Chapter 40
Prom day.
As I walked downstairs of the Castell home—my home—in my prom dress, Hero gazed at me in awe, his lips parting softly.
The week before, Marina had taken me dress-shopping. All of the dresses I saw were gorgeous—way better than the one dress I had already owned. Well, that was a low bar, considering it was stained with blood.
There were so many choices, I could barely decide on just one.
Luckily, Hero was there to help me choose.
I had intended for the dress to be a surprise, but he knew I wouldn’t be able to choose and insisted he tag along.
Although he had already seen me in my prom dress last week, his reaction didn’t disappoint.
It was as if he were seeing it for the first time.
It was a sparkly turquoise dress, the length reaching my ankles. On the left side of the dress, there was a high leg slip. Wearing the white high heels that Marina let me borrow, I carefully made my way over to Hero. I hated wearing high heels, but this was a special occasion.
Hero couldn’t get his words out as he stood at the bottom of the stairs, wearing a white buttoned-up shirt underneath his black suit, with a turquoise tie. “You…you look…”
“Pretty?” I finished his sentence.
“Stunning.” He smiled. “As always.”
I blushed, stepping closer to him. “And you’re as handsome as ever.”
“I can’t wait to see you on stage when you get elected as prom queen.”
“And you’ll be right by my side as prom king.” I pressed my index finger against his chest.
“You do know that nobody’s going to vote for me, right?” Hero deadpanned. “I seriously don’t know why you signed me up.”
It was a good thing to be optimistic sometimes. It gave me hope. It didn’t even matter if I get elected as prom queen or not; it only mattered that there was an opportunity, and I took it. A small chance was better than none at all.
“You’re being a pessimist.” I crossed my arms.
“No, I’m being a realist,” he responded, pursing his lips. “Tell me the names of five people who would vote for me.”
I pondered that for a moment. “Me, Ayden, Xavier, Violet, and uhm…” He was right. I couldn’t think of five people that would vote for him.
“See?”
“Your speech could persuade many people.” I shrugged. “You never know.”
Prom king and queen candidates had to give speeches to persuade everyone into voting for them. I had prepared my speech beforehand, but Hero hadn’t. I told him to at least write something down, but he insisted on just ‘winging it.’
“If it makes you happy, then I’ll give it my all,” he said. “Just don’t be disappointed if I lose.” He almost ruffled my hair, but then realized how much time I spent on perfecting my french braids and pulled back his arm.
“Good save.” I grinned. His lips curled into a smile.
“You’re wearing makeup,” he commented, observing my face. I had borrowed Violet’s makeup kit, wearing eyeshadow the same shade of turquoise as my dress, and pink lipstick. Those colors hadn’t been touched at all since Violet only used the color red.
I nervously smiled and averted my gaze. “Yeah, I wanted to try something new. Do you like it?”
He kissed my forehead. “You’re beautiful, no matter what.”
“Picture time, dears!” Marina announced, coming out of her room. In her hand was a small, grey camera, the lens extending outwards as she turned it on. “Stand closer, you two.”
We shuffled our feet closer to each other, our shoulders touching.
“Say cheese!”
“Cheese!” I exclaimed, leaning my head on him. Hero just did a closed-mouth smile, but it was a genuine smile.
Marina pressed the button on top of the camera, and it made a clicking sound. She then moved the camera down, looking at the picture, then turning it around to show the two of us.
“I’m going to print this out later,” she said, then grabbed her car keys. “You kids ready to go?”