Cleave

Senior Prom: the only school dance I’ve ever been to that I’ve actually given a fuck about. And I don’t mean that because of the dancing or the crowning of King and Queen or the outfits, or anything like that. Other dances had that. No, I cared about this one because I was going with Micah, and he was excited for it, seeing as it was his first school dance and he wouldn’t have been able to even go to this one if it wasn’t for me being allowed to bring a guest from outside of the school.

If I wasn’t going with Micah, I would have either just gone with my friends to cause trouble and get wasted by secretly drinking out of a flask, or not gone at all. But here I was, standing in front of the mirror of my bedroom, trying to get my black tie to sit straight and my white dress shirt to tuck into my pants so that it didn’t look like I was pregnant.

I had hired a tux for the night so that my outfit would be on par with Micah’s, and I hated every minute of wearing it, but I would put up with it for him. Micah and I, as well as Rochelle and Braden were going to a nice restaurant for dinner before the dance started, so that meant I had to put on the tux much earlier than I would have liked. I felt so uncomfortable in the dressy outfit. It wasn’t me at all. Every other dance I went to, I usually wore some semi-decent looking skinny jeans (without rips in them because that would violate the dress code) with a plain coloured t-shirt and a leather jacket, so the tux was way out of my comfort zone.

I was beginning to get frustrated at the outfit when Drew came into my bedroom and saw me struggling with the tie.

“God, you’re useless,” he said as he knocked my hands away from the tie and proceeded to do it up for me correctly. “You had the knot done wrong; that’s why it wasn’t sitting properly.”

“Oh,” I mumbled. Drew finished doing up the tie and let it drop gently to rest down the front of my shirt. It was funny; last year, Drew would have had just as little an idea about how to dress like this than I did, maybe even less. It’s a wonder what leaving school and getting a decent job can do to someone. Of course, he still dressed the same as he always used to when he wasn’t at work, but just him knowing things like how to tie a tie and tuck in a shirt properly was a little weird for me to witness. “How do I get the shirt to sit flat?” I asked.

“Undo your pants and tuck it in before you do up the fly and button again,” he promptly told me.

“I… okay,” I said, and did as I was told, and thankfully for my sanity, I no longer looked like I was carrying a baby. “Thank you.”

“Do you need help tying your shoelaces too or do you think you can handle that yourself?” Drew asked, laughing and dodging my hand as I swiped at him.

“Fuck you. I’m not used to this shit, okay? It’s so uncomfortable,” I complained, tugging at my shirt collar a little to give me some more breathing room. Even though I could breathe perfectly fine, it felt like the shirt was slowly going to tighten and completely cut off my airways. Drew rolled his eyes and stepped closer to me again, this time to loosen the tie slightly and undo my top button, and then tighten the tie again back into its previous position. Having the button undone made me feel a bit better and I wondered why I didn’t think to do that in the first place. It didn’t matter if I had one button undone, surely. It was a miracle Micah managed to get me to wear a suit in the first place.

“You look good, man. I think Micah will be impressed,” Drew said, taking a few seconds to look me up and down. He pulled a set of keys out of his pocket and held them out to me. “Here…”

“What’re these for?” I asked, taking them.

“Take my car. You don’t wanna rock up to prom in the shitty old truck, not when you’re all dressed up like that.”

“But –”

“No ‘buts’. Just take it. I don’t have anything to do tonight so I won’t need it. Besides, if I did, I could just use the truck. Go on. You’ve got to leave soon, right? You don’t wanna be late to pick up Micah.”

I nodded. “Okay, thank you. I’ll see you tomorrow,” I said. I stepped towards him and pulled him in for a brief hug, which he returned.

“Have fun. Especially after…” Drew said with a wink as he pulled away. He was referring to the fact that I had a hotel room booked for me and Micah to spend the night. It wasn’t a necessity, obviously, but I liked how cliché it was – renting a hotel on prom night. If only we were both losing our virginity to each other as well.

I laughed. “I plan to. See you later,” I said before I left to go and pick up my boyfriend.

After a short drive, I pulled up outside of Micah’s house, where I got out of the car and headed up to his house. I knocked on the front door, and then stood back to wait for someone to answer.

“Hey, Angel,” Elise greeted me as she opened the door. “You look great!”

“Thanks. I’m not comfortable, though,” I replied. Elise rolled her eyes.

“You don’t have to wear high heels and tight dresses though. Think of the poor girls there tonight before you start bitching,” she said.

“The girls don’t have to either,” I countered.

“You really have no idea, do you, what it’s like to be a girl at one of these things?”

“Do you see boobs here?” I asked, gesturing to my chest. “I don’t know what it’s like to be a girl at any point in time.”

“Thank God for that,” Micah’s voice chimed in. He came to stand beside Elise in the doorway. “Otherwise I’d have to go tell Mom “oops, I made a mistake, turns out I’m actually straight cause Angel’s actually a chick”. I don’t think that’d go down too well.” He smiled at me, and then stepped forward to plant a kiss on my lips. “You look amazing.”

“Mm, you too,” I said, kissing him again. He really did look amazing; much better than me. “Are you ready to go? We’re meant to meet Rochelle and Braden there in about fifteen minutes.”

“Wallet, phone, house keys…” he muttered as he checked his pockets, then he looked up at me. “Yep, ready. See ya, Elle,” he said to his sister.

“Bye, guys. Have fun,” she answered, before she stepped back to allow Micah to exit the house and shut the door. I took Micah’s hand and we walked down the driveway to the car.

“You’re taking Drew’s car?” Micah asked.

“Yeah, he insisted. He wants us to look fancy, or some shit.”

Micah laughed as he got into the passenger side. “Well, it’s a lot fancier than the truck, that’s for sure.”

“True…”

I started the car and soon we were on the way to a nice Chinese restaurant that Braden had picked for our meal. We made small talk as I drove; chatting about what music they might play, who might turn up with who, who would win the crowns, that sort of thing, and it wasn’t long before I was pulling into the restaurant’s parking lot. I could see Rochelle and Braden – Chelle wearing a long, flowy blue dress with her hair curled, and Braden in a grey suit – standing outside waiting for us. Micah and I got out of the car and headed towards them.

“Hey, guys,” Rochelle said when she saw us coming towards her. She stepped forward and pulled me, and then Micah, in for hugs.

“You look beautiful,” I told her, making her blush. “You too, Braden.”

“I look beautiful?” he asked, shaking his head with a small smile.

“You do. So pretty,” I confirmed. He rolled his eyes, letting out a short bark of laughter. I gave him a quick hug as well before I pulled away. “Should we go in?”

Everyone nodded, so we went into the restaurant, where we were promptly seated by a young waitress, who immediately took our drink orders with the promise of being back shortly to take our food orders.

The four of us spent most of our time (when we weren’t shovelling amazing Chinese food into our mouths, that is) chatting about whatever came to mind – the end of school, our futures, exams, work. Micah had everyone choking with laughter as he recounted the fight he had with his mother about the tutor she had organised for him, where he insinuated that he would probably end up fucking her, before he was informed she was ancient and married.

“I just shrugged like her age wasn’t even a big deal. Mom looked like she was going to explode,” Micah said while gasping for breath. “She was so not impressed.”

“Yeah, I bet. Though, I’m not overly impressed either. How dare you even think about screwing an old lady after you’ve been with me?” I joked.

“I know. If I fucked her, nothing would ever top that and I’d spend the rest of my life wishing I could be with her again,” he said, pulling a sad face. Braden and Rochelle struggled to hold it together, while my brain took a second to process what Micah just said, until I suddenly caught his drift.

“Wait, no. I meant she would be a downgrade, you weirdo. What’s wrong with you?”

That was when Chelle and Brady burst out laughing, causing Micah and me to laugh right along with them until none of us could breathe properly and we had tears in our eyes.

Dinner continued that way until we had eaten our fill and decided to head off to the prom. The restaurant wasn’t far from the school, but still far enough that we had to drive there, so once the bill was paid, Rochelle and Braden split off to go in one direction to get to their car, while Micah and I went in the opposite direction to get to my (well, Drew’s) car, and then we would meet at the front of the school before we all went in to the dance together. We were about an hour late to the dance, but it wasn’t a big deal. We figured if we went a bit later, everyone else would already be inside and it wouldn’t be chaos in the parking lot. Besides, there wouldn’t be much happening in the first hour anyway; most likely a bit of dancing and a bunch of administration crap like King and Queen voting and stuff like that. Stuff that none of us really cared about missing.

When we got to the car, I did the gentlemanly thing and opened Micah’s car door for him, which made him chuckle lightly under his breath.

“Why, thank you, sir,” he said in a posh voice before he slid into the seat and I walked around to the driver’s side and got in as well. Before I started the car, I leaned across to capture Micah’s lips in a light kiss, which he immediately deepened by placing a hand gently on the back of my head to hold me close to him. We continued kissing for a minute or two, before he slowly removed his lips from my own. He was still close enough that I could feel his breath on my face when he sighed in content. “We should get moving.”

“Mhm,” I mumbled, still in a daze from the kiss. “I love you.”

“I know, I love you too,” he replied, sending me a brilliant smile. “Thank you for taking me to prom with you.”

“There’s nobody else I’d rather go with,” I told him, kissing him quickly one more time before I pulled away properly and started the car and started to exit the restaurant’s parking lot.

As always, I checked both ways before I ventured out of parking lot, so I was shocked to notice that almost as soon as I straightened up on the road after turning, there was a large car right behind me with his high beams on, almost blinding me.

“What the fuck?” I muttered to myself. Micah turned around in his seat to look at the car, squinting as the lights hit his eyes. “He wasn’t anywhere a second ago and then suddenly he’s right up my ass. Can you see the driver, babe?”

Micah squinted again, trying to see through the windshield. “No, it’s too bright. I can’t even tell what kind of car it is, he’s so close. What the hell is wrong with him?”

“I don’t know. Hopefully he’ll turn off soon…” I trailed off as I tried to concentrate on my driving. This guy seemed to be getting closer to me by the second. I’m positive that if I had to brake suddenly he would’ve hit me. I slowed down a bit, hoping that the guy would just overtake me and leave me alone, but he didn’t do that, despite the road being pretty clear. Even after a few minutes of me driving well below speed limit; he still didn’t leave me alone. “Fucking hell, this dude is a maniac.”

“Maybe try and pull off the road and let him pass?” Micah suggested. I nodded, and made sure to indicate that I was pulling off so he would know what I was doing. I slowed to a stop and silently prayed that the guy would go past. He did, faster than I thought possible, and turned right into a street nearby with a squeal of his tyres. Micah and I both let out a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank God,” he said. “That was freaking me out.”

“Yeah… same… I don’t know what his problem was,” I replied as I pulled out onto the road again to continue onto the school. I reached across the car to hold Micah’s hand. He squeezed gently and that seemed to calm both of us down a bit. I glanced across at him to give him a small smile, when every ounce of happiness and relief left my body as a bright white light came hurtling towards our car at such a speed that I didn’t even know it had hit us until it was much too late.

The sound of metal crunching hit my ears as the side Drew’s gorgeous black VW Golf crumbled against the bull bar of the same car that had been following us with his high beams on for no particular reason that I could think of at the time, but now I knew why. That bull bar was attached to a Jeep that I had ridden in so many times and I now knew who was behind that wheel.

The Jeep belonged to someone full of hatred; someone who wanted to make me suffer and knew that the best way to make me suffer was to take away the person I cared for more than anything else in this entire world.

And seeing Micah this way, with blood coming from his ears, nose and a huge gash on his forehead, trapped within the crumbled remains of the car door that was pushed into him when Max rammed his car into ours, shattered glass covering his unmoving body; it caused me more pain than anything I had ever felt before.

I didn’t feel any physical pain. My head spun and my ears rang. My eyes couldn’t keep focus for longer than a few seconds and black spots began forming and disappearing. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t speak. The world just stopped. Micah’s head was drooped towards his chest. I couldn’t tell if his chest was moving or not and I couldn’t reach out to check his pulse. My arms wouldn’t work no matter how many times I tried to move my hands off the steering wheel, to reach over and touch him.

I don’t know how long I sat there unmoving before bright lights of red and blue started appearing around our car, and shouting started to break through the ringing in my ears.

My car door was wrenched away from me and I turned my head to look to my left to see a large man who said something to me, but I couldn’t tell what he was saying. He repeated himself a couple of times before I finally realised that he was telling me that I was going to be okay and that they would get me out of there as soon as possible.

“N-no… Micah he…” I managed to croak out. The man shook his head, making me frown. I couldn’t comprehend why he wouldn’t go to Micah first. “Yes. Mi-Mic… get him.”

“Someone is working on that. We need to get you out now,” the man insisted. He slowly pried my hands off the steering wheel and my arms dropped like all the bones had been removed. I just sat there and waited for the man to do something else. I couldn’t figure out how to make my body do anything. The man placed something around my neck and then turned away from me to call out to someone else, who came over quickly. They started to converse while manipulating my body so that I was pulled out of the car and into a lying down position on a soft surface. I watched the sky as I was wheeled away from the wreck. The sky looked so peaceful. There wasn’t a cloud in sight. The stars shone. They were so pretty. Twinkling like that… so pretty…

I finally let the black dots that were threatening to blind me the entire time take over and I was pulled under into the darkness.