It Begins With Us

22.

"That's so cool!" She suddenly exclaims, brightening up completely. "Do you think he teleported?"

"Who knows," I play along, I'll ask her about it later, when we're not in a room full of strangers, "maybe he's a time traveler like you."

"Then he definitely wouldn't be able to take that dress with him." She says glumly, her eyes glossy.

"Sure." I reply uncertainly and she laughs.

"Let's quickly finish eating! I want to dance!" Alba grins gently bumping her head with mine.

"Yeah." I nod wondering what's going on inside her head.

Alba:

'Ryle met him. Daddy gave this dress to Ryle for the girl that he cherishes. Did he knows that that girl was me? When did he come from?' My mind is reeling and I wish I could just pull the answers out of a magicians hat.

I force some more food down so that Ryle doesn't notice. I swallow hard and with each bite I bury the longing that's trying to bubble up inside of me. Ryle leans a little closer into me and I wonder if he's noticed, of course he's noticed. 

I peer up at him and I wonder how we look, the two of us, nicely dressed, sitting right up against one another, eating from the same plate, our heads close together, chatting away. I quickly take a long swig of water and push my chair back.

"Ryle, I love you so much." I declare my love randomly. "Will you dance with me?" I add standing up and holding a hand out to him.

In an instant, Ryle drops his fork and takes my hand. He watches me as he leads me to the tiled and less crowded dance floor. We walk over to the least occupied area and Ryle takes both my hands in his. He leads my left hand to his shoulder and my right hand is laced with his. His other hand slides from my back to my side and down past my waist till it's firmly gripping unto my hip.

"Okay!" I say seriously. "Teach me!"

"You can call me Mr. Kincaid." Ryle teases with a devilish smrik. "Or sir."

"You wish." I don't even bother holding back my blush as he leans in and presses his cheek to mine.

"Here we go, follow the basic tempo. One, two, three. One, two, three....." Ryle whispers softly and he press his cheek harder against mine.

We start to sway to the simple three count tempo I could do this, I've seen it a hundred times in movies.

"Stop that." I grumble my eyes wandering and he chuckles as he turns his head, pressing his lips right against my ear.

I miss a step and stumble against him, groaning with embarrassment. I press my face into his chest which only makes him laugh more.

"You're such easy prey." He says and I jerk back, playfully glaring up at him.

Before I could retort he adds, "So I have to keep you real close, have to make sure nobody else gets the chance to make you blush."

"Awww." I coo and with a quick streak of urgency flashing through me, I tippy toe and press my lips to his.

"Mmh." He hums against my lips approvingly and then leads our locked hands to his shoulder and leaves my hand there.

Both his hands slide around my hips and wrap tightly around me. I quickly pull away and bury my face in his shoulder, getting another laugh out of him.

"I love making you laugh." I whisper, nestling closer and he doesn't reply, just tightens his grip.

We hold each other and sway, that's when I catch sight of Marshall grinning at us like a sly fox at us. Beside him Alyssa stands with soft eyes and I can suddenly feel how much she wishes for her brother to have this. To have a person to love, a person to love him back. My feelings are interrupted when another pair sways into my view.

'Lily and Atlas.' I think with an internal sigh.'Perfect.'

As they twirl by Lily's eyes catch on us. Instantly she goes from being on cloud nine to shocked, as if her cloud was struck by lightening. After a stiff second she looks away and almost instantly looks back, confused and hurt. 

I look away to Marshall and he wiggles his eyebrows and then shakes his head towards the pair. I stick my tongue out at him and his hand goes straight to his "wounded heart". I sigh and close my eyes settling in closer with Ryle, ignoring known and unknown people alike.

"Want to dance some more?" He whispers so softly that I almost tell him no. Tell him to take me home, to bed.

"Yes, let's dance." I say and pull away. "Let's try one more time."

Ryle is distracted by our feet trying to guide me and I play along. I follow each instruction until I've got a pretty good idea of what I'm supposed to be doing.

"Alright! Pop quiz! If you fail," he pauses and gives me a teasing Cheshire grin, "you have to attend the after school tutoring session. It's going to be very long and very tiring." I blush and nod compliantly.

"Let's try without looking down." Ryle adds, and so we do.