Tragic Kingdom (80s/90s imagines)

17. Emilio Esteves

You saw him across the gym, as you had several times before. You two had had P.E. together almost every year since elementary school. It was a joke between you two about it.

This was different now. The lights were dimmed, and the room was washed in purples and blues to enhance the "Wonderland" theme.

He was wearing a nice button down and khakis in place of his school sanctioned gym shorts and t-shirt, and you wore a dress instead of yours. Instead of sweating from exercise, you were sweating from nervousness and possibly because the school didn't know how to turn on the A/C in the gym.

"Go ask him to dance," your friend encouraged.

You turned to her nervously. "I don't even know what I would say. Or what if he doesn't want to dance with me?"

"Y/N, he's looked over here at you as many times, if not more, as you've looked over there at him. Go."

You took a deep breath and willed yourself across the waxed floor. "It's cool. He's totally going to say yes. But what if he doesn't? No. Stop that. You look fantastic, and he'll see that." You had talked yourself down enough to not turn back around.

It was highly unorthodox for a girl to make the first move, but it was worth a shot. And besides, he had technically made the first move the other day.

"Are you going to the dance on Friday?" he asked casually, bounce passing the basketball to you.

"Uh.. yeah. I am," you replied as nonchalantly as possible. "Are you?" You passed the ball back.

"Yeah." And that was it.

Despite the short length of the conversation, you hoped somewhere in it was some motive aside from friendly curiosity.

You had finally made it across the gym, and he smiled when you stopped in front of him.

"Hey, Y/N," he greeted, shifting so that he faced you completely.

"Hi, Emilio." You crossed your arms across your chest, feeling nervous again.

"I like this song," he commented, vaguely gesturing towards a speaker.

Taking notice of the music, you grinned. "I do too! Actually," deep breath, "I came over here to ask if you wanted to dance."

He perked up noticeably and nodded. "Sure."

Relief flooded you, and you led him out into the group of people already dancing.

With the luck of any awkward teen, the very next song was a slow one, meant to make school dances just that much more awkward.

He placed his hands on your hips while yours went to his shoulders. You'd only ever slow danced once, and that was jokingly with your cousin.

You had avoided eye contact with him nearly the whole time you had danced, but now you looked right at him, making him smile once again.

"You look really pretty tonight," he complimented.

You glanced down at your shoes, a small smile on your lips. "Thanks. You look really nice too."

"I'm not gonna lie," he pulled you just a little closer. "I didn't think I'd get to dance with you tonight."

"Did you want to dance with me tonight?"

He nodded. "Of course I did. I've had the biggest crush on you for years now."

Your heart swelled, and you couldn't stop smiling. "You're kidding."

"No, I'm not," he insisted. "I've liked you for a while."

"I like you too."

He pulled you closer still, and you wrapped your arms around his neck, your head nearly on his chest now. You two swayed back and forth like that until the next song. And even then, you two stayed in each other's arms, lost in the other's presence.

Hey, it actually hasn't been a century since my last update. Woot! I love this one quite a bit, but mostly bc I'm a big sucker for school dance imagines. Emilio is very underappreciated, so I figured I should write one for my boy. M'kay.

~Mariah