Telescope

Dancing in the Dark

Juno

"Or dance in the dark," He'd said. We were walking back onto the dark campus, slowly despite the rain that seeped into my skin. Dance. I looked down, smiling.

For some reason, I kept turning that over in my head. Something about the word dance made it all seem... beautiful. 

It was. It was beautiful because it was a raw moment of vulnerability and invincibility shared between two people cloaked in darkness and rain. And while I remembered falling into the waves and stumbling in the heavy sand, he remembered dancing in the dark. 

I looked at him now, smiling at his funny face as we walked up to the front desk. The woman behind the desk sighed. She'd seen me here before. "Hi," Benny said, tapping the tall desk. "We were hoping to talk to Dr. Newman."

The woman behind the desk raised an eyebrow, dark eyeshadow making it look as though her dark eyes were stretching like a cartoon. "Why?"

"We need approval for a mural," Benny said.

"I'll see if she's in," The woman said with a flat voice. I watched as she walked over to a door and stuck her head in. A minute later, Dr. Newman walked out of her office. 

Dr. Newman has short blonde-gray hair with chunky bangs and all her outfits look like they should have a fanny pack, yet somehow never do. She took long strides to us and stopped near us, talking loudly to the other people in the room before finally looking at us. 

"How can I help you?" She said, then pushed past us to check a box. 

"Um, we're doing a project for Mr. Bill," I said, handing her his note. "We need approval-"

"Come with me," She waved her arm dramatically and started walking quickly. Her voice sounded tired and annoyed, which kinda pissed me off.  But we followed behind, exchanging nearly comedic glances as she marched down the empty halls. We arrived in front of our wall, and she paused, looking up. "You need the whole wall?" She asked, scrunching her nose. 

"Yes," Benny said. "We have our design," He said, nodding at me. I handed Dr. Newman the notebook, and she looked between it and the wall skeptically several times. 

"Alright," She said at last, sighing like we were this big nuisance. "I don't see a problem. You are on school property, so if anything inappropriate shows up on this wall because of you two, you will be charged with vandalism. You only have approval for this design." She thrust the notebook back into Benny's hands, who looked at her sharply. 

He handed the notebook back to me, eyes locked on Dr. Newman's. "Got it," He said. 

"Thank you," I added, before she walked off. 

"That went well?" Benny laughed a little and turned to look at me. It was starting to rain again, and as the coldness soaked into my hair and clothes I closed my eyes, tilting my head up to the sky. 

I knew I must have looked crazy, but there was something about standing in the rain under the bright, gray sky and even with my eyes closed I could feel Benny standing so close to me.

I opened my eyes to see Benny, chin up, eyes closed. His hair was disheveled and damp, his clothes clinging to the moister in the air, but his face was so peaceful. I watched as he scrunched his eyebrows, sudden pain etched into his face as he dropped his head and opened his eyes. He looked at me and smiled, eyes glowing like the happy guy he was. 

And then he hugged me. 

It caught me by surprise, his body suddenly folding over mine, head ducked down. I hugged him back, leaning into his weight. 

He stood up and ran a hand through his hair, and he smiled at me and looked at me like he was about to say something when it started to pour.

I smiled, breaking into a laugh, locking eyes with Benny. He stared at me for a second, then shouted suddenly, "WHAT THE FUCK ARE WE DOING?" He laughed as he started jogging through the rain towards to doors. "Come on!"

We burst inside the hall, laughing and soaking wet. "We need to stop doing this," I laughed, ringing out my hair.

He leaned against a locker and slid down so he was sitting on the floor. I sat next to him, sighing. "We should probably actually plan this, huh?" He asked, sitting up and crossing his legs. "Notebook," He said, holding out his hand. 

I gave it to him, sitting up as he grabbed a pen. "We should make a list of everything we need," He said.

I nodded seriously. "Okay, ladder, paint," I started. "Brushes?"

He nodded scribbling it down. I looked at his messy, blocky handwriting. It looked like he was trying really hard. "We're gonna need a ton of white wall paint as a base," He said, writing it down. 

I ran my hand through my hair, trying to break up the now knotted pieces. "Okay, and we need days to do it. When are you free?"

"I can do it most weekends."

"Okay, awesome," I said, "Here, give me your phone." I held out my hand, smiling at his confused expression. "Let me put my number in."

He smiled, handing it to me. As I added my number, he said, "Hey, are you free tomorrow?" 

"I thought we were working weekends?"

"No, I mean. My friends throwing a pool party, she told me to invite people."

I couldn't help but grin as I gave him his phone back, somehow conscious of our fingers touching. "Sure," I said, "But like, it's raining."

He shrugged, "It might clear up, and if it doesn't, I don't know, I like swimming in the rain." 

I nodded, laughing a little, "Really? Hadn't noticed."

He pushed his shoulder into mine, smiling. "You can invite whatever friends are crazy enough to come," He said, "I'd feel bad if her party flopped."

"Oh, yeah, can't let that happen," I nodded seriously, and he stood up holding a hand out to me. I took it and let him pull me up. 

We walked back out in the rain, and he nudged me and started running to the parking lot. I watched as he lept over and puddle, turning around and grinning at me with his arms spread as he started walking backwards. "See that? I'm fucking elite!" He shouted. 

I ran up to him and shoved him and he stumbled into a puddle, laughing. He looked at me, stood in the puddle for a minute, then started running at me. I started sprinting away but he caught up to me, shoving me towards a flood of water in the parking lot. I laughed, pushing against him. "No, ah!" 

"My socks are soggy!" He said. 

I jumped on his back, wrapping my arms around his neck as he spun,  then ran into the puddle, jumping so it splashed up on us as he laughed. I was laughing watching his smile fro over his shoulder as he shouted dramatically, "I have nothing to lose! Ah, take that!" He let go of my legs, and I dropped into the water, which splashed up onto my legs and soaked through my shoes. 

"Asshole!" I laughed, punching him in the shoulder. 

He bowed, elegantly then pointed at me. "You deserved it," He said, smiling.

"Rude," I said, and he turned dramatically, water flying. He looked over his shoulder as I jogged to catch up with his long strides. 

He slowed down to walk in pace with me, and as I got to my car and he got to his, I waved. He smiled, then shouted, "See you tomorrow!" Then he sat down in his car which looked different in the daylight but I remembered how it smelled and how the lights hit his smile in the dark and how the rain sounded against the windows at midnight.