Two weeks…

Two incredibly long weeks. The next day after Duncan and Courtney’s break up Duncan had gone straight to his farther and had accepted his job offer without a second thought and didn’t bring it up again.

Courtney buried herself into her studies being better prepared than anyone for her AP tests and finals. Even most of the clubs she participated in where up in productivity. She could’ve been the principle of the school, taking care of schedules, dates, assemblies, checking the schools weekly updates and helping anyone who needed it. Her college interview went perfectly and she was accepted into the school almost immediately.

While Courtney’s academic life went higher and higher everything else about her wasn’t so bright. It was obvious to everyone that she ha been crying a lot with her swollen eyes and raspy throat. She never smiled or laughed. She didn’t even get mad or angered by anything. It was like she was on an emotional lock down and all the work was just to keep her further distracted from her feelings.

Duncan meanwhile went about with his usual routine as well. He showed up for most classes, skipped a few here and there. He went back to smoking even more than before. Whenever in Psychology class he sat as far away from Courtney as possible trying, but usually failing, to ignore her. Just when he thought he could make it through the entire class he’d find himself staring at her. She never glanced at him, not once. She kept her eyes glued to her desk and left class before he even got a chance to leave his chair. It didn't take long for him to stop showing up to Psychology class all together.

Basically it had been like a shadow had fallen over the two. The rest of the world seemed to pass as people seemed too busy with other things. Tests, upcoming finals, college, prom, graduation. It was just mindless and meaningless crap to the both of them. Courtney sucked it up and acted as if the school mattered to her, when in reality she was dyeing to get out of there. Duncan went the opposite direction and showed off his hatred of the place as often as he could, whether it was talking back to teachers, skipping, or just being a bully to any jock or school spirited loser who crossed his path.

The main thing the both of them looked forward to was graduating and never seeing each other again. It was something that brought them both heartache and relief.
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Courtney sighed running a hand through her hair. She had just finished yet another extra credit assignment and was getting tired, not to mention hungry. She walked over to one of the vending machines in the cafeteria not knowing what to get. Her appetite seemed all out of whack lately.

“Get the peanut butter M&M’s.”

Courtney looked behind her to see Gwen smiling at her sweetly. She didn’t smile back, but nodded and punched in the numbers. “Thanks, can’t seem to make up my mind lately,” said Courtney ripping the candy open.

“Maybe that’s because your mind hasn’t taken a break in a while,” stated Gwen still smiling at her.

Courtney shrugged popping a few of the colorful candies in her mouth. “Just trying to go out with a bang before graduation.”

Gwen chuckled. “Oh yeah you’re a real rebel," she said sarcastically.

Gwen was trying to get a reaction other than comatose out of Courtney but it didn’t seem to be working. She finally let her smile drop and decided on tough love. “Alright Courtney you need to snap out of it. You’ve been acting like a robot these past two weeks and even though you’re becoming the hardest working person at this school you seriously need to cut the crap.”

Courtney’s cool demeanor finally melted and for the first time in days an emotion other then sadness began to surface. It was anger. All the anger she was in over Duncan, over school, over the whole world. She was suppose to be with him and she wasn’t, and that pissed her off!

“Look you creepy Goth girl! I have every right in the world to act and feel however the hell I want! I don’t need someone who’s into darkness and scary shit telling me to snap out of it! And by the way, if anyone around here should be cutting the crap it’s Duncan! He thinks he can break up with and treat me as if I was some big mistake? Well I was the best fucking thing that ever happened to him and if he can’t see that than it's his loss, not mine. If I have to suffer heartbreak and a little bit of tears to move on then so be it, because I will not have people feeling sorry for me and never let myself get hurt by anyone ever again!”

By the time Courtney was done she was out of breath and completely red. Her eyes were re-lit with that familiar fire and she actually looked as if the weight of the world had been taken off her shoulders. Courtney looked relieved to have gotten all that pent up emotion out of her.

Gwen smiled proudly before crossing her arms and asking. “Feel better now?”

Courtney inhaled a couple times before nodding and saying, “Yeah… a little bit.”

“Good, now let’s go eat,” said Gwen already pulling her outside and away from the school.

For once Courtney didn’t argue. She let herself feel again and let herself deal with reality again. As her and Gwen continued to walk Courtney asked. “Won’t Duncan get mad if you’re hanging out with me?”

Gwen waved her hand dismissively. “If he has a problem with who I hang out with then he can shove it up his ass.”

Courtney actually giggled, which felt good to do again. However a part of her wished she hadn’t brought up Duncan at all since her mind instantly started playing memories through her head and her heart began to clench.

Gwen up on noticing this elbowed her arm gently and nodded towards the coffee shop. After they finished getting their drinks and small lunches they sat down and Gwen immediately started talking.

“So since you seem to have so much energy lately I was wondering if you could help me with something.”

Courtney looked at Gwen curiously. “Sure, with what?”

Gwen blushed slightly which stained her pale skin brightly. “Well Trent invited me to prom... and at first I said no, but he insisted on going so now I need help finding a dress.”

Courtney arched an eyebrow. “You don’t have one?”

Gwen gave Courtney a disbelieving look which soon cracked the both of them up and got Courtney to agree to help her. “Oh and you’re going by the way,” added Gwen.

Courtney nearly chocked on her food before looking at Gwen in complete shock. “Excuse me? But says who?”

“Says me, Trent, Leshawna, Harold, Bridgette, Geoff, basically everybody.”

Courtney shook her head absolutely refusing. “I don’t have a date, I don’t have a dress and I have no money to buy a ticket,” listed off Courtney.

Gwen however wasn’t backing down that easily. “We’ll either all go as friends or we’ll find you a date for the night, you’ll find a dress when you help me find one, and we’ll all chip in to help you buy a ticket.”

“But I-”

Gwen held up a hand which shut her up immediately. “You don’t have a say in this. You’ve been avoiding your friends these past couple of weeks and working your ass off. If I’m going to this stupid high school tradition then that means you’re going too and we are going to fucking enjoy it even if it kills us. I don’t care what you say, I’ll drag you there myself.”

Courtney was taken back by Gwen’s harshness but soon realized that she was just doing this because she was trying to be a good friend. All her friends were trying to make her feel better and while it didn’t make her feel completely better, she did feel surprisingly lighter.

“OK,” Courtney muttered finally giving in. “But I get to do my own make-up,” she added knowing that Gwen would make hers as dark and flashy as possible. Courtney didn’t want to go too extreme, just nice and simple.

Gwen raised her glass and Courtney toasted her. “Agreed then. Looks like we’re going to prom.”

Courtney smiled securely. ‘At least Duncan won’t be there.’
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“Fuck no.”

Geoff ran his hands over his face and whined, “But you got to go! It’s like customary of all seniors to go to their prom.”

“Just like it’s customary for some people, aka: me, not to go,” protested Duncan not in the mood for some lame ass prom.

“Dude you have to go!”

Trent suddenly walked up the guys and took a seat next to Duncan. “I see Geoff’s already bugging you about going to prom.”

Duncan scoffed to further express his annoyance. “Yeah and I’m not going. Besides I have no one to go with.” As soon as Duncan let the words slip his mouth he immediately thought of Courtney. He mentally kicked himself in the head. As if he needed to feel crappier.

“You could always come with us as a friend,” said Geoff.

“Yeah, I’ll be the third wheel while you guys are with your girlfriends,” retorted Duncan.

“Oh c’mon dude you’d be in the company of friends,” insisted Geoff.

“Don’t pressure him Geoff,” Trent suddenly said seriously. “If he doesn’t want to go we shouldn’t force him. Just leave him alone.”

Duncan looked at Trent suspiciously. “Why don’t you want me to go so badly? I thought you would’ve sided with Geoff on this. What bites?”

Trent tried to keep his cool but he wasn’t very good at it. “What? It’s not like I don’t want you to go and think that…I…um.”

Duncan was now glaring at him impatiently.

“OK, OK, I didn’t want to say anything but Gwen kind of… well she’s making Courtney go to the prom with the rest of us and I just thought it’d be weird for the both of you since… you know,you broke up.”

Duncan exhaled as slowly as he could. He wanted to yell at someone, he was sick and tired of people tip-toeing around his break-up with Courtney. Not that it didn’t still sting like hell but people acting as if it hadn’t happened was just as annoying.

Duncan ran his hand over his face once before standing up and saying, “See Geoff, now I’m really not going.” Duncan walked away.
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Courtney had spent all weekend with Bridgette and Gwen trying hard to find the perfect dress for herself.

Gwen had found a flattering navy blue dress that touched the floor, hugged her curves, and made her pale skin glow radiantly. Bridgette had found a hot red dress that sparkled, it was backless and touched the floor as well.

Courtney didn’t find anything that suited her. Everything was too poofy, sparkling, colorful, or over the top. She considered not going again but knew Bridgette and Gwen would never hear of it.

“C’mon Court we’ll find something, you can’t give up now,” said Bridgette optimistically.

Courtney sighed setting aside another dress. “It’s hopeless guys, I might as well give up now.”

“That’s not the Courtney we know,” chided Gwen. “We’ll find something we just need to look a little harder.”

After what seemed like hours the girls walked around the mall leaving every other store defeated. Courtney was just about to walk out all together when Gwen suddenly grabbed her shoulder so roughly Courtney actually winced in pain.

“Owe! What the hell was that… Oh my god.” Courtney finally saw the reason Gwen had stopped her and gazed at the perfect dress.

“I think we found the one,” announced Gwen.
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Courtney was finally letting herself heal little by little. She took it easy on her work as much as possible but would find herself from time to time overworking herself to death again. She always did this whenever thoughts of Duncan came up, or someone mentioned his name, or something reminded her of him.

At home she put her wooden skull away in a box, she didn’t have the strength to throw it away. She gave the clothes Gwen had lent her that one night back. All in all she avoided anything connected to him as much as possible.

“Hey Courtney.”

Courtney looked over her shoulder to see Adam walking behind her. She didn’t know what to do. Not only did he remind her of Duncan’s jealousy but he also hadn’t said anything to her since she and Duncan had hooked up, now that they were broken up he was suddenly talking to her again? Maybe Duncan was right, maybe this guy did have ulterior motives.

“Hi Adam,” said Courtney uncomfortably. She wanted to keep walking home but the thought of him walking with her and seeing where she lived made her reconsider. She didn’t want any boys trying to get close to her right now.

“I heard you were going to prom without a date,” he said looking down at his feet bashfully.

Courtney tried not roll her eyes and opted for letting out a nervous laugh. “I chose not to go with a date. I’ll be with my friends… so it’s no big deal.”

He seemed slightly wounded but kept his composure. “Well I’m your friend too aren’t I?”

Courtney bit off a sigh and nodded slightly.

“Well then why don’t you at least let me escort you there. I promise I won’t try to do anything. I just don’t know a whole lot of people still and you’re the first girl I met when I came here so…”

God he was making this hard to say no. Courtney didn’t want him even holding her hand because she would just start thinking of Duncan’s. But he had offered just to be friends, and if worse came to worse she could always just kick him in the groin. Besides she didn’t want to show up at prom as just the friend, at least having an escort wouldn’t be as humiliating.

Courtney forced herself to smile and accepted his offer. “Sure Adam. I’d like that.”

Adam smiled widely and placed his hands in his pockets. “I’ll see you then.” With that he walked away.

Courtney walked the rest of the way home entertaining thoughts of Duncan acting like a gentleman and him being the one taking her to prom. She shook her head knowing better. He’d lost his chance.

Courtney grimaced slightly remembering Adam. Oh well he was better than nothing right?

Courtney suddenly felt like crying again.
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Duncan couldn’t believe he was here, in the library. Had he truly gone that insane with boredom that his last option was the library? He couldn’t even find any good trouble to get into. Not to mention all his guy friends were too busy with their girlfriends or fucking prom.

He decided to just surf the Internet and kill some time before the school closed, he didn't feel like going home yet. He tried to drown out the conversations of all the geeks around him and decided to do some research on his future job at the police academy. He scanned over the history and program information when something else caught his eye.

He knew the police academy his father worked at had a few sister academies that all basically ran the same programs and worked under the same division and name. There were four, all scattered in different parts of the country. He’d been so distracted by his pain lately that he didn’t even care to look up the other academies or their locations, he just decided he would stay here and work at the same one as his dad, but suddenly…

“Hey I heard that Courtney Lawrence was going to prom with Adam Keeley.”

Upon hearing Courtney’s name Duncan eavesdropped on the neighboring geeks conversation.

“Oh yeah I heard that too, do you think he’ll get to second base with her?”

Duncan quickly put the information on the screen in his memory and jumped out of his seat and turned towards the geeks with a death glare on his face. “No one’s getting to second base with her! She’s mine!”

“BE QUIET IN THE LIBRARY!” shouted the librarian.

“TAKE YOUR OWN DAMN ADVICE!” hollered back Duncan storming out of there.

Duncan wasn’t going to take this lying down and especially with that asshole thinking he could have his girl. Courtney was his, he loved her and would make sure he was the only man who loved her and had her love. Screw all the differences and the not being perfect for each other. His life was only perfect when she was in it.

Duncan sped over to Geoff’s house and practically banged on his door. Geoff opened his door surprised to find Duncan there. “I’m going to the stupid prom," Duncan snapped. "Now help me find a suit!”

This was his last chance, and he wasn’t going to blow it.