The Perks of Being a Wallflower

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

[Camilla Bell- PROM 2]
[Continued from PROM 1, Early in the Morning]

Hopefully, nobody will notice that Camilla reused the base dress of her Halloween costume for Prom.

She was aware that the silky black dress, with a skirt that almost dragged on the floor and sleeves that hung open at the ends, made her look near invisible in the mostly darkened room. All except for the shining flower pendant hanging by her neck. It wasn't wholly intentional, but it was a godsend nonetheless. Prom was... alright. Better than the last time she went. This time around she had a proper date, and Julien was a rather good date to have so far, if she did say so herself.

She'd learned her lesson from the last party she went to, and had a bite to eat beforehand. Well, there was some food available here, but she wasn't really interested in that. Later, she figured she might suggest to Julien that they go out for a more proper dinner. That was for later, though.

Right now, she was pacing aimlessly, close to the wall, occasionally glancing out at the revelers illuminated by the spinning neon projection, that drew themselves into dance circles and back out again, as if a sort of indecisive gravity was pulling them together and away again. Then she would glance at her nails- they were less appealing to her teeth when there was nail polish on them. If anything, the polish glowed the most in her outfit, in its reflective white. She put her hand back down, and the cycle began anew when she looked back out to the dance floor.

They looked happy, didn't they?

Maybe Julien would ask if they could join them. If he wanted to, he could be her guest.

[Endellion]

"You don't want to get drawn into the vortex, I'm guessing? Not the only one."

[ Julien Leblanc continued from Early in the Morning ]

With the way Camilla was acting, it didn't particularly take a genius to guess that she didn't want to dance. Julien hardly faulted her.

This music wasn't exactly his style anyway, and a look at the dress (hardly the first one he'd taken) that she had on led him to believe that someone who had a touch too little spatial awareness and co-ordination for the good of others was likely to step on either it or one of their feet. Enough of that would leave the skirt in a sorry state, and that really would be a crying shame. All the more reason for him not to care for the thought of stepping out into the throng of dancers.

"Better to hang back a little, I'd say," he said, hoping to draw her attention a little further toward him so that perhaps she'd stop pacing around as she was quite so much. The nerves, at least by his guess, that he saw setting into Camilla were entirely understandable. Julien felt them as well in the way he occasionally ran his hands over his forearms to pull himself back inward a little in the face of the crowd they were orbiting around. It reminded him that they were softer than he was used to, which didn't exactly help.

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Camilla let out a breath knowing that Julien wasn't going to waltz into some dance ring and disappear from her view. She nodded, and paused to look out at the dancers one last time.

Sometime, it sure seemed like fun out there. Then she'd remember all the fighting, the drama, and the general inanity that went on in the various social cliques of the school. Perhaps she was lucky to have settled into a quiet niche with the gardening club. The most conflict-ridden thing they'd done together was probably that one trip to the caves where they got lost. Ah well, even that was a good time in hindsight.

She smiled, and turned back to Julien.

"Yeah, I agree," she said, a bit wistfully. In her last look out, she had seen a teacher- couldn't see his face- who was doing some sort of dad-dance as a friend would call it, like it was the end of the world.

"Hopefully none of the teachers feel like pressuring students into dancing, heh."

[Endellion]

"God, I hope not. They, uh, seem to think it's a disco event, the way they're going. Looks like they're having fun though, so more power to them long as they leave us out of it."

For a moment he was reminded of a time spent in Bordeaux, years ago, and someone who'd been a little too free with celebration and wine trying to pull him along to dance. His father hadn't been all that happy about that one. It was hardly something he had enjoyed then, and certainly not now. Clearly the feeling was a mutual one.

"And since it bears saying, you look absolutely lovely." Julien flashed Camilla a smile as he said it. He could actually see little going on but for the dancing, a photo booth that had been set up elsewhere and the untapped potential for drama swirling through the air. The first and second had their time and place, neither of those being now, and he'd had enough of the third for the rest of the year.

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

"Oh, um, thank you," she politely replied before batting the compliment back at Julien. "You look rather nice too."

Something about it felt like it wasn't quite enough to be a perfect return-to-sender. However, there wasn't much else Camilla could think of to say- she was living off the life support of inoffensive but generic lines that everybody knew, heard, and said. Perhaps it was just the excess of people currently around- maybe without them exerting their bizarre, claustrophobic gravity, her tongue would loosen itself to a more varied well of phrases. Some of which might have even been independently thought of at the very moment! (Though maybe you could say that about all of them?)

All the while Camilla argued with herself, she couldn't quite find the nervous energy to pace around. Know thyself, or something? She didn't know.

That being said, what were they going to do after they got out of this stuffy place? She had ideas, and perhaps he did too. Maybe while they were waiting around it would be a good idea to discuss that.

"Say, do you think we'll have time to go somewhere after we leave?"

[Endellion]

"Well, it'll depend on when we leave and what you want to do."

Julien took the compliment for what it was. He didn't suppose Camilla was the sort to be used to things like this, so opting for the tried and true solution made sense; granted, he hardly was either.

"I take it you have something in mind?"

His own idea was a relatively simple one, since Julien hadn't really eaten that much today and going somewhere a little quieter would be a pleasant end to the night. It would be on short notice to book a table now, that was for certain, but he was certain there was a good place or two around.

Camilla had brought it up first as well, so he would let her voice whatever she'd thought of before interjecting.

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

"Well, kind of?" she started.

it was true that she had something in mind- there was a cafe-diner thing called The Blue House and she'd had the thought to visit again for quite some time. Alas, she never got around to it. Maybe now would be a good time.

"You know that Blue House Cafe, right? I was thinking we could spend some time there."

Prom had been tolerable. Okay. With a good friend though, and a nice finish to the night in a calm place, she might even say she liked it in the end. That was an exaggeration though, wouldn't it be? Since most of the liking part was getting away from Prom.

[Endellion]

"I've been there a few times before," he lied, "it's a good place. I'd be alright with that."

Julien's attention was drawn away from Camilla for a few moments by the announcement of the prom royalty. Ivy being queen came as little surprise to him, with who and what she was, but the declaration of king was rather interesting. It only provided further reason to try and keep away from the drama that would inevitably come with prom, but it was interesting all the same.

"Well, if an escape from this place happens to be what you desire, I hardly blame you. Just say the word when you feel it's time."

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Camilla heard the announcement for prom royalty loud and clear as it could be in dark, crowded, room of revelers (at least a fifth of which were some level of drunk or such, she assumed).

Of course Ivy got the crown. Ivy and... Connor. That was the football guy, right? She tried to put the couple together in her head. While she never considered herself to have a particularly strong intuition, the vestigial remains of what she did develop told her that how they looked didn't matter- it was going to end in drama anyway.

She squinted in the direction of the crowd forming to hear the announcements closer, almost instinctively wanting to back away.

"I..." she turned to Julien again, while still tilting her head in the direction of the crowd. "...feel like that's our cue to leave."

[Endellion]

"I frankly couldn't agree more, Camilla."

After all, why force themselves to hide away at the walls when they could simply avoid the whole thing and spare themselves the stress? Julien felt around inside his jacket for the keys to his bike; of course, they were exactly where they should be. That out of the way with, he offered Camilla a hand. It would hardly do for them to get split up as they made their exit.

"Shall we?"

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

With a smile and a nod, Camilla reached over to take Julien's hand.

She opened her mouth, but it froze there for a moment as she pondered the best way to answer his rhetorical question. Of course the answer would be the same either way, but somehow a simple "yes" wouldn't cut it. It just didn't mesh. Saying "of course" seemed like the wrong way to go about it, there was a hint of permission-granting that needed to be doled out. Was there? Well, that's what the tone had to be, no? Why on Earth was she agonizing over the answer to a question with only one answer, again?

"We shall."

Sounds overly formal, but sure. Good enough.

[Endellion]

"Well then, away we go."

There was an innate... not so much risk as stupidity inexorably tied to someone in a full-length dress getting onto a motorcycle that was likely to end with significant injuries since a dress, and the person underneath it, wasn't particularly durable when put to the test of scraping across anything at road speeds.

Julien, fortunately, was well aware of that. His mother had been more than happy to help him get wherever he might need to go too, given the occasion, so potential disaster had been decisively averted.

As he made his way out of the hall with Camilla, he did happen to overhear something that surprised him even less than it really should have. When he gave it some thought, the only sort of person he could imagine taking a limo to prom considered it a counterweight for their penis, figurative or not, and not a compensation.

[ Julien Leblanc continued elsewhere. ]

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

The noise of the hall faded into the distance.

A breeze cooled down the summer night.

Truly, it was the best way an occasion like this to end. Well, for the two of them anyway. Everybody else would have to deal with Ivy, Camilla supposed.

[Camilla Bell continued elsewhere]