Chapter 28: The Dance

It turns out Amy was right. As soon as the gossip got around that Charlotte and I were no longer an item, girls started coming up to me, hugging me, telling me how sorry they were about it, asking me if I was okay, and if I would like to dance. It was actually hard to feel bad after about nine or so different girls had hit on me, some subtly, some blatantly. And it didn't stop all night.

I finally gave in and danced with this girl named Jennifer — tall, very cute, very curvaceous, and with an extraordinary rack. It was a slow song and she held me close, pressing her breasts into me as though I needed a pillow to rest on in my fragile condition. We didn't really talk much though. I wasn't feeling very talkative. I looked over though, and saw a young boy sitting beside Amy, talking with her. She was smiling shyly, laughing occasionally, and looking like she was actually having fun. That was good.

I saw Steve talking to a young lady as well. She didn't seem very interested in being seen talking to him, but he didn't notice, or didn't care. He was just happy to be there at the dance, rocking his head back and forth in time to the song, and talking too loud about something he thought was incredibly cool. Eventually she actually started talking back to him, and she even smiled a few times. Very cool. Steve didn't seem too crushed anymore. He didn't seem to care at all what anyone thought of him. I guess no matter how much of a nerd you are, if you don't give a shit what anyone thinks about you, you're still kinda cool.

The song ended and another one started. I pulled away from Jennifer, wanting to sit down for a while. She held on to me though.

"One more. Just one more!"

"I gotta sit down for a bit. Thanks for the dance."

But on my way back to sit down with Amy, another girl grabbed me and pulled me back to the throng, Gerri Meskaleck, a friend of Charlotte's. I sighed and went.

"I'm so sorry to hear about you and Charlotte," she said. "You must feel awful."

"What did you hear?"

"I heard she just didn't want to be tied down or whatever, even though you're like the sweetest guy ever, she said."

"Charlotte said that?"

Apparently she hadn't told Gerri the whole story.

"Yeah. She says she feels awful, but it's for the best."

"I hope so."

"Don't worry, Anthony. I've already talked to at least fifteen girls who've said you can tie them down any time you damn well want."

"I've noticed."

"I'm one of them," Gerri said, staring me right in the eyes, leaning in like she wanted me to kiss her, like she wanted me to know I could do whatever the hell I wanted to her and that would be just exactly peachy keen.

I didn't though. I just danced with her, trying to ignore the lyrics of the song. Some soulful balladeer was going on and on about how things would have been much better if they'd only tried a little harder, and not given up so soon.

"Because you're worth it to me. You're all I'll ever need. We can hold on for forever, if you just try to believe..." etc. etc.

Shut up, asshole, I thought to myself. Why do these songs always seem to hit the nail right on the head, at the worst possible time? I was trying not to get choked up.

"Look at this," Gerri muttered to me, nodding her head to the left.

I looked. Some guy was dancing with a girl, and they were slurping away on each other's tongues like it was their last meal or something.

"Wow. Apparently they really like each other."

"Look lower," she said, nodding downward.

I looked lower. He had his hand up her skirt and down her panties, his wrist was twisting and turning like he was digging for gold or something. My eyes widened. She was a really cute girl with a very sweet-looking ass. I didn't know who she was, but I knew the guy from one of my classes. He looked over, saw us looking, and grinned. Then he went back to the kiss.

"Someone's getting lucky tonight," I said.

"She's lucky already," Gerri said, nodding downward in a not-so-subtle invitation to do some treasure hunting of my own. I didn't take the bait though. I still felt shitty about kissing Amy. I just held her around the waist and waited for the song to end.

Then Gerri kissed me, or tried to anyway. I turned my face away at the last second and her kiss landed on my cheek.

"I'm sorry," she said, embarrassed.

"I know it sounds like a line, but I can honestly say that it truly isn't you. It's me."

Gerri was a very beautiful girl, and any guy in the room would have been thrilled to kiss her, but I didn't feel like kissing anyone at the moment. I was actually thinking about how I'd probably never be able to kiss Charlotte again, not without feeling more pain than joy.

"I know. You must be so crushed inside. And that just makes me want to kiss you even more. You're such a sweet guy, Anthony, and if I didn't love Charlotte so much, I'd say she's not worth one of your tears, except she is, and it's all just a fucked up situation."

"You're telling me."

Amy was a few feet away from me, dancing with the boy she'd been talking to. I smiled at her. She shrugged. She looked happy.

"But you know, in spite of everything that's happened to you and Charlotte," Gerri continued, "I gotta say that if there's anything I can do for you, you just gotta ask. You know what I mean? Anything."

Anything. Wow. Gerri was offering me something very beautiful. Basically all of herself. And why? Because she thought I was hurting (which I was) and she wanted to make me feel better.

"That's very cool of you, Gerri. It means a lot to me. Honestly. I just can't take you up on that. Not yet. You understand."

"My head understands, anyway. My body wants to drag you off behind the nearest closeable door and make you forget that Charlotte Lawsen even exists."

"That would actually be nice, at least for a little while."

I was referring to forgetting that Charlotte even existed. Gerri thought I meant the sex.

"You want to? Let's go right now."

Wow. That easy. How many guys wished they could be in my place right then? And there I was too wrapped up in Charlotte to even respond. It was understandable though. Charlotte was a beautiful girl, and I loved her completely.

"I can't, Gerri. It's not just Charlotte. I'm sorta supposed to be keeping an eye on her sister too. Have you met her little sister?"

"I heard she was in town. That's her right there, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

"She kinda looks like Charlotte, except darker. And younger."

Gerri moved my hands off her waist, down to her ass. She had a nice ass. I raised my eyebrow at her.

"Maybe later?" she said, and her eyes reiterated the anything she'd offered me.

"Maybe."

"Would it help if I told you I got a thing about going down on a guy? I really, really like it."

She was really, really trying to convince me. Luckily the song was ending. I kissed her on the cheek again.

"I'd really, really like that Gerri. But give me some time to let things cool down first, okay?"

"I'm sorry," she said again. And we parted ways after squeezing one another's hands.

Trish Seares approached me as I made my way off the dance floor. I'd slept with her a few weeks before I'd met Charlotte, and she was probably partly responsible for us getting together in the first place. She looked beautiful as well.

"How's it hanging, big guy?"

"You gonna hit on me too?"

"I'm still sorta healing from the last time. I'll spare you. I just wanted to say, how awful I feel, about Charlotte and everything."

I gave her half a hug, and she gave me a peck on the cheek.

"You really are a decent guy, Anthony. Charlotte's a fool to let you go."

"Tell her that."

"Already did. Me and about a hundred other gals."

"What'd she say?"

"She agreed, but told me to try to make you feel awesome if I could."

"I don't think it's possible, but thanks for trying."

"Mammphomy!" someone called out to me as I headed back to the bleachers. I turned. It was Jimmy, the new guy in school, the one from my English Composition class, the class where I'd first been paired up to tutor Charlotte. I didn't recognize him at first though. I just gave him a blank stare.

"Iss Jimmy, mam!" he slurred, swaying on his feet.

"Hey, Jimmy. How you making out?"

"Chicks here's awesome. I got two different phone numbers already."

"Wow. Two. That's great."

"Y'ain't been at school the past few days."

"Been sick."

"How's it goin' wit you'n that Charlotte chick, mam? She one fine piece of peach pie or what?"

"She is. But listen. She's single again, if you're interested."

"No way, mam! That's awesome! I thought you'n her's like, a thing."

"Not anymore."

"Coool," he said, scanning the crowd for her. "Hey, there she is."

She was over in a huddled group of dancers, shaking her ass, kicking her feet, and just generally wriggling all over. She was flinging her hair around too and that made me ache for her once again. I suddenly saw her on her bed beneath me, with that hair splayed out in a wide fan beneath her on the pillow, like an angel's wings.

"I'm 'unna go talk to 'er," Jimmy said. "Mam, I can hardly feel my mips... Lips, I meam!" He laughed out loud. Too loud. A teacher glanced over.

"Go for it, man. Have a blast."

There was a tug on my sleeve. I turned and saw two little pink kitten ears above two dazzlingly pretty eyes.

"Hey, Aims," I said. "What's up?"

"Very little."

"I see you got a new boyfriend."

"That's Devon," she said. "He just felt up my ass. What a dick."

"Come on, admit it. You kinda liked it."

"Nuh-uh. Not even. No way."

"Not even a little bit?"

"He doesn't even know me. What a knob."

"You want me to punch him out?" I asked, smirking at her.

"I just want you to stay near me, so he leaves me alone."

"He's bugging you?"

"He's kinda following me around, yeah."

"He likes you. That's what boys do."

"Yeah? Well I'm ignoring him. That's what girls do."

I laughed.

"I was right, wasn't I? About all the girls wanting to take Charlotte's place."

"You were right, Aims."

"Everyone was talking about you in the girl's bathroom. You're like a movie star or something. They all think Charlotte's nuts to let you go, but they're all glad she did."

"That's nice to hear."

"No it's not," she said. Her eyes fell to the floor.

"Why not?"

"Nothing. Never mind."

When a woman says nothing, never mind, it usually means that it's the exact opposite of nothing — it's everything, and they just want to see if you care enough about them to ask.

"Come on, Amy. What's wrong?"

Amy started crying, right there in the dance. Her eyes were shining like wet jewels in the sparkling colors of the DJ's light show.

"It means I don't have a chance in hell of you being my boyfriend. Ever. I'm not as pretty as any of them. I'm not curvy and sexy and slutty the way you like."

"The way I like? What do you mean?"

"You like girls like Charlotte, girls who act like they wanna fuck you any chance they get, girls who go all the way like it's nothing, girls who let guys feel them up on the dance floor, who give guys blow jobs under the bleachers."