"I don't have to do a damn thing!" I said in a loud tone as I went inside the ballroom.
As the two were about to come after me, I was already inside looking around. My eyes went straight over to Chris and Ashley as they were standing by each other in a loving embrace. My mind started to wander to the time when Charlie and I was all lovey-dovey. No matter how upset I could be at Charlie sometimes, I could stare into her pretty brown eyes and I forget what I was upset about. I turned away from the happy couple so they wouldn't see me; but I was too late. Chris spotted me first as he came over to me with his arms stretch out.
"Where the hell you been, man? We've been looking all over town for you!"
I looked at Chris and sighed.
"Thanks "Dad", but as you can see, I'm fine," I said in a smart tone.
"You're drunk, Michael."
"How did you guess that?"
"Come on, I'll take you home," Chris said as he tried to take my hand.
"You're not taking me anywhere," I said as I jerked my hand away from Chris.
"I can't believe you drove here drunk. You could have got into an accident on the way here."
"Spare me the lecture, Chris. I think I had enough lectures in my lifetime."
"Well add this one to your list. What is going on with you? Do you want your life to end before it even starts?"
"Leave me alone, Chris."
While Chris and I were arguing, a loud feedback from the microphone on stage made everyone, including us, jump.
"Hello. Is everyone having fun tonight?" the man asked on stage.
The crowd started to scream and clap their appreciation to the man in front of them.
"Now I would like to announce this years' prom king and queen."
The crowd started to become even more excited as they waited for the man on stage to announce the honors. I looked at Chris and rolled my eyes. As long as I didn't see Marberry's face, I'd be fine.
As the man, who I assumed was Parker's principal, pulled out two gold sealed envelopes, he looked at the crowd with a happy expression.
"I'll first announce the prom king," he said as he slowly opened the envelope. From the crowd's reaction, they were losing patience and wanted him to get on with it.
"And that honor goes to no other than Derrick Marberry!" he exclaimed."Of course," I mumbled as I turned my head away from the stage.
"You didn't answer my question, Mike. What possessed you to come here drunk?" Chris asked in an angry tone.
As I tried to block Chris out of my mind, I looked over and saw Charlie sitting at a nearby table with Ashley. I wanted to walk over to her and tell her how miserable she made me feel tonight, when the microphone made another screeching noise, causing everyone to jump again.
"We at Parker High decided to make a new tradition that will be pass on for years to come. We decided for the king and queen to have the royal dance with their perspective dates. Now if everyone can give room for the king and queen to have their dance."
As the prom queen walked on to the dance floor with her date, Derrick looked around the room frantically looking for Charlie. I watched as Derrick walked over to the table where Charlie was sitting and extended his hand out to her. She looked at him angrily while he tried to get her to dance with him. After a second, she sighed and took Derrick's hand. I shook my head at the scene. For a second, I thought Charlie would forget Derrick and let him suffer, but of course, she went back to him in a pitiful manner to save his ego.
Ashley looked at the two and then she looked over at Chris and me. She got up from the table and walked over to us.
"What are you doing here?" she asked as she watched Charlie and Derrick dancing.
"To be honest, I don't know," I said as I started to walk out of the ballroom. As I went to the door, I suddenly turned around and went back in. I came here for a reason.
"Michael, what are you doing?" Chris asked.
I blocked Chris out of my way as I was walking into the crowd. While practically pushing anyone who was in my way, I finally made it to the center of the dance floor. I looked at the two lovebirds dancing as if they didn't have a care in the world.
Charlie looked up and noticed that I was standing by her. With a stunned expression, she quickly released herself from Derrick's embrace and looked at me.
"Oh don't keep me from your royal dance. If I didn't know any better, it looks like you were enjoying it."
"We have been looking everywhere for you. What made you decide to come here?" Charlie asked in a scared tone.
"I don't know Charlie. I guess I decided to come for various reasons. Maybe I came to see how Parker really party, which in my opinion is lame, compared to Belmont. Or maybe I came to see the famous couple of Parker, Charlie Perry and Derrick Marberry, in action."
"You're drunk, Michael," Derrick said.
"Step off jerk! You already stole my girlfriend, what more you want!"
"Michael, you're embarrassing yourself. Let's go so we can talk," Charlie said.
"Talk about what! You said all you had to say on the terrace; now it's my turn to speak!"
I went up to the stage in a jealous rage. I noticed Parker's principal was talking to the man who was at the hostess table earlier. I knew he was about to call security, but I wasn't leaving until I said my peace. As I was going to the microphone, the principal angrily came up to me.
"You need to leave, now!"
"I don't think so. Last time I checked this is a public hotel, so you need to step off!"
I grabbed the microphone from the stand, causing me to slightly bump into the principal.
After that stunt, he waved his hand toward the back to call for security.
"Take a good look at the two to your right. Don't they look happy together?" I said in a drunken state.
"See these two may be Parker's power couple, but that girl right there was my girlfriend. Doesn't she look ravishing tonight people?"
The crowd looked at me with crazy looks on their faces.
"Turns out she isn't even supposed to be at this prom. She was banned from this school, so if I can't be here, neither can she."
Charlie put her hand over her face while Derrick came up to me and grabbed the microphone from me.
"What the hell is your problem man? If it's with me, then so be it. But don't drag Charlie in this."
"Go to hell Marberry. You know, guys like you make me sick. You think you can do whatever the hell you want; but I got news for you; you're nothing to me."
Derrick was about to hit me with his fist when Chris pulled him away from me. "Let's go Michael, before you make a bigger ass out of yourself."
"I'm not going anywhere," I said as I went over to Charlie.
I looked at her and sighed.
Charlie looked at me with a speechless look. She wanted to say something, but she couldn't.
"Speechless Char? That's the first considering all you said tonight. You know it amazes me that you can still stand here and act like nothing ever happened. If it wasn't for you, my life would be perfect. I would be going through my senior year without any worries or problems. But no, you had to sashay your ass into my life and make it a living hell! Maybe my mom was right about you. You're nothing but a cheap ass whore!"
Charlie looked at me and forcibly slapped my left cheek. She pushed past me as she walked into the crowd and toward the door. As security finally showed up, I looked at the stunned faces around me and turned toward the door. I think my work here was done.
Charlie
I can't believe Michael said those words to me! After all we'd been through, that was what he thought of me? A cheap whore! While running from the ballroom, I tripped and fell in the lobby, causing even more embarrassment to myself. While people, who used to be my classmates, where pointing and laughing at me, I felt completely alone. As I just lay on the hard wooden floor, I started to recap the evening's events. The hateful looks and mean stares people were giving me while I was in the ballroom. Several people even wondered why I was at Parker's prom. As I was walking towards the refreshment table for the fifth time that night, two girls, who saw me standing beside them, were talking as if I wasn't even present.
"Why is she back here?" the first girl asked while sipping on her punch.
"I guess she decided to slum since she thinks she so high and mighty now," the other girl said while looking at me.
I rolled my eyes and walked away. People can talk all they want about me, no one from Parker knew what happened at Belmont, so they needed to shut up. But as I was sitting on the cold wooden floor, I realized that it didn't matter if people from Parker knew what went down between Michael and me; people were going to talk whether the accusations are true or false, so there was nothing I could do about the gossip. When I looked up, I noticed a hand stretched out toward me. I looked at the person's face and realized that it was Eva who was trying to help me up. I looked at Eva with a surprised look on my face.
"Don't act surprised. I just can't look at you any longer on the floor."
I smiled and took Eva's hand. As she pulled me up, Eva gave me a smile.
"You know you didn't have to help me," I said.
Eva laughed. "You're welcome. Next time I'll leave you sitting on the floor while people point and stare at you."
I laughed. "I'm serious Eva. Why you helped me up?"
"Because I hate to see my friend suffering,"
I looked at Eva. All this time and she still thinks we are friends.
"I know you probably don't think of us as friends anymore, but I do. We have been friends since we were four. I can't imagine us not being able to talk every day or help each other out when we have a problem. Char, I know I messed up by not telling you about Michael and me, but at the time, I thought that by keeping that night a secret, I would be protecting you."
"I understand your theory E, but I would have respected you more if you would have been honest with me from the start instead of lying. You knew that Michael and I were together, but you decided to leave your one-night stand in the past."
"Because that's where it should be. Char, what happened between Michael and I was just one night, that's all. We both were in a vulnerable place at that time, and even though it was just for a few hours, we both felt it was something to take our minds off of what was bothering us. We didn't know we were going to see each other again after that night; that's why I was shocked when I found out you were dating Michael."
"Did you ever have feelings for him?" I asked softly.
"At first I did. I thought something was going to develop between us after that night, but it didn't. Michael went back to Danielle and I went back to Kevin. The feelings I had for him did resurface when I saw him with you, but I realized that nothing could have happened between us. When I saw you two together, I saw the love you two had. The way Michael looks at you is beautiful. It had that look in his eye that showed that you captured his heart and soul."
"Really?" I asked.
"Anybody could see that. Especially Danielle; that's why she didn't like you, because believe me, I don't think Michael ever looked at her the way he looks at you."
A tear started to roll down my cheek as I walked away from Eva. Eva went over to me and put an arm around me.
"I know things haven't been good between you two, but don't stop fighting for him. We all made mistakes, but I know in time, things will get better between you two. For all we know, you two could get married and have two or three kids running around the place."
I started to laugh at Eva's remark. It's good to hear Eva speaking about what could be in store for Michael and me.
I went over to Eva and gave her a big hug.
"Thanks," I said while my head was buried into her arm.
"For what?" Eva said silently.
"For being my friend again,"
Eva looked at me and smiled.
"I'm sorry for not telling you the truth."
I let go of Eva's embrace and smiled.
"It's all under the bridge now."
As we begin to hug each other again, Michael walked into the lobby. He looked over at us two and turned toward the revolving doors. Chris and Ashley ran outside to the lobby and sighed.
"I'll go follow Michael," Chris said to Ashley.
"Where is Michael going?" I asked Chris.
"I don't know, but I need to stop him before he starts driving again."
Ashley looked at Eva as she went up to her and gave her a hug.
"Let me go with you," I said to Chris.
"I don't think that's a good idea Char. I think things need to cool down right now before he sees you again."
"I don't care Chris. This whole night has been a disaster due in part to me. I need to fix things with Michael, and I'm going to do it with or without your help," I said as I gave Chris a long and mean look. I had to patch things up with Michael, and I intended on doing so tonight.
Eva and Ashley looked at Chris with a 'let-her-go' look. Chris gave a heavy sigh as he looked at Ashley.
"You're going to be okay here?"
"Yeah, I'll just get a ride with Eva, if you don't mind?" Ashley asked while looking at Eva.
"It's cool. Just go follow Michael."
"Let's go," Chris said as he started to head toward the revolving doors. As I started to walk behind Chris, I turned around and looked at Eva and Ashley. They looked at me with encouraging smiles on their faces. Things were starting to look up tonight. Now that I made up with Eva, there's still a little hope for Michael and I to start over. I just hoped it wasn't too late.
As I hopped back into the Hummer limo, I quickly grabbed the bottle of scotch that was lying under the seat and took the top off. I guzzled the last of the liquor in one long swig. I threw the bottle in the back of the limo and turned on the ignition. As I looked at my surroundings, I took a deep breath. As tonight's events started to creep up inside me, I put my head on the steering wheel and started to cry. Normally, I don't cry, but after what happened between my parents, Danielle, Charlie and Derrick, I felt like a cry was due. I didn't know where my life was heading now. All I knew was that I wanted to go as far away from here as I could.