Days turned into weeks, weeks into a month, and through it all my feelings for Frank grew stronger; we were practically inseparable, only leaving each other to sleep in our own beds, and even then on weekends we would almost always find somewhere to share a bed. Sex had yet to come into play, anticipation was half the fun right? We had talked about it several times and neither of us were virgins, but waiting felt like the right thing to do for the time being.

Our senior prom was in a few days and Frank had gotten us tickets, begging me to go, because this was a “once in a lifetime opportunity” I had finally agreed if for no other reason to make him happy.

My Mom and I had decided to go dress shopping in New York on a Sunday morning; she was ecstatic to say the least, and dragged my ass out of bed at 9:00 am before hitting a Starbucks and driving into Lower Manhattan.

“Nicole, I am so excited you’re going to Prom! What kind of dress do you want? Oh a pink one would be gorgeous on you!”

“No Mom, no pink. I was thinking black, or maybe red, but no pink!”

She sighed in frustration and scowled at me when I unrolled the window and lit a cigarette.

“You know I hate when you do that.”

I rolled my eyes and shrugged my shoulders.

The rest of the drive was fairly uneventful, as we made our way into a shopping mall. We looked in various stores and couldn’t agree on anything, and by lunch time I was fuming. I stomped outside to have a smoke and take a break from Mommy Dearest, before going back in to join her.

We were walking down the mall eating frozen yogurt when I saw my dress hanging in a shop window; it was gorgeous, and hopefully my mom would agree. It was a mint green strapless dress that came to mid-thigh, but was longer in the back, down to just below the knees, and it had black tulle underneath the skirt, with a black sash with a bow in the back.

“Mom! We have to go in here; I think I found my dress.”

“Thank god!”

We walked into the store and I talked to an associate, asking her to get the dress in my size. She led me to a change room, and I slipped it on; it fit perfectly. I walked out to show my mom. When she saw me tears sprang to her eyes and she covered her mouth with her hand.

“Honey, you look beautiful! It’s perfect. Please tell me you’re getting this one?”

I looked at myself in the mirror; I almost didn’t recognize myself, she was right it was more than perfect.

“Yes, this is the one.”

We paid for my dress and went to find shoes; now this was something I was good at, I loved shoes. We found a shoe store and walked in scanning the displays, I knew what I had in mind so it was easy to choose the right shoe and I found the perfect pair. They were 5 inch black stilettos with little gold spikes all over; my Mother tried to talk me out of them, but I wouldn’t budge, I needed these shoes, so she eventually gave up.

After leaving the mall and going for supper we made the long drive back to Jersey; I was exhausted, and couldn’t wait to get home and crawl into bed, after calling Frank of course. We pulled into the driveway and I dashed into the house with my bags in hand. I grabbed the phone out of kitchen and went to call Frank.

“Hello?”

He said into the phone.

“Hey we just got home.”

“Awesome, so what color tie do I need to get?”

His voice made me weak at the knees, and I had to sit down on my bed.

“Just get a black one, it’ll match.”

I heard Frank’s Mom in the background, asking him to finish his chores and say hi to me.

“My Mom says 'hi'.”

“Hi Linda!” I called into the phone.

“Well I guess I should go I’m glad you found a dress though. I can’t wait to see you in to, and maybe out of it.”

He whispered the last part and was making me giggle and blush.

“Shut up! Anyways I will pick you up for school tomorrow?”

“You know it, have a good night babe.”

There go the knees again.

“I’ll try Frank, you too.”

And with that he hung up; I was grinning ear to ear as I went into my bathroom, and ran a hot bath, running back into the kitchen to make a cup of Spearmint tea.

---

It was the night of Prom, and I was completely freaking out! I hated school functions, and this one I had promised to go to, and that promise was to Frank so I couldn’t fake the flu and cancel; he wouldn’t forgive me for it.

My mom had insisted I go to a salon and get my hair and nails done, something I didn’t mind doing, but around horses nice nails never lasted long, and I thought my hair was just fine until the stylist told me it in fact wasn’t. She chopped off the split ends and threw a bunch of curlers in before ushering me over to the nail tech that cut, filed, and placed French tips on my nails, adding a little gold stud in the corner of my fourth finger nails to match my shoes.

When everything was all said and done, and I was waiting in my room for Frank to show up; my hair had been curled and hair sprayed into place, my nails were shiny and long, and my make-up was applied I found myself looking quite nice, but it wasn’t totally me, so I added a bit more black shadow to my eyelids. ‘I was definitely ready now’ I thought to myself as I heard the doorbell ring; he was here! I waited a few minutes before walking down the hallway towards the front entry.

Frank and my Dad were standing there laughing together when I came around the corner; Frank looked over at me and gave me the most genuine smile I’ve ever seen.

“Nicole…”

“I know, not exactly what you were expecting.”

“Well you have always been full of surprises, but you look beautiful.”

The look he gave me was pure desire as he took my hand and walked me to the door.

“Now Frank, I want Nicole home before 1:00 am, unless she arranges something else with us. Understood?”

Frank smiled at my Dad before putting his hand on my Dad’s shoulder.

“No worries Stan, I’ll bring her back in one piece that I can promise.”

We said our goodbyes and walked over to Linda’s car that she has so graciously let Frank borrow for the night. Frank walked around to the passenger side and opened the door for me, before getting into the driver’s seat, and pulling out a cigarette, lighting it. I followed his actions and rolled the window down; I could feel his eyes on me.

“You really do look beautiful Nicole.”

I glanced over at him, sitting there in his black and white suit, the tie hanging loosely from his neck, his lip rig glinting in the dark.

“You don’t look so bad yourself. I didn’t know you could pull off a suit to be honest.”

He chuckled at my response and started the car, pulling away from the curb and heading towards the school. We arrived and once again he came around to my side of the car, opening the door for me and taking my hand pulling me out of the car before putting his arm around my waist. We entered the gym and quickly found a table, avoiding most of the stares we received. A few minutes passed before he spoke.

“Dance with me?”

“No Frank, I said I would come, but I didn’t say I would dance. This is totally not my scene.”

He leaned forward and kissed me, making me forget everything as he pulled me onto the dance floor. I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing by Aerosmith began playing as soon as we stepped onto the dance floor. Frank placed his hands around my waist, closing the space between us as I brought mine around his neck; he kissed me on the forehead before staring into my eyes, swaying slowly to the music.

“Having fun yet?”

He asked, reaching up to tuck a strand of my hair that had fallen into my face.

“I have fun wherever you are.”

I answered honestly.

He brought his lips to mine, melting away the world more with every second. We pulled away from one another; Frank started to sing along with Steven Tyler

“I just wanna hold you close, I feel your heart so close to mine, and just stay here in this moment, for all the rest of time.”

His smooth voice was hypnotic and made my pulse quicken.

“You should consider a career in singing.”

“I’ve thought about it, but we’ll see what happens.”

He shrugged his shoulders just as the song was about to end; he stopped and stood in one spot, placing his hands on my cheeks, smiling down at me.

“Nicole I… fuck I’m just going to say this. It might not be the most romantic, but it needs to be done.”

I was dumbfounded.

“What are you talking about?”

He sighed and looked into my eyes once again, before parting his lips and letting his voice ghost over my face, his breath smelling faintly of cigarettes and peppermint.

“Nicole, I… I’m falling in love with you.”

He paused seeing the shocked look on my face.

“No wait, let me try this again. I’m in love with you.”

I brought my hand up to his neck and felt him tremble under my touch, looking away from me. I brought his face back to look at mine.

“Frank, I’m in love with you t...”

I was cut off by his lips gingerly touching mine, under the dim lights of our high school gymnasium. My world was spinning, and I hoped it never stopped. He broke the kiss and grabbed my hand.

“You wanna get out of here?”

He asked me over the music.

“I’ll follow you anywhere you want me to.”

I said as he pulled me out of the school doors, towards the car.

Notes

Here is chapter nine! I love the fact that they are in love, and there are so many exciting things coming in the near future for these two! Chapter ten, is already written and I will post it tomorrow, and trust me it's pretty good. I almost want to post it now it's that good, but I won't lol.
You will all have to wait.

Helena.