𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐒𝐘 - 𝐡𝐬𝐦𝐭𝐦𝐭𝐬 | ✔

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ 𝒙𝒊𝒊𝒊. 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐰𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐭

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧
━━ 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒏𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒘𝒆 𝒎𝒆𝒕

Her sisters parted ways with their dates while Ricky opened the passenger's door for Juliette to take a seat. His father had lent him the car to go to homecoming, knowing that the girl would not like to walk in heels all the way to the school.

On their way there, music blasted through the radio and Big Red and Ricky did not stop sending looks to each other through the mirror, as if wanting to say something but without expressing it aloud. Juliette, however, was too focused on her own thoughts to even notice it. In just a question of minutes, they were already in front of the school.

They could hear the music from the outside, countless voices filled the parking lot as tens of teenagers walked inside with their dates or groups of friends. Before entering, Juliette took a deep breath as Big Red handed her his arm for her to intertwine.

"Hey, Mr Mazzara, you look great," Juliette complimented the teacher sitting at the front while as he handed them their tickets. He simply smiled to her and prompted them to enter, indicating that they were supposed to sit with the rest of the theatre-art kids compendium.

Once inside, they took yet more photos at the photocall East High had prepared at the entrance and sat on their designed table, greeting everyone as they arrived. Without previous warning, Lisa and Ava appeared behind Juliette, scaring her and making everyone laugh, "these are my sisters: Ava and Lisa," she introduced them to the rest. Everyone greeted them with a smile and they politely returned the gesture, their eyes fixed on the curly-haired boy.

"Save me a dance, girls," he smiled to them, making the girls giggle and nod frantically. Having got all they wanted, they excused themselves and went to find their dates again. Now Juliette could finally sink into the chair and wish for death in peace.

"You look really good, Juliette," Ashlyn complimented her, making the girl smile inevitably as she did the same with the rest of the people that were at the table. Her gaze travelled around the gym, observing out of pure curiosity who had attended the dance: neither Kourtney, Nini, Gina or E.J. were there. She knew about the two first girls, but she figured that E.J. wouldn't want to miss his last East High Homecoming and that Gina would like to attend her first.

Alexa and her date seemed to be having a really good time but on the table, everything was quiet and dull: Ashlyn was comforting Carlos, whose date had apparently stood him up, and Ricky and Big Red were on their phones. It had been nearly an hour since they arrived and none of them had danced yet, but all of that changed when Juliette's favourite song started blasting through the speakers, making her screech in excitement. Her feeling it washed away quickly when she remembered that it was a slow song and she had no one to dance with.

Ricky and Big Red raised their eyes and put them on their friend, who blushed when she noticed that they had actually heard her. The night we met was still going on and it nearly covered Ricky's question of whether she was okay or not, but she heard it clearly enough to give an answer.

"I am, actually," she assured, "it's just that... well, this is my favourite song."

"Why don't you dance, then?"

"I can't dance alone to a slow song, Ricky. It's kinda the point of it."

"Well, no one has asked me to dance but I would gladly do it..."

"Richard Bowen," Juliette giggled standing up and offering her hand to her friend, "would you do me the honour of dancing with me?"

That was her night. A night to remember. The boy accepted, making a reverence in front of the girl and, taking her hand, he led her to the dance floor, putting his hands on her waist. Juliette's hands travelled to his neck and they started swinging slowly, unsure of how to behave but glad they were dancing together.

The smile never left either of their faces and their eyes were aligned as if no one else was there in the gym with them. At that very moment, they were too busy looking at each other to pay attention to anyone else. The song went by in comfortable silence, no words were needed at that precise moment.

The song was coming to an end and the two teenagers had become closer and closer as it went by, to the point that they were practically touching. Their eyes were still on the other's and, when it finished, they started to lean in slowly, both of them fluttering their eyes shut and letting their feelings guide them. Just as their lips were about to touch, just as they could feel each other's heavy breath, however, the boy heard the two names that he did not want to hear that night. He broke away, making the girl blush out of sheer embarrassment.

They had been just about to kiss for the second time and she did not want it to stop, she wanted Ricky to kiss her. At that very moment, she could not think about Nini or about anything else other than "Ricky Bowen has backed up from kissing me in front of the whole school". But Ricky's mind was a whole different story, racing with so many thoughts that he could not focus on anything.

"Ricky..." she whispered, concerned, "is everything...?" her expression changed when she saw that Ricky's eyes were fixed on a point some meters behind her. Juliette turned around to discover what was so important and then, she understood it all.

—

They returned to their table, only in time to hear Gina call E.J. "babe". Then, Ricky occupied the empty spot besides Gina so he could talk to her, leaving Juliette next to Big Red.

"Hey, not to intrude on date night but you can do better than E.J.," he assured her, making Juliette and Big Red look at each other in surprise, "that guy's bad news."

"You're not exactly one to give relationship advice and when I want you opinion, I'll ask," she replied, making Juliette smile. Ricky deserved that. He had no right to say anything about who Gina had come with.

"Well, I'm giving it anyway 'cause I kinda thought you were classier than this but hey, maybe you really are what people say you are."

"Ricky," both redheads at the table warned him, just wanting him to stop talking before he messed up even more and said something he would regret.

"A little too ambitious for your own good, or for anyone else's," the table fell silent. Ricky's words had really hurt Gina, that was visible on her face, and he was already regretting having said them.

"Come with me," Juliette took Ricky's hand, dragging him out the gym, "what the hell were you thinking!?"

"I don't..."

"Exactly, you weren't. What was that all about?" she demanded to know. She could not believe that Ricky had actually said that to Gina.

"I just cannot believe that she came with E.J. She came with my ex's ex."

"Ricky, but that is not of your business. Not everything is about you. She is free to come with whoever she wants, just as you and everyone else. You owe her an apology."

And as if she had heard them, Gina stormed off the gym at that very moment, followed by E.J. Juliette and Ricky simply looked to each other and, while the boy went after Gina, Juliette followed E.J.