This Winter

Chapter 8

Freshman Year (continued)

This was the worse dance of my life.

The music sucked, the gym smelled bad, and everybody was grinding sloppily on their dates. Noah and I stuck out like sore thumbs, standing awkwardly in the gym. The music was practically made for grinding, the beat fast and lyrics incoherent. I watched teachers desperately try to get couples to stop, when really all they needed to do was change the goddamn song.

Noah and I stood there, not sure what to do. We couldn't really dance to the music or sing along and grinding wasn't really an option... well an option for him. Anyways, the point is the dance sucked. We were only there for twenty minutes and I wanted to leave.

We spotted Savannah walking to the door and decided to walk to her. She had on a puffy blue dress with lighter blue flowers patterned on it.  "Oh, hey guys." She smiled, flashing her pearly white teeth.

"Are you leaving?" I questioned. The dance had only just started so I was confused to why she would be leaving so early.

She ducked her head and whispered to us, "There's a party in the woods, I'm going... Do y'all want to come?"

Anywhere than here sounded a hell lot better. I nodded eagerly but then remembered Noah. His stare said everything. "No, were good," he declined. I looked at him, silently pleading with my eyes and him nodding his head 'no'. We did that back and forth for a while, the blonde patiently waiting for an answer.

"Look, Noah. You don't have to do anything and the party is on the down-low so no one knows about it but the juniors and seniors,"  she told him with a smile, reassuring him. "I'm only going for a little bit and I can drive you two home."

I looked at Noah expectantly, wanting a final answer. He heaved a sigh, not looking into anyone's eye, "If it's just for a little while.." I cheered before he finished and Savannah smiled widely.

We left through the side-door. The October air was cold as we walked to Savannah's car. "I didn't know you had a car," I told her when she unlocked the doors.

She looked at me dumbly, "Well I'm a junior." Oh. I didn't realize she was that much older than us, but I guess it made sense being she wasn't in any of my classes.

***

The party was 'okay'. I only recognized a few upper-classman because they played football. Most of the people were completely wasted, stumbling around in the dark and hooking up behind the shadows of trees.

The three of us sat by the glow of fire with a few other students. We sat on a tree log and laughing by the fire at stupid jokes and our fellow drunken classmates.

Savannah had changed out of her dress like almost everybody here. Her makeup still coating her face and blonde hair in ringlets down her back. Because Noah and I were unaware of this party, we were still in our formal wear, except I had unbuttoned the dressy red shirt, revealing my white cotton one.

"Did you text your mom, Ethan?" I nodded at the blue-eyed boy, sliding my phone into my jean pocket. I had texted my mom, saying another student would drive us home and she didn't need to worry.

The plan was to stay at the party until the time the dance ends, then Savannah would drive us back to our houses. The plan was pretty flaw-less, so Noah didn't have much to complain about. Knowing that everything was under control, he calmed down.

"Ooh! Ooh! Look at that guy," Noah shouted excitedly, point at a drunken guy standing across from us in the woods. The guy looked at us and gave us a surfer hand signs and shouting "Party-on!"  We watched the guy stumble over his feet before running to a brunette who looked rather annoyed to have a conversation with his drunk ass.