Once in a Lifetime

A Summer of Chance

Balloons burst as Leah stabbed them with a pencil. The crowd around them stopped dancing and watched in confusion. Sarah put a hand over Leah's.

"Please, for the love of God, stop." Sarah looked around nervously as the crowd returned to their dancing after the shock of the pops. "You're making people uncomfortable."

"I thought that was the point."

Leah smiled and slid the pencil behind her ear, then grazed her fingertips over her short platinum blonde spiked hair.

A cute, but frustrated smile slipped onto Sarah's lips while she twirled her loose red curls around her finger. She leaned forward and kissed Leah. "Shut up and come dance with me."

"Saraaaahh," Leah dragged out her name in a moan. "This is the worst. Can we please leave?"

"I want one dance first. Then we can hit the road and be on our merry way out of this shithole town," Sarah said, slipping her fingers between Leah's. "But I want one last dance with my girlfriend at our senior prom because we are this close to moving on to the best part of our lives."

Leah pulled Sarah in and kissed her passionately. When she pulled away she said, "Fine."

As Sarah dragged Leah closer to their dancing peers, they noted a couple off to their right making out with far too much enthusiasm. The ladies smirked at one another as they began dancing.

Leah leaned close to Sarah's ear and whispered, "Should we show 'em what passion really looks like."

Sarah playfully slapped her arm, then kissed her cheek tenderly.

"Oh my god," the girl from the couple to their right shouted drunkenly. "You guys are so fucking cute right now. OMG!"

She hurried to them, dragging her boyfriend along.

"Lizbeth, I see you're having a good time," Leah said.

"Hell yeah! We're done, bitches!" With a drink in one hand, he raised his other hand for a high-five and it took a moment for Sarah to respond as her arm raised and passed by Leah. Their hands clapped together loudly. "Ya know, not like you ladies are bitches, just like saying it because–"

"Do you want a drunk... drenk... drank... drink!" Lizbeth cut him off and raised her glass a little higher with each variation of the word until she finally got it right and she toasted the air. "Would you like one?"

She pushed the glass towards Sarah and Leah. Sarah smiled and nodded.

"You know what, Lizbeth, I could use a drink!" Sarah moved past Leah and grabbed onto Lizbeth's arms to stabilize her. "Why don't we go make a cocktail while these two chat."

Leah sighed, exasperated as she leaned back against the wall.

She and Gregg stayed in silence for a long minute as they watched the ladies make their way slowly through the crowd to the other side of the gymnasium to the refreshments table.

"I'm sorry if I offended you with the bitches thing," Gregg said, his arms across his chest as he stared out at the crowd. "I know I can be..."

"A total jock?" Leah asked, peering over at him.

He laughed and looked back at her. "You know what, yeah, I'll give you that. I know I can be a total jock sometimes."

"Yeah, a real jock," Leah said, a small laugh penetrating through her hard demeanor.

"So you and Sarah are taking off after prom?" Gregg looked back at the girls across the room again. "You're not sticking around for graduation?"