Elise's POV

As I pace endlessly around my room, my pulse quickens as I continue to stress about my mom's work banquet tonight. I can't make my mom look bad in front of her colleagues and boss. She already has enough stress on her as it is. She's been trying to hide it these past few nights but I could tell by just looking at her messy hair and the dark circles that surround the bottoms of her eyes.

Whenever I would have to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, I would always see the light from her work office spilling out from under the doorway. One night, I peaked inside just to see what she was doing. I saw her hands rubbing her eyes in frustration while she was surrounded by literally piles of papers.

I've been to banquets before, but not ones as important as this one. Even my dad took off work so he could attend the banquet tonight.

I decided that I should start to get ready: seeing that I only have an hour and thirty minutes.

Deciding that I'm going to do my hair last, I put it into a bun and grabbed all the makeup things I have in my very small collection. I decide to do a silver eyeshadow look. I release my hair from the rubber band and curled my hair into smaller curls than my natural ones.

I put on my long, two piece sparkly rose gold dress and slipped on my white heels. Although I'm satisfied with my look, the smile I give myself as I look in the mirror isn't a happy one. I always mess things up. The situation with Daniel is a pretty good example of that.

I walk towards my banister and there lay the two bracelets. The friendship one and the one with the locket. I let out a sigh and put the friendship bracelet back onto my wrist. My hand hesitates as it hovers over the bracelet with the locket. Should I put it on?

I open the locket to reveal the picture from the zoo. A warm tear rolls down my cheek at the same time as I feel my heart crack. It's the same feeling I get whenever I see the bracelet. I inhale a deep breath and decide that I'm going to wear it.

At the same moment I clasped it onto my wrist, a knock sounds from outside of my door.

"Come in" I say, granting entrance to whoever is outside of my door.

The door opens slowly. Almost like the person is unsure or scared to enter. Furrowing my eyebrows, I turn away from my banister, only to see Daniel. I take in his appearance as he stands nervously in my doorway. He's wearing a black and white tuxedo with his hair nicely groomed. My eyes venture down towards his hands that were grasping a plastic case.

He continues to stand in the doorway unsure of his actions. And that's when I realize he's trying to make sure that I'm fine with him coming. I inwardly smile at the thought.

"You can come in" I say.

He looks taken aback but smiles anyway. After closing the door behind him, he walks towards me with the plastic container in his hands. Anxiety starts to kick in, making me back away.

"It's just a corsage" He's quick to assure. "I'm not going to hurt you...I promise" he adds.

My breathing slows as I take uneasy steps toward him. I look into his eyes to see if his facial expressions altered. Even if it's just the slightest bit. But they didn't.

He opens the plastic container and takes out the most beautiful courage I've ever seen. He holds his hand out about to grab my hand but stops midway and locks his gaze onto mine.

"May I?" He asks.

My eyes widen at his gesture. The corsage is for me? Why? And it's then I realize that since both our Moms work together, he has to come along too. But that still doesn't explain why he's giving me a corsage.

He notices my confusion. "I-uh...I was just-uh..wondering if you would let me be your escort to the banquet?" He asks scratching the back of his neck. I give him an unsure look. "You said you would let me prove myself to you...let me" he says stepping ever more closer to my body. He gently takes my hand in his and plants a soft kiss on my knuckles. Tingly, shivers ran up my spine making me intake a sharp breath.

"Please" he whispers.

I continue to look at him with an unsure expression but oblige after a few moments. He slips the corsage onto my wrist. He looks at my other arm and examines it.

"You're arm looks better" he says with a slight smile.

I nod looking down at my arm as well. It has been healing well. The marks are smaller and less red. I grab my white silk cloth a draped it around my body and over my arms.

Daniel steps closer and uses his pointer finger to lift my chin up to look at him.

"You look beautiful" he compliments with a slight grin on his face.

"Kids, it's time to go!" Lidia shouts.

My eyes widen in surprise. "I haven't seen your mom in so long" I say.

Daniel purks up at my voice, smiles, and nods. "We should get going then" he comments. He leads me downstairs.

When Lidia sees me, she takes in a sharp intake of a breath and rushes over to give me a hug. "Oh, Elise...it's so good to see you" she says after pulling away. "I'm so sorry for what Dan-" she starts.

"Uh, Mom! Shouldn't we get going?" Daniel interrupts her, while giving her a knowing look.

She gives Daniel a weird look but doesn't question it. "Yes, yes! we wouldn't want to be late!" she fixes herself.

My mom and dad nod their heads and head out toward Lidia's car. Lidia steps closer to both Daniel and I with furrowed eyebrows.

"Elise's parents don't know, Mom" Daniel whispers.

Lidia looks toward me and I nod in confirmation to what Daniel said. She nods in understanding and doesn't question to the reason why I didn't tell my parents. I'm grateful that she didn't because it's hard to move past things when you're asked to relive it again to explain.

"I see...well, I am very sorry my son put you through that" she says through gritted teeth while looking at Daniel. I look up toward him and offer him a small tight smile.

"You don't have to apologize, Lidia" I start. "He apologized and promised me he'll fix things" I finish.

"And I intend on keeping that promise" Daniel speaks up.

*******

Daniel's POV

It's hard to make small talk with someone who doesn't answer back. I've been trying so hard to get Elise talking to me again. The only responses I would get is of her nodding or shaking her head. But I don't blame her. It hurts to see the pain in her eyes every time she looks at me.

I've learned to keep my space around her. Well, the best that I could. I always seem to have a tendency to want to hold her hand or hold her. The least I want to do is be able to have a normal conversation with her.

"You alright, Daniel?" Mom asks.

I peel my gaze off of Elise who was sitting at our table and faced my mom.

"Y-yeah! I'm fine" I assure her.

She gives me a doubtful look. "You like her don't you?" She knowingly asks.

I'm quickly taken aback by her question. Is it that obvious? "W-why would you ask that?" I question.

She rolls her eyes. "Oh, come on, Daniel! I may not know how dating is nowadays, but I do know a loving look when I see one" she answers. "And plus, you're not denying it" she points out.

I let out a sigh and turned to look at her. "I do" I answer her. "And I would do anything to have her" I desperately say.

Dad, who was standing next to my mom, gives my mom a head nod; as if he was signaling at something. In return, my mom gave him a head nod back.

"We've decided on your punishment" Dad speaks up. I slump my head, preparing for the worst. "We aren't going to give you one" he finishes.

I abruptly snap my head up once his words sunk in. "Why not?" I ask. "I deserve to be punished" I add. As much as I don't like being punished, I know for a fact that I deserve all punishments possible.

"Well, her not talking to you or trusting you is the worst punishment you could receive. We see no other punishment worse than that" mom explains.

They leave to go back to the table, leaving me absolutely speechless and dumbfounded. I get their reasoning, but I still think that I should be punished for everything. Looking back at her, I could feel my heart melting as I replay everything that happened since the resort. Will she ever let me back in?

A/N: Hey!

Thank you all so much for getting my book to 12K! To be honest, since this is my first book, I wasn't expecting it to get this far. So, thank you all so much. I hope you all enjoyed today's chapter! I've been reading some of your comments and see that most of you don't want Elise to forgive Daniel or she should make new friends and get together with a different one. Those are good suggestions but I have other plans for Elise and Daniel. They're coming soon!

Until the next chapter,

- Gia