Dancing in September

Chapter Four

NOTE THAT WHEN PARAGRAPHS THAT ARE TEXT MESSAGES HAVE SPACES BETWEEN THEM

LIKE THIS, IT MEANS THAT IT IS A DIFFERENT PERSON TEXTING.

IF THE PARAGRAPHS ARE SEPARATED

LIKE THIS, THEN IT'S THE SAME PERSON TEXTING, BUT A NEW MESSAGE.

IF ANYONE'S CONFUSED, JUST ASK ME ABOUT IT.

It's still raining the next morning but the storm has subsided. I wake up groggy and confused, wishing that the occurrences of yesterday were nothing more than a nightmare.

Speaking of dreams, I had one last night that I don't remember most of the details of. All I remember is Evan and me having a sleepover in the same bed. Weird.

I feel around for Tristan's hand. When I don't find anything I roll over to see him on his laptop, "What're you doing up so early?" I ask him.

He just about jumps out of his skin, not expecting me to be awake, "Holy Jesus, you scared the crap out of me!" He shouts perhaps louder than intended.

I make a slightly creepy toothy smile reminiscent of the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland.

"That's terrifying." He says, not sounding terrified in the slightest. "...Anyway, I'm up because I have math homework that I forgot about and I have no idea what the heck I'm doing." He's talking very fast and his eyes are starting to swell.

"Lemme help."

I could go into detail about what he was learning and how I explained it but seriously who cares? Point is he got it.

"Thanks so much, Bas, I'm so jealous of how smart you are," he says appreciatively.

"Aw, thanks," I lie sincerely. I wish I wasn't so smart. Well, I guess that's not entirely true; I wish being smart wasn't so gosh darn important. Like seriously, who cares how 'Murrica ranks education-wise? Does it really matter? I don't think so.

I walk over to my own computer and turn on my phone. One of my girl friends—not to be confused with girlfriends—texted me, "Hey Bas, I saw the video about Ev, I just wanted to say I'm sorry about all that's going on."

Her name is September. It's a unique name but I honestly love it. It's just one thing on that list though. I love her. You may say it's crazy to fall in love with someone you've only known for seven months. I'm not gonna disagree. She has the prettiest laugh and the nicest smile. She always knows how to make you laugh and she makes you happy when you're down. And she's pretty too. She's just a little bit shorter than I am; not too short, not too tall. She's got nice eyes too. They're a warm coffee brown that melt your heart just to look at them. She's got a cute nose that she thinks is too big, but I tell her it's perfect. I love it.

"Thanks," I text back.

"Hey, I need to tell you something." I want to tell her how I feel about her; I always do but that's not what it is in this case.

"I'm adopted," I say in a new message.

"But even before that I just felt... different. I dunno how to describe it." I say in a a third and final message.

"I get what you mean," she replies.

"Also I kinda sorta figured you were adopted. Sorry."

Another person who figured it out. Did everybody realize it but me?

"It's ok. Ev's more important right now anyway." I reply, and deep down I know that's true but what I want to say is 'I don't know what to feel right now.'