Landon
I can't breathe.
My heart is beating too fast.
God, my face feels incredibly hot. I'm blushing. I'm blushing really bad.
I bit my lip, letting Bates lead the way through the thick crowd, our hands still connected together.
Please don't let my hands sweat.
Many people had gathered candles and flashlights and they were trying to get light in the pure dark room.
"Bates," I tried to get his attention, but he didn't hear me. I stopped walking -- almost getting elbowed by some random person in the process -- and Bates turned to look at me.
"What is it?" He asked. I could see his face a lot better since we had some light, so I could see that he has his eyebrows furrowed.
Don't let him be able to see my rosy cheeks, please.
"How are we supposed to find them?" I speak to him. There was a slight possibility that we would find the two of them. To be honest, I kind of didn't want to. My feet were starting to hurt in these flats and I already spent most of my time at this party looking for Alice. I didn't want to do it again. "I mean it's really dark, how could we tell where they are in this huge crowd of people?"
"You were the one who suggested to go look for them," he teases me, swinging our joined hands slightly -- making me aware that we are, indeed, still holding hands.
My cheeks are getting warmer.
"Yeah," I look down, "I know. But do you really want to go looking for them?"
He chuckled. "Not really. What are we supposed to do now?"
"I --"
I was interrupted by all the lights coming back on and people cheering in relief when the blaring music came on. Everyone started dancing again. Bates and I glanced at each other.
"We can go do something instead of just standing here," Bates said. Somehow we weren't holding hands anymore, I don't know who let go first.
"Yeah, what do you want to do?" I ask him. "We can go dance." I joke before he can answer.
By the look on his face, I become silent.
"Let's go then!" He grins, grabbing my wrist and dragging me where everyone has declared everyone will be dancing at.
Oh no.
We find a spot to squeeze in. I'm standing in front of him, us facing each other. We just stand there -- highly awkward -- and look at each other, but I glance away quickly.
"I have no idea what we are supposed to do," Bates is very close to me, whispering in my ear. I can feel his warm breath, making me shiver, and one of his hands is pulling back my hair so he can actually whisper in my ear.
He leans away and I start to reply but remember that he won't be able to hear me. Very slowly, I lean closer to him and whisper in his ear. "Me either," I'm smiling -- a huge grin on my face, "actually, I can't even dance that good."
He laughs and I'm still leaning close to him -- so close I can feel the warmth radiating off his body. "Are we supposed to dance?" He says in my ear, I hear a grin in his voice.
We can either dance. Or, awkwardly stand there like some people are.
I nod my head and we start to dance. No, not like the sexual grinding -- I don't even know how to do that. It was just like a little swaying thing going on and both our hands connected, only our pinkies though.
My inner self was swooning crazily.
The gesture was so romantic -- even if we weren't together, it was cute and sweet.
And I guess Bates can't dance so hood either because when a faster song comes on he does this hilarious move with his hips. He makes them go in a circle then go from side to side in a jerking, almost robotic way.
I laugh loudly, my head falling back.
When most of my laughter has subsided andI wipe at my eyes, Bates is staring at me closely. I freeze, staring at him back.
Oh crap. Did I have something on my face?
A guy bumps into me, making me lurch forwards. And me being me, I trip on my feet and start to fall. I squeeze my eyes shut, ready for the hard impact of the ground, but I never fall. I never hit the ground.
Bates caught me.
"Ah, thanks." I say, we were close enough he did hear me. One hand was on my waist tightly while the other was holding onto my elbow.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." I say despite how close we are and I feel like my heart is going to burst through my throat.
Then I'd die of embarrassment.
Wait, wouldn't I die from not having a heart not in my body...?
Ugh.
Either way, I'd die.
"Are you listening to me?" Bates asks, bringing me back to our conversation.
"No, sorry. I zoned." I mumbled nervously.
"I noticed." He chuckled. "Anyways, I asked if you were hurt."
"Nope, I'm peachy." I said, awkwardly flaying my arms side to side as I stepped away from his hands being locked around me.
Yup, way to play it cool, Landon.
To make matters worse, I put my hand on my hip, grinning like a mad woman. "Um, yeah. Are we still gonna dance?"
He watched me -- seeming amused. "Yeah," he kinda stretched out the yeah, "sure."
"Wait, are you sure? I mean, by the looks of it, neither I nor you can dance. I'd rather not -- Ow!" Someone bumped into me, I turned around to look at the person -- demanding them if they ever heard of personal space. But to my surprise, the person hadn't bumped into me.
Well, she -- it was a girl, I could tell -- did bump into me.
With what, you may ask?
Her butt.
She was full out twerking. I mean, body bent, butt bouncing..
Oh my.
I widened my eyes, getting ready to turn around, but her butt came in contact with me again -- only slightly -- and I flinched away like she was on fire. Which caused me to bump right into Bates.
I yelp out a noise of suprise when both of our bodies made contact. I flung myself off of him. "I'm so sorry!" I hid my face in my hands, completely flustered and embarrassed. Embarrassed because I was making a fool of myself. Flustered because I kept hitting into him -- making contact with him.
Not that I didn't mind, in a certain way. I wasn't wanting to be all over him in a sexual way, no. But if I kept making a fool of myself by bumping into him so many times...
"Landon, it's alright," He soothes, "by the way, did you just get, uh," I could her a smile in his voice, "twerked on?"
"Oh gosh," I said, keeping my face covered, "stop teasing me, Bates."
"I am not teasing you, Landon, I am just purely curious if you had been twerked on. By the look on your face, I'm sure you did." Ok, Bates was so doing that on purpose. And I found myself smiling despite how much I should be annoyed at him for teasing, I just couldn't bring myself to be mad at him.
My body shuddered. "It was so gross.."
"Aww," he said, "do you need a hug?"
My breath caught in my throat and I choked. I licked my dry lips, taking my hands away from my face. I couldn't believe he was just offering a...a hug to me.
I couldn't speak, mostly because of nerves and my extremely dry mouth, so I just nodded. He stepped closer to me -- we were never really that far apart. It was a tightly packed dancing floor, after all, so we were always close to each other.
But sometimes a little closer than usual.
Wink wink.
God, stupid teenage hormones.
Without any further ado, his arms wrapped around me and I slowly -- and a bit shaky -- wrapped my arms around him too.
Honestly, we probably looked like total weirdos in a middle of a dancing crows hugging each other.
Well, some people are making out like there's no tomorrow.
What's so bad about a hug?
Just a friendly gesture Bates is giving me...right?
But when he let out a deep sigh, pulling me even closer -- I couldn't help but feel like it meant more.
"Landon?!? Bates?!?" Someone said.
We both got out of our little huggie session and looked at the gaping Jessie and Alice.
"Um...hi?" I say, waving my hand at them both slowly.
"We've been looking for you guys!" Alice throws her hands in the air, sighing in relief. "I thought you guys left."
"Why would we leave?" I ask her, cocking a eyebrow at her.
"To do some unholy things," chirped Jessie smugly.
Both Bates and I blushed.
"Anyways," Alice was smirking, "I see you two were enjoying each others company..."
Bates coughed.
I blushed even more.
Alice and Jessie glanced at each other and did a small, little high five.
What was that?
I bit my lip, trying hard not to look at Bates.
"Come on, it's late. We need to go.", Alice told me, grabbing my wrist.
"Yeah, we should be heading back too." Jessie agrees, looking at Alice but talking to Bates.
"Alright." Bates croaked.
We walked out at the same time. We all said our goodbyes and went towards our own cars.
I turned back to look at Bates, and he turned around at the same time-- looking at me. My cheeks flared and I turned around and beamed, my stomach fluttering.
Tonight was actually kinda fun.