Procrastination and Pessimism

Prologues and Parties

Circles.

Perfectly round, perfectly symmetrical, perfectly perfect.

The circles were everywhere.

They surround me, exclude me.

People I knew made up these circles, the circles I envy.

I hate circles.

The bass shook the entire cafeteria as people hop in unison. The strobe lights danced along the figures around us, momentarily revealing their identities.

The smell of sweat and teenage desperation lingers in the air as I move my way through the crowd of people.

I finally find what looked like to be the group of friends I had come to the dance with, I wasn't too sure though, their circle was so tight.

I feel a light tap on my shoulder.

I whirl around to see Winnie, crossing her arms.

"What?" I ask her as a smile slowly grew on her face.

"Stop running around," she smirks as she sidesteps out of the way of what I think was a girl dressed up as a cat. "You're very fast for someone with such short legs."

My left hand automatically lands on my hip. "I guess that means you're quite slow for a person with such long legs."

"What?" she yells back at me.

I didn't have the energy to repeat what I said so I just nod contently.

The next song makes its way onto the speakers as the circle to the side of us seems to evaporate.

An arm loops through mine as I am pulled towards the exit.

Me, being alarmed, jerks my arm out of their grip.

The figure leading me out turns their head, letting me see their features clearly now. The blonde hair, square face, devil ears; it was Lydia. "C'mon. We're getting water," she states as she grabs my wrist once more and takes me through the automatic doors.

We walk over to the water fountain, both of us dripping with sweat.

Before leaning down to take a drink she informs me that my fake blood under my nose has been smeared onto my left cheek.

I simply shrug. I've only been here for an hour and I'm already wanting to leave.

Lydia raises her head back up and wipes her upper lip slowly, moving out of the way of the water fountain. "Aren't you glad you came to the Halloween dance?" she tries to make conversation as I practically chug the water.

I nearly choke when those words escape her mouth. 

No. This night has been horrible. The only picture we took I looked like crap, they've only been playing rap songs that I've never heard of, this blonde Eleven wig is the itchiest thing imaginable and, I almost forgot, you guys keep dancing in circles, grinding on each other, excluding Winnie and I. So yeah, this is no fun. 

"This night is so much fun!" I say almost like a reflex.

Lydia grins.

She probably didn't even realize I wasn't dancing in the circle with her.

Lydia sashays back into the caf while I unenthusiastically follow her in. She practically runs back to the circle and almost instantly starts to twerk on Rose.

My natural instinct was to cringe. I do just that.

About an hour passes by of me pretending to know how to dance until I finally hear something familiar.