Love & Despair ~ a romantic short story (COMPLETE)

Part 2:

Lights swung from the corners of the ceiling, blinking as dots and spots of flashing colors. They swept over my face as I sashayed into the crowd. My bare shoulders brushed against others on my way to the counter in the back. It was tonight, the night Will had promised me a dance.

Green eyes found me across the room. I blushed as he wove through the crowd, an arm outstretched to me. His hand in mine, he lead me back around to the counter.

"If you don't mind me saying, I think you look beautiful," Will said.

I smirked. "Pour me a drink will you?"

The music pulsed, pounding inside my chest below my silk dress. As the night went on, the worries of yesterday faded out as the party bellowed with joy and delight. My usually anxious hands were passing, pouring, holding drinks. Will threw me glances as we worked, shy smiles bright under the neon lights. 

"Where were you yesterday?" he asked.

I slid a girl's bubbly drink across the counter. "Are you going to take me dancing or not?"

"Of course," he said, sliding hand into mine. 

I allowed him to lead me into the bouncing crowd. 

His right hand carried my left hand onto his shoulder. Our other hands gently lifted into the air as the music slowed down. Our eyes locked onto each other and I stifled a chuckle. What was I doing? I was going to be dead before we could very become anything. 

I was going to be dead. With that thought, piercing my mind like a knife, my breath caught in my throat and I looked away, breaking the whatever trance we had gotten ourselves into. How had my life gone from becoming eternally young to pathetically short?

Will leaned in. His freckled face drew close to mine. "Are you okay?"

I shifted further away from him. There was no point in being close. This boy would never get to know the real me. 

"Excuse me," I said, breaking off and walking away.

Voices rang, swooping up and down with the changing pace of the music, Feet padded along the white tile floor, smooth and all movements slurred. Hands were held, and faces were pressed against shoulders. Eyes twinkled with mutual attraction. Mine hardened with reality--the reality that nothing seemed to matter anymore to me, nothing lingered for long, and nothing could ever become anything---not when Death pulled me closer each day. 

While others slowed down, I picked uo my pace. I wanted to run away. I wanted to run back in time to when my dad was still alive and my life hadn't become a giant, ticking clock counting down to my last breath. 

As my strength began to dwindle again (it was almost midnight), my urgent dash became a struggling stumble. My heels were biting into my feet,  crushing my toes. 

"Rebecca!" Will called. When I glanced back, he was shoving his way to me. 

No! No! I thought. If he gets to me he'll get close and then I'll have to push him away too, and quit him like I've quit everything else in my life.

"Rebecca, please wait! Rebecca!"

Feeling my body to tired to make an escape, I stopped and turned to face him. "I don't feel well."

Will stepped close. "Was it my dancing? I had only just begun."

I laughed, which turned into a sob caught in my throat. "You're fine. I just..."

Will smiled and outstretched  a hand to me. His eyes crinkled. "Dance with me. A little bit more. I want to see your eyes under the lights again." I sighed and took his hand. He lured me closer. "It'll be fun," he said, sliding back onto the dance floor. 

"Will," I began once we were swept into dancing again.

He locked eyes with me. "Yeah? You okay?"

I dropped my eyes. "I won't last long."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm sick, Will."

"Oh don't worry. I know a good tea to help with that."

I chuckled. "No not that type of sick."

"No?"

I stopped dancing and stood still. My hands fell to my side as I looked at him again. "I...I have cancer."

Will's soft smile dropped from his face. His features tensed, tightened under the blinking lights. The music wailed of love from the boxy speakers. We were at the edge of the dance floor.

"What?" he mumbled. His eyes searched mine. 

"I have cancer," I repeated. My shoulders slumped forward. 

I said it. 

"I wanted to tell you, because...I kinda like you."

Will twisted his mouth to the side in a shy smile. He dropped his gaze for a moment and then slowly raised it to meet my hard gaze. "Kinda?"

I rolled my eyes, relaxing a little. "Don't let it get to your head."

Will grabbed my hands. "It already did."

"Do you still want to dance?" I asked, hoping I hadn't depressed the party. 

"Of course. Why not?" He leaned in and guided my hands to his shoulders. "By the way...I kinda like you too."

"But it doesn't mean anything," I protested. "It's not like I think you're cute or anything like that..."

Will chuckled. "No no. Of course not." 

I smirked. 

We swayed in the dark, close to one another, blinking eyes stealing glances. The world and the worries faded again. As Will smiled at me, wide and wider as the night stretched long, I finally smiled back. 

It will all be fine, I thought. 

Weeks passed and I continued to return to the restaurant, the dancing, and the boy. My life became shorter every day, but the smiles became bigger. With a pounding heart, I looked forward to heading to the restaurant after I had finished my homeschool work for the day. Mom would drop me off and Will would wave at me through the window glinting with sunlight. 

As I pushed open the glass door, a month after my first dance in years, the most handsome boy I had ever seen was wiping the counter from the behind the bar. I flashed a grin at him and he at me. The sweet, soft smell of flowers wafted from the bouquets dotting the full leather booths. Warm gusts of soft breezes whispered into the square room, fluttering the silky flower petals.

"Hey Will," I said as I slipped on my apron.

After I had stepped behind the counter, he squeezed my hand. "Hey beautiful."

The nights had become longer, overflowing with music and draped with endless blankets of silver stars. The dancing seemed to never stop. That day, the sun glowed through the window with golden pride, mimicking the joy that had begun to seep back into my life again. 

"Are you free tonight?" Will asked, brushing a chaste peck against my cheek. 

I giggled. "Why you asking?"

He tucked a lock of hair from my wig behind my ear. (I had lost my hair a couple of weeks past.) "I hear there will be dancing tonight...Care to join me?"

"I would love to."

As I poured drinks and chatted behind the bar, my wig just a little itchy and the sun just warm enough, I thought, It will all be fine.

THE END