7. Formal

"You want me to go to formal with you?" She asked disbelievingly, looking at the male in front of her. "Are you alright? Nothing's wrong with your head, right?"

He flushed, looking away. "You don't have to come if you don't want to. With me, I mean. It'd be nice if you came anyway."

She paused, dramatically tapping her finger on her lower lip. Taking deep breaths, she held back a grin as she saw Ian, who had gone red with eyes as wide as saucers. Taking another breath, she opened her mouth, closing it again. She had refused two other males, and Ian had known this but what he had not known was that she had been purposely exaggerating the rumours so that when it reached him, it would reach the peak of his jealousy levels. She stayed in her position for a few minutes, letting Ian die a slow death in front of her as she fought to hold back her outrageous laughter.

"Please say yes," he finally blurted out, hastily covering his mouth as she turned her slow gaze upon him. Her eyes, sullen and sultry dragged themselves from the very bottom of his feet all the way to the highest hair on his head. Scrutinised, he felt like squirming but managed to not do that whilst she continued looking at him with that funny smile on her face.

"Sure will!" The answer surprised him and as she, Drea, flounced off, he found himself staggering back and sighing a large breathe of relief. She had agreed to go out with him. Now to continue with the plan.

Drea continued grinning all throughout school, pleased that someone had finally asked her. The hilarity of the situation was that she wouldn't have even touched that place had there been no partner for her to socialise with. However, Ian was quite a kind person and wouldn't ever hurt her like others had. Accepting him into her life recently had not been very hard for anyone, even a shy person to accomplish.

"You're going to have to get a dress…' her friends were kindly informing her, "we'll come and help you choose one, considering that you hate all sorts of dresses."

"Hey!" Drea yelped defensively, "I'm not that bad."

They all rolled their eyes, all three of them together before marching into the cafeteria. She gazed wistfully at the library that beckoned her to come and rid her of all her problems but it didn't do anything. Drea had to walk into the cafeteria with the whole school abuzz about what had transpired during their break. She did so, carefully and cautiously, sitting next to her friends who snickered at her knowingly before turning back to their own conversations. Drea sat back and relaxed, automatically chewing the rubber mess of the hot potato that currently resided in her hands. Swinging it down with a glass of water, it was almost as tolerable.

"What colour dress are you going to be wearing?" A sudden voice trembled behind her and she jumped up, knocking her drink over the table and sighing in frustration as she saw her glass of water drip off the edges, glistening and bright. Turning around furiously to deliver punishment to the asshole who stood behind her, she stood sheepishly, looking at the male who had asked her to go to formal with him.

"What did you want?" she asked politely, barely managing to keep her anger in check.

"Colour of dress." Ian winked at me, laughing as he relayed the message, standing confidently and pleased with her world.

"Oh, right." I shook out of my daydream quickly. "I don't actually know yet."

He stared at me, surprised before a tiny grin crept across his face. "Okay then. Do tell me so that my tie can be the exact same colour."

~

I waved an adieu to my mum as we made our way slowly to the car. My midnight blue dress dripped around me, elegantly framing my figure and making it look quite alluring. In  response to my dress, Ian had gotten an identically coloured tie, gorgeously going with his eyes. Only I would realise that, as I tugged his lapels to hug him, and got a good glimpse of his vibrant emerald eyes, which sparkled like the gem itself.

"Madam," he gestured largely to the car that stood in front of me. Holding the door open, he helped my wobbly self in before shutting the door gently and making his way to the driver's side. "I thought that you might want to have dinner first?"

"Yes please!" I laughed. "I haven't eaten anything all day."

Smirking, he pulled into a restaurant. "I knew it. Thank goodness that I booked the place for tonight. I have a feeling that it will be a tad crowded."

I nodded, satisfied as he conversed with the host, a gentle smile gracing his face. Hearing some sniggering nearby, I turned, my eyes sharp for those that were laughing and my eyes found the source immediately. A group of Ian's friends had brought along their girlfriends, similarly dressed the way I was, but had been in the middle of a laughter session when I had heard them. Surprisingly, I hadn't heard them at all earlier… odd.

"We're eating with the friends," Ian smiled sympathetically at me. "You don't mind, do you?"

I shook my head mutely, looking at his friends curiously. Their faces had turned away as soon as they had felt the weight of my gaze on them, and it had made things very uncomfortable as they were all quite abrupt, but none tried to initiate further conversation.

Dinner was over then and we were heading back to the car, the same process of getting in repeated and we finally got out. A photo was taken of me laughing as a smirking Ian held me intimately by my waist.

I should've seen the signs. I should've gotten out earlier. It was all my fault. I brought it upon myself.

He took me in, his hand dangerously low upon my back. I squirmed, starting to feel uncomfortable with the multiple curious eyes on our entrance.

I should've realised. Why? Why didn't I?

We danced, and we laughed and we drank the punch. We got served dinner, and I had another drink that made me feel a bit dizzy. The next morning, I would come to realise that someone had spiked either the punch or my drink and/or possibly both because I was tipsy the rest of the night. That's when the dancing got inappropriate. At that point of time however, everyone had gotten quite vivacious with their partners, daring and cheeky. I wasn't any different, I felt so comfortable around Ian.

The warning signs were all there. The red decorations that hung around the wall; they were three dimensional.

"Ian," I giggled.

"Yes?"

"Why did you ever ask me out?" I asked him, adoringly staring up at his eyes as he spared me an uneasy smile from staring at whatever else over his back.

He took a while to answer, gulping, but when he realised that I was too far under to care, his eyes softened, "It was a dare."

I nodded understandingly, chuckling at his expression as he saw my face nearing his. "I know how much I mean to you. It's the same for me."

"Er. How abo-" We were interrupted by shots. Bullets coursing through the air. Suddenly in a short space of time, the walls and floors were covered in blood and more than half of the grade were on the ground, in pain or in some cases, dead. I sat, sobbing under the table where we'd eaten. Ian had left me, running somewhere hastily as I had called out hopelessly for him. I had sobered up pretty quickly after that, and I had kept a steady gaze at the small opening in front of me. The air smelled of gunpowder and shots still rang in the air, making me clutch my head at the neat, and short sounds that they made.

"We want Drea."

I started shivering, as more shots started flying. Why me? Why did they need me? What was going on? I couldn't let an entire student body sacrifice themselves for me, and so slowly I crawled out, peeking hesitantly at the black boots that were an inch away. Suddenly I was grabbed and dangled in the air as a pair of familiar green eyes danced frustratingly right in front of me. "And here we have her."

I whimpered, thinking of all the goodbyes that I never got to say, the apologies that had never been forgiven nor the gossip that had ever been talked about. A small tear leaked out my eye and my assailant, seeing that started to mock me. "Are you scared, my little baby? Of course, you are. Of course you are."

The signs were in front of me all along. Realisation came to me very quickly. This resembled the classic shootings in urban areas all except for one thing; they never mentioned a name. The Colorado shootings were random, and the nightmares from all the stories told had plagued me for months. I had told Ian about them  and -

Ian. Oh. Betrayal washed through me then, as I stared defiantly at the pair of eyes that I definitely did know. "Ian, you bastard. It isn't even funny. This isn't a joke! You scared me. This happens to real people you know. And it sure as hell ain't funny for them."

"Oh shucks." He complained, dropping me ungracefully to the ground, removing his face mask, which revealed his tousled hair that I had so drunkenly messed up to a point where it was only attractive to me. "How did you figure that out so fast?"

"That wasn't funny," I spoke fast, hissing almost with anger towards the group of people that had pranked me. "It's a serious issue, and here you are, making a joke out of it. You're ridiculous!"

Looking around, I saw that the entire grade was staring at me. "You were all on it? Just to scare the hell out of me? Well, you succeeded. The point is however, that this wasn't a very funny incident in the first place. Whatever respect I had for any of you has gone down completely. How can I ever trust you?"

"Drea," Ian frowned, reaching out for me as I recalled his words whilst I was tipsy, 'It was a dare.'

"It was a dare!" I shrieked. "I don't… how. That wasn't  - …" I turned abruptly, walking out of the hall and calling the parental units to come in and save me from this disastrous nightmare. It was supposed to be a good night; instead look at how it turned out. The disgrace.
"Drea!" Ian huffed, following me out to the car park, holding out his hand precariously.
I turned on him, "I was so glad that someone had asked me. You know what the first thing I thought was? Someone other than my family cares about me. I am somebody else's first choice. I just felt so good about myself and you can ask anyone, I was flying those few days after we started talking. But this think you've done… not only is it a disgrace to those poor people but my feelings! It is true; I'm horrible, I'm never going to be anyone's first choice. Well, you know what?! I give up on you and your little lies. I give up on life. I give up on the belief that intellect will get you further than dumb looks. I give up on love. I give up on attraction. I give up on the point that I will never be preferred when there are others around me who are prettier. I give up on you! I give up on the thought that humanity could ever be good. Fuck you all."

That felt outright good.

Hi there. Two thousand words. I'm not joking. I really got into it and the last few sentences were practically stabbed in. I enjoyed writing this and yes; my inspiration was the Colorado shootings and the jibes that have been aimed at them. It's not funny. It never will be, and it never has been.
Thanks for reading...

Allons-y!