Ella's Twisted Senior Year(55)

My eyes never leave Ethan’s as I walk carefully down the carpeted stairs. Mom and Mrs. Poe immediately shower me with compliments but that’s just what moms do. What I really care about is Ethan’s reaction. It’s perfect—his eyes crinkling at the corners when I reach out to take his hand. “That is a good dress,” he whispers into my ear.

“Okay, to the fireplace,” Mom says, shooing us into the living room. “We need pictures for the dads that aren’t home from work yet.”

Ethan and I groan in unison but we relent and let the moms do their thing. After about five million photos, including some with Dakota making goofy faces, we’re allowed to leave.

Mom kisses me on the ear to avoid my makeup. “Have a wonderful time, honey.”

“Do you know where we’re going?” I ask her.

She nods and then does the same lip-zipping motion, as if they’d all agreed to keep me in the dark.

Ethan puts his hand on the handle of the front door. “You ready to do prom my way and not the stupid school’s way?”

I lift an eyebrow. “I think so.”

He grins and opens the door, revealing a black limousine parked out front. The driver stands near the back doors, arms clasped in front of him, all fancy and proper.

I look up at Ethan. “Oh my god, you shouldn’t have done this.”

He shrugs. “It’s a prom tradition!”

The driver opens the door and the second surprise of the evening makes my jaw drop. April and Toby are inside the limo, dressed to kill in their own prom attire.

“What are you two doing?” I ask, sliding into the opposite seat. “Are we dropping you off at the school?”

April shakes her head. She’s wearing her gorgeous dark blue dress and her hair is piled on top of her head with a sparkling rhinestone headband.

“Nope, we’re going with you guys,” she says. I look at Toby and he nods. “You can’t possibly miss prom because of us,” I say. The car drives away and soft music begins playing. Toby throws an arm around April’s shoulders. “It was our idea,” he says, glancing at April. She nods.

“Yep. If they’re gonna kick out our best friends, then we’re not going either. We’re going to have our own prom and it’ll be awesome.”

Ethan’s hand grabs mine. “You surprised?”

“Very,” I say with a laugh. “So where are we going?”

“You’ll see,” April says with a smirk.

“Dinner first,” Ethan says. “That’s the first prom tradition. Dinner, then the party.”

The driver takes us to Campioni’s, an upscale Italian restaurant in the next down over. There’s a table for four reserved for us and two sets of roses on the table. The pink one is mine and the purple roses are April’s. The boys really went all out tonight.

Dinner is amazing and after I’ve eaten their homemade pasta fettuccini, I’m not sure I can ever eat regular pasta again. Even their sweet tea is to die for. We have a blast together, just the four of us.

When we leave the restaurant, a dozen butterflies start flapping around in my stomach. “Where are we going?” I whisper to Ethan as we climb back in the limo.

“You’ll see,” he whispers back. The scent of his cologne sends a shiver down my spine and I lean in to kiss him, unable to keep away.

Toby and April are snuggled up on the other side of the limo so I don’t really feel guilty about it.

After a short drive, I can see Lake Conroe out of the window. We pull into a marina and the driver parks. We climb out of the limo and a gush of warm summer air blows my dress and hair all over the place.

“I am so excited,” April says with a little squeal.

“Yeah this is gonna be way better than real prom,” Toby says.

“So what are we doing here?” I ask. “Please tell me we’re not going swimming in our formal wear.”

“As long as the boat doesn’t sink, we’re fine,” Ethan says.

“Boat?” My eyes widen.

“Come see for yourself,” he says, tugging me along a narrow concrete walkway along the water. Dozens of boats are docked in the marina and I look at each one, wondering which is ours.

And then it becomes impossible to not notice. A yacht, a freaking yacht, waits up ahead, with a little bridge connecting it to the dock. A massive banner lines the side of the boat and it says: PROM NIGHT 2016

I gawk at Ethan. April and Toby grin and Ethan takes my hand. “What do you think?”

“You rented a yacht?”

He lifts a shoulder. “Technically Poe’s T-shirts rented it. We have the next three hours to party in luxury on Lake Conroe.”

“Ohmygod,” I say all in one breath. We rush onto the yacht and are greeted by a friendly staff. There’s drinks and finger foods and even a cupcake tier and fondue set up inside the main room of the yacht. There’s a DJ playing and a dance floor and glass doors that open to the main deck where we watch the boat pull out of the dock and travel out into the middle of the lake.

Ethan wraps his arms around me while I hold onto the railing at the front of the gorgeous Yacht. The wind whips my hair around and the setting sun casts a beautiful glow of orange and pink and purple onto the deep blue water all around us. Music plays and our friends laugh while they dance and feed each other cake balls.