My Beautiful Rescue||chapter twenty-one||Dan Young

-hollywoodmirage. This story was basically for her, and always will be.

It turned out that Dan had gone back to Australia in order to straighten things out with Tiffanie. He said- and Neecole quoted this later back to Samantha- “I had no idea what was happening, which is why I chose one way.” In the end, he’d told her that although he cared about her, there was no possible way that they could stay together with a huge ocean between them.

“It would’ve been romantic if you guys had though,” Neecole pointed out, “I mean what girl wouldn’t want a faithful guy whose heart belonged to her.”

Dan had rolled his eyes.

“Not that I want you to though,” Neecole reassured him, “I like you here.”

And now, with nothing to interfere, Neecole found herself falling head over heels for ‘the new boy’, the ‘guy with the accent’, the second boy she’d ever given a second glance to.

“Can you believe that we’re actually going to prom??” Lynda squealed as she attempted not to poke her eyes out with a mascara brush. “I mean, after all this build up, it’s actually happening!”

“Well the most build up was with her and Dan,” Samantha said pointing towards Neecole. “And Samuel, since he’s actually going to go public tonight.”

It was true. Tonight, Samuel Adams was going to go to prom with a boy. Football jock James(Brittany’s ex-boyfriend) was his date. The day they found out was the day that the cafeteria table was sprinkled with various liquids from their mouths. It would be the scandal of the year for everyone.

“So, you still haven’t told us who you’re taking,” Neecole said staring down Samantha, who gave a guilty look and continued to put on blush.

“It’s a surprise!”

“Oh whatever, it won’t be a surprise when we see him, so just tell us now!” Lynda said jumping up and down, her newly curled hair bouncing along, too.

Sam sighed in defeat, “Well… Do you remember Zack?”

“Who’s Zack?” Lynda asked as Neecole’s jaw dropped to the floor.

“Well you were to drunk to notice,” Neecole said before exclaiming, “I thought he was from Maryland!!”

“Well, his band’s on tour and they have a break today, so he offered to be my date when I told him I didn’t have one…”

“Holy crud, he likes you!”

“No he doesn’t,” Sam said blushing, “I don’t even really know him!”

“Well isn’t he the one who you’ve been raising phone bills for and talking to constantly online?” Neecole asked in realization.

Samantha mumbled something inaudible and went back to doing her makeup while her two friends laughed at her.

“You guys suck,” she said with the hint of a smile.

They had hired a limo to take them all there. Zack would be meeting them at the school, and Samuel would be going with his date. It was all too cliché, and Neecole found herself kind of amazed at it all. She never thought it was the way it was in the movies.

“All right, let’s zip on the armor now,” Lynda said once they’d finished their makeup (which took about two hours, since none of them really knew how.)

They took turns putting it on and when they were finally done, Neecole found herself getting gawked at.

“Where in hell did you get that?” Lynda exclaimed, “I thought you said you got a sale item cause there was nothing left!”

“You lied to us!” Samantha said in awe.

“Well I wanted to surprise you,” Neecole responded.

They were surprised.

-------

Neecole noticed the way his breath caught when she walked down the stairs. She was highly aware of the way her heart beat seemed to quicken at the sight of him dressed in a tuxedo. Samuel, although he was also there, was so far from her mind, she was happy that a fresh face other than his was dominating her thoughts. She’d gone too many years holding on to Samuel and she knew that she had to let go eventually. She knew for sure that now was the time.

“You look fetching,” Dan said as she reached him and he took her hand to put a violet rose corsage around her wrist.

“You’re not bad yourself, “She said as she felt a smile of pleasure break across her face.
His eyes caught hers and she saw the joy and happiness that played along its edges. She also saw, for a moment, a look of worry.

“Don’t worry,” She whispered only for him. “You’re the only one I can see tonight”

He blushed. “I’m supposed to be making you blush and smile like a lunatic”
He took her hand and laced his fingers with hers before bringing it to his lips in a soft caress.

“That’s more like it,” Dan said as Neecole’s face colored. She could feel her pulse quicken as he continued to hold her hand and she soon found herself lost in his gaze.

Then, breaking the moment, her mother and his snapped about 7 pictures; causing them to look at them in surprise.

“Now that face won’t look good on the scrapbook,” Lisa said disapprovingly.
Neecole rolled her eyes.

“Mom do you have to do that? And Ms. Young, I thought you knew better than to do this to us!”

The short women rolled her eyes. “Whoever said I knew better”

She laughed and the rest of the group joined in with her.

“Honey you look beautiful,” Lisa cooed. “KARTER GET IN HERE! YOUR DAUGHTER IS GOING TO PROM AND YOU’RE WATCHING A FOOTBALL GAME?!”

Neecole heard a grunt from the other room before seeing her father appear in the doorway. He whistled.

“You look wonderful, Nicky, but that dress is just a little bit low cu-“

“Dad don’t start,” Neecole cut in, and she saw Dan smile from the corner of her eye.

“And um.. Dan.. You look okay, too,” Karter added.

Dan grinned. “Thanks Mr. Thompsan”

Neecole smiled at her father, grateful that he wasn’t his usual anti-Dan self. Or at least his usual anti-any guy within two feet of Neecole self.

She wondered how he’d react when he saw Samuel holding hands with a guy.

They ate a huge feast prepared by Dan and Neecole’s mothers and after getting up with their pants and dresses feeling slightly tighter, their parents bombarded them with more cameras flashing.

“All right, well we better get going,” Samantha said taking charge of the situation so they wouldn’t get blinded anymore. “We need to find a place for the limo to wait for us.”

They left the house in good cheer, all of them clearly surprised at how well they’d all cleaned up. Or at least, Neecole was.

When they finally got to the hotel they were going to go to, Neecole felt something a lot like panic set in.

“Maybe we shouldn’t do this,” she told Dan in whisper. “I mean, we could always just… leave.”

He laughed, “You’re not going anywhere.”

She sighed, “Are you going to handcuff me or something?”

He grinned mischievously, “Don’t make me.”

She laughed and squeezed his hand.

When they got into the building, people were already dancing.

Neecole and her group did something that shocked the world.

They danced, too.

“Shake it!!!” Samantha screamed towards Gavin, who despite having no rhythm, was going all out. She laughed and leaned into the arms of Zack, who appeared looking a lot like a knight in shining armor. It was sweet, really.

Eventually- after YMCA- a slow song came on, and Neecole found herself feeling as if she’d gotten punched repeatedly in the stomach.

“We’re such sell-outs,” she said into Dan’s ear as he clumsily hugged her to him.

“Well if you are, so am I,” he said grinning. He spun her around and Neecole sight of Samuel dancing in the arms of James. She smiled at all the people who were gawking at them.

Neecole couldn’t help but feel like it was all too unreal. She let herself breathe in Dan’s musky sweet smell, let her heart beat ten times its original rhythm, and let herself just fall even more.

“Do you want to get out of here?” Dan said once the song ended and a hip-hop one came on.
Neecole smiled up towards him, “I thought you’d never ask.”

They made their way out the building and nowhere near the hotel rooms that some people were already going up towards. Neecole took a deep breath as Dan led her back towards the limo.

He knocked a short knock and the trunk opened wide.

There, Neecole saw an acoustic guitar with a red ribbon on it. She looked at Dan with wide eyes. “Is that yours?” she squeaked.

He shook his head. “It’s yours.”

Neecole looked from the guitar to him. “You can’t be serious.”

He took the guitar out the trunk and stepped towards her and she took one back. “I can.” He held out his hand to her, an offer she couldn’t say no to.

They walked until they came to a park bench underneath a tree. Dan sat down and set the guitar on his lap, taking the ribbon off and sticking it onto Neecole’s hair.

“Looks good,” he laughed as he played a chord.

Neecole patted the ribbon. “So why did you do all this?”

“Well,” Dan explained, “You told me that you’re favorite movie is 10 Things I Hate About You, so I figured I’d have to live up to dear old Heath, you know?”

She laughed and he laughed, too. She stared at him and he stared back.

“Any songs you’d like to sing?” He asked.

“No idea,” she said shrugging, “Start a song, and I’ll sing along.”

Without thinking, Dan started the song they’d sung together before. Neecole smiled as he started.

--------------------------

“All right everyone, thanks for being a wonderful audience.” Dan smiled into the mic as the crowd erupted in cheer. “We’ve got one more song, and for this I’ll need a certain lead singer from Forever Today!”

The crowd cheered loudly as Neecole walked onstage looking bewildered and surprised.

“I didn’t know about this,” she said grabbing Sean’s mic from its stand.

“Well it’s a surprise,” Dan shrugged.

“We love you Neecole!” A few girls shouted and Neecole grinned before saying I love you back.

“She’s mine!” Dan teased and Neecole stuck her tongue out towards him. “All right well this song’s a cover of ‘girl inform me.’”

“You start as usual?” Neecole asked and Dan nodded as he began playing the opening chords.

“Girl inform me all my senses warn me, your clever eyes could easily disguise, some backwards purpose, it's enough to make me nervous. Do you harbor sighs, or spit in my eye”

“But your lips when we speak are the valleys and peaks of a mountain range on fire. So let me walk these coals till you believe I can cut the mustard well enough cause you know as soon as breathe we scrutinize”

“Unknown quotients, you must be using potions; how else could you tie my head to the sky. This new convection has left no wondering why I can't concern myself with ordinary tripe.” She watched Dan sing, a warm sensation warming her toes and heart all at once. He glanced up at her as he sang and gave her a huge smile and bright eyes. She watched those eyes as she sang her next part.

”Like what's this morning's paper got to say and which brand of coffee to make this is no umbrella to take into the wind and before we begin is there nothing to kill this anxiety.”

They sang the last part together.

“But your lips when we speak are the valleys and peaks of a mountain range on fire. So let me walk these coals till you believe I can cut the mustard well enough cause you know as soon as breathe we scrutinize the paint away.”

They finished the song together and when it was over Neecole walked over and gave him a huge hug and as they pulled apart a huge kiss that confirmed every sing rumor online that-yeah, they were dating.

They pulled apart and thanked the audience, both blushing red.

“So that new song I sang today…” Dan said as they walked off stage.

“It was good…” Neecole said enthusiastically “What’s it called?”

He gave her a huge smile. “My Beautiful Rescue.”

The End

Yeah, it was cheesy.