Prom Ever After - Dona Sarkar Mills & Boon Kimani Tru

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Runway addict. He would totally agree building things and dresses were two totally different things.

      “Hand me those.” Seb gestured toward a box of paper clips on the kitchen counter when no one answered.

      Ash watched Seb tuck the hem of the lehenga up, flipping it out like a bell and securing it in place with a paper clip. “If we put some wire in here, we could make it stay like this.”

      Ash had to admit that the skirt looked infinitely better with the modifications Sebastian had made.

      “We could do the same for the other side. And the top, we could change it, you know, make it like a thin strap thing or something. Draw a new sketch to get the lines right. Make it shorter like this.” Sebastian clipped the pieces as he talked. “And suddenly...”

      Suddenly, the lehenga was different.

      “...and it’s a whole new thing. With just a few tweaks.”

      Ash’s mind spun. Something was coming together.

      “And it’s so unusual because of the original beadwork and construction, but now it’s really modern and kind of cool. I haven’t seen anything like it.”

      Unusual. Not mainstream.

      “I see what you’re saying,” Josh agreed. “But do you really think making folds with paper clips is like sewing?”

      Ash stopped listening.

      Ash squinted at the lehenga. The color wasn’t bad—the beautiful Tiffany blue looked good on her. The changes Sebastian had made were definitely an improvement to the boxy shape it had before. There was still a lot more that needed to be done. Could it be possible? Could she be looking at her prom dress?

      “Seb. I think you might be a genius,” Ash said slowly.

      Josh was smirking. He knew exactly what she was thinking.

      Sebastian didn’t.

      “Wait, why? I don’t like that look you’ve got going on.”

      “Remember how much you love me?”

      Josh rose from the table, half smile still on his face. “I’m leaving before I get roped into something that’s going to get me disowned by your mother.”

      Five

      “Hi.” Jessica Moriarty dropped into Armstrong’s seat in Brit lit.

      Ash glanced up from her reading. “Yes?” She was hoping to have a chance to chat with Armstrong before class started—lately it felt like the only time they talked was online via Twitter or his blog comments. She certainly didn’t want drama-queen Jessica hanging around eavesdropping on their conversation.

      “What are you doing?” Jessica wanted to know.

      Ash tried not to roll her eyes. “Reading, Jess. For our assignment today. Have you finished it?”

      “Nope.” Jessica continued to stare at her.

      Ash tried to read another few lines of The Tempest and failed.

      “Okay. What is it?” Ash closed her book. The staring was getting creepy.

      “So...Sebastian Diaz.”

      “Ah.” This was normal. A lot of girls liked Sebastian and most were afraid to talk to him. At least one or two girls asked Ash about him every week: whether he was single, liked them, et cetera. As if Ash were his keeper or something.

      “Has he said anything about the prom?”

      “Yep, he’s said a lot about it.” Ash was enjoying this now. Jess had never been particularly nice to her before. Ash was still annoyed at the “vintage” comment she’d made in the dressing room when Ash had been trying on the orange gown.

      Jessica’s eyes widened. “OhMyGod, are you guys going together? Did you dump Armstrong?”

      “No!” Ash looked around, hoping no one had heard. This was how rumors got started. “I’m going with Armstrong.”

      “So...Sebastian doesn’t have a date yet?”

      Ash sighed heavily, as if divulging a huge secret, and lowered her voice. “He’s still available.”

      Jess smiled as though she’d just heard that her grandmother’s pecan pie was now available in the vending machines. She was from the South and was constantly lamenting the lack of good Southern food in Seattle.

      “Do you think he’d go with me?”

      “Um...” Ash pretended to think about it. Honestly, she had no idea if Sebastian even knew who Jessica was. That was probably for the best. Jessica wasn’t the sharpest stick in the forest, and Sebastian tended to only hang out with the AP crowd. He’d only had one girlfriend during high school, the one girl in Computer Club who’d moved away their junior year.

      “You’ll have to ask him and see,” Ash finally said.

      Jessica’s face fell. “Can you find out if he likes me?”

      “I’ll let you know.” Ash picked up her book again when she saw Armstrong enter the room, exactly a second before the bell rang. “Go sit down before you get detention. Sebastian hates girls who get detention. His mother would disapprove.”

      Jessica hurried to her seat and was replaced by Armstrong a few seconds later.

      “So...your Facebook page hinted at something very interesting about your prom attire. Along the lines of something no one at this school had ever seen before? ‘Drafting class plus fashion unite’? Care to share a sound bite for my blog?”

      Ash felt a rolling thrill down her back that Armstrong not only checked out her Facebook page, but also was curious about her cryptic status update from the previous night.

      “You’ll see on prom night,” Ash said, she hoped, enigmatically.

      “You tease.” Armstrong shrugged. “I like it. I don’t know what I’m wearing. It’ll be good, though.”

      Lucky guy with that confidence. Despite her hopefulness about the idea she and Sebastian came up with last night, she didn’t actually have a plan for what would happen next.

      Neither of them was exactly Van Gogh. Nor was either of them Coco Chanel. They needed to make a drawing, make it into 3-D, then get it into a real garment. Were the modifications even going to be possible? Who was going to do them?

      * * *

      Ash barged into Sonali’s room without knocking. Her sister barely glanced up from the huge book of oil paintings she was poring over.

      “You’re supposed to be offended that I’m invading your privacy, kid.” Ash stood over her sister, who continued to sprawl across the carpet.

      “Get out. You’re invading my privacy,” her sister said without looking up.

      “Get ready. We need to go.”

      “We have fifteen minutes,” Sonali mumbled. Ash and Sonali went to their weekly tae-kwon-do lesson on Wednesdays. Ash enthusiastically, since she loved punching and kicking out her aggressions for an hour. Sonali hated it, but Josh insisted both of his girls learn basic self-defense.

      Ash reached over and tousled Sonali’s still-knotted hair.

      “Want to tell me who did this?”

      Silence.

      “Okay. Want to do me a favor?”

      “Nope.”

      “Sure you do. Listen, so Sebastian and I came up with an idea to turn that lehenga of mom’s into an actual dress that I can wear to the prom.”

      Sona said nothing.

      “I need your awesome drawing skills to make a sketch for us that we can turn into 3-D.”

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