Hold on to me

May I have this dance?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Next evening

- "So what was your costume again?" Jessica asked.

- "I really didn't have any ideas, so I tried to copy my idol's style a bit"

Pink and black glittering eye shadow lightly on both of the eyes, cargo jeans, punk-looking t-shirt and a key chain hanging on the left side of her hip.

- "Oh now I see her, great copying of Avril!" Jessica said, being happy about that she guessed it right. She was dressed as a black cat with ears, a tail that was hanging from a belt around her waist and she had a black nose and whiskers, colored with eyeliner.

It was five to six, the doors would open at six o'clock. You could hear the music booming from the inside. The sky looked like it could start raining at any second and the wind felt like there'd be a storm in the later evening.

- "Hey look the line is moving, finally! I'm almost freezing!" Jessica shouted from relief. There's about twenty people before us. Luckily the line moved fast.

When they got inside, they left their jackets on the stands by the door and went straight to the buffet. Their parents had gone earlier to the school to drop out candies, chips, the brownies and other sweets for the buffet. It was run by multiple sixth graders with one of the teachers supervising them.

After they bought some candy pouches they headed to the school's hall that was decorated with fake spider webs hanging from the walls, spiders were on the floor, a skeleton in one corner and other creepy stuff scattered around the hall. Someone had also managed to get a smoke machine, it was located on the stage on the other side of the hall next to the DJ who played present hits.

Music was playing loud, and the dance floor was empty. Everyone stood on the sides. It was until one small group of people ventured to go dance then others joined too. Jessica and others wanted to go dance too, but Emily didn't like the idea. Jessica pulled her by the arm and got her to dance along with her.

Emily was starting to enjoy herself a little, even though she was subconsciously suffering. There were so many people in the same place at the same time. But as long as she had people who she trusted around her, she would be fine.

After a few minutes of dancing, DJ started to play My heart Will Go On by Celine Dion, it was time for the slow dance.

- "Heyy Jess! Shall I take you to dance with me?" a boy shouted. It was Tommy, a boy from Emily's class that Jessica had a crush on. He was a bit taller than them with short dark brown hair, bluish and greenish eyes and he was dressed as a pumpkin.

As they headed to the dance floor, Jessica turned towards Emily and mouthed a silent "OMG!". Emily was happy to see her friend being so lucky to have her crush to ask her to dance with him. She didn't have a crush on anyone, she was afraid to have positive feelings towards anyone. Maybe someday I'll be able to like someone or have a crush on.

Watching their dance, she didn't notice that a vampire was coming closer to her.

- "Krhm, may I have this dance?" he asked shyly, Emily jumped a bit frightened from the surprise that someone spoke to her. She stood there and stared at the boy, it was Elijah from their parallel class. He had blonde hair and blue eyes, he was thin and he was almost the same height as her.

She started to breathe faster. It felt like someone was putting hands around her neck and tightening the grip by every breath, someone was pressing her chest making her breathing harder. She haven't spoken to any boy since what happened on the summer, because men scared her. She thought that every men wanted to hurt her and she couldn't be near them.

- "I-I can't I'm sorry" she said quickly and ran to the girl's bathrooms, leaving Elijah looking confused and and a bit embarrassed. Jessica and a few other girls saw it and went after her.

Emily went to an empty stall, locked the door and started crying, she was having an anxiety attack. Like she would lose her mind by any minute.

- "Em, are you alright? You left in quite a hurry..." Jessica asked, standing outside the stall.

- "Yeah, I'm... alright... just got scared... I'm not used to people talking to me..." she puffed out, still trying to calm herself.

- "Would you please come outside?"

She steps out of the stall, and looks at Jessica.

- "I'm a weird person aren't I? I'm scared of new people and look so dumb after running away like that." she said, tears filling her eyes.

- "You're not weird at all. If you are, then it's weirdness in a good way. 'll be there for you no matter what, now, don't cry or your makeup will get all smudged." Jessica said, holding Emily's hands. She has noticed that Emily doesn't like to have anyone touching her too much.

- "Now that you've calmed down, Elijah is outside waiting for some answers. Do you wanna dance with him or not?"

- "You can tell him, that when the next slow dance comes, I'll try, I promise." she had reassured herself that he was just a boy, same age as her, there wouldn't be any harm done if she danced with him.

Jessica went to tell Elijah what she had said. "He said he'll find find you then and understands. Let's go make this evening happier than it has been."

A while later she was dancing with her friends and enjoying herself once again. She had more courage and a bit more confidence in her, and she was glad to have a friend such as Jessica by her side.

The evening went on, she danced with Elijah (not closely, hands on each others shoulders), won a limbo competition and danced until her legs started shaking.

When her mom picked her up and brought her home, she washed her face and went straight to bed.

- "Did you have fun dear?"

- "Yeap, lots of fun. I think I'm a little happy, first time in a long time." she smiled.

Her mother saw her daughter smile, truly smile, and it felt delightful.