Fighting to Be Free (Fighting to Be Free 1)

He nodded and walked to the door. I heard Jamie's voice and my stomach immediately tingled in anticipation of seeing him in his suit. I was going to be the envy of every girl in the school today when I walked in on his arm. Jamie was incredibly handsome, all the girls agreed that from meeting him at parties and such, but he had something even better than his looks. He was just a beautiful person inside. So thoughtful and selfless, he was incredible. I was going to have serious heartache when he broke it off with me tonight. I was in no way good enough for Jamie Cole and everyone seemed to know it but him.

"You'll have her home by midnight, right?" my dad said sternly from behind me.

"Absolutely, Michael. You can trust me with Ellie, you know that," Jamie answered.

I felt the smile creep onto my face as their voices approached. I turned and waited. As soon as he stepped round the corner I resisted the urge to swoon out loud and settled on a mental one instead.

The black tux fitted him perfectly, showing off his strong broad shoulders, tapering in at his toned waist. His gaze settled on me and I saw his eyes widen as his lips popped open in what seemed like shock. I tried not to squirm as his big brown eyes slowly glided down my body, seeming to take in every inch of me before his eyes met mine again and a beautiful smile stretched across his face.

"Shit….. wow," he breathed.

My dad punched him in the arm as he laughed. "No cussing," he scolded playfully, while Jamie just laughed sheepishly, his eyes not leaving me for a second.

"Hi," I whispered nervously.

He swallowed loudly and stepped closer to me. His eyes seemed to trap me as he grinned happily; I couldn't look away from him as I prayed with every bone in my body that he wouldn't break it off with me. I was totally crazy about this boy, and Stacey was right - he did scare me. He scared me because I didn't want our relationship to end up like mine and Mark's did, I didn’t want him to change like Mark did. I was definitely falling for Jamie, and falling hard too. When he did break it off with me, I was going to be crushed.

His hand reached out and caught one of my curls; he rubbed it between his thumb and forefinger gently before stroking the back of one finger across my cheek. He had a little awed expression on his face as he looked at me. I memorised his face as it looked right now, I wanted to be able to picture this moment perfectly so that when it ended and he never looked at me like that again, I could still picture it.

His smell enveloped me, the scent that made the hair my arms stand up - it was indescribable, it was purely just Jamie, and I loved it. "Ellie, you look….. so beautiful," he said quietly so that no one else would be able to hear him. His smile showed me the truth to his words and I felt my face heat up because of the intense way he was looking at me. "This dress, it's incredible. You just look….. wow," he continued.

I smiled, forcing myself to look away from his eyes. "This old thing?" I joked, rolling my eyes as I played with the skirt of the dress.

He grinned and stepped closer to me, his chest almost touching mine. "You know you could wear anything and still make my hands sweat," he replied, cocking his head to the side so I would meet his gaze again.

I chewed on my lip as I raised one hand and stroked the lapel of his jacket. "You look wow too," I admitted.

"This old thing?" he joked, winking at me. I laughed and he brought his hand from his side, holding out a little plastic box containing a white and green corsage. "Got you this."

"Aww, Jamie, that's adorable," I murmured. The thing was beautiful and I smiled at him gratefully as I took the box, popping it open and gingerly taking out the little flower bracelet.

He smiled and took it from my hand, helping me put it on. As I looked back up at him he bent down and captured my lips in a sweet kiss that made me sigh in contentment. I'd never had a boy treat me with so much kindness and adoration before. Mark was never romantic like this, if I was going to the dance with him tonight he would have turned up and smiled a 'hey, you ready to go?' before nodding at the door. He wouldn't have looked at me the soft and gentle way that Jamie was right now.

"Any time this week would be great, guys."

I jumped a little when I suddenly remembered that we weren't on our own in the hallway, my dad, Stacey and Paul were standing there too, all looking at us expectantly. Stacey was giving me an 'I told you so' face that I rolled my eyes at.

I nodded. "I'm ready," I agreed.

Jamie's arm slipped around my waist, pulling me closer to him as he turned for the door. "You have your dancing shoes on?" he asked, grinning at me.

I raised one eyebrow as I pulled up the skirt slightly and lifted one foot from the floor so he could see the black, open toed stiletto shoes I was wearing tonight. "Yep," I confirmed, smirking at him as his eyes widened and his fingers dug into my waist a little. He definitely had a thing for heels.

"Oh yeah, those are nice," he growled, swallowing loudly.

I smiled and let the dress drop back down again, pulling out of his arms and heading over to my dad, kissing his cheek. "Bye, Daddy. Don't wait up for me, I have a key," I stated. That way I could sneak Jamie in with me tonight.....

"Let me get a photo before you go," he said quickly, grabbing the camera from the drawer and fiddling with it.

I stepped back to Jamie's side, leaning into him, both of us smiling as the camera clicked and clicked, then we had to pose for group ones too. Finally, my dad seemed to be satisfied that he'd taken enough, so we were allowed to leave.