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Lydia's noticed it. She's noticed Allison's straying eyes dropping to her lips or her chest. She can feel Allison's eyes on her every time they're in a room together. The thing is, Lydia has spent the last six months trying to prove that she isn't going to hit on every straight girl that breathes in her direction. It's a gay girl survival tactic.
~
Allison has noticed too. She might not be as smart as Lydia, but she knows what a crush feels like. She knows what more than a crush feels like. She doesn't understand how Lydia hasn't caught onto how Allison feels about her.
It's making Allison think that maybe Lydia doesn't return her affections at all. Before Lydia came out, Allison had been so sure. Lydia was all lingering glances and meaningful words. All touches that sometimes keep Allison awake at night. She'd been so sure Lydia at least felt that way about her physically. Maybe now that she's out she's found other girls. Prettier girls.
Allison thought, for a sad second, about Lydia going to their senior prom with another girl on her arm. Allison has let herself dream about their close to matching dresses and how she'd go about smearing Lydia's always impeccable lipstick for so long she had begun to feel like it was a memory, or at the very least destined to happen. Now, Allison is thinking about the harsh truth. And the fact that she should probably just skip prom. She's not a masochist, after all. No need to go through that kind of torture.
~
If Lydia hadn't long ago come to the conclusion that Allison was going through some kind of self discovery journey and figuring out if she was or wasn't into girls using Lydia, she would perhaps assume that Allison was hinting at them going to prom together. She'd pointed out two dresses in a store front earlier, saying, "Those dresses are beautiful. We'd look good in them at prom, matching and all." Lydia couldn't let herself believe that they'd be going to prom together. Allison would end up going with some charming boy and Lydia would stand by the punch, turning down offers and feeling sorry for herself. Lydia didn't even have a plan of what she was going to wear yet, that's how little she cares for this year's prom.
~
Allison isn't having this pining in silence stuff. If she wasn't so hopeless for Lydia, she totally would be aggravated beyond belief. Lydia must like her, damnit, because Allison is pretty sure they're soulmates and it's not fun if only one soulmate is in love with the other. She would much prefer slow dancing at prom to this dance they're doing right now.
Prom is making the whole matter all the more urgent. Malia and Kira sent her pics of their gorgeous matching dresses. It just won't do if Allison and Lydia aren't the best dressed at prom. They have a reputation to uphold, after all.
Allison decides she needs some advice. Like, from someone who successfully asked someone else to prom. Not Kira and Malia, because they're the enemy for now. The prom enemy, anyway. Not Stiles, because he's declared prom to be a waste of his time and is probably off mashing faces with Derek. Not Scott or Isaac, because even though they've worked it all out for themselves, neither one of them are great at advice. This thought process is how Allison came to be in the hands of Erica Reyes, one of the scariest yet most efficient people Allison knows.
"How do I ask Lydia to prom?"
"Ohh, you're making a move on Lyds? Hot."
Maybe she should have went to Stiles.
"I don't need hot. I need romantic."
"I'm pretty sure you and Lydia together would be very romantic. Lots of "I love you"s. Very gentle. Not really my speed at all."
"Are you going to help me, Reyes?"
"Make her one of those signs everyone on instagram is doing. "You're the highlight of my life. Prom?" Buy her some makeup. There you go."
Well, Lydia does love makeup.
"Thanks, Erica."
"Anytime, Argent. Go get your girl."
~
Lydia has officially sunk to her lowest point. She's asking Stiles for advice.
She just needed help on this whole Allison situation. Prom is like, two weeks away.
"Should I ask her? Or do you think she'll ask me? Should I wait for a signal from her that she's interested?"
Stiles looks up at her from the homework he's been doing. He'd noticed, of course, that she'd stopped writing, but he figured she was just on her way to coming up with some insane math theory thing that would end up being some kind of breakthrough. Martin's Theory, or something like that. Instead, she needs advice. About girls. Since when is Stiles the go to guy for that?
"Ask her. Duh."
Lydia huffs. "How would I even ask her? You talk like it's so easy."
"It is. Just say, "Hey, Alli, I totally wanna make out in a totally not platonic at all way so let's go to prom together." You're gorgeous, Lyds. She'll say yes."
"That's the worst promposal I've ever heard. How do you have a boyfriend?"
"It's a mystery to all of us." They bicker and toss ideas back and forth until one sticks. One of those cheesy as hell signs, special for Allison because it says some pun involving arrows and Lydia can buy her some arrows.
She remembers how Isaac and Scott had made a huge deal of hugging and crying in the hallway about going to prom together. Her and her girl were gonna show them up.
She buys a dozen roses (she'd wanted more, but even in a bouquet they were hard to carry) and sticks arrows in with them. She carefully paints her sign to say "It will miss the mark if you don't go to prom with me." The fated day arrives, and she steels her nerves.
~
Scott warned Allison that Lydia was coming, but he did not warn her that the other girl had a sign of her own. That's how the two of them ended up face to fave in the hallway, signs in hand and nervous as hell. Allison almost breaks into tears right then and there.
The picture she posts on instagram later was taken by Isaac. In it, they're both just staring at each other, all that time's worth of pining clear as day on their faces. Lydia is extending the bouquet out to Allison, and when they look back on the picture, they known what happened next. Both of their signs and their gifts are dropped, and hands find hands as lips find lips. Take that, Scott and Isaac.
"It's crazy we did this on the same morning."
Lydia smiles up at her. "Great minds think alike."
(They look amazing in those coordinating dressed Allison wanted. Take that, Malia and Kira.)