Teach Me How To Dance

The Torture

The situation, in which I currently reside, is the greatest embarrassment of my life. Right now I am standing next to an imbecile by the name of Alfred.
Alfred decided it would be a great idea to drag me up to the front of the room with him.
The teacher said today was a free day and that we could do as we wished. I decided to talk with Alfred, since he is my best friend. Then the blithering idiot decided that he wanted to dance. So he stood up and grabbed me, practically hauling me, to the front of the room.
Thus leading to him dancing like a constipated monkey trying to jump to a different tree branch. I am standing with my back to the wall, internally screaming. I have my right pointer finger and thumb massaging my temples, trying to cease an oncoming headache.
I suppose the dancing would have been fine if Alfred actually knew how to dance. The entire class was laughing their butts off. Even Mr. Endricson, our teacher, was laughing. I groaned as the stupid blonde created an eyesore of a performance.
"C'mon, Artie! Dance with me!" Alfred yells, turning to face me. He is grinning broadly.
Glaring at him, I cross my arms and reply, "No."
If that were the first time you heard me speak, you would not believe where I am from. I just realized, I haven't introduced myself. My name is Arthur Kirkland, I was born in England. Recently, about three years ago I moved to America. It was in America that I found a friend in Alfred. He was the first person to go past my European roots and see me as a person.
I am not saying people did not see me as a human. Not at all. I merely mean others only focused on my accent. Girls only talked to me to hear my accent. After a few months people got used to it. Honestly, I was expecting Alfred to lose interest as well, but he didn't. To this day he remains the only person who will point out my different speech pattern.
I don't have anything else to say unless I were to talk about my appearance. I'll just go back to the real world now.
Everyone in the classroom was cheering Alfred on and some even joined him. Mr. Endricson turned on some music, so now it is basically a party. I walked away from the wall and headed towards my seat. I was a foot away when Alfred appeared in front if me. I stopped and glared lightly at him. "Alfred, I hope you have a good reason for blocking my way."
"Yeah, dude, I totally do!" He beamed, speaking in his slightly southern New York accent.
"Well? What is it?" I persisted, eyebrow raised.
"I want you to join the fun and dance!" He goes to grab my wrist, but I pull away.
"No, Alfred, I am not a fan of these types of things." I huff and stop around him. He turns around, as I sit in my chair, with a pout on her face.
"Artie, I thought you loved me." He whined.
"What on earth are you getting at?"
"If you love me, you'll dance with me!"
"I am not a fan of dancing."
"So?"
"So, that means I am not joining." I start to gather my books and put then in my bag.
"Artie doesn't love me." Alfred's pout grew and his head dropped. Slowly, he started to turn away.
Agitated, I say, "Al, if you can give me a real good reason to dance, besides it being fun, I will join."
He picked his head up to look at me with blue eyes through glasses. His pout started to fade into a smile. He spoke in a thick southern drawl, "Well, I reckon it be a darn good way teh release all tat stress on ye."
A pause and then laughter. My laugh rang out as I clutched my stomach. Alfred really knew how to get me to laugh and his silly accent was absolutely hysterical. He joined in with his own boisterous laughter. I was clutching my stomach because it started hurting.
Suddenly the music stopped, earning groans of sadness. Alfred and I stopped our laughter. Mr. Endricson spoke, "I hate to say it, but there are five minutes left till the bell rings."
My classmates started rushing to their seats to pack up their belongings. I mentally cheered because now Alfred cannot make me dance. Alfred obviously knew I was happy about it. He sighed and went to retrieve his backpack. I stood up and put on my bag. Alfred returned to stand by me and sulk. I set my hand on his shoulder and look up at him, he is taller than me. He glances at me over his glasses. "Cheer up, mate. You never know there could be anther little dance party in here."
"Yeah, but I wanted to dance with you today!"
"I'm sorry, Al. I suppose time just wasn't on your side today."
"Maybe," He paused. My hand has long since dropped from his shoulder. "Hey, Iggy."
My eyebrow twitched at the nickname. "Yeah?"
"You're coming to my house this afternoon, right?"
"Isn't that what we planned?"
"Yeah, I just had a...a...um...proposal." A what? Proposal? For what?
"A what?"
"It's more of a proposition." He looked away. "Um...y'know, never mind. It is stupid."
"Alfred, whatever it is, you can ask me."
He opened his mouth to speak but the bell rang, dismissing classes. Al and I head to the library for study hall.
We entered the library and went to the table in the very back that was secluded from the rest. The two of us have been sitting back there during study hall since freshman year. It was a place of many memories.
This year study hall was right before lunch so we just ate back there.
I sat in one of the chairs and put my bag in another. Alfred did the same, he sat across from me. We both pulled out our lunches. The both of us will spend the next two hours picking at them. Well, I picked at it, Alfred ate it all at once and then complained about being hungry. He also tries to steal my food. I tend to give most of it to him anyway.
"So, Artie, do you know what's happening between Mattie and Gilbert?" Alfred suddenly asks.
"No? Should I?" I raise an eyebrow. Alfred looks to be a bit agitated. How odd.
"Gilbert is trying to get in his pants. Like that's my bro you are trying to get with." Ah...so that is why. You are probably confused. Mattie or Matthew, is Alfred's older half brother. They look like twins, I sometimes get frazzled by it, but I am getting better. Gilbert is a platinum blonde haired, red eyed, German (or as he says, Prussian). he kinda has a thing for Matthew and Alfred hates it. Even though Alfred is younger, he is very protective of Matthew. The two are very alike in looks but opposites in personalities. Matthew is quiet and thinks, Alfred is loud and doesn't think.
"Alfred, I know you care for Matthew. But he is his own person and he can hang out with whoever he wishes."
"Yeah, but Gilbert is so...so-"
I cut him off, "Honestly, he acts no different than you do."
The look he gave me was that of horror and angst. I don't think I should have said that. His face was reddening at the realization of what I said.
I gulped, "Hey, Al. You know I wasn't meaning anything bad by that, right?"
He stayed silent for a minute, then he sighed, "I know, Artie." Then he flashed me a charming gin. God, how is he able to grin like that? No wonder girls love him. I openly admit that Alfred is a very handsome young man. Although, I am not exactly straight, I am bisexual. When I told Alfred, he laughed and said that was cool.
What shocked me most, after I told him, was when he said he was as well. I had stared at him for a minute or two, then just started laughing. What the reason was for laughing, I don't know.
After that we were a bit closer. I mean we weren't scared of each other finding out. We could speak about anything to each other. When Alfred had been dating Ivan Braginksi, he told me everything that happened between them. I was there for him when they broke up. I was there for him with everything.
It wasn't like I was the only one being supportive. Alfred was there for me as I was him. There was one time I had been bullied and Alfred defended me. I haven't dated anyone since I moved to America so I can't talk about my feelings like Al does.
"Hey, Iggy! Hey!" I saw fingers snap in front of my face. It was Alfred trying to get my attention.
"Huh?" I blinked at him, "Sorry, I blanked out."
"It's cool, dude." He took a bite from one of his hamburgers. He has like five of them. All from McDonald's and they all have large fries to go with. "Anyway, bro, have you figured out who are going to ask to prom?"
I shivered in disgust as he spoke with his mouth full. "Don't talk with your mouth full, twit! And no, I haven't."
Swallowing, he took a sip of his 64 ounce diet coke, also from McDonald's. "Sorry. Dude! We should go together! As like friends or something..." He trailed.
"'Or something'?" I raised a brow, "What do you mean?"
"Ahahaha never mind." He shoved the rest of his heart attack inducing hamburger into his mouth. I swear that boy needs therapy or something to help him with his eating habits.
"Alfred, I have no problem with going to prom with you." His eyes literally twinkled in delight. "Although, I will only go if you tell me what you meant by 'or something'."
His face fell. "I guess we are going to have to find dates then."
"Alfred. You can tell me. I'm not going to laugh at you."
"I know that but...never mind it's stupid."
"Alfred," I say sternly, "Tell me."
Slamming his hands down on the table, he stands up. Rushed he says, "I wanted you to go as my date, not my friend!"
I stared at him, mouth agape. His face was red. He then grabbed his things and hurried out of the library.