Graceland: Family Affair

Chapter Ten

It was around a year and a half ago – the night of the ball for Mike's graduating class. I felt bad. He'd asked me to go with him, but I had a major test the next morning, and so had to turn him down. The look on his face when I did hurt me to the core, but he tried his best to hide is disappointment. I'd texted him earlier that night to wish him a wonderful evening, and to tell him that I couldn't wait to hear all about it from him. But he never texted back. I felt like I'd really hurt him this time. And anyway – why would he want me to go there with him? He was the Quantico heartthrob, and we were good friends which meant that I was rather disliked by most girls on campus. If I had gone with him that night, then I'd have just been making trouble for myself and would have spent my night receiving death stares from the other girls. Not that I can't handle them – I can, I just didn't want to have to deal with them. I looked at my clock and it was 11.30pm – I was still studying. Though I'd struggled to focus all night and really hadn't taken a whole lot in. I sat at my desk by my window, looking at the darkness outside. And then something hit my window. It made me jump and I rolled my chair backwards to distance myself from whatever it was. Something else hit my window...and then a couple of seconds later, it happened again. I slowly crept over to peer out of the window, and saw Mike standing there in his tux, throwing stones at my window. I opened it, and smiled.

            "What are you doing, Warren?" I laughed quietly, talking in a loud whisper, trying not to wake the rest of my building up by shouting down to him. I was kind of relieved that he was still talking to me after I turned him down.

            "Sarah Parker, Sarah Parker, your Romeo calleth! Climbeth down your castle wall and meeteth me to talketh!"

            "Huh?!" I snorted.

            "Just come down here?" He rolled his eyes.

            "Are you drunk?" I raised my eyebrow.

            "Completely sober", he said proudly.

            "I'm on my way..." I slammed the window shut and crept down the couple of flights of stairs to take me to the ground floor, and exited the building, meeting Mike by a weeping willow tree and small lake near my dorm building.

            "Well Cinderella, how was your ball?" I nervously stuffed my hands into my pockets.

            "It's still going on..." He half smiled, running his hand through his hair. He looked great in his tux – white shirt, black suit, and a little black bow tie that was undone and hanging around his neck with the top few buttons of his white shirt unbuttoned.

            "You left early? And before midnight? I called you Cinderella as a joke...but...are you sure you're not her?" I joked.

            "Well, no...I was hoping that my night could continue here". He held his arms, outstretched, gesturing to the open space around us. "Seeing as you couldn't come to the ball...I thought I'd bring the ball to you". He let out a shy smile as he stepped closer to me. "My night so far has consisted mainly of eating fabulous food and half-listening to the conversations around me...half-listening because I was distracted...wishing that you were there with me..."

            "Oh Mike..." I blushed, unable to wipe the smile from my face.

            "So...Sarah Parker...if I asked you to go to this ball with me, right here, right now...would you say yes?"

            "Yes..." I said almost immediately.

            "Well good then, 'cos I came prepared", he said, bringing a small floral corsage out from behind his back, and taking my hand in his as he fixed it to my wrist. I gasped, speechless.

            "It's beautiful...thank you..."

            "And...I brought pizza and Chinese food", he said gesturing behind him to a picnic basket full of take-out food.

            "You thought of everything", I laughed.

            "If there's one thing they teach you here, it's to be prepared", he quipped. He took my hand in his, and said dramatically, "So...may I have this dance, Miss Parker?"

            "You may", I answered in a posh voice, giving him a little curtsey as he gave a little bow. He turned his back for a second to walk over to his phone to play some music.

            "What song would you like? I have Spotify premium", he winked.

            "Oh well check you out! You really know how to treat a lady!" I joked. "Oh, I dunno..." I tried to think of a song, and then I had a lightbulb moment. "Ah-ha! I know! Put it on a random shuffle...and whatever song comes on, that can be 'Our Song'...and whenever you hear that song...then we'll think of us..." I realised how soppy that sounded, and tried to hide my embarrassment, but he seemed to like the idea. He hit the play button and then came over to me and took me in his arms, ready to dance. But when we heard the song, we both groaned and burst into laughter. "Please no!" I laughed. The Village People song "Y.M.C.A!" had come on, and Mike rushed over to his phone to stop it. "That cannot be our song!" I said, holding my stomach as I giggled.

            "We'll just pretend that that never happened..." He laughed. He skipped the song, and an acoustic guitar started to play. "This sounds promising", he smiled, putting his phone down and opening his arms as he walked back toward me. He held me close, one hand on my lower back, the intertwined with my own. I rested my head on his shoulder, and we began to slow dance to "Better Together" by Jack Johnson, as the moon and stars shone down. The rest of the world melted away, and there I was, outside my dorm building, slow dancing with Michael Warren in a tux, who had ditched his own graduation ball just so that he could slow dance with me.