isn't it ironic that we adore who ignore us,
ignore who adore us,
love who hurt us and hurt who love us?
Well I know this kid named Yazoo. He is really nice and everything. Except for the fact that he ignores me. I tell you he does. I can't talk to him because whenever I try he just looks straight ahead and doesn't answer me. Of course it probably doesn't help that he can't see me, but still. Being a ghost doesn't make a difference, when I was alive he still ignored me. I wanted him to know who the heck I was so I tried to get him to talk to me and ask me to prom, but no he didn't. I asked him and he continued to ignore me. I still adored him.
Well on prom night, I was going solo, though I had been asked by this one kid but I ignored him. I'm just that nice. When that kid asked me to prom he told me he adored me even though I ignore him and I thought that was a great phrase because Yazoo ignores me and I adore him. Anyways, at prom I had the most beautiful dress. Which makes sense because I'm the richest girl in school and everyone but Yazoo seems to adore me. Well I saw Jace there and he was looking handsome as ever.
Jace is my ex-boyfriend. He used to be the sweetest boyfriend ever, but then I started to hang out with some of my guy friends and he got jealous. Seeing him jealous isn't the greatest fun. I hurt him by making him jealous, so he hurt me...literally. I still have the bruises to prove it. We only broke up about a week ago. I miss him, but my guy friends tell me I can't be in an abusive relationship or they will have to kill my abuser. So Jace is out of my life for good I guess. Anyways...Jace came up to me, as my guy friends bet he would, and asked me to dance with him. I said yes because I still love him and can't resist being near him. So we went out on the dance floor and started to dance.
"I've missed you," Jace whispers to me as we slow dance. I just smile happily, enjoying the moment while it lasts. "Did you come with anyone?" There is was the question that would lead to a problem or make him think he had a chance.
"Yes, she came with me. Can I butt in?" Xakery was standing there. He was one of my gay guy friends. I love him I must say, he always gets me away from Jace when I'm about to make a mistake. I go with Xakery, who quickly removes me from standing by Jace who is very very mad now.
"Naughty child," Xakery mutters. "Wanton and I can't even leave you alone for a minute before you going running back to that guy. Really Maena, you need to get over him already."
"Sorry, it was just a dance," I apologize. They have helped me so much and here I was ruining everything they have done.
"Well my dear, we have found you a dance partner so you won't be dancing with Jace tonight."
"Oh? who is that?"
"Wanton is with him now. I bet you are very curious so let's go find them."
Sure enough Wanton had this guy backed up against a wall so he couldn't make a run for it.
"Maena, may I present you with your date of the evening," Wanton proudly announced. "He came solo but is leaving with a date got it?" He watched me closely making sure I understood. This guy that they had picked was a football player. He was stronger than them, and yet was letting them push him around. I knew almost immediately that they hadn't had to try very hard to get him to do this. They must have already had it planned before he came.
"Fine, I'm going to go sit down now," I snip at them. They would plan something without my approval.
"No you're not missy," Xakery has a firm hand around my arm. "You are going to spend tonight hanging out with Noah. You will dance with him and go to post-prom with him. Got it yet?"
"You planned this before I got here. Before prom even began and you expect me to follow through. You could have just asked me," I glared at Noah. "It's not like I'm hard to find. I said fine, but I am going to sit down and that's my decision. He can come if he wants." I pull my arm away from Xakery and walked off. They might have done so much for me, but I still wasn't about to let them rule my life for me. Wanton catches up with me and pulls me to a stop. Noah and Xakery are talking to each other out of earshot behind him.
"Maena, we aren't staying at the prom okay? You know that Xakery and I get picked on, so we were going to have an enjoyable time somewhere else. You insisted that you wanted to go to prom since you had your dress and everything, but we don't want to leave you alone here. What if Jace backs you into a corner all alone? No one would come to your rescue except me and Xakery. We would probably be the only ones that notice you are gone immediately and go looking for you. Yeah everyone else would notice our princess isn't around, but still we need to make sure you are found immediately. We found Noah, who by the way loves you, and he is the best man for the job that we do. He will look after you. Please let him for me and Xakery. We can't stay here."
I would never let my friends be in pain and its obvious that being at prom is causing them pain so I nod and walk back over to Noah. "Wanton has changed my mind, we are going to dance." I drag him onto the dance floor and he of course doesn't say a word. "If you plan on hanging out with me you better be talking," I meanly mutter.
"Gosh Maena, be nice would you?" he whispered as a slow dance came on. "Wouldn't you hate to piss your body guard off? It doesn't sound like a very good idea."
"You aren't my bodyguard," I laugh. "You are my date remember?"
Jace is stalking towards us with a scowl on his face and I flinch, spinning so that Noah will be able to see Jace approaching. Noah nodded to me, showing that he knew that Jace was coming and we continued to dance. Until Jace pushed me out of the way and punched Noah in the nose, I think he broke it. I just stared in shook as Noah took my hand and we walked off. He didn't even try to fight Jace back. The dance floor had gone silent for a minute, but now I could hear the rumors flying. "Jace is jealous of Noah." "They broke up only a week ago." "I heard that they broke up because Maena is a whore." "No that's not true. He was abusing her. Didn't you ever wonder where she got those bruises from?" That last comment I knew who said it. I twirled around and saw my best friend, Clairy standing in the path of Jace, correcting someone.
"I'm going to the bathroom to clean this up," Noah muttered and I nodded pointing out Clairy. He agreed with me and walked off. The next person I heard talk was Jace.
"You are a whore Maena. You said you would come here with me and I have seen nothing of you except when you are with other guys for the last week. You told me we weren't going to prom together tonight! I will get you back." He charged at me, Clairy was standing between us and I was too scared to move. Clairy wasn't looking at Jace, but she must have know he was approaching us from my look of terror and she turned me around and gave me a little shove. That got me moving, I ran out of that place as fast as I could. Just off the dance floor though, that's when I turned around to see that Jace couldn't get out. Everyone on the dance floor was surrounding him, forcing him to stay put. He wouldn't be able to move very far, so I just sat down and waited for Noah to come back out.
Clairy came up to me and tried to get me to calm down. It was only then that I realized I was crying. Right about the time I started to sob even harder, Noah comes out. He looks at me and sees the crowd on the dance floor blocking Jace from me and just takes me hand, nods at Clairy, and walks me out of my junior prom. I just let him take me out. I don't care anymore, and if Noah knows where we are going then I will go with him.
He took me to the park that is all the way across town and we just sat on the swings there. He didn't say anything, just sat there while I tried to calm down. I just couldn't seem to. After awhile he got off his swing and came over to me. "He's gone you know," Noah murmured to me, holding onto the chains of my swing, leaning towards me.
I look at him and then glare angrily. "What's your point? Now everyone knows that I let him beat me and that he wants to kill me. That isn't exactly something I would want to whole school to know. Now take me home. I'm done with this."
"Didn't I say you should be nice?" Noah teased.
"Maybe, but I don't give a shit right now. Take me home." I push him, trying to get him to let go of my swing so I can get up.
"I don't wanna. You have to be nice first." I was getting mad at him, really mad, so I pushed him again. He still wouldn't get off. "Maena?"
"What?" I growl angrily, looking into his sea green eyes. I must admit that he had some gorgeous eyes.
"It's not that hard to be nice."
"Get away from me," I hissed out and kicked him. His eyes flashed with pain, and I flinched, thinking he was going to slap me. He didn't though, he released my swing and walked towards his car. I followed him and quickly got in, ready to be home in my room, or just my house. We didn't go anywhere though, Noah just pulled out his cell phone and called someone.
"Isn't it ironic that we adore who ignore us, ignore you adore us, love who hurt us and hurt who love us?" Noah said into the phone. I could hear the person on the other line and realized it was Wanton.
"What'd she do?" Wanton replied, sounding tired.
"Well let me start at the beginning shall I?" Noah joked.
"No, never mind. Where do is she? I can come get her."
"I don't need a babysitter," I growled out at Noah. Noah glanced at me before answering.
"She says she doesn't need a babysitter. I'm taking her home right now and by the way, I think my nose is broken."
"Who broke it? Maena wouldn't...Jace?"
"You got it. Though I wouldn't put it past Maena to break it, except for it's already broken."
"I'll be at her house when you get there," Wanton announced. I heard Xakery sigh in the background and knew that was the last place they both wanted to be.
I took the phone from Noah quickly, "Wanton, Noah can stay with me if I MUST have a fucking babysitter. You two have fun okay? I don't want to spoil your night."
"Give the phone back to Noah," Wanton ordered without saying anything else to me. He didn't even ask is I was okay or anything. I mean I know I'm a little selfish and all, but still he's one of my best friends. I didn't catch what Wanton said next, but then Noah hung up and drove me home.
"You cause quite a few problems missy," Noah murmured to me when we parked in my driveway. "What if I had wanted to do something other than hang out at your house all night with a beautiful lady like yourself?"
"You don't have to stay," I snipped back. "I don't need a babysitter."
"Well you won't mind me staying since Jace is walking towards us yet again would you?" Noah inquired. I froze up and looked out the window, sure enough Jace was here.
"Why won't he just leave me alone?"
"I would say we should go inside, but I'm thinking it's safer in this car than out there right now."
"We could go into the garage," I suggested, pulling the garage opener from my purse. My mother always made me take it with me and not the house key. She preferred me coming in the garage door so she knew I was home by the sound of it. Not that my parents were home tonight, they had gone on a trip for the weekend with everyone but me since I was going to prom.
"Great idea, opener up." I opened the door and we drove in then I closed the door quickly so Jace couldn't get in. "So what do you want to do now that you have me trapped in your house?"
"Ice cream?" I suggest, "and movies?"
"Sounds good to me." I led him into the house and we found strawberry ice cream and vanilla ice cream in the freezer. I knew that we had root beer float ice cream somewhere, so I went into my parents secret stash freezer and found it. Then we put in a movie and curled up on the couch together. I was rather scared that Jace would get in somehow, so I wanted to stay close to my protector. When I pulled my phone out I noticed that I had over twenty texts from people and quite a few voice mails. The texts mostly said the same thing, that they were sorry and warning me that Jace had said he was coming to my house.
Noah stayed quiet most of the movie and just sat there, letting me feel safe in his arms. When the movie was over it was pretty late and I was dozing off. "Why didn't you fight back?" I whispered to Noah.
"Because I would get kicked off the football team. No fighting back is the coaches motto. We can start fights, but we can't be the ones that react to them. Plus would you have been more mad if I beat up the person you so love than if I didn't?"
"Good point," I murmur, standing up. "I'm going to go to bed. You are welcome to stay if you wish, but I'm sure Jace is gone by now."
"Actually, I'm sure he isn't," Noah laughed, getting up also. "I'll take you up on your offer."
"No monkey business though," I warned him and took his hand, leading him to my room. Then I went into my bathroom and changed into my nightgown, well tried to change. I couldn't get my dress undone, so I had to go back out and ask him for help. Noah unzipped me and didn't try anything when my dress fell to my feet. I hadn't meant for it to fall down, but it did. Blushing, I walked back into the bathroom and quickly changed.
Then we curled up in my bed. I don't know why I let him in my bed, but I guess I figured I would be safer with his protecting arms around me. I felt much safer.
"Goodnight Maena," Noah whispered quietly to me. I turned around so I was facing him and looked in his eyes, they were still the gorgeous sea green I had seen before.
"Goodnight Noah, and thanks."
"For what?" Noah asked, looking confused. I gave him a little shove and grinned.
"For being here, for protecting me from Jace, for acting like you care."
"I do care," Noah murmured as I started to drift off again. "I have always cared. Don't forget that quote that I said to Wanton. That was the quote I use to describe you." My eyes snapped back open, wanting to believe what he said. Wanting to believe that he actually cared about me. "I do care," Noah repeated, seeing the confusion in my eyes. "I care what happens to you. I care that you get hurt." I didn't say anything, just stared at him, and then Noah brought his lips to mine and kissed me, gently and softly. "And I care what you think about me." He kissed me again, "and that you feel safe and are safe." His kisses were so sweet and soft. "Goodnight Maena," he whispered to me and kissed me one more time. He started to turn over so he wasn't facing me anymore, but I stopped him, and kissed him.
"You are a horrible person," I laughed quietly, kissing him again. I really liked kissing him. "Taking advantage of me in this state." He pulled away and looked at me before kissing me again.
"Well then stop kissing me so I'm not taking advantage of you," he replied. We continued to kiss, my sleepiness gone.
Nebraska: So Utah's hotel pooped us out for hotels so we decided we were driving all the way through to Iowa. We made little stops along the way so we didn't fall asleep. We stopped at a Little America (the billboards really wanted us to go there). I don't know what their obsession with penguins was about though. Then we stopped at a Prison and at Lincoln's head. The Prison was awesome :) I got to go into the gas chamber and we just had a huge tour of the place.
