Masquerade

I Wanna Dance With Somebody

In eighth grade I went to my first school dance and everyone knows that means dealing with pressure of trying to find a date.  Now of course looking back I did not and do not NEED a date to anything but in eighth grade it was the measure of how cool you were. Also in my tragic little eighth grade mind there were only three option Simon, Sammy, and Louis. But in their minds I was just their best friend so as I watched them agonize over with girl to ask I figured out from extensive research using the teen romance section at the library I needed to find some to make one or all of them jealous. So I started my search, I was looking for someone cute and funny but still plain enough that I could justify it to myself. Of course hindsight is twenty twenty and I never should have dragged some poor random boy into my obviously flawed plan but I wouldn't learn that until later.  As I searched for the boy that I would use in my plot my friends were also looking for dates. 

Lu was the first of us to find someone. It was a girl she had been talking to for a few months on and off the girl, Andi,  lived in the town next to ours so it was easy for them to meet up. It was the definition of puppy love and I totally shipped them. Lu was ecstatic they bought dresses a month and a half before the dance and made me go with so I could make sure the dresses looked cute together and they could wait until the nigh of to see each other. Andi came from a more traditional family so Sammy said he would go to pick her up so her parents wouldn't freak out. This only of course made me fall more in love with him in my fourteen year old mind it made him a knight in shining armor to me and made Lu think of him as a brother figure. 

The next one of our group was Louis, which was no  surprise to any of us the girls drooled over him almost as much as Simon! Louis was five foot seven with thick dark hair and caramel skin, his mom was from Costa Rica  and his Dad was  of Irish decent making him the perfect mix of both nationalities in my opinion, and many others. The girl he went with, Julia, was an adorable blonde girl who had a whole nerdy hipster vibe that she totally worked with. She fit right in with the group and still hangs out with us from time to time. But she also knew that getting involved with a beautiful, bi-lingual, model-esque boy probably wasn't her best choice so they just went as friends.  

Simon, who was know as West to the general public which his mother thought was ridiculous. Decided he was to cool for a date and was going to dance with anyone he wanted to without caring about what someone else had to say about it. His mother also happened to think this was ridiculous and she told Lu and I all about it over some sweet tea about three weeks before the dance. She loved having Lu and I over because it gave her some girls to talk to. She only had one boy, only had brother, who only had sons. She lots of friends but they were mostly single and so she always told us having the two of us over was the closest she would have until Simon got older and got married.

"Girls I don't understand why this boy feels the need to drive me crazy like this. First he decides to go by West instead of his beautiful given name and then he tells me at fourteen years old he's going to play the field! What does that even mean at your age!"

"I hear you Mrs. W" Lu sympathized, "He's been stupid there are plenty of ladies who want to go to this dance with him but he just wants to go alone so he can dance with everyone of them. Except when he does that they all think that he likes them and then come running to Dory and I complaining about how he talks to the rest to make the others feel better about themselves! It's crazy!" 

"That boy'll be the death of me I swear it! Dory honey I don't know why he doesn't wise up and take you!"

"Oh that would be...ummm...I mean...I don't..." I mumbled I hadn't know she had know I liked him!

"Of course you do! That's okay honey I hope that he sees it sooner rather than later and wises up before one of those other boys" She winked to me as she said it. 

As embarrassed as I was that she knew I was also happy that she was on my side about the whole thing. Of course it made for a few award moments when Simon brought home other girls and his mom would be hoping it was me and made it very clear to Lu, myself, and sometimes the other girl. 

But back eight grade, between Sammy's faux date and Simon going solo I started to feel like maybe it was better to go alone and one of them would see me in my dress and just know I was the one like in a movie. But then something totally unexpected happened someone else asked me! It was a boy who had been in my classes my whole life but I had never noticed as more than just another boy that wasn't one of my terrific trio. His name was Brian and I guess he was cute he was only slightly taller than me, had slicked back blond hair, and piercing blue eye.  He was standing by my locker at the end of the school day with a singular daisy, my favorite flower, and was shifting from foot to foot looking nervous. I was walking with my whole little group when we saw him I told them all to buzz off because I could handle this on my own. 

"Hey Brian what's up?" I questioned as I started putting in my combination so that I wouldn't just be awkwardly waiting for him to say something.

"Um hey Dory I was just um wondering um if you wanted to maybe go to the dance with me?" He finally had gotten out his sentence I turned to look into his blue eyes thinking about how this was my chance to show all those stupid boys that just thought of me as a friend what they were missing. 

"Sure!" I exclaimed a little to quickly and a little to loudly causing him to jump a little, "I would love to go with you!" I slowed this down a little not wanting to scare him away with my enthusiasm. 

"Um great!" He smiled, "Can I walking you home? It's on my way I think I remember going for a project last year." He blushed as he asked this. It wasn't part of my master plan but I agreed and we walked home hand in hand and as we passed my friends standing at the end of the hall they all looked surprised and Simon looked...angry?