Dark Eyed Dreamers

I glanced up at the analogue clock situated on the wall behind the teacher’s desk.

“Four minutes left,” I whispered turning back to Alex.

“Seriously Bri, don’t worry about it,” he sighed and rolled his eyes. “I’m pretty sure if he asks you it’s gonna be as his date,” he nodded. “The only thing you should be worrying about is having Louise gush over you and make you camp out at the mall for a week,” he shrugged. I groaned at the thought.

“No way am I letting her drag me around every store in Maryland,” I whined. Alex let out a small laugh next to me.

“Well, gotta say, if I needed a dress I’d probably go with my mom,” he admitted. I tried to bite back a laugh at the thought of Alex trying on dresses and gaining his mother’s approval. I let out a loud laugh causing the people around me to turn around and stare as Alex shrugged at them.

“Oh! By the way I never got to give you my approval of your date,” I grinned. His face turned soft, a warm smile plastered from cheek to cheek as he stared at his fingers doodling on the page in front of him.

“Yeah, I was gonna wait until Jack asked you but he told me he was gonna do it today and I knew you’d say yes, so I figured I’d ask Lou while I still had the chance,” he nodded. I bit down my lip.

“Uh, I’m not sure if I’m gonna be saying yes to Jack,” I confessed. Alex’s brow furrowed almost instantly as if to scorn me with his eyes.

“Why not?” He asked sternly.

“I’m just scared,” I admitted. His face softened and he let out a long sigh before placing an arm over my shoulder.

“Brianna, seriously, we’ve known Jack since eighth grade. He knows just as much about you as I doubt he’s suddenly gonna find something about you that he doesn’t like. You’ve got nothing to be scared of,” he assured me. I listened carefully to each word, he was right. If he liked me, it was for who I was. I smiled lightly thinking about it. He was right.

The alarm which signalled the end of the lesson rang and the colour drained from my face. I turned to Alex who took his arm from around my shoulders.

“You’ll be fine,” he whispered before rising from his seat. I copied his actions and walked silently out the classroom, Alex by my side. My eyes drifting up from the floor and instantly fixating on the door at the end of the hall I felt my breath catch in my throat. Everything seemed to be going too fast; I even tried walking slower to prolong the event but Alex being a Gaskarth stretched his long legs, dragging me along with him. Too many things were rushing around my head for me to notice that I’d been shoved into the room and placed in a seat. Moments later I snapped out of my daze, looking around the room, at the table in front of me and finally at the stool next to me. Jack sat looking at me; his cheek leant on his fist and waved at me. The small gesture put me at ease and I sent him back a shy smile.

We were given a task to create a 3D image to represent an artist. I chose Andy Warhol, grabbing a bare sheet and sticking random things to the page. Jack had made his way to the other side of the room but I wasn’t paying too much attention. I had decided to focus solely on my work and that’s what I was doing. I bit my lip, frowning at the title I held in front of myself. I felt a hand rest on my hip and pair of lips quickly touch my cheek before leaving along with the hand. I felt a surge of red to my face as I looked at Jack who sat back in his seat as though nothing had happened. I stared in disbelief, had that really just happened? It was such a sudden gesture and it had me shocked. I pried my eyes from the boy next to me and looked back at the title; I was finding it a lot more difficult to focus and tilted my head awkwardly at the title.

“Can I talk to you now?” I heard a giggle from next to me. Turning my head I noticed Jack had turned his whole body to face me. His face leant on his fist again and a grin was wiped across his face. I smiled at him before putting down the piece of paper in hand.

“Of course you can,” I whispered trying to hold back my smile by biting my lip. I let both of my hands fall into my lap as I turned my body, balancing my feet on the bar on my stool.

I heard a small ‘ahem’ and turned to see Alex smirking at me from behind his sheet of paper. Biting my lip failed as I turned back to Jack and sent him a full blown smile.

“Well, before I can have another person flying at you,” he chuckled. “I was wondering if you wanted to go to prom with me,” he finished casually. I still wasn’t too sure if he meant as his date or not. How would I find out? I suppose I just had to play dumb.

“Duh, we’ve all been planning to go together since we met,” I giggled rolling my eyes. His face turned more serious but kept its soft smile. He took his hand from his face and played with his fingers in his lap.

“Well, I was actually hoping you’d want to go as my date,” he clarified looking me straight in the eyes. I was so nervous; I could feel my fingers twitching but my insides wanted to explode with happiness. I tried to stay composed though.

“That’d be awesome,” I answered truthfully. I felt like screaming from the top of my lungs and running around but I didn’t, I didn’t want to turn around and see Jack staring at me in horror after all. The grin once again spread across his face.

“Oh and I think you should put it on, it suits the theme,” he commented gesturing to the paper in my place before sending me a wink and turning back round to his own work. It had gone far better than expected. I let out a content sigh as I turned back to the sheet. Slamming the words into the middle of the page I let out a victorious cheer causing Alex, Jack and a few other people to turn around and laugh along. Today was a good day.