Yes, the music was loud, and bad, but it did not stop Izzy from hearing the two gossiping Prom goers talking about her a few feet away. She pretended like she didn’t notice them, pretended not to see their fake curls, and their dresses that looked like they plucked them straight from a Cinderella Story, no, she leaned her head back against the top of her chair and closed her eyes, pretending they weren’t there.

“That poor thing, who comes to prom alone?” The first said. That high-pitched whine belonged to Abigail Waters, a senior in her Trig class. Of course, Abigail had a date, she had bragged to everyone about for three months before hand.

“I know right? I think I’d cry if I’d come without Justin.” Replied the second. This voice belonged to Jessica Kingly, a junior that was in Izzy’s history class. Izzy didn’t have to look at Jessica to be able to imagine what the small, pixie like girl was doing. No doubt she was gnawing off her fingernails like always, and shaking her head in pity. Yes, poor, poor Izzy.

But, it wasn’t like Izzy couldn’t not come, she had, once again, listened to her friends instead of thinking about herself, and bought a dress and a ticket because of their constant assurances that Ben Walker was going to ask her to prom. However, things didn’t exactly turn out like that. Izzy had waited for two months, putting on her best smile and staring into moss colored eyes, whenever the handsome senior asked to borrow her eraser, and pretended she was interested while he talked about his latest soccer game. But it was all to no avail. There he was, just some twenty feet away, dancing with the Prom queen in such a nasty manner that she was sure she was going to have to carve out her eyes when she got home. Ben hadn’t even given her so much as a smile for the entire night, despite the fact she had passed him several times on the way to get some punch.

“Come dancing, Izzy!”

Snapped out of her internal ranting, Izzy looked up into the face of her best friend, Charlotte Bigsly. Charlotte had looked awesome at the beginning of the night, her three hundred dollar gown smooth and crisp to match her equally straight blonde locks, done up for a grand total of a hundred bucks at the most expensive salon in town. However after a few hours of grinding, quite disgustingly, with her boyfriend, the girl’s hair had frizzed out into a miniature Afro and her dress was a ball of wrinkles.

“No thank you,” Izzy said immediately, waving off the impatient teenager.

“The moment I step out on that dance floor, the slowest, most sappy song on the face of the planet is going to flash on and I’ll have to do the walk of single shame back to the table. I think I’ll save myself the embarrassment and sit here and watch out purses.”

From the look that came over Charlotte’s face, Izzy immediately knew that this was not the answer that her friend wanted to her. The familiar air of attitude collected around her friend as she puffed her chest out and crossed her arms.

“Why do you always have to be such a downer Izzy, you didn’t have to come if you didn’t want to.”

However, this wasn’t exactly what Izzy wanted to hear either. She took to her feet in an instant, her dress swishing around her ankles as she snatched her purse from the protective pile the group had created in the center of the elegantly decorated table.

“Well excuse me, but last thing I remember is that y’all told me to come. But don’t worry,” She snapped, turning to leave. She was clenching her purse tightly, trying to hold back the anger building within her,

“I’ll get out of your way, you have a nice time dry humping your boyfriend in public.”

The look on Charlotte’s face made even coming to the stupid dance worth it in Izzy’s eyes, and she could heard the girl grasping for a comeback as she walked pass her. But she was to slow, Izzy was gone, weaving through the tables decorated in green and black, their school colors, to the open doors leading out to the cool night air.

The parking lot was mostly empty, there were a few couples lingering about, some other single girls like herself going home, but that was about it. Izzy paused for a moment on the steps of the hotel, glaring at the half moon that shined so brightly above her. It was so bright just to spite her, she knew it. Even the stars were twinkling, like thousands of diamonds in the sky.

“Izzy!”

A familiar voice, a friendly voice. Searching for the boy with a shaggy brown mop top, Izzy found her best friend and next door neighbor waving at her from beside his SUV. Horatio had been Izzy’s best friend for as long as she could remember, as kids they had played together, as middle schooners that had snuck through eachother’s windows to play video games. Returning his wave, Izzy made her way over to the smiling boy, but paused a little bit away from him. Something was not right. Horatio looked nervous. The trunk of his car was open, revealing his impressive set of speakers his parents has installed on his last birthday, and he was holding flowers. A big bouquet of daises, Izzy’s favorite flowers. But none of these things worried Izzy more than the look on Horatio’s face. He actually looked afraid.

Horatio. The kid that had jumped off the slide on a dare in the third grade and broke his wrist. Horatio, the boy who had stood up to a gang of bullies for Izzy and gotten the snot beat out of him. Horatio, the only person she knew who could watch Silent Hill and not be freaked out. Fearless, brave Horatio looked terrified.

“Hey, are you alright?” She asked, swiftly moving forward to place a reassuring hand on his shoulder. He flashed a soft smile, and took a deep breath, extending the flowers to her, a determined look on his face. Taking a step away from her, her popped open the door to his truck and turned on the accessories. Seconds later, a familiar tune began to flow softly from his speakers. She recognized it immediately, a new song she had shown him just days before called Sway.

“’Ratio?” She said, setting down the sweet smelling flowers in his trunk. Then it clicked. The flowers, the sappy song, the terrified look on Horatio’s face. He was asking her out! As, he liked her! Her next door neighbor, her best friend liked her! Izzy blinked several times, shocked, but as she realized with a jolt, ecstatic. Horatio, seeing the smile on her face, and knowing she had already figured out his plan, smiled as well, and extended his hand.

“May I have this dance?” He asked. Laughing, Izzy took his hand firmly, pulling him to her to sway in the milky moonlight.