Singed Synapses and Deranged Dendrites

The Dance (#tube)

LT stood behind his buddy Michael watching him attempt to use his mother's curling iron.

"I have some product that makes my hair curlier," said LT, pushing back his blonde wavy locks from his eyes.  

Michael set the curling iron down and looked at the less-than-ideal result in the mirror.
"Maybe we should try that," he said.

The two boys tromped across the muddy alley that separated their houses. They had been friends since they were toddlers and now they were getting prepared for their first middle school dance in a week.

They found the product in LT's bathroom and again LT stood behind his friend in the mirror. But Michael's hair did not want to cooperate with any intervention.

"This is hopeless," said Michael. "I'll wait to see if my mom can do something with my hair when she gets home. Let's figure out what we are going to wear." They went into LT's room, littered with candy bar wrappers and dirty tube socks.

"I don't really have any dress up clothes except this shirt." He peeled a stained blue polo shirt off the floor of his closet.

"What pants are you going to wear with it?" asked Michael.

"I don't know?" replied LT. "Sweat pants? I don't have any other pants."

The boys tromped again through the muddy alley back to Michael's house and rifled through his drawers and closet. Michael finally produced a pair of dark slacks that fit LT.  Satisfied with the combination of the polo shirt and Michael's pants, they focused their attention on the final task at hand.

They decided they needed more strength for this task and so they walked to the corner store and bought a  box of Mike n Ike's candy each. They went back to LT's room.
The first call was easy. They had reasoned that even though LT had a girlfriend it would still be good form for him to ask her to the dance. With LT's girlfriend confirmed, Michael steeled himself.

"Maybe she just doesn't want to go to the dance," said Michael.

"Trust me," said LT, "she wants to go but just NOT with Francis." Francis had asked Chloe to the dance six times over the course of the past week. The whole school knew about it now.

"What an idiot," said Michael. They both shook their heads in disbelief at Francis' cringy patheticness. Francis had ultimately asked Chloe's friend Rachel who had said 'yes,' much to Francis's, Chloe's and the whole school's relief.

LT and Michael stared at Michael's phone and ate their Mike n Ike's in silence. Finally Micheal picked it up and dialed.

"Hi, uh...do you want to go to the dance with me?" There was a long pause and LT tried to read his buddy's face for clues. "Ok, cool. Um...well, see you tomorrow at school...bye." He put down the phone and a wide grin crossed his face.

"She said 'yes.'"

"Yeah!" whooped LT high-fiving his buddy. The two friends walked back down the street to the corner store for more refreshments, basking in the glory of their success.

"Are you going to wear cologne?" asked LT.