feeding the fire

2 - the dance

chapter 2 - the dance

soundtrack - doll parts by hole

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Sara yawned and gave me the most annoyed look I've seen in a while. We've been standing on the goddamn dancefloor for the past 10 minutes.

"Its so embarrassing how none of the boys asked us to dance yet." Sylvia said.

I tried to catch Troye's gaze...but he was already dancing with someone else. And he looked like he was having a lot of fun. Good for him. Actually, screw him.

I had a gut wrenching feeling in my stomach. Alright, I was a little jealous. Maybe I wasn't jealous of the girl, I think I was jealous because they were having fun, and I wasn't. Instead of carelessly dancing with hot boys, I've been standing there awkwardly together with my three even more awkward friends, desperate for attention.

All of a sudden, I saw Omar coming to us. I saw a light on the end of a tunnel. Unfortunately, not for so long, because he came up to Sylvia.

The gut wrenching feeling hot even stronger now as I watched the two of them dance in perfect rhythm.

"You know what, girls?" Lucy gave me and Sara a determined look. "I'm gonna come up to Simon and just... ask him to dance."

Lucy ran up to this boy named Simon. I think I saw him before, but I didn't pay closer attention to him, and he probably didn't even know I existed.

"What the hell?" I whispered to Sara.

"Goddamn, this whole ball feels like a nightmare to me." Sara bit her pink nails out of nervousness.

"Same, to be honest."

"This is the worst night ever. Seriously. These motherfuckers are playing my songs!"

I tried to comfort her, even though I could use some comforting myself.

"I listened to this shit with my ex. This is not fair."

And then, everything went downhill even more. I seriously thought I was hallucinating when I saw Sara running up to some random boy who was even younger than her, literally begging him to dance with her.

At that very moment, I felt every possible emotion there is. But mostly, I was pissed, because she left me standing there like a fucking idiot.

Screw her. Screw them all.

I walked up to the table with pastries and a big chocolate cake filled with raspberries. It was delicious, but it didn't solve my problem with the gut wrenching. I couldn't help but stare at the people on the dance floor having the time of their life while I stuffed myself with food. I felt like a real loser.

"Miss, shall we dance?"

I immediately turned around. There was an older man (by older, I mean a man in his 40s), offering me his hand. He wasn't the prototype of the dream boy I was planning to dance with. But still, it was better than nothing. At least someone finally offered me a dance.

I took his hand and we went straight to the dancefloor.

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"What's your name, pretty girl?"

I couldn't hold eye contact, I was way too shy, so I just stared at the ground.

"That doesn't really matter, haha." I responded.

"Oh, alright. My name is Forty." he said and gave me another question. "How old are you?"

"Seventeen." I answered him truthfully.

"Dammit, you're way too young for me. Or are you?" he smirked at me. "I'm forty six. I'm pretty old."

I stayed silent. I saw the man checking out my entire body and I felt goosebumps. I didn't know what to say to him or what to do next. All I knew was that I didn't wanna dance with this man, and that this whole ball was a huge mistake.

"How often do you visit the church?" he asked while he stared at my cleavage.

My body started shaking. I tried to convince myself into thinking that it didn't mean anything, that he was just trying to be friendly, nothing more. But at the same time, I refused to tell him the truth.

"Actually...I don't go to this church at all." I blurted out. "I'm not from Perry. I live in Colorado. I came to Perry with my family...we're on a vacation here."

That was the biggest lie of my life. I was born here.

Actually, the biggest lie of my life was the fact that I've been able to act like a good Christian girl for the past seventeen years, but whatever.

"Sounds great. Why are you here anyway? Did you come to visit someone?"

I didn't even bother responding. "What about you?"

"I'm on a vacation here, just like you."

I was a bit relieved, but then his hand slid down to my hips.

"But I plan to stay here for a little while."

I wanted to run, scream, fight. I started breathing faster.

The song finally ended and I knew that was a chance to get away from him. I was lucky enough to get out of his grip.

"Thanks for the dance!" I said with a a fake smile and started looking around me. I needed to get away from that man as soon as possible.

I saw the guy Lucy danced with before. But now, he was alone. I immediately ran up to him and grabbed his hand ready to dance with him.

"I'm so sorry, this is extremely awkward..." I was so embarassed, but at the moment, I didn't have a better plan. "I need to get away from that man. Can we dance, please?" I whispered to him.

I gathered courage and looked him in the eyes. He just nodded his head and gave me a little smile.

Goddamn. His eyes.

When we heard the first tunes of a country song, we started dancing. It was a really fast dance, but I didn't care at all.

During the dance, I catched his look again. We made eye contact for a short while, but I broke it first. 

I was shocked from everything that has happened in the past five minutes. Trying to catch my breath, I prayed to God (which I don't do often, or... never) that I would never see Forty again.