"How dare you, Nat?" Grace huffs with a suppressed voice as the Prom King darts away from her, a confused expression bedeviling his handsome features.

A little ripple of laughter resounds from the background as the dancing begins to gain crescendo, DJ Apollo bringing all the heat. 

Furious, Grace turns, gritting her teeth to the source of the laughter but she sees no one. Even the people she sees are all enjoying the music with their dates while some dance singly.

"Aaaaaaarggghhhhh!!!" Grace screams, frustrated, her hands flung to edges of the table that is covered with a white tablecloth.

There are wine glasses, most appear to be used as remnants of wine remain in them with biodegradable plates that contained already devoured small chops along with soft drinks and wine bottles amidst others.

The chairs are most empty as everyone has taken to the dance floor but for a nerdy looking guy who seems to be among the unlucky ones not to have a date, a large google seating atop his brown blunt nose.

He is bent over, to the side of the table, black suspenders over his red shirt, black trousers and tuxedo jacket, tapping the cursor of a mobile phone. Seeing him, Grace scoffs, eyes bulging in anger as she snatches a bottle of wine. Without thought, her fingers find the cap of the bottle and pop it before the neck of the bottle locates her mouth.

As the Mister sees her, he is startled, almost jumping off his seat. 

With nervous hands, he shakily drops his phone into his trouser pocket and swallows, rising up. As he does, his body pushes back the plastic chair decorated with a red material acting as a sort of astethic cushion, thereby arresting Grace's attention.

"uh... G-grace. W-want t-to...dance?" He asks testily.

However Grace does not pay him much attention except for a scowl.

Humphing,she leans on the table with her two hands out on the edges, supporting her weight.

"Just what the fuck does he think he is?" She nags. "A whole me, giving myself to him and he's still had the guts to choose otherwise... just what diD SHE CHARM HIM WITH?" 

"AAAAAARRGH..." Grace explodes as her hands race through the scalp of her head, scattering her hair as she huffs.

"uh..." The Nerd makes to say but is kept shut by Grace's eyeballing.

"Fuck Off!" She orders and watches as the nerd scrambles, kicking against the table and chair as he is startled, losing balance in the process.

THUD!

His buttocks homed against the ground as he fell in a sitting position, earning a soft and  hurried laughter from Grace.

"Infact, come here." she nods at him but the nerd refuses to get up.

"I said COME HERE..." Her voice rises high above the music as heads turn in her direction but her hard stares at them is enough to return the hall to before.

As result,the nerd picks himself up, bracing courage to walk over to her from his side of the table.

As he reaches,Grace suddenly jerks a hand towards his chin and lifts it up, meeting his lips with her red lipsticked lips in a steamy, needy French kiss.

She pulls away almost immediately and slaps his face with her left, much to the horror of the nerd who runs off, tears welling in his eyes as he adjusts his glasses.

"You see that, Nat, everyone wants me. Why can't you want me too?" She huffs, grabbing a wine bottle from the table with her right hand.

Grace employs her two hands  and with a pop, the wine cap bursts into the air. Smiling manically, her neatly red manicured fingers of her right hand, tighten around the neck of the bottle. Tilting her head back, she pushes the bottle top into her mouth and begins to gulp hurriedly.

Her Adam's Apple goes up and down, facilitating her binge drinking and within seconds, one-third of the one litre wine bottle is downed directly in her mouth, non-stop.

She huffs as she takes a breather,parting her scattered strands of hair that are all over her face, to the side. Impulsively, she leans forward, belching before straightening her hair with her free left hand. 

Once she is satisfied, she proceeds to drink again, this time, putting her left hand to tip the bottle into her mouth when a voice startles her from behind.

 "You know, you really shouldn't be drinking that much."

The voice is soft but yet contains some firmness in it as if it would not take No for an answer.

"Nat?" Grace asks, turning around, only to see a crew cut hairstyled fair Mister donning a white shirt with blue blazers accentuated by a fancy bowtie and gold chain wristwatch on his left wrist smiling softly to her.

"You might lose yourself and from the looks for it, your are just 10% away from being intoxicated." The gentleman says again, his angular face highlighted by a thin line of teddy connecting with a small goatee.

Grace studies him, feasting her eyes on his slim, picture perfect model body shape slowly, from head to toe. She sniffs, inhaling a faint whisk of sultry lake air around his handsome body build, a relaxing scent of nature that seemed to pull her towards him.

She feels the pull and wants to cling to him but she holds herself back as her eyebrows drop.

"How would you know that? And who the fuck do you think you are, to warn me of intoxication?" She spills her venom, her previously calmed state reverting into intense fury as she huffs bitterly.

Tade on the other hand, simply had a lazy soft smile on he face as he observes the supposed rival of Deola.

To think that someone as pretty as this would want to go all lengths to disgrace Deola? 

It simply was unbelievable. 

Indeed, Tade mused, if he hadn't met with Deola earlier, he would have erased Tunrayo's explanation of what happened to be just her hating on this pretty lady before him 

Pretty? 

'Well, not so much as Deola is!' He thinks, as his mind begins contrasting the two females.

Deola, he does not know how tall she is but he presumes her height to be around 6ft or less, the model standard for a lady by common definition.

Deola was straight out pretty, even with the less make up and jewelry in comparison to this rival of a girl here.

Although, Grace did have it in the right proportion in terms of bodily assets compared with Deola but then again,character was everything.

He muses, most men would rather go from a lady that is not only beautiful, sexy and sensually endowed but also intellectually and  characteristically endowed as well.

Because the truth of the matter is, why go for a lady whose reckless actions and selfish thoughts would only bring harm?

Whereas, one could go for the one who did not lack in beauty but is also a brain box.

Atleast from the little he heard from Tunrayo, Deola is the headgirl of the graduating set. And one didn't get to be assigned Head Girl by just beauty alone.

Her brains too, were worth it.

"Hey, helloooooo..." The motion of Grace waving a hand into his faces, calls his attention back again.

"Well, Tade clears his throat, seeing as you and your gang have being recognized by all the troubles you girls bring, the school management thought it wise to have a sleeper security guard on you all. You, especially!" He says, looking into her beady, curious but fuming eyes.

"And I am basically composed of 70% water and 30% energy, so, yes, it makes absolute sense that I should be able to tell when you are getting intoxicated. I mean, that wine is fluid and fluid is quite synonymous with water, you know." 

"Hold it there!" Grace raises a palm into the air. "So, basically, you're stalking me? Gee..." Grace huffs in disgust.

"Seeing how reckless you and your gang are, I don't see how that would be a problem." Tade shrugged, straining his voice just as the music got louder in hip pop style.

*Gulp*

Grace drank from the bottle, eyeing Tade warily.

"Look, a fire broke out here." Tade starts, watching the shocked gasp escaping her lips. 

"Now, don't panic! The reason why it has not being announced is because we don't want a panic here. I mean, it's Prom and prom's a once in a lifetime thing. It wouldn't be fair if we ruin it over something we can handle by ourselves without a fuss." He calms her down, gesticulating.

"So... " Grace takes a slow sip. "What do you want from me?" 

"Well, not much!" He eyeballs her for some seconds, watching her fuming face which appears to be cooling off.

"Okay?"

"I heard a scream at the scene of the fire. And the voice is quite familiar with one of your friends."

"uh?!" Grace gasps.

"Yes... But I am not so sure. That's why I decided to come over to see you and your friends. Where are they? I need to know that they are safe because it's sort of my duty being that I am to keep an eye on you girls." Tade speaks persuasively, holding her gaze between each punctuation.

"They should be in the hall here, right? If they are, then, they are safe. If not, I can't bear to think that any of them would have being caught up in the fires." Tade draws closer to her, making Grace lean backwards involuntarily in panic as her eyes widen.

"Uhh... No. No. They are not in the hall. Oh my God... I sent them to look for Deola so that..." 

*Gasp*

She gasps, her free hand clasping her lips tightly. Seeing this, Tade face darkens.

"So that what?" He asks, receiving only but a shake of head from Grace.

"I see... You won't talk." He smiles softly, straightening up. "Well, where would you think they are? I need to confirm that they are safe."

Grace only shakes her head, eyes widened in panic as she stares mutely at the Mister before her.

"Why are you acting like you killed someone? or was it drugged?" He asks, as her body trembled at the word drugged.

Seeing this, Tade smirks, totally enjoying the show.

Slowly,he put a hand out to remove the hand muting her lips.

"Every minute you spend here not talking is one minute your friend loses to the fire becoming bigger and trapping them. But there's a chance that if you say where they must be at, I'll be able to endure they are safe. And you really dont want the memory of this being etched in your mind about your refusal to speak when it was the life of your friends that mattered., do you?"

"Fine!" She exhales deeply. "They should be at the rest room. I can take you there if you..."

"No..no! Just stay here and rest. You are not fine right now. And it will be a shame if someone as gorgeous as you gets to be me tally fatigued because she worries over her friends." Tade shows the flat of his palm as he refuses the offer, earning a big blush from Grace in response to his praise.

"I'll be back after confirming they are fine." He turned to leave but stops short.

"If a relationship isn't working between a couple, it's best the relationship is called quits. You will only hurt yourself in the end, Grace. You're becoming too much toxic that you don't care about the consequences of your actions." Tade says and begins to leave, without taking a second  glance at Grace who's previous light mood is suddenly being replaced by a mad furious scowl. 

"Well, Fuck You!" She shrieked just as a girl bent, ramming her butt into the crotch area of her date in the sway of hip pop party music.