be scared?" I say, now smiling almost as big as he is.
"No," he says still with his big smile on, snaking his arms around my waist.
I place my hands on his chest and say, "Really? Because I have a feeling you did something."
"Shh," he says as a oddly familiar slow song comes on.
I move my arms to around his neck and say, "This is what you did?"
"Mhm," he says.

I rest my head on his chest and recall the first time we slow danced together.
It was the sixth grade dance. I, being my usual awkward self, was sitting at a table all alone. Whereas, everyone else was dancing. Emery caught me off guard after he silently approached me and said, "Why are you all by yourself, Zoey?" I said I didn't know, I just didn't feel like dancing. Suddenly, a slow song came on and he said, "Come on." He took my hand and I rolled my eyes, just wanting to sit by myself in the corner away from everyone else. "I don't wanna," I whined. "Just dance to this one song with me," he said, looking deep into my eyes. In the back of my mind, I can still see a sixth grade Emery, looking at me that night, talking to me with his eyes as well as his words. When we got to the dance floor, he turned awkward too, not knowing how to dance to the song with me. I took his arms and placed them around my waist, as I placed mine around his neck. By the time I looked back up at him, he was tomato red. I rested my head on his chest and he kissed the top of it.
I come back from my flashback, realizing he is kissing the top of my head right now. I also now realize something about the song playing.

I look back up at him.
"This is the song from the sixth grade dance," I say.
He nods.
"But this time, I'm not the one blushing," he says, making me fully aware of my red face.
"I hate you," I joke.
"You love me," he says confidently.
I playfully roll my eyes and pull him closer to me, hugging him.

The song changes, but we stay hugging for a while, forgetting everyone else and just focusing on us right now.

"Zoey," I hear my friend Bella scream.
I release Emery and turn around to see her.
"Bella," I scream, running over to hug her.
"How have you been? I'm so mad, we have no classes together for the third year in a row," I say.
I met Bella freshman year. We had most of our classes together so we became really good friends.
"I'm good. Just miss you," she says, letting go of me.
I smile.
"So, you're here with him," she says with a smirk.
Bella and Emery have never met, however she knows all about him because of me. She was literally obsessed with us freshman year.
"Yea. Do you want to meet him?" I ask her.
"Yes. It's been way overdue," she says.
I laugh and bring her over to where Emery is talking to Ricky.
I tap on his shoulder, making him turn around. As soon as he does, Bella attacks him with a hug.
"Who's this?" he laughs.
I laugh as well and say, "Em, this is my friend Bella."
"Sorry. I've just waited four years to meet you," Bella says, releasing him from her bear hug.
"It's okay," Emery laughs.
"I can't believe you two took so many years to get together," Bella says.
"Yea. Bella might've been obsessed with us freshman year," I tell Emery.
He laughs again.
"Well, it was so good to finally meet you Emery, but my date is waiting. Promise to text me soon, Zoey," Bella says before leaving.