Slow Dancing

old books.

Dante

During lunch, I sat down with my group of friends. They're all joking around, eating and trashing each other. I usually stay out of it, because they have no boundaries.

"Dante," I heard Nina say. "When was the last time you took a shower huh?" She then gave me a playful slap on the shoulder.

I laughed and ruffled her short, colorful hair, "Hey shut up! Did you cut your hair shorter or something, it looks different."

She threw her satchel on the ground and then plopped herself on a seat next to mine, "Ugh, yes. I was really bored yesterday. I didn't get the chance to -- "

"Nina!" Richard called her out from across the table, everyone was being loud so it was hard to hear him. "Did you do the painting for Mrs. Gill's art show? I forgot to do mine and now I'm screwed!"

"Forgot." I scoffed loudly, then we started laughing.

"No dude, I won't be there today." she leaned into the table. "Because I'm taking my braces off today!"

"Holy shit!"

"No way!"

"You're going to look so cuuute!"

There were different responses from everyone in the table. They decided to be quiet now. Nina had had her braces on for three years, and this year was our senior year of high school so it was a pretty big thing. She's been dreaming of taking them off for a long time.

"Yeah," she smiled triumphantly. She then looked at me, "That's why I gave myself a haircut."

"Well, it suits you." I flicked her short hair, making it fall onto her start-stamped cheek.

"Thank you." she looked at me with her grey eyes, and I smiled back. It felt like my neck was hot. So I looked towards Richard and he had a glint in his eye.

Comically, he rolled his eyes upwards and raised his arms, acting like a zombie. It was an inside joke between us -- one I'm sure everyone knows now -- that whenever something cheesy died he'd act like he'd been brought back alive. I told him about how I really like Nina.

Ever since I first saw her, with her oversized sweater, boots, and that crazy skunk hair, I thought she was the most interesting person I'd met. And she was, she lived up to those unseen expectations. Her quirky self is what kept me on my toes. I mean, she's really cool, that's all I have to say.

We ate our poisoned school lunch, and started to get ready to go to class again. Before I forgot, I asked the whole group for a pencil. Nina looked inside her satchel, while everyone else did too. I was hoping Nina could give me a pencil, I wanted to see how she kept them. Until.

"Here!" Christopher, another crazy son of a gun, rolled the pencil to me. "Just give it back, because I just have a red pen now."

I grabbed it from the table, pulling my sleeves back, "Thanks man..." I held it closer to see it.

"Dude, what the.." it had bite marks all over it. The eraser was practically gone. "Dude!"

"Hey man, that's the only one I have."

Everyone at the table started to give him crap. It was funny, they were shooting at each other back and forth. I put then pencil in my backpack, and smiled at Nina.

"What are you, a five year old? You freaking beaver, all you eat is pencils now?" Richard said.

"Shut up! Talk to your girl about it, with those big ass beaver teeth!" Christopher shot back.