Gotta Be You

“Gabby get the hell out here! I wanna see what the dress looks like on you.”

I stared at myself in the mirror looking from every angle. “Gia, I’d rather not…” I shouted back to my best friend who was waiting patiently outside my dressing room.

“Get out here! Come on!” She was not going to give up.

“I don’t even want to go to prom!” I opened the door and looked her straight in the face. “Dylan is bringing some trampy bitch, you have Noah and I don’t have anyone.” I looked down then back up at Gianna, whose smile had faded.

“Gab, I’m sorry. Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?”

I sighed. “Because you were so happy when Noah asked you to prom at his baseball game. I was happy for you, but sad at the same time. I didn’t want to ruin your happiness just because I can’t get a date. That’s so selfish, I could never be that selfish.”

She let out a deep breath and walked over to me, her arms engulfing me in a giant hug. “I love you, I’m sorry you feel that way. But we’ll have girl time before and after prom, that is…if you decide to go?”

I smiled big. “I love you too, and I guess I can go.”

“Wow Gab, you sound so thrilled”

{-} Forward to the day before prom {-}

When Gianna dropped me off later that night, I hung up the dress I had decided on and then plopped down on my bean bag chair and grabbed my laptop, opening it up and going on Twitter. The Twitter world was busy, although it never really calmed down, it was always active. I scrolled through the tweets and I wasn’t surprised when there were tons of pictures and tweets about One Direction.

Don’t get me wrong, I love One Direction. But I was not in the mood to be reminded that I haven’t yet met any of them, none of them were following me on Twitter, and I wasn’t dating any of them.

I clicked on a tweet and opened it to see a picture of Zayn wearing a bright blue shirt and a black jacket over it with grey pants. He looked beautiful. I let out a deep breath and made a new tweet. ‘Prom’s tomorrow…don’t have a date…@zaynmalik...be mine?’

I huffed and closed my laptop hard, knowing Zayn would never read that tweet. And even if he did, he’d never go for a girl like me. His last girlfriend, Perrie, was flawless. I am not flawless. I have my fair share of flaws.

I set my computer down on my desk and crawled into bed. I had a long, busy day ahead of me. I wanted to at least be awake and not look and feel like a zombie.

The next morning I was awaken by Gianna shaking me to wake up. “What time is it?” I asked groggily.

“It’s 10:45, I let you sleep a bit.” She laughed.

I closed my eyes. “I’m going back to sleep.”

She ripped the covers off my bed. “You’re not.”

I stuck out my tongue. “I hate you.”

She giggled. “You love me.”

I nodded. “Can’t deny it for a second.”

We went to get our nails done after I ate something, because my stomach was grumbling so loud. I didn’t want to disturb other people at the nail salon. When we came back from getting our nails done, Gianna went to get her hair done, while I stayed at home and curled my own hair. My hair was getting really long, so when I curled it, it looked like I had extensions on. I must have sprayed an entire can of hairspray on my hair, I didn’t want the curls to fall one bit. I started to do my makeup when Gia busted through the door. “Makeup time! Oh my gosh, I love your hair!”

I smiled and pointed at her hair. “I love yours!”

I got my dress on first, and Gia helped me. I then helped her get into her dress which was absolutely beautiful.

{-}

A couple hours later, we were both ready and looking glamorous. Noah came to pick us up in his dad’s Ferrari. We decided that a Ferrari would probably draw more attention than a normal limo would. Somehow Gia and I managed to squeeze our dresses into the car. I pulled out my phone and went to Twitter, composing a new tweet. ‘Off to prom. Still wishing @zaynmalik was my date.’ I attached a picture to it and sent it. We drove off and when we arrived at our prom venue, all eyes were on us. By this point, I was feeling quite stupid, because I would have to get out and walk with Gia and Noah as the 3rd wheel, while everyone was staring. Noah parked the car, opened my door, then Gianna’s, and waited patiently for us to get out and properly fluff our dresses.

We walked inside and all of our jaws dropped. The place looked absolutely incredible. We sat down at our table and talked until our food came out. Then we ate and after we finished, we decided to dance. Once again, I felt incredibly awkward walking to the dance floor next to Gianna and Noah. They started dancing and I was just standing next to them. Gianna saw that I looked bored and she pulled me close and whispered, “go find Dylan! I’m sure he’d think you’re looking beautiful.”

I looked over her shoulder and my eyes instantly found him. He was practically having sex with this girl on the dance floor. When she stood up to fix her hair, I huffed. “Megan Anderson, fucking bitch.” I had whispered it to myself, but you would think she heard me cause she looked in my direction, then whispered something to Dylan who then looked at me and chuckled.

Dylan and I used to like each other a couple of years back. That was before Megan moved into the area. After being at our school for 2 weeks, she already had Dylan wrapped around her finger, leaving me alone. That’s why I was so emotional when Gianna started dating Noah, because it really meant that I had no one.

I shook off the feeling of sadness because it was prom and I was trying to enjoy myself. I started dancing just when the song changed. I frowned and tried to hold back the tears because the next song that came on was ‘I Wish,’ by One Direction.

I told Gianna I was going to sit down as I made my way back to the table. I sat down and put my head in my hands. I tried not to think about the song, I tried not to look at Dylan, but the song seemed to get louder and louder as if someone knew it was hitting me hard, and making me emotional. Once it hit the chorus, I just broke down.

“But I see you with him, slow dancing, tearing me apart cause you don’t see. Whenever you kiss him, I’m breaking. Oh how I wish that was me.”

I looked up and saw Gianna running towards me. “What’s wrong love?”

I wiped my eyes. “Dylan’s dancing with Megan. You’re with Noah. The song. It’s bringing back memories. Memories I didn’t really want to remember.”

Gianna looked like she was about to cry.

“No, don’t cry. Go have fun. I’m gunna go. I can’t handle this.”

“Gabby…”

I shook my head. “Gia, it’s fine. Have fun. Don’t worry about me.”

I picked up my stuff and walked past her.

“Gab, I love you. Be safe.”

I turned around and nodded my head.

Once out of the venue, I could finally let the tears fall. I was probably looking like a hot mess, emphasis on the mess. I didn’t know where to go, so I went to the one place I knew could cheer me up. I walked to the mall. It was a long walk, and in heels, my feet felt like they were about to fall off. It took me close to an hour to walk all the way there. I sat down on a bench when I got there and texted Gia.

Hope you’re having fun. I’m going to 1D World. Don’t worry about me. Love you.

I sat there for a couple more minutes so I could catch my breath. I finally stood up and walked inside and went right to 1D World. As soon as I walked inside, the sweet melodies of the Up All Night concert tour were playing in the background. Thankfully only a couple people were there, but that didn’t stop people from staring at me.

I sat on the floor, not even caring about dirtying my prom dress. I pulled out my phone again and updated my Twitter once more. ‘Prom was a bust. Hanging at 1D World. Only place that can cheer me up. @zaynmalik’

I put my head in my hands and just started to cry. I didn’t even care about everyone staring at me, or the fact that I was hanging out in a mall while I was supposed to be at prom. I couldn’t get the memories of Dylan and I out of my head. I couldn’t get the image of Megan and Dylan dancing out of my head. It was like it was plastered to my memory and I couldn’t brush it off. I couldn’t brush off the fact that that song came on at that time. I closed my eyes and was startled when someone tapped my shoulder. I figured it was just someone pushing by me, until I heard their voice.

“Aren’t you supposed to be at prom right now?”

My eyes widened and I turned around, as my eyes locked with the prettiest brown eyes I had ever seen.

“Zayn?”