The Swap

Sticks And Stones

"Hey," I gave them a friendly smile. "Why don't you girls take a break, okay?"

"Why?" One of them glared at me.

I raised an eyebrow. "Because you can't dance, honey. If you want a guy to notice you, do something you're good at, preferably something that involves leaving your body covered."

The one who had glared at me only rolled her eyes but her friend's cheeks turned bright red.

"What do you know?" The first girl asked me. "It doesn't look like you're getting any guys' attention."

I sighed in disappointment. Why did young girls have to be so naive? My chest clenched when I realized that I was the same at their age. I'd jumped at the opportunity to have an older boyfriend, and look what happened. I was left with a broken heart and a nice set of trust issues.

I looked between the girls. "Look, the way you girls are acting isn't going to get you a boyfriend, at least not the type you want. All of these revealing clothes and provocative dance moves will get you is a situation that you don't want to be in. These guys are too old for you, they'll want something from you that you just won't be ready to give."

They stared at me in silence. I could see in their eyes that they were figuring out the meaning behind my words. The second girl's eyes widened.

I knew it wasn't true for every guy, there were a lot of good guys out there that wouldn't force girls into something like that. Most of the guys that were here were friends of mine and I knew they were good people, but there were always the ones to look out for. The ones who came to these parties solely to pray on the innocent girls.

The first girl pursed her lips at me. "Thanks, but we're not little kids. Come on, Kim." She grabbed her friend's hand and started to pull her away from me.

I sighed again, hoping that they'd listen and make better decisions than I had.

My thoughts were interrupted when someone smacked into my back, wrapping their arms around me. My eyes widened and I turned around to find Rhea grinning at me excitedly.

"Mel, you're here!" She spoke loudly to be heard over the music, which really wasn't necessary since it wasn't that loud.

I nodded and laughed. "Yes, I am. Is Maddy with you?"

As I spoke a small, blonde figure squeezed through the crowd and gave me a small smile.

"Hey, Mel." Madison said to me.

"Hey, Maddie. I'm glad you came." I smiled, glad to have found them.

"We should dance!" Rhea said before looking around. There was a small group of people moving slightly to the music, but not really dancing. "Are we allowed to dance?"

"I don't think dancing is against the rules." I said in amusement.

Rhea rolled her eyes at me. "Well, come on then!"

I shrugged and together, we pulled Madison to the makeshift dance floor and made her dance with us. Our moves were sloppy and wild and we probably looked ridiculous but it got Maddie to loosen up.

Soon, other people started to join us and it was like a club in the middle of Cameron's living room. I got a bit too hot with all of the extra bodies around me and I tried to back away towards the kitchen.

"Well, what do we have here?" A voice halted my escape and I turned to find Alex standing in front of me with a hand on his hip. "Melanie, are you challenging me to a dance battle?"

I laughed loudly. "No way, Alex, the dance floor is all yours." I gestured to the hard wood floor that half the party was occupying.

He winked. "Good choice. I would school you in a dance battle."