Why, thank you. And now, an update! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chapter 27 "Thanks for letting me practice here," I smile. I set my bag on Ben's bed, smiling at the tree of them. "Any time, sweetheart. You are family," Sera smiles. "Our home is your home." "Exactly. Now, make yourself at home," Al smiles. Sera and Al wave and leave the room. "And now, we are alone," Ben smiles. He walks towards me and kisses me. "Easy, big boy," I smirk. "We are here to practice, not to kiss and giggle." "I don't giggle! I am a man!" Ben exclaims. "There's a spider on your head." I smile. "Ew! Get it off, get it off, get it off!" He starts ruffling his hair, causing me to laugh. It is so girly. He's afraid of spiders! Or at least when they get on him and his "precious" hair. "Dude, there isn't a spider," I laugh. "Just a trick." He frowns at me and shakes his head. "I hate you," he says, narrowing his eyes. "I love you too," I smile and kiss him. He smiles and picks me up, placing me on his bed. "Let's start practice," he smiles. He lies down next to me and closes his eyes. I focus on staying awake. I can stay awake. This is my mind. Suddenly, my vision blackens and I am sucked into the dream. ~*~*~* The next week, I still can't stop being sucked into dreams. I continue to try. By the time it's three days before the dance, I still never get close. "It's hopeless. I can't go!" I exclaim after another failed attempt to not watch Ben's dream. "You need to. And I know you can do it," Ben protests. "I don't think so." "One more try. If it doesn't work, you don't have to go and I stay with you watching boring television." "Now you make my life seem terrible. But, fine. One last try. All of this is making me extremely tired." He lies down again and closes his eyes. He looks so peaceful. I smile, knowing that he is always going to be here for me. I start playing with his hair, thinking about how much he means to me. I start pacing and thinking. If Charlotte hadn't gone to such drastic measures to keep me away from Ben, this wouldn't matter. I wouldn't have to do this. And I wouldn't be nominated Prom Queen. After an hour, I hear Ben yawn. He sits up and blinks, surprised. "You're awake?" he asks. "Yeah. While you were lying there, listening to me, I got up an about," I reply. "But I was asleep," he says, eyes wide. "You were...asleep?" I ask. He was asleep. "I did it!" I exclaim. "It worked!" He smiles and jumps up from his bed. I run over to him and he picks me up, planting a kiss on my lips. I finally beat the dream. I can now go to Prom! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Yay!
Update! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chapter 28 I walk into the large auditorium. I mean it, it's huge! And the decorations are absolutely breath taking. The theme is "Glow Bright!" Glow sticks, glow paint, neon lights, glow necklaces and bracelets, just anything that's glow related, it's here. I can't believe that I missed something like this before! "Excited yet?" Ben whispers into my ear, his lips lingering to kiss my ear. "Totally," I giggle. "That tickles," I add when he kisses my ear. We walk over to a table that has glow sticks taped around it. The table has paper with glow paint all over it that says "Have a great glowing time!" We sit down for a moment, taking the whole place in. Suddenly, I hear footsteps stop behind me. When I turn, I see the Duo. "Alana," one of them says, her voice too high to be natural. They each have their hair up in a big mess. What did they do, get out of bed and think, "Hey, my hair looks great!" "What's up with your hair? Did you get your hair stuck in your little brothers' toys?" I ask them. Each gasp, outraged. Their gasps sound like mouse squeaks. "We went to the salon! Unlike you!" the other girl says, her voice squeaking. She must have eaten a mouse. "I didn't have to. I have a wonderful family that cares about me. Unlike you," I retort, smirking. "Why don't you-" the first one starts, her voice about to pierce my eardrums. "Save it, Miss Prissy Pants and Miss Pissy," I interject. "I don't care at all! You can talk to me that way when I'm living on the streets. Which I am not. So piss off, girls," I say, standing with a drink from another table. "Bitch," the second one squeaks and shoves me. The drink gets pushed out of my hand and all over their white dresses. Turns out, it was red punch in the cup. The girls squeal and run away in their ten inch high heels. "Oh, my God!" I hear people say, watching me. I smirk, sitting down. "When did you become such a bad ass?" Ben asks me, smiling. "When Charlotte tied me up in her basement," I reply happily. "Let's go celebrate, with a photo!" Ben stands and takes my hand, pulling me up. He takes me to the short line for photos and we sit there, talking and laughing. Finally, it's our turn. "Ready for a picture you'll never forget?" he asks. I nod and we stand, his arm around my waist and my arm around his neck. Then, he tips me, kissing me as the photographer gets the picture. "Creative," I say, standing straight. "Thank you," he smiles. We walk back to our table when the music stops, and we hear a female voice. "Hello, Prom goers!" we hear. I turn to see the head of the Prom Committee. "Are you ready to find out your Prom King and Queen?!" she calls out. Everyone cheers and I notice the girls walking out of the bathroom, a pale stain on their dresses. "Now, first, our Prom King is..." she starts. I bet it's Preston. It's the only way he became popular. Girls fell head over heels for him then, and they are dying to be with him now. The girl opens the envelope and pulls out a small piece of paper. "Ben Colman!" she screams. I turns and smile at Ben. He's just standing there, shocked, and how could he not?! "Ben! Go!" I exclaim, kissing his cheek. He takes a deep breathe and walk up to the stage. He smiled at me and let the girl place the crown on his head. Now, I have to win Prom Queen. "Aaaaaaaand Prom Queen is..." she smiles, pulling another piece of paper out of another envelope. I hold my breath, waiting. "Alana Davis!" she screams. The Duo yells in outrage. Everyone cheers. I smile and slowly make my way to the stage next to Ben, my black dress lightly hitting the sides of my knees. She smiles and puts the crown on my head after I make it up there. "Congrats," she whispers. I grin and take Ben's hand, excited. He pulls me towards him and kisses me, right in front of the crowd. I feel my face get hot and I hear "aww"s and whistles. "Best night of your life?" Ben whispers. I just nod, holding my breath. This is insane! Just insane. Like Ben said, best night of my life! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Time for an update! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chapter 29 I walk into my house after I celebrated this morning. Ben follows behind me, grabbing the mail. I set my bag down in the middle of the bare floor. Clean. Scary. I'm still not used to seeing clean floor instead of the beer and vodka bottles, the trash, the old food lying everywhere. "Hey, you got a letter from your old man," Ben says, breaking me away from my thought. "Dad? Really?" I ask, taking the letter from him. I open it and see his handwriting. He even remembered how to spell my name. Wow. I read over it, going over thinks I didn't think he remembered. "What does it say?" Ben asks, watching my eyes go wide near the end. "He says he wants to talk with me. And with you too," I smile. He grins, glad to know my father remembered him, even though I never told him about Ben, thinking he wouldn't remember anyway. But I don't tell Ben, but I wonder on how my father found out. "He wants to talk about my mother. And he wants me to bring photos." Ben looks at me confused. "Of Prom. He actually remembered." I smile in disbelief. "He even wonders on how my 'condition' is going. Our code word for my dream watching. I can't believe he even remember how he spelled my name. He even remembered my name by itself." "Well, let's go visit tomorrow. That way I can finally meet your father personally, with the exception that I don't tell him that I call the police on him," Ben says, taking the letter and reading it for himself. The next day, Ben drives us to the prison my Dad has been kept at for the last few weeks. I am nervous. He could lose it. He could forget who I am again. Ben must see that I am so nervous, so he pats my head. "Why the hell are you touching my hair?!" I ask. "How many times have I told you not-" "To touch your hair. Yeah, I know. But you seem nervous." He takes my hand and keeps his eyes on the road. Finally, we get there, me nervous as hell. He keeps his hand in mine as we sign up, shifting hands as he signs. We walk into a room, waiting. Soon the door opens, me holding my breath, and another person seems to come through the door. "Dad?" I finally choke out after he sits down in front of us. "Hello, darling," he smiles. Darling? He's never called me that! What the hell happened to him? "And this must be the young man dating my daughter," he says, referring to Ben. "Ben Colman, sir," he says. "What happened to you? Why are you so...normal?" I ask my father. "I've stopped drinking. And, I've finally taken my medication. By the way, how are you dealing with your condition?" he asks. "All cleared, with his help," I smile, squeezing Ben hand. My father smiles at Ben. "Now, let's see those Prom pictures," he smiles. I pull them out and slide them towards him. He looks through the before pictures, taken by Ben's mother. Then, the during pictures. I slipped out the one where Ben dipped me and kissed me. "Hey, where's the dip-n-kiss?" Ben asks. I feel my face flush red. Oh, boy. "I thought it was in there," I lie. I can't let him know that I slipped it out. It's his favorite picture. "Did you leave it?" he asks me. "I don't think so. I'm almost sure that I didn't," I say. My father laughs, grinning at us. "What did you do with it?" my father asks me. "What are you talking about? I did nothing." I look at his gleaming eyes. He knows something. "Where did you hide the picture? I know you are lying, sweetheart. I can tell by your eyes," he grins. "I haven't the slightest idea on what you are talking about." My father laughs again. "You purposely left it at home, didn't you?" my father asks, grinning. "Maybe," I say. "Maybe not." "Alana! Why did you leave it?" Ben finally asks. "Maybe because it is embarrassing. In front of my father is even worse." "Then, we will show him," Ben grins. I grip my seat, my knuckles turning white. Ben stands grinning at me. "No no no no no. No." I keep my grip, not wanting to move. I am stubborn when I need to be, and this is one of those times. He pries me from my seat, my father laughing. He kisses me gently, trying to calm me down. Which it does. He dips me and kisses me, like in the Prom picture. "That is adorable," my father smiles. He looks through the rest of the pictures as we sit down. He finally passes them back to us. "So, what did you need to talk about?" I ask him. "Your mother," he says gravely. "What do you mean?" "Alana, your mother is dead." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ WHAT?!