“Ugh!” Emma grunted while getting out of her car at Katelyn’s house.  Prom had finally come, and Emma could not have been less excited.  The concept of how it made or broke some girls’ lives was foreign to her.  She saw all of the frilly dresses and the sappy promposals as a waste of time.  The wicked wind blew her skirt up, forcing her to thrust her hands around her legs quickly while juggling all of her sleepover equipment and beauty essentials.
Katelyn opened the garage door, and Emma bustled inside, giving Katelyn an ‘I can’t believe we are doing this’ look.  The two girls originally planned on going to Chicago for the weekend to go on a shopping spree in celebration of their singlehood, but after Emma got asked, she had set Katelyn up with their good friend, Ben, in an attempt to make the night less awkward.
They walked with slumped shoulders to the kitchen at a pace similar to a snail, praying that time would slow down and that prom would never come.  Emma checked her phone for a text from Ben.  She desperately hoped that he would come before her date, Michael.  Emma and Michael barely knew one another, but his kindness made up for it.  She couldn’t say no when he asked.
Picturing the evening ahead of her, she could only imagine long, awkward pauses in conversation and forced laughter.  Adding to her worries, Michael had no idea how much she and Katelyn hated on prom.  She knew that their negativity could hit him like a truck, making it impossible for him to enjoy the night.
Luckily, as Emma peered out the window, she spotted Ben walking up Katelyn’s driveway.  “Thank God! Ben’s here!”
The two girls opened the front door, and smiles emerged on their faces, exercising muscles that had not moved all day.  It had been weeks since they’d seen him.  Things had become complicated with friendship after Emma and her boyfriend broke up.  Ben happened to be best friends with Emma’s ex boyfriend, Sam, making things awkward, especially since she had a lot of aggression toward him that seeped out of her at unexpected times.
Walking in the doorway, Ben hugged both girls and then Katelyn ran to the fridge, grasping Ben’s boutonnière in one swift movement.  “We’re putting this on you here, Ben,” Katelyn declared. “I don’t want anyone taking one of those cliché pictures of us doing this.”
Laughing, Ben rolled his eyes, accustomed to Emma and Katelyn’s pessimistic and often ridiculous mocker of convention.
“I can’t do this!”  Katelyn grumbled.  The pin poked her fingers with every attempt she made to pin the flower to his pocket. “Ouch! Why is this necessary? Who came up with pinning flowers to suits anyways?”
Emma could not stop herself from laughing, for even though she would have reacted in the same way, the futility of her efforts were hilarious to watch. 
A buzz coming from her phone discontinued her laughter.  A text from her sister popped up on her phone screen.  She expected her to ask what time she and their mom should be at Megan’s house for pictures.  Instead, her jaw dropped and annoyance pumped through her veins when she read what it said.
“God damn it!”  Emma belted out.
“What?”  Ben and Katelyn asked in alarmed unison.
“You’re not going to believe this,” Emma said, her cold tone left a frost in the air.  “Michael went to my house to come pick me up!  He totally just screwed up the plan, and I seriously reminded him 30 minutes ago to come here.”
Katelyn’s mouth gaped open.  “What are you going to tell him to do?”
“I don’t know…”  Emma rolled her eyes. Ben, who was an innocent bystander in the drama, doubted that her eyes would make it back around without getting stuck.  “Okay...hold on, I have to figure this out.”  Emma’s fingers sprawled across the screen of her iPhone in a frantic frenzy, typing out ‘Michael!! You were supposed to come to Katelyn’s house.’ A miffed moan escaped from her mouth.
A minute later, she received another text from her sister, ‘What are you going to do?  Have him meet you at Megan’s for pictures?  He’s talking to mom right now.’ 
“Why does my life have to be so difficult?”  she fussed.
“Just text Michael and tell him to meet us at Megan’s,” Katelyn offered. Their eyes met, conveying an understanding of exactly how she felt. 
After a couple more texts sent to Michael in a chaotic rush of confusion, they decided to meet at Megan’s house.  Katelyn, Emma, and Ben got into his car, and they were off. 
Ben met Emma’s eyes through the rearview mirror, sensing her stress.  “Emma-- it’s going to be alright.”
“I know,” Emma grunted.  “It’s just that this isn’t what I even wanted to do tonight, and now everything’s going wrong.  Let’s just talk about something else.”  A silence followed while Emma searched for a better topic of conversation. “Do you know if Jane ever hung out with Sam the other night?”
Jane was Emma’s other best friend, but definitely not as good of a friend as Katelyn.  Katelyn hated Jane.  Her blood boiled at the sight of the pink and polka dotted bows she wore in her Barbie blonde hair.  She scoffed at the very thought of her, a ridiculous girl who held an idea that every boy was in love with her, when they clearly were not. 
Adding to the drama, Emma did not trust Jane as much as a friend should.  She had caught Jane trying to make plans to hang out Sam the other day, and she craved confirmation on whether or not this had actually happened.  She could not fathom the thought of any of her friends hanging out with Sam.  Doing so would only be a message to him that how he treated her was perfectly okay, when it most certainly was not. 
“Well, actually...he kind of did hang out with her…”  Ben said, scratching his head and avoiding her eyes in the mirror. 
The shock of those words hit Emma’s ears like an electric current.
“He what?” Katelyn gasped.
Emma’s teeth clenched, and she forced herself to ask the question she knew she did not want the answer to, “What did they do?”
“I wasn’t supposed to tell you, Emm--” Ben began to say.
“What did they do?”
“Well it wasn’t the first time they’ve hung out,” Ben murmured, knowing he had started something he knew he was going to regret.
Rage bubbled up inside Emma like a boiling pot of water.  Her cheeks turned a rosy pink, while her palms began to dampen.  Her mind lost the ability to form complete thoughts.  Words full of frustration and fury floated at the partings of her lips, but they failed to be released. 
“What do they do when they’re together?” Katelyn asked for Emma.
“I don’t know… talk I guess…  But guys, seriously you can’t say anything about this to Jane.  I swore I wouldn’t tell you.”
“Why does Sam want to talk to Jane? Why would he choose her of all people?”  Katelyn asked, again speaking for Emma.
“Okay... well... maybe they don’t just talk.”
“What?” Emma finally erupted.  “What do you know? Tell me.”
“If I tell you, you cannot freak out at me for knowing and not telling you.  I was just trying to protect you.”
Clutching onto the side of her seat, digging her nails vigorously into the leather, Emma did not say a word.  She let the silence justify her agreement to his statement.
“They’ve been sleeping together for about a month now.  Just a casual thing before we all go off to college...” he trailed off.
Emma’s heart ached, and her stomach flipped.
“Oh my God,” Katelyn said in a monotone voice. “You have got to be kidding me.”
Emma didn’t say a word.  Muted by devastation, tears glided down her face in single file lines, and her limbs shook with a cold vibration.  Pulling out her phone, she started a new message addressed to Jane that said ‘I know what you did,’ but she willed herself to delete the draft out of fear of what would happen if she actually hit send.
“I’m going to be sick,” were the first words she mustered.
“Emma--” Ben countered, “I’m so sorry.”
Emma screamed, and fought the nausea inside her with all of the strength she could manage to obtain in her desolate state.  “How could Jane do this to me?”
“I have no words,” Katelyn added.  “How could anyone ever do something like that to a friend?”
“Please calm down.  You have to promise not to tell her,” Ben pleaded.
“How am I supposed to do that?  Please enlighten me because I’m pretty sure she is the worst friend I have ever had.  I can’t believe she had the audacity to do that even once, let alone for the past month!”
“Emma, you can’t.  I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“Fine.  I won’t tell her I know, but I am done with her.  I can’t do this right now.  I want to go home.”  She rolled down the window and breathed in the rushing air.
Feeling Emma’s pain, Katelyn tried to soften the situation, “Emma-- it’s going to be okay.  She sucks, Sam sucks, everyone sucks, but you can’t let it ruin tonight.  Poor Michael doesn’t know anything about this, so you have to try to forget about it for now.  I know that’s nearly impossible, but--” 
“We’re here,” Ben said shakily.
Emma’s stomach sank.  The air around her weighed heavily on her shoulders, and it took extra effort for her to move.  A queasy feeling whirled her emotions like a hurricane.  She could see Michael waiting for her alongside her mom and sister, ready for pictures, completely unaware of what he was about to get himself into.
Willing herself out of the car and stepping out into the brisk air, the wind smacked the tears that were beginning to form over her eyes.  Katelyn gave her an empathetic look that said ‘Hang in there,’ but that was the last thing Emma wanted to do right now.  She wanted to severely hurt Jane.  She wanted to rip that selfish b**** to shreds. 
“I’m going to kill Jane!”  Emma screamed out to her mom and sister as she made her way towards them.  The wind whipped her hair in all directions, giving her the physical appearance of the crazy person she was beginning to embody.  “She’s been sleeping with Sam!  Can you believe that?”
“What?” her sister asked, her eyes wide.
“You heard me!”  Emma answered.  A lump formed in her throat, making it hard for her to breath, and tears threatened to descend down her cheeks. 
“Hi Emma!”  Michael waved excitedly, oblivious. 
“Hi. How are you?” Emma asked in a shaky voice, quickly wiping the tears from her face.
“I’m good.  I’m so sorry again about going to your house.”
“It’s alright.”
Walking into the house, Emma’s anxiety about play acting her role all night sizzled like electric shocks through her nervous system.  Thoughts of dancing with Michael and worry over whether or not he would get along with her friends assaulted her.
“Hi guys! Come on in!” Megan’s mom said, a white smile illuminating her face.
Talk and laughter blossomed in the house.  Flashing lights went off right then left, while the shutter sound of cameras clicking in her ears added to the frenzy inside her head.  What am I going to do? Emma thought.
Interrupting the argument ensuing in her head, Michael said, “Here’s your corsage!” with a light in his eyes that made Emma’s heart sink.  He’s going to hate me after tonight, she thought.  I can’t possibly give him the kind of night he’s looking for.
Michael’s fingers fidgeted while he tore open the seal and took corsage out of the box, sliding it onto Emma’s wrist.  While he stretched the elastic over her thumb, Emma heard a bead hit the floor, then another, until beads were falling from her wrist like a waterfall.
The beads finally stopped, leaving a huge gap in the corsage.  Emma stared blankly at her wrist, saying nothing; the empty space stared at her.
“Oh my goodness!”  her mom gasped, “Do you want me to go get you a new one?  It’s seriously not a problem for me to do that.  I want you to have the perfect night.”
Perfect night resonated in Emma’s head like a doomsday bell.  She really did not want Michael getting the wrong impression.  How am I supposed to have a perfect night with someone I barely know?
“No, no, it’s perfectly fine!” Emma said appreciatively. 
“Alright, honey, but if you change your mind, let me know, okay?”
Emma awkwardly nodded her head and ran her fingers over the hole in the corsage.  It was going to be a long night.
The pictures commenced, and before she knew it, she was sitting in the car on the way to prom with Michael. 
“So, who’s this Sam kid, anyways?” Michael asked, making small talk.
Emma did not know what to say.  So much had happened with Sam that she did not know where to begin.  “Well…” Emma said shakily, “long story short, he’s my ex boyfriend that treated me like absolute crap.  We were together for about six months, and I put up with him as much as I could.  He wasn’t over his past girlfriend when he met me, but I didn’t want to believe it.”  Emma kept rambling. “I gave him the benefit of the doubt, but he lied to me all the time about whether or not he was over her.  Turns out, the day after we broke up, he tried to get back together with her.”  Emma took a long and drawn out deep breath.  “And now, here I am finding out that Jane has been sleeping with him.  Everything associated with him is just a mess.”
“Wow,” was all Michael could muster.  “Is he back together with his ex now?  I mean, I’m guessing not because of Jane, but I’m just wondering.”
“No, Ben told me she turned him down,” Emma answered, picking at the sides of her nails, trying to ignore the ache in her heart.  She felt used, like an excuse, a game piece in his quest to get over and back at the girl he could not attain.
“I’m sorry, you didn’t deserve to be treated like that,” Michael said in almost a whisper.  “I understand why you’re so mad at Jane now.  Even if he hadn’t been horrible to you, it would still be equally as awful for her to be sleeping with him.”
Emma envisioned Jane and Sam intertwined beneath his navy blue sheets, and shuddered.  She imagined him kissing Jane’s forehead in the same spot he used to kiss hers, and it was almost as if she could once again feel the tight grasp of his hand within hers, only to realize it was all an allusion, lost in memory, and now belonging to Jane.  Her chest tightened, while she picked at the sides of her nails, desperate for a distraction.
“Yeah.  I really don’t know what I’m going to do about her once we get to the dance.  She’s going to expect me to take a bunch of pictures with her and dance and... ”
“We’ll figure it out,” Michael said, repositioning himself in his seat as he parked the car.  “Sometimes crappy stuff happens, and it’s really how you choose to deal with it that matters more than what actually happened.”
Emma got out of the car, hands clammy, thinking about what Michael had just said.  Immediately, Jane spotted Emma from across the parking lot and started sprinting toward her, beach blond hair trailing behind her and pink sparkly dress flapping in the wind.
“Michael! What am I supposed to do?” Emma said in a panic, turning toward him.  But before she could gather her thoughts, Jane’s arm was around her shoulder and she was telling Emma how gorgeous she looked.  “Thanks, Jane.  You look great too,” Emma said in a pained voice.  She felt like daggers were protruding from her eyes, but Jane was unaware of any kind of conflict.
“Let’s take a picture!” Jane exclaimed, tossing her phone to Michael.  She pulled Emma in close and tried numerous facial expressions to ensure she got the perfect picture.  “Aw Emma, these are so cute! I can’t wait to post a picture of us later,” she cooed, flipping through the pictures to show Emma her options.
“Yeah, those are cute,” Emma tried to respond excitedly, but her words came out in a monotone drone instead.
“Well come on now!  Let’s go inside!  You need to get more excited.”  Jane said exuberantly, dragging Emma to the lobby doors.  “Tonight’s going to be so fun, and I’m so happy we get to spend the night together! Prom with your best friend is something everyone deserves to have,” she continued on, batting her eyes at Emma, waiting for a response that praised their friendship.  Emma turned around, scanning the area for Ben and Katelyn until she finally spotted Katelyn a couple cars down.  Unable to escape Jane’s nails digging into her hand, she met Michael’s eyes, pleading for his help.
***
Emma, Jane, Katelyn, and their dates all sat down at their table.  The tension in the air weighed everyone down except for Jane who remained clueless to what was happening. 
Dinner commenced and Jane began to do what Jane always did-- talk about herself.  “So my mom told me that I look absolutely gorgeous,” she said batting her eyelashes, “and she just texted me saying that she sent a picture of me to my aunt, and she said I look better than her own daughter did at her prom,” Jane bragged, exaggerating the compliment way out of proportion.  Everyone glanced at one another, all with the same thought in their eyes ‘this girl is crazy.’
All of a sudden, music started to blare from the other side of the dining hall.  Couples got up from their tables all at once, grooving to the dance floor.  Katelyn and Emma looked at each other; their facial muscles froze and their eyes were fearful.  The worst part of the night had arrived and they were in no position to dance.  “I have to go to the bathroom!” Emma exclaimed.
“Me too!” Katelyn agreed, and with that, the girls shuffled off.
“I don’t want to dance.  This is going to be so awkward,” Emma said, pushing the door open.  Jane’s huge smile greeted her as soon as she opened the door.  Why is she everywhere? Emma’s thoughts asked bitterly. 
“Hey! What are you doing in here?  You have to go out and dance!  This is so fun!” Jane mused.
“Yeah…” Emma managed to spurt out.  It was hard for her to even look at her.
Jane pinched her hips and said, “Come on silly, cheer up!” as she exited the bathroom.
“How can she just act like everything’s okay and like she’s your best friend?” Katelyn asked accusingly.
“I don’t know, but it’s really starting to piss me off.  I just want to go home.”
The bathroom was filled with girls avoiding dancing with their dates.  No one wanted to endure the stereotypical gawky hands over the shoulders, while rocking back and forth dancing.  As Emma placed her hands against the bathroom door, pushing it open, she felt a sharp pain in her stomach, dreading both Jane and dancing.
Walking back to the dance floor, heat prickled up and down Emma’s spine.  Michael locked eyes with her almost immediately once she got back.  “Do you want to dance now?” he asked eagerly.
“Sure,” Emma said, fighting the voice in her head pleading her to say no.
“Come on, get pumped!” Michael shouted to her over the loud music as he jumped up and down to the beat.  His smile beamed, and excitement radiated from his body, making the heat in her spine peak.  He wanted the perfect night complete with dancing and laughter, sparks and flirtation, but she could not give him any of that. She let Michael pull her from her resisting stance to the dance floor, and Katelyn and Ben followed behind them, sensing Emma’s frustration from just a foot away.
Shake It Off by Taylor Swift blasted from the speakers, and Emma could feel the bass vibrating in her ears.  Kids around her grinded up on one another and sometimes her as well, making her hold her shoulder and arms close to her body.  Packed onto the dance floor like sardines, she soon found herself in a huge mosh pit. The four of them stood in a circle, and in an attempt to escape contact with Michael, Emma grabbed Katelyn’s hands.  They jived back and forth and jumped up and down to the beat of the song.
Emma suddenly felt a persistent tapping on her shoulder.  She turned and saw Jane.  The flashing lights beamed and reflected off the sparkles of her dress, causing rays of pink light to blind Emma temporarily.
“Hey! Let’s dance!” Jane screamed, snatching Emma’s hands from Katelyn’s grasp.  “Let’s go dance and talk over there.”
Emma fought her grip, but allowed herself to be dragged away anyway, still willing herself to not say anything about knowing she had slept with Sam.
“Why are you acting so weird? Are you mad at me or something?” Jane inquired. 
“No, but should I be?” Emma replied in a biting tone.
A look of worry washed over Jane’s face, but only for a few seconds, for it was as if a switch turned on in her eyes.  All of a sudden, her lips pursed and her eyebrows furrowed.  “I’m so sick of you choosing Katelyn over me.  I have tried so many times to get you to put me first, but it never works.”
“Woah, hold on.  Where is this coming from?”
“Emma, all night you’ve been avoiding me and clinging to Katelyn.  Do you know how hard it is to watch your best friend choose someone else over you everyday?”
Emma stared at her blankly.  She could not believe someone who had literally just gone behind her back was accusing her of being the bad friend. 
“Are you just going to stand there and not say anything?” Jane’s eyes bulged out of her head and her forehead vein pulsated.  “I have given up so much for you, Emma.  I’m always here to give you advice.  I follow you around like a puppy dog when you only care about Katelyn, and I even stopped being friends with Sam when you guys broke up.” Jane paused and took a breath, “He was my friend too, you know.”
Emma clenched her fists and bit her tongue.  How dare she say this to me, Emma thought, does she really think Ben wouldn’t tell me about this eventually?  Words finally decided to break through the strong barrier of her lips.  “Have you really given up that friendship? Have you?” Emma attackingly asked.  “You still like all of his photos on instagram, I see you snapchatting him all the time, and you even wished him a happy birthday right after he screwed me over.”
“You have been there all of the times I’ve ever snapchatted him, and if you weren’t there, I’m sure I told you about it.  I’m not the bad friend here, Emma, it’s you.  You’re the one who goes behind my back and leaves me out.”
Emma could not take it anymore.  She needed to say something; the ridicule she was receiving for doing nothing wrong was plaguing her mind like a disease.  She opened her mouth, taking in a deep breath of the hot and sticky air of the room, “I kno--” 
Cutting her off, Michael stood behind her and whispered into her ear, “Emma, you don’t have to deal with Jane or any of this.  We can go home, or we can stay here-- totally your call.”
Emma tucked her hair behind her ears and crossed her arms across her chest.  Leaning forward toward his eager eyes, she asked, “Can we please go? I’m really sorry Michael, but tonight has just been a little too much for me.”
Their backs were turned to Jane, and although she was behind them listening, they did not stop their banter. “No, no, I understand completely,” Michael contended.  “You don’t deserve to be trapped like this.  You deserve to be freed from this whole mess with Sam.  You deserve to move on.  You can’t keep letting him impact your life, Emma.  He’s not worth it.”
“Thank you, and I know, you’re right,” Emma admitted, her face hot.  “Let’s go find Katelyn and Ben and then let’s get out of here.”  The two of them went back to the dance floor to retrieve their friends, and as they were walking out of the lobby doors, a voice cried out behind them.
“Emma! Wait!”
Emma turned around.  It was Jane… again.  She had stalked her all night, and if Emma needed an escape, now was the time. 
“I need to talk to you.  There’s something I need to tell you.”
“Okay, well can you tell me on the way to the car please? I really want to go home.”
Michael replied before Jane could, shocking Emma.  “Sure, Jane, you can come, but make it fast.”  Jane shuffled behind the four of them as they climbed down the concrete steps to the parking lot.  However, as soon as they reached the end of the sidewalk, someone poked their head out from behind a car and began to walk towards them.
It was Sam.
Emma’s stomach plunged twenty feet.  She had to do a double take because there was no way this could be happening right now. 
Sam now stood in front of her.  “Hi Emma.”
His blue eyes stared into her soul the same way they used to, sending chills down her back.  Emma snap out of it. What are you doing? He slept with Jane, her thoughts attacked.  “What the hell are you doing here?”
“I want you back.  I’m so stupid.  I screwed up.”
“You have got to be kidding me,” Emma spat out, “How dare you come here?”
“I really wanted to see you.”
Beads of sweat formed at Emma’s hairline and everything around her seemed to be spinning.  “Can we please go talk over by your car or something?  I feel like I’m going to pass out.”  Her and Sam walked to his car, silence consuming them along the way.
As soon as they got there, Emma started in right away, “So you’re telling me you want to get back together after you’ve been sleeping with one of my best friends and totally threw our relationship down the toilet when we actually were together?”
“Wait, you know about Jane?  I can explain.”
“Don’t.”
“I’m going to anyway.” Emma crossed her arms and glared at him.  “I didn’t know what I wanted until now.  When we were together, I thought I still had feelings for my ex, but really I think I was just scared of getting attached to another person again.  I really do want you, Emma, I do.”  He ran his fingers through his hair and he reached for Emma’s shoulder.  Emma took a step back, protecting herself from his toxic grasp.
“Then what’s your excuse for sleeping with Jane, huh?” she asked, fighting the lump in her throat.
“I’m lonely, Emma.  Jane has been helping me through some hard stuff lately, and one night she was over late, and it just kind of happened… and kept happening.  I’m sorry.”
“Well, if missing me is the ‘hard stuff’ you’ve been working through, don’t you think sleeping with one of my best friends would be counterintuitive?”
Sam’s eyes dropped to the ground, searching for an excuse. 
“I’m sorry Sam, but you are a horrible person, and I’m appalled that you even had the audacity to come here and try to get me back.”
“Emma-- please listen.  I love you.  I want us to be together.”
“I wanted us to be together too, Sam.  Do you know how much you have screwed me up? Everyday I think about you and how and why things ended the way they did between us.  Everyday I think about how I could have done things differently.  I wanted you.  I wanted us, but you ruined that when you decided I wasn’t good enough.”  She ignored the streams of tears rushing down her cheeks and looked him in the eyes one last time.  “I can’t be with you, Sam.  Maybe before all of this Jane drama, but not now.”
His face was rosy and his hands were trembling.  “I’m sorry.  I really am sorry.”
Emma wiped away her tears and then refastened her crossed arms to her chest.  “I’m sorry too,” she said, her voice cracking.
Sam opened his car door, without saying another word, and drove off.  Emma stood there, chest heaving and started to bawl.  All of a sudden, someone was hugging her.  Expecting it to be Katelyn when she opened her eyes, she was mistaken when she realized it was Michael. 
“I’m so sorry.  You’re going to be okay though.  I know you will be,” Michael whispered.
“Thanks, but I haven’t been okay in a long time.  I don’t really know what okay is anymore.”
“Just give it time.  This may surprise you, but I’ve had my fair share of relationship problems too.  Last year my girlfriend dumped me for my best friend, so we have a lot more in common than you may think,” he said with a little laugh.
“I didn’t know that,” she stated in a surprised tone.  “I’m sorry if tonight has brought back some unwanted memories.”
“It’s completely alright.  If there’s one thing I learned from it, it’s that you have to let all of your anger out before you can be free again.”
A warmth in Emma’s heart expanded throughout her whole body.  “Come on Michael, let’s go find Katelyn and Ben.”
“Don’t forget about Jane,” he reminded her.
“Oh yeah.  I forgot that I didn’t talk to her yet.”
Making it back to where the three of them stood, the same feeling of dread washed over Emma’s body.  As soon as Emma was in close proximity, Jane asked, “What do you know?  What did Sam tell you?”
“It doesn’t matter what Sam told me because things with him are finally over.  However, that does not make what you did okay, Jane.  I know you’ve been sleeping with him.”
“Emma…” There was a long pause.  Emma looked at Jane with a look so full of ferocity that she could feel the tension in her cheek muscles increasing with each millisecond.  “I didn’t think you would ever find out.”
“Why would you ever in a million years think that would be okay?  You’re supposed to be one of my best friends!  Best friends do not sleep with their best friend’s ex boyfriend.”
“He was my friend too.”
“That does not mean that you should sleep with him.  I’m pretty sure that’s not an activity friends partake in on a regular basis.”
Jane twirled her blonde hair between her fingers and looked into the distance.
“I just want you to think about the fight you were picking with me in there about me not being a good friend to you, Jane.  Think about how awful that was for me, knowing this entire time that you’ve been sleeping with Sam.”
Jane looked at her, and no words came from her lips.
“Please leave.  I never want to see you again,” Emma finally said.  The lump in her throat began to tear at all ends once again, but Katelyn was there.  She hugged Emma tight, allowing Emma to finally let down her guard.  Tears erupted from her eyes and her body went weak.
Katelyn turned over her shoulder and noticed that mute Jane had not moved one bit.  “She said leave.  Go ruin someone else’s life.”
Jane threw the train of her dress behind her and stormed off, giving Katelyn a glare.
Emma, Katelyn, and the boys made their way to the car.  They could hear cheers and music echoing behind them from inside.
“Hey Emma, it’s like they’re cheering you on in there!” Ben mused.  It was one of the only things he had said about the situation since the car ride, but Emma appreciated it more than anything.  “I’m so proud of you for sticking up to both of them.  That must have taken a lot of courage.”
“You’re telling me!” she replied, her body still a little shaky.
“Are you sure you want to leave the dance now?  We could stay till the end and maybe try and turn this night around,” Michael offered.
“No, I’m good,” Emma chuckled.  “I just want to curl up in my bed and forget this happened.  Thank you so much guys for taking care of me tonight.  I owe all of you.”
“Of course,” Katelyn smiled.  She hugged Emma once more, and then Emma said goodbye to Michael, while Ben and Katelyn waited in the car.
“I think I’m just going to have Ben drive me home because Katelyn’s going to sleepover at my house.  I’m sorry you had to deal with all of this tonight.”
“I was happy to be there for you.  If you ever need someone to talk to, I’m here.”
Emma smiled, and pulled Michael in tight.  “Let’s hang out again sometime soon when I’m more emotionally stable.” 
He smiled in agreement.
She got into Ben’s car and took one last look at the building, seeing flashing lights and waving arms through the windows.  Emma sighed and Katelyn gave her shoulder a squeeze.  Prom really wasn’t their scene anyways.