Dancing Around // peter parker

27

I had web programming during my third period. After my teacher's lecture, Mr. Cherry: a cool guy who had hair as long as his beard, I ended up searching on the web,
for ideas on how to fire my coach in a neat way. Most of the advice was either unethical are too ethical. Stuff you would find in an employee handbook. I gave up the search and played games instead after a few minutes. Every idea I came up with seemed to cause too much harm, or could only be done with a group of people. Then the perfect plan hit me.

He could win a surprise vacation.

Proud of my idea, I patted myself on the back and allowed myself to think of all the things Peter and I could do during our date. I just hoped that Cindy thought it was a good idea too.

I texted her to meet me in the cafeteria bathroom. I was standing in front of the mirror, fixing my hair. I could see smoke coming from the bottom of one of the stalls, but I pretended not to notice. Cindy walked in. Her arms were already crossed. "What's up?" She asked before she noticed the fumes too. She turned her head towards it, unable to pretend. "Is someone smoking in there?"

I waved away the thought, pulling her into a stall with me. "I have it."

"Have what? And why are we in the bathroom?" She pitched her nose. "Why didn't you just come to my table?"

"Sally is there."

Cindy sighed, dropping her hand. "Are you still not over that?"

I shifted my body away from hers. "She's the one that's not over it. I just...I know she doesn't like me. That's like her territory."

"She's not a dog," Cindy said.

"What I mean is, I don't want to make her feel uncomfortable."

"It's just uncomfortable because you haven't apologized. Just do it and then there won't be any problems between the two of you. Sally is very sweet and forgives anyone who is sincere. She's probably more hurt about someone she considered a friend betraying her than about the actual act itself."

"I made out with the person she's in love with, i highly doubt she'll be donating her kidney anytime soon for me," I said.

"Woah, really? You're a bitch," the stall next to us said with laughter.

I looked at Cindy with an expression that said, 'she's not wrong'. Cindy rolled her eyes. She stepped on the toilet seat so she could look over the stall. "Hey, shut up," she said.

"All I'm saying is if one of my friends kissed the person I loved, I would burn the bitch," I heard the girl who was smoking say.

"Jesus," Cindy mumbled, jumping back onto the floor. She looked at me. "Don't listen to her," she told me, but how could I not? It was true.

I didn't understand it before because I never really liked a person that intensely. I found them attracted - sure. I kissed their neck and then I forgot about them in a few weeks or days or whatever. However, just walking next to Peter this morning made me feel some kind of way. It was weird and unfamiliar. Even the idea of someone I knew kissing him...I rubbed my eyes heavily. "I didn't mean to hurt her. I didn't know," I said out loud.

Cindy sighed. "Look, you can explain all you want, or even blame yourself or believe the girl-"

"I speak the truth, though," the smoker said.

Cindy ignored her. "It's not going to change anything. Though I honestly believe that Sally will forgive you, even if she didn't, she still deserves an apology, don't you think? I'm not going to lie to you, it's not going to be easy for her to forgive you, but you can't just pretend like you did nothing wrong and avoid her for the rest of high school. Doing that is like saying her feelings don't matter or what you did wasn't hurtful or something."