Forever & Always?

Chapter Eight

      Multiple weeks went by. I could feel myself becoming more and more reliant on Daniel as each day passed. It was now the week of homecoming. Shelby, Travis, Jackson, his date, Ella, Alex, and I took many pictures and then went out to eat. It was our senior year and Alex and Jackson still never failed at being immature. Nevertheless, they were hilarious.

"Dude, dude right there," Alex said through his laughter. He pointed to a waiter as Jackson stuck a small ball in his straw and blew. They started cracking up as the ball of paper and saliva landed in a cup of water on the waiter's tray. I looked at Jackson, laughing quite hard myself. His laugh lines were deeply indented. His eyes were far in their sockets. His eyes were a light grey and his hair was a dark gold. He had a lot of hair but managed to keep it looking good by messing it up and gelling it like that everywhere he went. He was tall and slightly muscular.

"Oh!" Travis yelled when it stuck its landing in the cup. Shelby shook her head and hit her hand to her head. She giggled and I could tell that she was stifling a guffaw.

"Grow up, losers!" She squealed, throwing a noodle at Jackson.

"Look who's talking, noodle chucker!" I said, laughing.

"Hey, at least I'm more immature than them!" She squealed, staring at Alex and Jackson who were laughing and hitting each other. Neither of them had paid attention to anything Shelby had said, which explained why the noodle was still laying on Jackson's head. Ella started giggling when she saw the noodle. I continued to laugh uncontrollably and Shelby let out her long awaited guffaw. 

"You guys, shush!" I said in a hoarse whisper, still laughing. We all looked around, realizing we were in a fancy, mature restaurant and acting as the opposite of fancy and mature

"Okay, this is way too cliché," Travis said.

"Agreed," Shelby said, putting her pointer finger in the air.

"Come on, I have an idea," Jackson said, standing up.

"But we just got our food!" I said in an awful attempt to sound quiet.

"So what?" Alex said flagging the waitor over. He handed us our bill and we left. We skidded through the doors and into Jackson's car. Within five minutes we were sitting inside Mcdonalds. It does not sound like a fun thing to do on homecoming, but it was a place we could laugh comfortably without people giving us dirty looks.

"To the dance!" I said holding up my arm and heading for the door as we all finished eating.

"Leggo," Alex said.

       When we got to the dance I subconsciously gazed the room for Daniel. I attempted to kept my eyes under control and stare at Alex. We all trotted to the dance floor and began jumping up and down. Shelby and Ella found us a little later. All the girls danced bare foot and I danced confidently in my converse. 

      A slow song came eventually came on and I immediately began to argue with myself on whether to dance with Alex or wait until another fast song came on. My decision was made when Alex asked,

"May I have this dance?" I said, "Of course," In a quiet tone, a genuine smile smeared across my face. We walked to the middle of the dance floor, with the other couple dancers. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Daniel dancing with his date. I focused on Alex's eyes so my eyes did not accidentally lock with his. When the song was over, Daniel's date slowly let go of him and walked away. He came toward me.

"Alex, you have to pee," I said, keeping my eyes on Daniel. Alex's back was to him.

"Was that a question?" He asked.