You Saved Me

“OH MY GOSH! You look amazing! I’ve never said this to anyone before, but I officially hate you!” Steph said while looking at Brittany when she walked into Steph’s bedroom.

The plans for the evening was that everyone in their group, which consisted of Kevin and Steph, Katie and her date, Mark, Brittany and Will, Chad and Whitney, Jessica and David, Beth and Danny, 4 other people that Brittany had never met before and Joe and Courtney were all meeting at Steph’s house to take pictures, head off to dinner and then head straight to the dance after that.

Yes, Joe and Courtney were in their group. Even after Brittany’s temper tantrum. He was Kevin’s brother. He’d have to be in the same group with him. So they both had to suck it up and deal with it. At least for the 2 and half hours that consisted of dinner and pictures.

We probably won’t even see each other at the dance… was what Brittany kept telling herself.

“Stop it. You look ten times better than I do. You look amazing!” Brittany countered after her little laughing attack from Steph’s comment.

“I look like nothing. And you wanna know what my dad said when he saw my dress?” Steph said while putting in gold dangly earrings in her mirror that was attached to the back of her door.

Without a response from Brittany, Steph launched into her story, saying something about how her dad said she dress looked like a booger and that he didn’t like it.

But Brittany wasn’t focusing on the story at hand, she was currently getting major butterflies in her stomach as she saw Will, Chad and Whitney all get out of Will’s mom’s car and start walking up the sidewalk towards Steph’s house.

They all had pitched in 30 bucks to rent a stretch Hummer limo for their group of 18 that was supposed to be at Steph’s in 10 minutes.

“Will’s here.” Brittany muttered under her breath right before she heard the doorbell ring.

“That’s great. At least now you don’t have to stand awkwardly if Joe and Courtney would have gotten here first.” Steph said, attempting to lighten the mood as she finished up her last minute make up.

“I’m gonna go down there and get the couple pictures out of the way.” Brittany said while she made her way slowly towards Steph’s bedroom door.

“Britt?” she heard Steph ask from behind her quietly.

“What?” she asked back, turning slightly to look at her.

“Don’t worry about it. You look amazing and Joe will eat his heart out. I’ve seen this Courtney girl…and she’s not the brightest crayon in the box. Joe doesn’t like dumb girls anyways. It was his stupid ego that got in the way and that’s why he’s going with her. And I’ve already come up with a way for you two to at least get one picture of the two of you together.” Steph said, giving Brittany a little nudge at her last statement to see a smile show on Brittany’s face.

She still hated to admit that she liked him, but she couldn’t help but show it a little bit when she was with Steph. She knew everything. Plus, her pride wasn’t getting deflated at all when she was with Steph….it was still intact in front of everybody else and that’s all that mattered.

“Thanks Steph. And really, you truly look amazing tonight. Kevin and you are gonna have to fight off all the guys with a stick. And I’ll be right there to help.” she said with a little laugh at her analogy before turning and leaving her bedroom from hearing Will’s voice asking if she was there yet.

“Hey Will!” she said happily, thanks to Steph’s encouragement about tonight, but it washed away when she saw all three of the newcomer’s faces go completely white and their mouths hang open.

Oh crap! I got something on the dress already. Or maybe their’s a huge spider behind me that their all afraid of…

“You….Wow. You…” Will stuttered out, finally getting his voice back after seeing Brittany for the first time.

“Thanks.” she let out with a small laugh as she went over to him and gave him a quick hug while two flashing lights went off simultaneously from Steph’s mom and Will’s mom taking pictures.

“You really weren’t lying when you said she was gorgeous.” a tall women with short spiky black hair said after taking a camera away from her face.

“I’m Jane. Will’s mom.” she said, taking a step forward while stretching out her hand to introduce herself to Brittany.

The two shook hands and then before she knew it, she was asked to take different positions with Will so that they could get their couple pictures taken.

It seemed like forever, Will’s face did eventually change from shocked to blissfully happy after 10 minutes, when others started to show up, giving Brittany a little bit of break from picture taking.

“You look rather handsome.” she finally was able to say to Will as Beth and Danny and the other 2 couples Brittany didn’t know were being bombarded with lights.

He really did. Wearing an all black suit with bright red, to match her dress, ensembles such as his tie and pocket handkerchief. It looked really sharp with the black and red.

“Thanks. But I look like nothing compared to you. You look absolutely….I can’t even pick a good enough word to describe what you look like. Amazing, incredible and stunning just don’t seem to fit.” he said while sending her a toothy smile.

She blushed from his compliment and then jumped when she heard Steph come running down the stairs at lightening speed screaming, “He’s here! He’s here!”

Everyone looked at each other confused but didn’t even have a second to ask who ‘he’ was because Steph threw the door opened to reveal a very good looking Kevin with…

Holy! That’s what God must look like in a tux.

An amazing looking Joe in an all black tux with white pinstripes, and a really slutty girl behind him.

Maybe hoar-ish is a better word.

She was pretty, Brittany couldn’t deny that…but her dress…

What the hell is she wearing?!?!

It looked like leather or something from the way the light was bouncing off of it. And it was short. Super short. Where talking if she bent down to pick something up, her butt would pop out and moon everyone. And it kinda looked like it wasn’t completely finished.

The dress I wear for when my evil stepsisters tear it to shreds covers more than that!

“Wow! Steph….you look amazing!” Kevin said, while leaning forward to give her a quick peck on her cheek while he held a small clear plastic box that held a corsage.

She blushed from his kiss and tried her hardest to keep her voice even as she welcomed them into her house, shutting the door behind them.

Brittany tried her hardest not stare at Joe, since he was staring back at her, but she couldn’t seem to take her eyes off of him. That was until Will put an arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him and more lights went off.

“Let’s move this out to the backyard to get group pictures!” she faintly heard from one of the parents that were there.

She felt herself getting pulled along by Will as the rest of the group followed out through the sliding glass doors from the kitchen to take the group pictures.

She caught a quick glance of Joe…who looked really upset about something and threw his arm around his dates waist, and that’s when she really regretted saying yes to Will.

That could be me right now instead of that slutty girl…ugh! This night is never gonna end…

* * * * *

The rest of the picture taking wasn’t too bad. And yes, Steph’s plan worked, saying that everyone had to take at least one picture with everyone else which added about another 45 minutes to picture taking, but it didn’t matter when it was Brittany and Joe’s turn.

Even though they didn’t talk to each other for the last 2 weeks or even said one word to the other since he arrived at Steph’s house to take pictures, it seemed to be forgotten when he finally, there had to be coaxing on both Brittany and Joe’s end, wrapped his arm around her waist and gave a giant smile towards the cameras.

And it just happened that a giant breeze blew past them making both Brittany and Joe crack up when her hair got his face as the picture was taken. Which in turn, made them take another picture together and letting her feel his arms around her again for a few more brief seconds.

And then it was right back to the hard face and glares once Will went to Brittany’s side and threw his arm around her waist.

Dinner wasn’t too bad….

If Brittany didn’t think about the constant glares sent her way from Joe and the fact that Will always had to be touching her.

His arm was always either around her waist, on covering her knee when they were sitting down at the table, or around her shoulders, resting on the back of the chair. He must have told her a million times how unexplainably gorgeous she looked too.

At first it was all flattering, but when they arrived at the dance it became too overbearing.

Just as Steph predicted, it did seem like a lot of the guys forgot who their dates were, which only tightened Will’s hold around her waist, as if he was claiming her as his.

She was flattered that he liked her so much, but he was just too clingy.

Way to clingy for her taste which was when she decided she needed to get away from him for a while.

“I need some fresh air. I’m gonna go outside for a few minutes.” she yelled over the music to him as she started to make her way through the throng of people that surrounded her on the dance floor.

“Ok. I’ll come with you.” she heard him say back to her faintly.

She whipped around and put a hand to his chest to stop him.

“No. You stay here and have fun.” she said and could already see in his eyes that he was gonna follow her anyways. “I have to go to the bathroom too.” she added quickly as an afterthought.

“Ok. But don’t take to long. I’ll be right here.” he said after a few seconds of thinking over her words in his head.

She flashed him a smile and then turned around again and started to make her way towards the gym
doors.

“Finally!” she breathed out when she got outside and knew that Will wasn’t following behind her.

“I knew you’d come looking for me.” she heard an all too amused voice say from behind her, making her jump slightly and turn around.

“Who said I came here looking for you?” she snapped back at him, recognizing his perfectly messy black hair and his amazing brown eyes staring back at her.

“Ahh…” he said, pushing himself off of the side of the school with his shoulders to stand up right and take a step forward. “You clearly were rather sharp with your tone. Showing that your defending yourself. You clearly wanted to see me. Anything you wanted to say?” he asked, a smirk becoming ever so clear on his face as he took a few steps closer to you.

“Yeah actually.” she said, squaring her shoulders at him and lifting her chin a little higher and watched as Joe’s shocked expression came and went off his face before she continued.

“Your date is dancing with like three guys right now.”

She saw Joe roll his eyes and take a step back away from her and then looked down at the ground for a few seconds.

“Why do you think I left? She’s not the most…innocent of girls.” he mumbled towards the ground and then took a seat on the sidewalk curb.

“Then why did you ask her if you knew she was like that?” she asked, not really wanting to hear his fake answer considering she already knew the truth.

“Cuz I was upset ok!?” he snapped at her, making her jump slightly from his outburst and from hearing the anguish in his voice.

“Aww…Mr. Rockstar having girl issues?” she asked him back in a baby voice while she bent down by him, having her arms rest on her bent legs to balance herself.

She saw him smile a little and laugh lightly from her question before answering her back.
“You have no idea.”

She was taken off guard a little bit by his answer, making her wobble back and forth on her heels a little bit.

He looked back at her and saw her teetering there, and took off his jacket and laid on the curb next to him and then patted it.

An unspoken invitation to let her sit next to him.

She looked at him cautiously for a few seconds before standing up again and walking off the sidewalk and taking a seat on his jacket.

What is going on?! He doesn’t say anything nice to me 2 weeks ago and then completely stops talking to me for this past week and now I’m sitting next to him outside of the homecoming when I should be inside with Will…

Once she thought about Will she wanted to take it back instantly, from having her stomach get twisted into knots.

“I miss you.” she heard faintly from Joe that she leaned closer to him while asking him to say it again.

“I miss you. I miss talking to you and goofing off with you. And you’re little comments like just now. I miss how it used be between us. I hate pissing you off and being mean to you. But it seemed like the only thing I could do. And I’m sorry. Can we just start over?” he let out as if he was giving a speech.

“No.” was all she said to him after a few minutes of letting his words sink in.

“No?” he asked back, while looking at her and it looked like he was on the brink of tears.

“I don’t want to start over. How about we just pick up where we left off? Pretend this whole Will asking me to homecoming and us not talking for 2 weeks never happened.” she answered back, giving him a gentle smile and saw his face turn from sadness to happy in a matter of seconds.

“Sounds good. And if I’m allowed to say this, you look amazingly beautiful tonight. Not that those words gives you justice to how you look, but it’s the best I could come up with.“

“Really? I was expecting something more original from you. Like a made up word or something.” she laughed out, trying to hide her blush that was creeping up onto her cheeks.

“Give me a minute. I had it in my head when I first got to Steph’s but since I wasn’t allowed to say it I forgot. Hold on.” he said, showing her an index finger to wait.

She laughed at him, not really expecting him to actually say that he had a word. It was just another one of her comments she always said and it just happened to turn out that she was right.

“I think it was….stunagorgeful.” he said, bringing his eyes back to hers once he said it.

“And if you don’t mind me asking, what does that mean and how did you come up with that?” she laughed out.

“It’s stunning, gorgeous and beautiful all at the same time. My brain wouldn’t let me finish one of the words and that’s how it came out in my head.” he answered her while letting out a soft laugh as well before he continued.

“But really, you look amazing tonight.” he said, looking into her eyes to let her know that he really meant it.

She smiled sweetly back at him before muttering a thank you.

“You don’t look to bad yourself.” she said, looking him up and down in an obvious way to finalize her statement.

“Not to shabby huh?” he asked, extending his arms and legs out to look at himself and smiling a little.“Courtney didn’t like it though. She said she likes guys that go with the normal tux.”

“Well I don’t like Courtney.” Brittany mumbled under her breath while turning her head to the side, her jealousy coming out.

“What?” Joe asked while bending his legs slightly and leaning onto his knees with his arms to try and get a better look at her.

“I said, she shouldn’t be talking. You made her look good.” she covered quickly while looking back at him and giving him a smile as she saw a small tinge of pink come to his cheeks as he smiled back at her.

“Yeah…my mom wasn’t too happy about my dates choice in dressing. Although, I don’t really blame her. Her dress is….” he trailed off, looking up at the midnight blue sky and twinkling white stars.

“Ugly. Slutty. Kinda hoar-ish?” Brittany listed off for him while looking at his profile.

He chuckled a little under his breath and then turned his head towards her and said, “Well I didn’t want to say it out loud. But yes. And my mom actually asked about you, not even bothering to try to whisper it to me in front of Courtney.”

Brittany let out laugh, not being able to picture his mom ever being rude to a guest in her house and asked him what he said.

“I just told her that I missed out. Courtney elbowed me in the ribs for that. But my mom seemed toenjoy watching me get beat up for being a dumbass.”

And that’s when her laughing stopped and she looked at him with all seriousness in her voice. “Joe. You’re not a dumbass.”

“Yes I am. I’m a dumbass for a lot of reasons. And I’m not gonna list them off for you considering you won’t understand half of them, but I’m a dumbass for not just telling you that I liked you. And I’m a dumbass for being a jerk and not talking to you for the last two weeks. And I’m sorry. Truly sorry.” he said while leaning towards her again.

She got lost in his sorrow filled eyes, and let a small smile creep it way slowly onto her face.

“It’s ok Joe. Remember, picking up from where we left off. But before we do that, I have to say I’m
sorry too. But officially no more of this sorry crap. It never happened.” she said with an assertive voice which brought a smile to his face.

“Ok.” he said quietly and then stood up and offered his hand to her.

“Since you are so lovely tonight and we are at a dance, would it be ok if I asked you for one dance?”

She smiled up at him and grabbed his hand, and he pulled her up to her feet.

“I suppose.” she sighed out, as if it might kill her to dance with him and she let out a small laugh as she watched him roll his eyes at her with a smile on his face.

He bent down and picked up his jacket, dusted it off and slung it over his left shoulder while he bent his right arm for her to loop her arm through.

He escorted her back inside the building, both huge smiles on their faces at the fact the they were back to whatever they were before everything happened between them.

It didn’t matter at the point that they still didn’t figure it out what they were, but only because they were both happy that they were friends again. The last two, horribly long two weeks erased from their minds.

Right as they approached the main gym doors, Steph came running around from one of the corners and made them both jump by yelling at Brittany, asking where she was.

“I was with Joe. We made up.” Brittany said while lifting hers and Joe’s arms up to show they were linked together.

A smile spread across Steph’s face at seeing her two friends reunited back together.

“As happy as I am to see you two not trying to kill each other with your eyes, can I borrow her for a second Joe? It’s really important.” Steph said, grabbing hold of Brittany’s arm and tried to drag her away towards the girls bathroom.

“No. I just got her back and she promised me a dance. We only have like 20 minutes until the dance ends.” Joe countered her statement while giving Brittany a tug, making Steph’s lose hold slip off of her wrist and make her hit Joe’s chest hard.

“It’s really important Joe…” she whined back as Brittany tried to regain her balance.

“Come on Steph. You’re like a sister to me. You can tell me too. You know you’ll end up telling me anyways or Brittany will tell me.” he said somewhat cocky while flashing one of his dazzling smiles to try and turn the conversation his way.

“That’s what you think. Brittany and I are like this!” she said while raising her hand up to show her index and middle finger crossed over each other.

“Yeah, I’ve been meaning to ask you about that. Since when did you two get so close? I mean, not saying that you weren’t but now you two are like glued to the hip.” he said, obvious wonder coming out in his tone.

“Steph! Just tell me already!” Brittany said with a laugh and dodging Joe’s question for the time being.

“Fine. But Mr. Loser over here can’t get mad.” she fired back while glaring at Joe like a 4 year old.

“Whatever Miss. Jerk.” Joe shot back to her.

“Wow! Really mature guys!” Brittany laughed out, only to receive glares from the both of them.

After a few minutes Steph’s face softened and let out a sigh before leaning in towards Brittany and whispered her important news into her ear.

“NO WAY! OH MY GOSH! I’M SO EXCITED AND HAPPY FOR YOU!”Brittany yelled out while detangling herself from Joe and pulling her best friend into a tight, excited hug.

“Tell Me! I wanna know!” Joe whined from beside them, causing them both to laugh a little.
“Your older brother asked her out on a date!” Brittany said excitedly as her and Steph broke their hug but clacked their heels against the tiles from jumping slighlty out of excitement.

“When?!” Joe asked, looking shocked that his brother would actually listen to his advice for once.

“Like 15 minutes ago!” Steph said excitedly as she did a little jump as her and Brittany stood there holding onto each other’s forearms and moving around a little bit with huge smiles on their faces.

“No. I meant like...for when? What day?” he asked while rolling his eyes slightly to show his irritation for having to ask the question perfectly in order to get the appropriate answer.

“Oh.” Steph laughed out. “Tomorrow!”

“Tomorrow?!” Joe and Brittany asked out in unified astonishment.

“Yeah. And he even suggested that it be a double date just so that I would be comfortable with it. I mean, it’s not like I need it to be a group date or anything, but…I think he’s just nervous. And! Oh my gosh this is just too perfect!” she said, taking her hands off of Brittany’s forearms and clapping them together out of excitement.

“What’s too perfect?” Joe asked out of confusion while Brittany’s jittery excitement was put on the back burner from her confusion as well.

“Well, who better to put Kevin more at ease than his brother and who better to put me at ease than my best friend?! And since you two are talking now….” she trailed off, expecting them to piece together her suggestion without having to actually say it.

“Oh…” Joe let out softly and then turned to look at Brittany, waiting to see her reaction to the invitation.

She looked over at Joe and widened her eyes while shrugging her shouldersas if to ask, “Why not?”, causing him to smile towards her and then turn towards Steph and say, “Sure. We’d love to come along to ease this monumental moment for yours and Kevin’s relationship.”

Brittany just started to laugh and shook her head at Joe’s response and pulled on his arm along with Stephs towards the gym.

“Now that everything is settled and Joe and I are good, let’s dance!” she said to the both of them.

Joe immediately smiled towards her while maneuvering his arm around so that he was now holding hands with her and Steph nodded her head in excitement and took off in front of them, holding Brittany’s other hand, pulling them towards where she left Kevin.

Once the four of them were together, they made their way into the crowd of people to start dancing.

Luckily for Brittany, Will was already dancing with some other girl, which he seemed to be enjoying himself with, so she felt her little pang of guilt leave her for ditching him for Joe.

All other doubts in her mind quickly washed away as she felt Joe’s hands rest lightly on her hips from him being behind her as the two couples danced to “Please Don’t Stop the Music” by Rihanna and many other songs for the last minutes of the dance.

Officially best night of my life!