Love and Hate (20 page)

She looks past me.

“He’s over there.”

I turn around slightly to see
Donovan in a black mask and a black suit. His tie is red, ironically, like my
dress. I can’t stare at him for too long because it hurts me. It hurts seeing
him and not being able to acknowledge him. My father made me come to this ball
and he made me isolate myself from the world. He made Eric my date even after I
told him he was the one who put the picture up. My dad is disappointed in me,
but I am definitely disappointed in him too.

“You okay?” I wonder if Jade
notices my eyes watering up.

“Yeah.” I lift up my mask and
gently wipe my eyes. I am really tired of all this emotional bullshit. “I’m just
really emotional, but I’ll be okay.”

I’m lying. I probably won’t be
okay. I haven’t been okay since the day everyone found out. I miss Donovan so
much. I swear I don’t get how people can love like this? Then on the other
hand, I don’t think there are many eighteen year olds that go through this type
of crap.

Donovan

I’m not okay. I’m not okay at
all. My mind is circling all over the place.

We’re sitting at the same table
of course. Her father made sure she sat far away from me… with Eric. The Mayor
is stuffing his face as usual. My mother and Ella are glancing at me making
sure I don’t explode. My father is having a conversation with some CEO of a
company probably a future business partner. Stonem is watching my father with
more determination than usual. Probably the fact that his enemy’s son has been
sleeping with his daughter is the reason for the unusual hatred stare.

“Donovan!” The mayor yells from
the end of the table. Everyone faces me except Claudia who continues playing
with her food. “You are a young man of mystery. I feel as if I know what every
kid here is going to school for except you.”

“Mayor, Donovan doesn’t really
know what he is going to go to school for yet.” My father says.

“Actually I do.” Everyone glances
back at me. My parents stare at me with disbelief because I hadn’t told them
yet, but given our situation, that wasn’t my first priority.

            “Mayor I plan to
attend NYU.” I glance at Claudia but she still doesn’t look at me. “I decided
to study business. I hope to one day own my own restaurant in New York.”

I glance again and she looks at
me. I can see her gray eyes through her mask as she is shocked by my answer.

“That’s wonderful. I will
definitely be there for the opening!” I bet he will.

“Donovan when did you decide
this?” My mother asks me from across the table, smiling at my admission.

“You didn’t know?” The Mayor’s
wife asks her.

“Well Mrs. Hawthorne my son is
very secretive as I have recently found out.” I look at my dad who was sitting
next to my mother.

“I bet.” I hear Claudia’s dad
say.

Alright they want to play. Let’s
play.

“Well mayor.” I say as I grab a
glass of champagne from a tray as everyone looks at me shocked. I take a sip,
before continuing. “A girl actually inspired me.”

Jade nearly chokes on her food
next to Claudia whose eyes widen at me while Eric clenches his jaw at me.

“Really?” The mayor sets down his
fork and wipes his mouth with his napkin.

“Yes. See she showed me that I
had a purpose and taught me how to not take my family and the good things
around me for granted.” I have everyone’s attention now including my family.
“She believed in me and once she said she was going to NYU to be a writer, I
said what the hell. If she can do it, so can I. Besides wherever she is I want
to be.”

I take a finale glance at Claudia
as she tears up. I’m sorry I caused a scene but I had to let her know. I had to
let them all know.

“Claudia, aren’t you going to
NYU?” The mayor’s wife asks curiously.

“Actually, Claudia has decided to
attend Princeton. Isn’t that right Claudia?” Stonem gives her a stern look.

“Yes. I have.” No you’re not. Why
doesn’t she stand up for herself?

                                    **********

Once dinner was over, everyone
started dancing, drinking, and having a good time. I wasn’t of course. I’m watching
Claudia dance with Eric like some stalker. I have the right to do that, don’t
I? After all, she is my girlfriend and I don’t care what anybody says
differently. Also, I really want to bash Eric’s skull in. The only comfort I
have is the pissed off look she has when Eric comes near her.

“Dude what the hell?” I was so
focused on the idea of killing Eric that I didn’t even see Emile walk up to me.

“Not now, Emile.”

“Then when? I mean what are you
doing? What are you trying to prove here?” That’s a good question.

What am I trying to prove? Better
yet how do I show everyone here that this thing we have, it’s not some
schoolboy crush or high school drama? It’s more than that. I can’t breathe without
this damn girl.

I get my sign once I see Eric
leaving her on the dance floor to go talk to her father. Another slow song
comes on. I think I know this song.  She looks down and fidgets with her
bracelet. She always plays with her bracelet when she is uncomfortable. If she
doesn’t have bracelets on, she just rubs her wrist. She looks around at all the
people dancing. She gives a tight smile and starts exiting the dance floor.

Well I guess it’s now or never.

      Chapter

12

“In This Together”

Claudia

What is he doing?

It’s bad enough he let my father
know about NYU, but this is not good. This is not good at all. I was on my way
off the dance floor until I saw him walking towards me. There’s something about
his walk. It’s filled with determination.

“Dance with me?” He asks once he
reaches me.

 This is the first time we spoke
to each other in two weeks, ten hours, and I don’t know how many minutes.

“What are you doing?” He has to
stop this.

He sighs and continues staring at
me with his baby blue eyes, with so much need and anxiety. I guess he is trying
to answer my question to himself.

“Showing everyone.”

“What?” I barely get it out.

“That I could never hate you.”
Well, how does a girl respond to that?

He takes my hand and leads me
back to the middle of the dance floor. I can’t even put up a fight. I’m so
tired of trying to be in control. I quickly look for my dad. He is busy talking
to Eric and the mayor. I glance to the other side to see the Pierces caught up
in what looks like a serious conversation. It’s like everyone is oblivious to
what is going on right now. I continue looking around as he locks his fingers
into mine placing his other hand gently on my lower back. The touch of his hand
on my bare back causes me to flinch a little. I guess it was a good night to
where a backless dress.

“Hey.” I look back up at his
piercing blue eyes peeking out of his mask.

“We’re in this together.” His comforting
assurance brings a small smile from me. He starts leading as I follow.

As I continue gazing at him,
everything else is easily blurred out. All I see is him. All I hear is the
song. It’s Paramore’s Only Exception, the perfect theme song for my feelings
for him right now. I start laughing at my realization of the song as he smiles
at me. Soon I completely zone out into him and the song. It’s just me and him.

So that’s it. He loves me. I knew
this already, but it’s something when you really see it. I see it in the way he
looks at me. It’s adoration. A profound love for me. That’s what I see when he
looks at me. I look deeper into his eyes, hoping for some sort of reflection of
me. I hope he knows that I have nothing but pure love and adoration for him.

He twirls me around and dips me
down slowly bringing me back up closer to him. He rubs the back of his hand
along my face causing my heart to completely jump. That’s what he does to me.
He makes me feel things I’ve never felt before. Things I never thought were
possible.

He did this. He’s being brave for
both of us, showing everyone that he loves me and that he doesn’t care what
anyone thinks. So why can’t I do that?

Well let’s see if I can.

I reach for the bottom of his
mask and slowly take it off. I don’t even care that I dropped it on the ground.
I take off my mask and drop it too. This is it. If were going down in flames,
we might as well go down epic because our love is epic and amazing and I don’t
regret one minute of it.

I lean into him and press my lips
onto his. I deepen the kiss instantly not caring who sees it. I hold on tight
to his jacket as he wraps his arms around my waist pressing him against me. I
continue kissing him until the song starts to ends. He presses his forehead
against mine still with his eyes close.

I close my eyes and wrap my arms
around him hugging him tight as he kisses my shoulder. I slowly open my eyes to
see his family. I see his mother trying to stop his father and another man from
coming toward us. I think it’s his uncle Benny Donovan talks about.

As they get closer to us I tighten
my grip never wanting to let go.

Donovan

Her father walks towards us with
fury along with Eric. She hugs me tighter and I do the same. I never expected
her to kiss me in front of everyone. She definitely is brave. Now I hope she is
ready for the fall out of what we just did.

Her father yanks me from her
grabbing on to the collar of my suit. I grip his wrists as he holds on to me.

“If you ever touch my daughter
again!” He spits on my face as he yells.

I’m doing everything in my power
to stay calm so I won’t kick his ass.

“Get the hell off my son!” My dad
comes out of nowhere pushing him off me standing in between us.

“Donovan, lets go.”  My mother
says to me grabbing a hold of my wrist.

“You keep your son on a leash
Pierce!” Stonem yelled. “I swear I will find a way to throw all of you in
jail!”

As our fathers argue we continue
staring at each other. She is being held by Eric. She jerks him off her. All I
know is that I want to take her and get the hell out of here.

“Roman!” I hear my mother yell as
she lets go of me, but I see nothing but Claudia.

I look for Emile who is close by.
I nod my head, hoping he knows what I’m about to do. He shakes his head. I nod
harder at him. He looks around and nods running towards the side exit. I look
back at Claudia who followed my gaze looking at Emile. I nod to her for
permission with pleading eyes. She looks back at Jade who is close by who sees
what we’re planning also. She looks back at me and nods twice.

Okay get ready to run.

Claudia

I turn to Eric.

“Eric!” He looks away from my
father and Roman Pierce arguing to me. “You’re a bitch.”

I quickly grab his shoulders and
knee him right in the nuts with all my might. He quickly falls down on his
knees gripping his private area screaming. Donovan comes up next to me and
punches him. Damn that felt good. He looks at me smiling and grabs my hand. We
run towards the exit.

“Claudia!” I hear my father call
after me. As we get to the exit we look back to see my father, his friend,
Roman Pierce and Uncle Benny fall down over each other. I see a chair next to
them and Emile close.

 I see he had our backs. Thank
You, Emile.

Donovan grabs me and leads us out
the exit.

“Where are we going?” I ask as we
get outside.

“Don’t worry.” He says as he
stops the valet. “Hey where are my keys?”

“Um. Um. Um.” The freckled face
valet stutters with wide eyes.

  Um? Seriously?

“Hey!” We turn to see Jade
driving Donovan’s car. We both look at each other confused. “I told him I was
your wife!”

We look back at the valet who
looks stupid.

“You should be fired.” I say. He
should.

We run towards the car as Jade
gets out. Before I get in the car I hug my best friend. God I love her.

“Thank You.”

“Just get out of here. Go.” She
says pushing me into the car.

I glance back and see my father
coming out. Donovan hits the gas and speeds off.

“Claudia!” I hear my father.

As we’re driving I try to fathom
what the hell we just did.

“What the hell did we just do?” I
say smiling. It’s so exciting being a rebel.

“The hell if I know” he laughs.

What we just did, was protest. We
said screw everyone and took a chance and I couldn’t feel more alive.

Donovan

“What are we going to do?” Is the
first thing she asks me after we got to my Uncle Billy’s place and made love. “We
can’t stay here forever unfortunately.” She traces her finger over my stomach
while laying her head on my bare chest.

“Why not?”

“Because Donovan, as much as we
love each other, we love our families just as much. Especially you.”

She is right. I couldn’t fully
abandon my family. They are everything to me, but I still can’t lose her.

“Well, if we go back we can
forget about being together.”

She lifts her head from my chest
to face me.

“You don’t give up. Graduation is
in a couple of weeks then NYU in the fall.”

“Your dad said you’re going to Princeton.”

“I don’t care what he said. I’m
going to be happy. If I have to get a job and pay for it myself, I don’t care.”

I love this side of her. The side
of her that takes a chance. She loves me and more importantly she is finally putting
herself first.

“Well, let’s just stay here
tonight, then we’ll go back tomorrow.” I say as I brush her hair from her face.

“Okay.” She scoots up over me and
presses her lips on mine. She deepens the kiss and slides her hand down below.

Yeah, I’m not getting any sleep tonight.