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  "What's your answer?"

  I nodded my head and smiled.

  "Sure Derrick. I would love to go to the prom with you."

  Derrick smiled as he went up to me to give me a hug. As I was in Derrick's strong arms, I started to breathe a sigh of relief. That was the first time in days that I felt happy. Like things were back to normal.

  As we pulled apart, Derrick looked at me.

  "Since we have that straight, what about your prom? Do you want me to be your date, or not?"

  As I looked at Derrick, I didn't know whether to say yes or to tell Derrick no. I didn't want to put Derrick in a tough situation that we both might not be able to get out of. But as I looked into Derrick's hazel eyes, I realized that he knew what I was thinking, and that whatever situation we may face at my prom, we would get through it together.

  "Yes, you can be my date to the prom, but on one condition."

  "What is that?"

  "That we will leave the prom if any situation comes up. No matter what it is. Agree?" I said as I extended my hand out to Derrick.

  Derrick looked at me as he accepted my terms.

  "So I can't deck Collier in any way?"

  "No Derrick. Promise me you won't."

  "I promise, as long as you don't have a cat fight with Danielle on the dance floor."

  I rolled my eyes and smiled. "Fine, I won't."

  "Good, it's settled then. Trust me Char; it will be a night we'll never forget."

  "I know it will be. But there one thing I've been dying to know. How in the world did you meet Danielle? It's not like you two are in the same social circle."

  I could tell I hit a nerve with Derrick because he started to walk away from me. I started to follow him as he stared at the lake.

  "Are you going to answer my question or not, Derrick? If we're going to try to develop a relationship, we have to trust each other enough to confide in one another. That's the reason why we broke up in the first place."

  Derrick looked at me and took a deep breath.

  "Char, if you think there's this big scandal involving Danielle and me, you're wrong. We met after homecoming and we went out on a few dates. There was nothing going on between us; it was strictly platonic."

  "Did I say anything was going on between you two? I knew you had better taste than that."

  Derrick smiled. "I do. In fact, I think I have exceptional taste in women," he said as he walked up to me.

  I smiled as Derrick put his face up to mine.

  "You know I care about you, Char. I always have, and I always will."

  As Derrick was about to kiss me, I put a finger to his lips.

  "Promise me one more thing."

  "Sure."

  "That we will take things slow."

  "Whatever you want Char. Whatever you want."

  I smiled as I found my way to Derrick's lips. I knew that I should give things between Derrick and me some time, so there's nothing wrong with taking things slow with him. Is there? But as I was kissing Derrick that was the farthest thought on my mind.

  30. Michael

  After spending a day hanging out, Danielle and I decided to go back to my place for a couple of drinks. Just being with Danielle for the day made me think about all the times we spent together and how much I missed being around her. Even though the two of us have been through a lot lately, I had to admit that I did care about her and there's probably a spot in my heart that always would.

  I looked over at Danielle as she was watching TV. I loved the look she had on her face, the crinkle on the corner of her lips as she was trying to figure out the next plot line on her favorite soap General Hospital. It showed an innocent side of her that only I knew about. I smiled as I got up from the cream colored sofa and went over to the door.

  I knew the mail usually arrived early afternoon, so I walked down the corridor to the mailboxes. Although I told Charlie before the party that I was going to U of H, I decided to mail off my application to Northwestern just to see if I was going to be accepted. Now that things between Charlie and I were over, maybe going to Northwestern was not a bad idea. Besides, that was my first college choice.

  As I continued to walk, I noticed the mail carrier was leaving the mailboxes. I knew it was a long shot hearing from Northwestern in such a short time, but I was confident that I would be hearing from them soon. I gave a small prayer as I went to the mailbox. With a shaky hand, I slowly opened the door, revealing my mail for the day. As I took out the mail, I quickly realized that a big envelope was overshadowing the other pieces of mail. I went straight to the envelope to reveal that it was, in fact, from Northwestern. When a person receives an envelope that big from a university, it only means one thing. I tore open the package and went straight to the letter. I started to smile brightly as I read the letter from start to finish.

  "I don't believe it," I said as started to run back into the loft.

  I went over to Danielle and swept her off from the floor.

  "What are you doing?" she asked in a surprise tone as I spun her around.

  "You are looking at a happy man right now."

  "What's going on Mike?" Danielle asked while laughing.

  "I've been accepted to Northwestern!" I said proudly.

  "Oh my gosh! Congratulations Michael," Danielle said as she went up to me and gave me a hug.

  "You always said you were going to Northwestern."

  "Yeah, I know," I said softly.

  As we both were in each other arms, I started to breathe into Danielle's golden blonde hair. The sweet smell of hazelnut was going through me as I moved in closer to her. Danielle pulled away from me as she looked into my eyes.

  "Maybe we should celebrate with some drinks," she said as she walked away from me.

  "Sounds good. How about some beer," I said as I went to the kitchen.

  "I was thinking something milder. Like soda."

  "What's wrong with beer?"

  "We've been drinking them since we got here, Mike, I really think you need to lay off the drinking."

  "Who are you, my mother? Relax Danielle; I can take care of myself."

  "Michael, I know you're hurting over Charlie and Brandy, but drinking is not the way to ease your pain."

  "I don't have a drinking problem. In fact, I can stop drinking anytime I want to."

  "Can you? It seems like you can't. You have been like this since I've known you and lately it seems like it is only getting worse. That's how you went off and slept with Charlie's friend and when you blew up at everyone, including me at your party."

  "How many drinks I had was not the reason why I blew up; especially with you. You had a lot of nerve with your interference that night."

  "And you had a lot of nerve grabbing me like a rag doll, too."

  I looked at Danielle as I went to the sofa and sat down.

  "I didn't get a chance to tell you that I was sorry for that. I never meant to hurt you like that."

  "I know. You weren't yourself that night," Danielle said as she sat down beside me.

  "Mike, I'm just concerned about you. You have such a promising future ahead of you and I don't want to see that ruined. From what I saw that night at the party, and today, it seems like you are trying to run from something. Is there something else going on besides Charlie and Brandy? If there is, you know you can talk about it."

  I looked at Danielle and smiled. "Thanks Danielle, but there's nothing else going on. Don't worry about me. Everything is going to be all right. Trust me."

  Danielle nodded her head and smiled. "Promise me one thing."

  "What's that?"

  "Try to cut down on the drinking."

  I smiled. "I will."

  Danielle smiled as she starting to stare at the television screen.

  "Can I ask you a question?" I asked.

  "Sure. Ask away."

  "Were you upset when you found out about me and Eva?"

  Danielle looked at me as she put her arm around mine.

  "At first I w
as, but now I realize that I can't be upset with you because I did the same thing to you. So basically I can say we're even now."

  I looked at Danielle with a look of desire. I couldn't believe all these feelings I had for Danielle at one point were starting to resurface. Maybe I was feeling this way because of being on the rebound. Or maybe I was feeling this way because I never stopped caring for Danielle. We had such a long history that even Charlie and I couldn't duplicate. Danielle was my first love. As I looked into her blue eyes, I put my hand onto Danielle's cheek and caressed it softly.

  "What are you doing, Michael?" Danielle asked.

  "Something I wanted to do all day," I said as leaned towards Danielle.

  As I was about to kiss Danielle, she beat me to it, as she pulled me toward her and kissed me hard on my lips. As we were sitting on the couch kissing as if it was our last moment together, I started to think about Charlie and all the times we used to make out on the same couch. But as we started to become more into our make out session, the thought of Charlie was fading into a distant memory.

  Charlie

  After spending some more time at the park, Derrick and I decided to call it a day and head back to Parker. As Derrick drove into the student parking lot, I noticed Ashley was standing by my car. I looked at Derrick as I kissed him on the cheek.

  "Thank you for a wonderful day. I really needed that."

  "Anytime Char."

  I smiled as I got out of the passenger seat and closed the door. As I was heading to my car, Ashley looked at me with a wide eye expression. She looked toward Derrick's direction and waved at him. He waved back as he made his way out of the parking lot.

  "Well, well, I never expected to see you back here. And with Derrick no less. What's going on?"

  "Derrick and I spent the day together."

  "Doing what?" Ashley said suspiciously.

  "Not what you're thinking. We were at the park."

  "Oh, that sounds sweet. But tell me what this is?" Ashley asked as she pointed to my car.

  "Some idiot decided to go wild on my car at school. But I'll get into that later. What are you still doing up here? School let out an hour ago."

  "Cheerleading practice, remember? I thought that's where you would have been instead of being here, which you shouldn't be. If Mr. McCue sees you..."

  "I know, I know. That's why I'm leaving now. To answer your other question, it's a long story that I will get into another time, unless you want to go to my house or Chester's."

  "Why not the mall? I don't feel like going home right now."

  "Great. Why don't I follow you up there?"

  After a twenty-minute drive, Ashley and I both met up at Memorial City Mall, ready to do some window shopping. As I waited for Ashley to get out of her car, a thought of Michael and me came into my mind as I looked around at the building. I remembered all the times we came to the mall to walk around, and just be the happy couple that we once were. Ashley walked up to me and smiled.

  "You're thinking about Michael?"

  "How'd you guess?"

  "I can tell. So what's the deal with you and Derrick? Are you two back together? Don't you think that's kind of soon?"

  "We're not back together Ash. We're just enjoying each other's company, that's all."

  "If you say so, Char, I just don't want you to be more hurt than you already are. You just broke up with Michael, and now you're going back with Derrick. He broke your heart once; I just don't want that to happen again."

  "Who's to say if he will? Derrick says he's a changed person, so I'm going to take his word and trust him."

  Ashley smiled as she put a hand on my shoulder.

  "You're too nice for your own good. Even though I think Derrick is scum, I'll support you one hundred percent. Besides, you could be right, Derrick might be a different person."

  I smiled. "Thanks Ash,"

  "That's what friends are for."

  As we walked into the mall, we went straight shopping mode, especially for prom dresses. The beautiful dresses displayed in the windows of the shops were breathtaking. As I picked up a peach colored strapless dress, my mind started to wander to Derrick. I could imagine the look Derrick would have on his face if I wore this dress to the prom. Michael would have loved this dress too. I thought as I put the dress back on the rack.

  Ashley came over to me with a mint colored spaghetti strap dress. I looked at the dress, and then to Ashley with a disgusted look on my face.

  "I really hope you're not thinking about buying that? It's hideous."

  "I thought this dress looked gorgeous. And since this is Chris's favorite color, I thought it would be a great touch."

  "Chris likes mint green? Yuck," I said while laughing.

  "Hey, don't talk about my man's taste in color. I know he's a little color blind, but his sweetness makes up for it."

  I smiled. "It's great that you and Chris became so close. I'm happy for you two."

  "Thanks girl. To be honest, at first I was kind of worried about the idea of dating someone out of my race. In fact, I never really thought about it. But when I started to spend so much time with him, I realized that it's not the color of the person's skin, it's the person that makes him who he is."

  I smiled. "That's how I felt with Michael."

  "Am I making you uncomfortable talking about Chris? Since he and Michael are best friends?"

  "No, not at all. I'm so happy for you two. Chris is a great guy. So I'm assuming he already asked you to the prom."

  "Of course, we decided since Parker and Belmont's proms are on the same night, we are going to stay at each for two hours. After that, we're going to Galveston to spend the rest of the weekend enjoying each other's company."

  "That's great. In fact, Derrick was thinking the same thing."

  Ashley stopped looking at dresses and looked directly at me.

  "Back up a second. Did I hear you right? You and Derrick are going to both proms together. When did he ask you?"

  "Today at the park; I wasn't going to say yes to him at first, but he was so persuasive, I couldn't say no."

  "Char, have you thought about this? Isn't it a little soon to be talking about prom dates? If you go to your prom with Derrick, you know there's going to be some drama."

  "Don't you think I thought about that? But you know what, I don't care. Michael and I are over, so there's no point in stressing over it. If people have a problem with Derrick and I being together, then the hell with them."

  "You sure it the people you worried about; or yourself?"

  "What that's supposed to mean?"

  "Come on Char! You don't expect me to believe you're over Michael. The two of you just broke up, so of course you still going to be hurting. That's why I'm surprised you and Derrick are becoming so close again."

  "Ash, Michael doesn't want anything to do with me anymore. He made that loud and clear after the party."

  "That's because he was upset. He let his anger get the best of him. He still loves you Char."

  "How you know. Did Chris tell you?"

  "Chris really hasn't gotten a word out of Michael since it happened. He could tell that Michael is still hurting though."

  I walked out of the dress store and went straight to a bench sitting in the center of the mall.

  Ashley followed me as I went over to the bench and sat down.

  "What's wrong, Char?"

  "I never told you that Michael and I slept together."

  "I kind of figured you two did."

  "He was my first, Ash."

  Ashley looked at me in shock. From the looks of it, it seemed like she knew something that I didn't.

  "Why are you so shocked?"

  "I just thought that Derrick was your first. I mean since you two were so in love..."

  "That's the reason why we broke up. Well, that and the fact that he cheated on me with Theresa."

  "Wow. So doesn't this break up with Michael seem a little more significant? Evidently Michael meant a lot to you if yo
u shared yourself with him."

  "Don't you think I know that? I've been miserable since Michael and I broke up. What we did to each other was wrong, and now I don't know if we can go back to the way things were."

  "How will you know if you don't try? Char, give Michael some time to sort things out before you go off and be with Derrick."

  I looked at Ashley and sighed. Maybe Ash was right. Maybe I should give Michael some time to let off some steam before I decide what I want with Derrick. I know Michael still loves me; he's just upset right now.

  But as I was watching people walk by, I realized that I wasn't the only one responsible for our break up. Michael had as much a part of us ending as I did.

  "Maybe you're right about letting Michael have some time, but what about the things he did to me? I'm not the only one who destroyed our relationship."

  "I understand that, Char. Michael should have told you about Eva and about Brandy, but you have to realize that you weren't a part of his life at that time. You have no right to be upset for what Michael did."

  "What do you mean I have no right! He lied to me after I asked him time and time again about Eva and him. And he failed to tell me about Brandy and the love child they shared. How am I supposed to embrace that? How am I supposed to trust him again?"

  "Let me give you a bit of advice. When two people are in love, they can get through anything. No matter if it's a lie or if there is a child involved. When I saw you with Michael, I noticed a change in you. You seemed so happy and free. That's how I know the love that you shared with Michael was real. No matter what you two are going through, you will find your way back to each other."

  "What if love is not enough?"

  Ashley sighed and put an arm around me. "Come on girl, I have the perfect solution for the blues."

  I looked at Ashley as she pulled me up from the bench and took me in the direction of the food court.

  Michael

  After a few minutes of enjoying the way things used to be with Danielle, I suddenly came to my senses and realized what I was doing. As I was walking in the mall with Danielle, my mind started to travel back to earlier when Danielle and I were making out on my couch...

  "I missed this so much," Danielle said softly as I was giving short kisses on her neck.