29. The Ball

Getting ready to go out is always such a mission. It's just too much effort.

I should be more motivated, since it's the end of year Ball but I have to do my hair, put on make up, wear a dress and heels...it's just too much. I cannot wait to get rid of it all and come back to bed.

It took a while to convince myself, but I managed to get read on time and properly.

My hair was the worst of it all, since the curls just wouldn't cooperate. I pinned some of it up, leaving a few tendrils hanging loose, letting the rest flow down my back loosely.

"Julie, are you ready?" I asked her.

Since she needed help to get ready, with her makeup especially - as if I was some kind of guru - and I needed someone to help with my hair too, I invited her over to my house. Besides, Liam lived next door to me anyway, so he could just pick Julie up from mine.

"I think so," she said.

"You look incredible," I told her.

The dress looked great on her and her hair was so pretty - especially since I helped with that. I managed to style in soft waves, as opposed to curls.

"Thanks, Rena. You look amazing too," Julie replied with a bright smile.

Well, she's not wrong there.

"Why, thank you," I said and gave her a little curtsy, which makes her giggle.

Honestly, after getting dressed, I was a lot more in the mood for this Ball. We looked so great, I wanted to see everyone else and get the night started.

"Serena! Julie! Liam's here!" I heard my Mum shout from downstairs.

Let me explain...

"Coming!" I yelled back.

We both strapped on our heels, which had left off till the last minute. I had spent yesterday evening trying to break mine in and get used to them, which earned some odd looks from my Dad, who didn't quite understand it.

Julie and I both walked out my room together, but I asked her to walk ahead of me, since my skirt was longer and was just a menace to walk down the stairs with it.

The sound of our heels clicking against the hardwood floors caused an echo, which clearly alerted everyone to out presence, and they all looked our way.

I could see Liam talking to my Dad, wearing a suit that matched the colour of Julie's dress, along with a white shirt and black tie.

Then, as he looked at Julie, I saw the way Liam looked at her, his eyes widening and the smile that came over his face. He wore

My Dad then coughed loudly - which was completely fake - to make him snap out of his apparent trance.

Liam stepped forward. "You look...um...wow," he said.

Julie blushed at his words, whilst I shook my head. He could never say actual words in a compliment, he's always sort of lost for words.

"Come on, Son. You can do better than that." Mr Hunter chuckled as he mocked Liam's precious comment.

"Leave him, Peter," Emma said, smacking his arm. "Julie, sweetheart. You look wonderful."

"Thank you," she then replied.

"Is that my daughter?" My Dad asked, loudly.

I laughed at his words, shaking my head. I had a feeling he'd try and be funny about it, instead of started with something nice.

"You look beautiful," my Dad said, giving me a quick kiss on my head.

"Thanks,Dad." I smiled.

My Mum then cooed. "My baby," she said, clutching her hands towards her chest. She looks like she might even shed some tears. She can be so dramatic.

"You look really pretty," Liam spoke up.

I assumed he was still looking at Julie, but when I turned, he was surprisingly talking to me and I smiled politely.

"Thank you," I said.

As we all continued to talk and taking some pictures together, the doorbell rang and my Dad went to go receive it.

"Hi," I turned to see Holden walking into the room. "Sorry, I'm late," he apologised.

I smiled when I saw the dark-red tie he wore, matching my skirt perfectly. I was honestly more relieved that he wore grey suit, rather than one that matched my dress.

"And why were you late young man," Mr Hunter said, trying to sound intimidating.

Holden then reached into his suit. "I had to get this," he said, as he pulled out a red rose. He was so cheesy.

"This is cute," I said and stepped towards him to take the rose. However, I seemed to get no response from him. "Holden?" I called his name a little louder.

"What? Yes. This is for you," he said, handing me the rose and I smiled at him.

"Rena, you look..." he started off saying, but was interrupted by Mr Hunter.

"A little heads up, my son already took wow," he said, causing us to laugh. Well except Holden, who was just staring at me.

I laughed at his words.

"You look better than perfect," Holden told me.

That was honestly so sweet, I just grinned at him. "Thank you. You don't look too bad yourself," I replied.

"Okay, that's enough," my Dad said, deciding he's had enough of us. "Get out of here now and no funny business I have a gun," he warned.

"So you've said., again and again," Mum then added on, teasingly.

"Have fun," Emma and Mr Hunter said.

***

The Summer Ball was extremely over the top in its' level of extravagance. We even had a theme, this year, Carnival! It was actually one of the better themes, since someone even suggested Frozen.

"I'm actually impressed. This doesn't completely suck," Sara said as we walked into the hall.

"It's actually decent." I said.

The school hired out a hall for the Summer Ball same as last year. The outside was decorated in the carnival theme, with some gorgeous dancers greeting people at the front, including some stalls and games. The inside of the hall was covered in bright lights, with sweet-bouquet centrepieces and other amazing carnival theme decorations.

It was stunning.

"Let's go find a table," Max said, and we headed to find some seating.

***

The night was turning into a lot of fun. We already danced so much, finally we had a good DJ. Unlike last time, where the DJ would either skip a song every thirty seconds or when the beat would drop. I mean who does that?

We had this really cute tiki bar kind of thing in place - although I'm not quite sure how that fitted into the carnival theme - but it was there. Although, they only served, non-alcoholic drinks, not that it was a problem for me.

However, my favourite part of the night was the photo booth.

We took so many pictures. It was a joke trying to get those group pictures. At one point we all tried to get in and I'm pretty sure all the camera caught, was Andre's butt.

The girls and I managed to get some good ones though, and I also got some couple pictures with Holden, before Andre photobombed us.

I spent some time catching up with my other classmates and as I was walking back to our table, I suddenly felt a hand enclose around my wrist and pull me into the photo booth.

A weird sound left me, it was sort of a squeal but kind of a yelp.

Before I could yell out or hit the person, I saw that it was actually Liam.

"Are you insane!? You're such an idiot. What the hell do you think you're doing? Wha"t if I punched you?" I told him, trying to calm myself down that it wasn't some psycho-stranger.

"Sorry," he winced.

"What are you doing here?" I asked him.

He looked nervous. "Um, taking a breather."

"Taking a-...are you hiding out in here?" I asked him, shocked and also very confused.

Liam shook his head. "Not hiding," he denied, but it was obvious that was not true.

"Let me get this straight, you're hiding in a photo booth, whilst your girlfriend is out there. Even though it's her first Ball?" I asked.

"I'm not hiding, it's just...the slow dance is going to happen soon and I'm just trying to work on my steps," he said, as if that were completely normal.

I raised my brow at him. "In here?"

"In my mind," he replied.

"You're stupid," I told him.

"I know," he told me.

I sighed, looking at the anxious expression on his face. I seriously didn't understand why this was just a terrifying thing for him.

"I don't understand. We did that little practice in my living," I told time.

He nodded. "I know, but that was different. We danced, but it was us. I'm not really afraid of embarrassing myself in front of you, or tripping, or saying something stupid," Liam explained.

I'm not even sure how to process that. Was that a compliment? Or an insult?

"Liam, breathe." I told him.

He looked at me and nodded. He took a deep breath and then two more.

"Just imagine that you're at home and in the living room, just dancing with Julie there," I said. "I mean, you're not, but just imagine."

Liam let out a chuckle at my words.

"It's just how we practiced? That's all you have to do. You were fine then, and you'll be fine now," I told him.

"Thank you," he smiled. "I'm sorry if I hurt your wrist," he apologised.

I shook my head. Luckily, I didn't punch him, because that wouldn't have been easy to explain to anyone, especially Julie.

Just as I was about to tell him we should go back out, I heard the sound of the camera clicking and realised that our picture just got taken.

We both just laughed at this, clearly forgetting that we were in a photo booth, and then another picture was taken.

Liam put his arm around me, for the next picture and pulled a funny face, whilst I did the same and winked at the camera.

For the last picture, he just turned toward me and smiled, whilst I just smiled back.

Once all the pictures are taken, we both got out of the booth.

We laughed when the picture came out and I saw the expressions on our face. We looked like idiots, but happy. I guess it's nice to have this a memory...even it held a different kind of significance for me.

We turned around when we heard Flo calling our names.

"There you two are," she huffed. "Liam, Julie is looking for you," she said.

"Okay, thank you," he smiled and looked at me. "Just a living room," he said.

"Just a living room," I repeated.

When he walked away, Flo was looking at us incredibly confused.

"Okay, that was weird," she said and l laughed. "Anyway, the slow dance is happening! Come on," she said and I couldn't help but smile at her excitement and went with her, putting the picture of Liam and me, in my bag.

Flo left to find Max, whereas I walked to my guy, who was just sitting and eating his food. It's as if that was all he came for.

"The slow dance is happening. Are you coming?" I asked Holden.

"I don't really dance," he replied, with a shrug.

That sort of left me a little disappointed. "Oh," I replied.

"Yeah, sorry," he said, as he turned away from me and carried on eating.

Did I just get rejected for food? I thought he'd want to dance with me.

"No, that's okay." I told him, smiling sweetly. "I think I'll just go find Shawn, I think he'd be up for a dance."

Clearly my words had got to him and Holden's head snapped toward me, his eyes widened. I smirked at his reaction.

He then got out of his seat. "Dance? Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" He said.

However, I'm not so easily convinced. "I thought you didn't want to?"

Holden moved towards me. "There is nothing I would rather do," he said, trying to sweet talk me.

"Are you sure? I'm sure Shawn wouldn't mind," I said and began to walk away. He was seriously going to carry on eating, I had to tease him a little.

Before I could, Holden grabbed a hold of my hand, gently tugging me towards him. "No way is that guy dancing with my girlfriend," he said, his voice now stern.

I pulled my hand away from him and raised a brow. "Your girlfriend?" I questioned. "I don't recall you asking me that or agreeing."

This caused Holden's eyes to widen a little and he coughed nervously, probably realising what he'd just blurted out.

He then held a more calmer expression. "Will you? Will you be my girlfriend?" He asked.

It wasn't a difficult question that I had to really think about. I liked Holden and he like me. He made me laugh and smile. Girlfriend, is only a label, really. It doesn't  change much between us. Although, now when someone were to ask 'what are we?', we had a more clear answer.

I pretended to dwell over the question, tapping my finger on my chin.

Holden's anxious face made me want to laugh and I just had to give in.

"Well, since I already kind of told Amy and her minions I was your girlfriend, I guess I already am," I said.

He looked surprised. "You told her that?"

I give him a firm nod.

"Yup. Now come on, I wan to dance, boyfriend." I emphasised on the last word.

"God, that sounds good," he exclaimed, causing me to laugh.

As Niall Horan's - This Town played, all the couples were now on the dance floor.

Despite wearing heels, Holden's towering height meant that I barely reach his shoulder, which kept causing him to chuckle. He was actually quite decent at dancing and I was happy to have uninjured toes.

Whilst laughing at one of Holden's jokes, I turned my heard, only to see Liam and Julie dancing.

I know at this point it shouldn't bother me, but I kept help but feel a little...not hurt, but maybe a little sad. I was happy for the two of them, and him, since he seemed to have remembered my words, but it was kind of hard for me as well.

"Hey, can we go out for a second? Get some air," Holden asked.

"Yeah sure," I smiled.

As soon as we walked out the entrance doors, I felt the cold air. I shivered slightly and soon after, I felt something on my shoulders. I looked down and saw a jacket placed over me.

I smiled at Holden. "Thank you," I said grateful for his jacket and looked away, sort of staring away into oblivion.

"There's actually something I wanted to say," Holden spoke up after clearing his throat.

I looked at him and smiled. "Okay?"

"Do you remember the first time we met?" He asked.

It was an incredibly random question to ask right now, but I just went along with it anyway.

"I yelled at you because you pushed Danny during basketball practice," I said, laughing at the memory.

Back then, I only knew of Holden as one the popular guys. We had a few classes together, but no real interaction. I wouldn't class that as a proper meeting, since not even a work was spoke between us. Then during one of the practices I went to, I saw Danny get pushed by Holden. Feeling protective, I yelled then yelled at him.

Holden chuckled. "Man, was I shit scared of you," he said I started laughing more.

"Really?" I sounded excited, but no one had ever been scared of me before - that I knew of at least.

Plus, compared to Holden, I was tiny. It was kind of hilarious that he was even a little afraid of me.

"Yeah," Holden continued. "But then I also felt something else."

This causes my laughter to die down, hearing the tone of his voice.

"Rena, I've liked you since then. It's stupid, but you yelling at me like that, just made me see how different you were," he said.

I felt quite stunned.

"You started liking me when I yelled at you?" I asked, since I really didn't think it was one of my most attractive moments.

Holden laughed at my question.

"When you yelled at me," he confirmed. "Rena, I really like you, a lot."

After he said the words, it was like he was searching my face for something and I realised I hadn't actually said anything, since he's told me twice that he likes me.

"I like you too, Holden." I replied, honestly.

His face seemed to have just lit up at my words and instantly I was wrapped up in a hug.

We stayed liked that for a few seconds, until I heard Coldplay's Yellow playing from the main hall and I just had to go back in.

I pulled away from the hug, which caused Holden to slightly frown. "Come on, I love this song," I said.

In my excitement, I tugged at Holden's arm, to drag him back in, but I don't think he was expecting it, since he continued to stand strong. However, this then caused me to be pulled back towards him, crashing into his chest.

My hands instantly went towards his chest, to steady myself. I felt Holden's hand find their way onto my waist, which caused me to look up to him. He seemed to already be staring down at me intently, his eyes moving from my eyes to my lips.

I couldn't seem to look away, not even when I felt onto of his hands moving upwards and into my hair. I found myself leaning into its' warmth.

Holden's face lowered down, closer to mine and I couldn't help the way my breath hitched and my heartbeat rapidly gained speed.

My hands continued to stay on his chest, not pushing him away, not doing anything really, but staying there.

His hand, that was resting on my waist, tightened its' grip and I was pulled even closer towards him.

Holden's face was close enough to mine, that I could count his eyelashes. Closer than I've ever been, to anyone.

"Is it okay if I kiss you?" He asked in a low, strained whisper, as his eyes seemed to darken.

Everything about this moment felt right and I felt happy.

I couldn't really find my voice right now, so all I could do was close my eyes and nod, leaning in slightly so he would understanding.

And then it happens....

....My first kiss

I felt his hands tightening its grip on my waist and in my hair, as his lips began to move against mine. The kiss was sweet and innocent, demanding, but not forceful. It was the kind that gave me butterflies and a sense of serenity. It was a feeling I didn't know I longed for, until Holden kissed me.

When we both finally pulled away and just looked at one another, we were stood a little awkwardly, as if we'd only just met for the first time, and then we just laughed. I guess both of us were in some sort of disbelief, that this had actually happened. But it did, it finally did.

Holden kissed my cheek and held my hand, leading us back into the main hall.

Usually, I wasn't usually so comfortable being so affectionate, but Holden didn't seem ready to leave my hand and I couldn't object, especially after seeing the smile on his face.

"Hey, where did you both go?" Mel asked, as we return to our seats.

I felt my face heat up  when I looked over at Holden. He smirked at me, which just made my blush worse.

"Yeah, where did you go?" Sara asked, in a more suggestive tone, whilst wiggling her brows.

I narrowed my eyes at her.

"Sara," Danny spoke up.

"Oh come on, Danny. Don't be so protective," she replied back.

I could always count on Danny to want to try and save me from embarrassment.

"Can we please drop this?" I looked at Sara. I was seriously about to turn the same shade of red as my skirt.

"For now," she said, but could see the mischief in her eyes and I know she was going to make make me tell her every little detail later, whether I want to or not.

***

The night had been a clear success and it seemed like everyone had fun, but it was now nearing towards the end. People were either sitting and chilling, leaving or just having their final dances together.

I had excused myself to go out to get some fresh air.

The amount of dancing that we had done and all the people in the hall, it made me feel all hot and sweaty, which was not pretty at all. I really needed the air to cool down.

Of course, Holden wanted to come with me but I told him to stay with his boys. I was  pretty sure he just wanted come and kiss me again.

After a few minutes outside, I turned around to go back into the hall only see Liam in front of me.

"Liam?" I questioned him. I didn't even hear him come up behind me.

"There you are," he let out a deep breath. "I've been looking all over for you," he said.

I looked at him in confusion. "Why?"

"I'm going to leave soon," he said and I still remained as confused as ever.

"What? Why?" I asked.

I thought that we were all going to go out to eat after this, as a whole group thing, much like we did after the football match.

"Okay, don't tell anyone," Liam said in a hushed whisper and looked around, as if someone was watching her. "I'm going to tell Julie I love her," he then said.

As soon as he said the words, my eyes widened.

Despite the music coming from the hall and the rustling of the trees, I heard none of it. I  heard nothing. There was just silence between us.

"What?" I asked him, my voice a light whisper.

"I know," he chuckled. "It's crazy, but I really think I love her. Tonight's been so great, I just want to tell her now," he rambled on.

I felt as if something within my chest was harshly tugged, and carried on to be tugged, as if testing the resistance of the string of my heart. How much force could it take, before it just...broke?

"Oh," I said, unable to say anything else.

Suddenly looked at me in a panic. "You think I shouldn't? Is it too soon? Will I scare her off?"

I stood there for a moment, just processing what I had heard.

His face, he looked so excited just before. I had seen the way his eyes had lit up and the beaming smile on his face. He really did love her and he wanted to confess.

"Rena," Liam said my name, a look of worry had now come over him. My silence must have made him assume that it wasn't something he should do.

I cleared my throat, closing my eyes momentarily to stop that pricking feeling of tears. Tears wanted to fall, but I wouldn't let them.

"I think you should do what you feel is right," I said.

It might've been easy to tell him to not say it, but I couldn't do that. It wouldn't have been right, but incredibly selfish and wrong, and that wasn't me. I wasn't that person.

"Thank you," Liam sighed and it was clear what he thought felt right. "Let me walk you back in," he said.

I blinked a few time again and shook my head. "No, I want to stay out here for a second," I told him.

He tilted his head to the side. "Are you sure?"

I forced a smile on my face. "Yeah."

"Okay," he replied.

He stood there for a second, before pulling me into a tight hug. I wasn't sure if I just looked upset - which I didn't want him to see - or he was just that happy, that he had to hug me.

As soon as his arms were around me, I shut my eyes tightly, hoping that this stopped any of my emotions surfacing before him and hugged Liam back.

I just needed a hug right now.

When I felt Liam pull away from me, I forced a smile on my face.

"I'll see you later, Rena," he grinned and kissed the top of my head, before going back in.

"Bye, Liam," I whispered, just rooted in my spot and watching him leave. It's was only when he had finally left my sight, that I felt the first tear fall.

Now I've lost, completely...