A Ghost of A Smile

Chapter 7: And Cue Jason

Travis and I walked back into the gym, now nothing but friends. I'll admit, I was a little disappointed. For a few days, I thought I'd found what I was looking for. I guess I was wrong. No matter, he was out there for me somewhere.

Lori spotted us from her table in the corner where she sat and waited for Daniel to return to her. She waved us over.

"Hey lovebirds." She said with a wink.

"Uh, not really, anymore." I mumbled a little awkwardly. Will the awkward never end?Lori's face fell.

"Oh, well. Oh." I nodded.

"Yeah, we figured we were better as friends." I nodded with a slight smile. She opened her mouth, but I interrupted.

"Hey Lori, isn't that Daniel over there with Melissa?" I pointed to two figures across the room. It looked like he was giving her his number. Lori turned red.

"Excuse me, I must go kick some ass." She said and flitted away to do so. Travis and I sat at the table.

"So, hey, how about we just forget about trying to date and pretend we've been friends only this entire time?" I suggested. He grinned.

"I was just thinking that." What a perfect evening.

Please note the sarcasm.

My eyes drifted towards the dance floor where I spotted Jason. He was awkwardly dancing with Ava. Ava, who looked like she'd stuffed herself into a tube sock. She looked like a ham. Jason, was turning green. When the song ended, he dragged Ava (more like she clung to his arm) and walked towards us.

"Hey guys," He said a little hysterically. Ava was hanging on him like a kid at Jungle Jim's.

"Hi." We mumbled.

"Jason, lets go talk to my friends." She whined. He bit his lip, trying to hide his anger at her.

"Ava, these are my friends. I want to talk to them for a while. Give me a few minutes." He spit. She rolled her eyes.

"Fine, whatever." He took a deep breath.

"So, how're things with you two?" he asked. I looked down at the table.

"Things were awkward, we're just friends now." I explained. Jason perked up.

"Really?" Then he realized what he was doing, "I'm sorry about that." He said. Then a song came on over the scratchy speakers. It was A Drop in the Ocean by Ron Pope, my favorite song. Jason knew that too. He wrenched his arm free of Ava and held it out to me.

"Would you like to dance, Trin?" He asked with a playful grin. Ava scoffed.

"Jason, you're my date." She argued.

"If you give me this one dance, I'll kiss you." I raised my eyebrows. A dance with me was worth kissing Ava? As suspected, she took the deal. Jason led me out to the center of the dance floor. I put my arms around his neck, and he put his around my waist. We started slowly swaying side to side to the music. Then the track began to pick up a little bit, so Jason started leading. Surprise! we whirled around the floor. I swear, other couples moved out of the way for us.

"Where'd you learn to dance?" I asked in disbelief. He shrugged.

"I picked it up." He grinned slyly, and spun me around. I'll admit, I started laughing a little bit. As the track slowed a little more, so did he. Eventually, we reverted back to the swaying we'd done before. Only this time, we kept eye contact. I was suddenly acutely aware of his arms around my waist, his hands on the small of my back. His bright blue eyes stared intensely into mine.

"You know, sometimes when I look at you, I still see frizzy, freckly, little Trin holding an apple juice in one hand and a box of crayons in the other." He said softly. I laughed a little bit.

"I've always seen first grade Jason, there isn't any other one for me." He looked a little worried at that for a second, "It's ok, it's a good thing." I reassured him. One corner of his mouth came up.

It had to be that moment that the song ended, and we had to return to our dates.