1 | ONE BREATH | MINIMINTER ✔️

TEN

TEN
d a l l a s

At last, it was Saturday and the party at James' was in full swing. Teens swaying to the music with bottles of alcohol in hand and loose grins on their painted lips, intoxicated with the sweet harmony. Confidence enhanced, chances of mistakes heightened, but why care when you're having fun? Tomorrow was the last thing on the mind.

Simon, Josh and JJ were late after taking a wrong turn, but now they were here Simon wasn't at all surprised by the scene. One group of girls were dancing, swinging their hips in their short dresses and running their hands through their hair as the music blasted through the air. Their laughter couldn't be heard over the music, but their faces were enough to know the fun they were having.

Off to the side, there was a larger group playing drinking games, which included the oh-so-cliché spin the bottle. Every time it landed on someone, there would be a roar of excitement before the dare began. Nine times out of ten, kissing was the result. Simon was never one to play, he made a mental note not to go over there.

Then, as he looked into the mess of bodies dancing, Simon saw Cal and, to his surprise, Violet. They seemed to be enjoying one another's company, Cal more than Violet, but she was smiling at him. He didn't look for long as, out of the corner of his eye, he saw her.

Dallas danced with a glass bottle in her hand. Her curls of hair bounced as she moved her body so effortlessly, so flawlessly. Even slightly drunk, she was the definition of beautiful. Outshining Allison who danced not so full-heartedly beside her.

However, they did seem to be getting on and dancing like they'd never even considered hating one another. Maybe it was the alcohol, but Dallas seemed to be dancing with Allison like it was a show, a competition that she needed to win. Whether or not Allison knew about this, Simon didn't know, but either way, Dallas was winning.

As she tilts her head up, her lips slightly parted, her eyes fall onto him and a flash of a smile darts across her lips, teeth shining in the lights.

After saying a short goodbye to Allison, she struts over to him and pulls him into a firm hug. It wasn't as warm as he was expecting, but he returns the squeeze anyway. Briefly, she looks over her shoulder as she pulls back from the hug.

When she turns back to him, she says, "Thanks for coming, I thought you weren't going to show."

"Yeah," Simon replies, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "We may have gotten a little bit lost on the way here."

"Don't worry about it, everyone does on their first time," She tells him, her smile not faltering once.

And then there's a small silence between them, the music and the crowd being the only thing filling the gap.

Dallas isn't satisfied with that. "Come with me outside, there's something I want to show you," She says, taking a hold of his hand and pulling him through the crowd before he can even respond. Dallas didn't like waiting, that was more than evident. Not just in the way she towed him as if every second counted, but just in the everyday things he'd seen her doing as they'd sat together in English class recently. If she was waiting for break, she would bite the skin at the side of her thumb, tap her fingers on the desk or bite at her lip and glance at the clock too often for it to mean anything.

As they exited the French doors at the back of the house, the evening air of autumn bit at their skin as if it had something to prove. Dallas didn't seem to notice, not even with her bare arms and legs.

"Don't you think the stars are beautiful, Simon?" She asks, dropping his wrist and folding her arms across her chest as she looks up at the night sky to the speckles of wonder that dotted it like freckles. "I used to like coming out here whenever I spent the night. In fact, I came out here on my first night here. James found me out here, asked me what I was doing. I told him to look at the stars. He kissed me, our first kiss beneath the stars, and I'd never felt more special."

"Why did you bring me out here to tell me all this?" Simon questions with a frown.

"I've been thinking about what you asked me after our run. About why I chose you." She looks down from the stars to him and it was as if she'd captured their light in her eyes. "I came to you because you're the only person who I know for certain will be real when you're around me. Everyone else, they're scared to say the wrong thing to me and they think I don't notice, but I do. They think I'll snap, just like I did before, and so they're scared of me because they don't want another 'incident'. Pisses me off, but you're not like that. You're just Simon Minter."

"I didn't think you'd want me to be any different," He tells her, a loss of words suddenly overcoming him.

Dallas smiles simply and, without warning, presses a warm kiss to his cheek. "Thank you," She whispers, her breath less alcoholic than he imagined it should have been and it was most definitely more intimate than she'd desired it to be.

And then her warmth is gone all at once. His cheek felt cold where her lips once rested. Simon turned and followed her into the house, but almost walks into the back of her as she stops so suddenly and stiffly, her joints locked.

He follows her line of vision and his chest aches for Dallas as he sees Allison, her supposed best friend, with her lips locked with James', her recent ex-boyfriend.

Dallas' eyes burn as she feels the anger rushing through her system at a hundred miles an hour, rushing to the top to erupt like the grandest volcano. She takes a step forward, but a hand on her shoulder stops her in her tracks once more.

Turning to face Simon, she looks numb. He never thought such a beautiful girl could look so cold.

"Can you walk me home?" She asks, her voice wooden.

"Of course," He replies. "Come on."

Now the party does not seem so vibrant. The lights don't seem so bright anymore and the crowd doesn't seem so free. The entire energy was lacking.

They walk in silence to her house. Half way there, her arm wraps around his side and her body sinks into his side, seeming so fragile. It was a shock, not just because Dallas Edlen was holding onto him, but because Dallas never liked to seem weak and here she was leaning on him with tears running down her face in a not-so-perfect fashion.

As she cried, she was silent. Suffer in silence and no one will see how weak you really are. Dallas hated crying, but tonight with the stars gleaming down on her and Simon with his arm over her shoulders, she just couldn't help it.

At last, they reach Dallas' house. Standing on her doorstep, Simon finally asks what he'd been wanting to ask for the entire walk. "Are you ok?"

Dallas lets out a breathless, short laugh and brushes her fingers over her damp cheeks. Then she looks him dead in the eyes and says, "The stars don't seem so beautiful when you're sad."

"Dallas-" Simon begins but she escapes into her house, closing the door before he could get another word in and leaving him on her doorstep beneath the irrelevant stars in the sky that no longer shined so brilliantly.

If he could have gone in there and held her until the crying ceased, he would have, but he was still just an old childhood friend to her. Simon Minter, the boy to rely on when everyone else was unreliable. Not the boy to smile at and laugh with when you're feeling good, but the boy to go to when you're feeling sad and need someone to make you feel better.

Simon wanted to be the one to make her smile because Dallas was far from ok on her own, no matter how hard she tried to fake it.

That night, he realised it all:

Dallas Edlen was falling apart.

END OF PART ONE

•••

that's part one over and i'm pretty happy with it, even if it is unedited, but i can always do that later right? anyway, part two will be coming soon! just a little more planning and then we're set. i'll post the part two chapter header after this.

thanks for reading <3