Look Me In The Eye When I Tell You I Love You

Not Cinderella

MJAM: Here's the next chapter! Demie in multimedia on the right >>

 Demie

He was white, tall, and broad shouldered like any dream guy. The type guy you'd find in a Cinderella-story-ending type of movie. The type who is the captain of the football team, who every girl wants, who looks at the diner girl and sees her for who she really is, who gets the girl, the scholarship, the happily-ever-after. Short black hair, dark green eyes, and a smile that would make any girl melt. But I wasn't any girl. And I definitely wasn't Cinderella.

I had been watching TV when my terrier, Reeses, had began to bark like crazy. I had let her out back- shouting after her about how she was making me miss my favorite show, though I knew she couldn't understand a word I said- when she suddenly took off for the woods. It was as I had begun to race after her, calling her name and panicking because she'd never done this before, she usually stayed closer to the house, that I noticed him. He bent down to pet her as she ran up to him, tail wagging as if she knew him- the traitorous little bitch. Then he looked up, making me freeze as his eyes locked on mine.

He approached me, with Reeses in tow, stopping a little ways away. I shifted my weight, uncomfortable as he looked me up and down, realizing that I was out here in nothing but a large black concert tee and flip flops. He smiled at me and asked me a question. I answered him wearily and looked him over suspiciously-he looked familiar, what did he want? He asked me if I wanted to grab some coffee with him.

"I don't even know you," I declined.

"Then let's get to know each other," he attempted to get me to comply.

I declined again, "It's really late and my parents might be home soon." This was a lie; they wouldn't be coming home until tomorrow, if they ever came. However, it was probably best that he didn't know that I was home alone. The rational side of me knew that I should be wary of him, but the other side insisted that I could trust him, even though I didn't know him. Of course, I listened to the rational side.

"Some other time then?" He looked so hopeful as he waited for my answer.

"Maybe," I answered slowly, reluctantly.

"Maybe," he repeated seemingly satisfied with my answer. Unexpectedly, he closed the space between us until we were only a breath apart- was I even breathing?- and took my face in his hands. I wanted to put the distance back between us but his eyes held me in place. They were full of something I could hardly understand, something that made me hold my breath, something that waited patiently for my answer to a question that didn't need to be asked aloud. He leaned in and I gasped, jerking away.  

My answer was no.  

The smile that had graced his features before now appeared strained and forced as he lowered his hands, his eyes only showing anguish. "It's better this way," he said, almost to himself, stepping away from me. I reached out, pitching forward to stop him, but there was only darkness as I fell.

<3

It pulsed through my blood, flowing out with my movements. Strobe lights lit up the crowded dance floor, closely packed bodies moving to the beat. I was hot and sweaty though I just got on the floor. I let the music take me over, rising through my body, which moved with a mind of its own, instinctively and impulsively. Grinding into the boy behind me, his hands on my waist and mine in the air, my eyes closed, I pushed sll thoughts from my head. I didn't want to think about my grandma, my parents, my depression, my life, I only wanted to dance.

As much as I hated it when I was pulled out on these group dates, I loved going to the club and dancing all night long. Our whole lunch table would go to the city -Philadelphia- and go to the clubs that Ian somehow got us into. We didn't even need fake ids. Somehow he gets us in wherever we want to go, either with bribes or through his friends who worked there. I didn't have a drink like the rest, not this time, not as if I really needed it. The music, the dancing itself, loosened me up just as well as a Corona or Bud Light would.