I DEDICATE THIS CHAPTER TO PRIYA, MI AMGIA WHO HELPED ME WITH THE... FLOW OF THIS STORY IN A SENSE >.<
I waltz around Maddox, like I would if I'm in a museum: slowly, pacing to a certain beat; eyes wondering everywhere making sure nothing escapes my sight, that I see every detail this exquisite artifact has to offer. He wore a suit, like any other guys present at prom but on him. It feels like a different topic. I can't see him the same way I use to, not since I first laid my eyes on him tonight; any idea I ever had about our rekindling friendship were canon out of the tallest building in the world, landing in the abyss. There’s something in the air tonight that kindle just seems to burn, the atmosphere is tittering on intensity and pressure, something that makes me see Maddox in a whole new light. His exotic, caramel skin looks tantalizing enough to nip at; eyes fill to the brim tempting me to melt underneath his gaze; just a touch from his fingertips can ignite the lost spark within, making me lose sense of everything I know.
My fingers remain in contact with him, trailing against his body lightly; he watches me with half-hooded eyes. An old habit of mine, whenever I would walk down a corridor or a street, if I’m near the walls, I would let my fingers brush against it. Returning back to facing him, taking his hands I lead them to where I need them to be: one on my shoulder, the other place on my stomach, right beneath her piercing.
Mira como estoy sufriendo
[Looks like I'm suffering]
Rhythm’s picking up, pulsing with the beat we move with it; timing each strum of the guitar and beat of the bass I mold my body against his. I barely register the lights that surround the room has flicker into lasers, slashing across us; he slides his hand down slyly and intertwines with my hand, I clasp it, giving him a small squeeze. I let out a gasp, a shiver ripple through the moment he kiss my shoulder.
Me quemo por dentro
[I burn inside]
My mind goes blank, reeling in the sensation of his soft and lustrous lips that’s leaving a trail of torturous caresses down; drowning in the ripples, my eyes flutter shut. It reminds me of Hawk and Adrienne from Beyond the Highland Mist, written by one of my favorite authors: Karen Marie Moning. Hawk was explaining how he trained falcons: first taking away their sight, making them relies on all their other senses, one in particular, touch. As Hawk said, a touch never lies.
I can understand how the falcon feels, the urge to just trust in the soft and gentle strokes of his fingers against my feathers, hypnotic and soothing sound of his voice.
Por sentir tu amor
[To feel your love]
Por sentir tu amor
Balancing on the tips of my feet, I spin out of his arms only to return. My hand resting against the side of his face, sliding to the nape of his neck as we go back to moving our feet. His hands run down my body till it rests against my hips, gently nudging me to the sways while his lips continue with his dangerous game of searing into her mind. The song was drown out by the whistles and cheers; Ethan has his arms wrap around a girl with a glint in his eyes, he winks at them; Dale, Levana, Nelly, Aisha and Danielle were also part of the crowd that push them.
At the finale, Maddox dips me, inciting applause from the entire room; I close my eyes as I let the atmosphere sink in, he pulls me back up gently. Both of us had this big smile of achievement plaster on our faces as we try to catch our breath.
“Wow,” my voice croaks, feeling dehydrate, “I have to say Maddox, I didn't know you had in you.”
“You never asked,” he teases, resting his forehead on mine, “You are an amazing dancer.”
Wait, did he just compliment me? Maddox? The smile on my face instantly disappear as my mind register those very words of Maddox Bosque into my mind. His sudden compliment cause my blood to rush, the burning sensation I can feel on my ear tells me I'm going red as a tomato. I want to look away, hid this ridiculous blush of mine but I can't, not with his arms lock around my body and his eyes bearing into mine.
“Wow! I don't know about you kids and teachers but I feel like I'm in the Sahara, now wasn't that hot?” DJ Derek’s voice boom over the speakers, the crowd erupt with agreement, we both tore our eyes away and scan the crowd. All my friends has this grin on their faces, especially Aisha who still had that glint in her eyes; the teachers toast to us with their drinks in hand, shouting out compliments and words of encouragement of some sort.
“Give her a kiss!” someone yell.
“Yeah, give him a kiss, Summer!”
“Hey, hey, hey, that's not a bad idea. There’s only one way this could end; what's better than ending this amazing and crazy party with a kiss from these stunning and… phew… hot dancers who have officially turned the heat up on this night?” panicky I look back to Maddox who just has a blank expression on his face. Within a matter of seconds, everybody was chanting the word: ‘kiss’
“Madz…” I hesitates, searching his face for some sort of hint but all I can notice is that… he’s getting closer.
~*~
Over at Nancy’s house, the group of girls all cozy up on the couch while the film reached its climatic point.
Nancy sat with her knees tuck beside her, as did a few of the others apart from Amelia who was leaning back into the couch, wishing to sink in deeper and just close her eyes but that isn't a choice, she wanted to watch the Purge and now that she’s watching it, she was filled with disappointment.
Aurora, Nancy and Peyton were munching away on the snacks watching with eager eyes, waiting for the next surge of adrenaline when the next scare came.
Ring, ring, ring
All eyes turned to Peyton, her own eyes darted left and right before quickly reaching for her phone and answering, “Hello?”
‘Peyton, you have got to get onto Aisha’s UStream now!” Peyton barely caught what she said; it was Nelly yelling over the music.
She frowns, “Why?”
‘JUST GO ON USTREAM!’ Nelly practically screamed forcing Peyton to hold the phone at arms-length away with the tip of her fingers. The call ended, leaving an awkward silence behind.
Nancy’s the first to speak up, “What was all that about?”
She shook her head; “Nelly wanted us to get onto Aisha’s UStream channel now…”
Amelia shot up from the couch, “Did something big happen down at Prom?”
They all looked at each other, Nancy dashed upstairs, coming back down with her laptop at hand. Taking a few moments for the machine to fire up, they blast their theories.
“Maybe there was an accident at Prom?” Amelia suggested.
“Nu-ah,” Aurora denied, “Not possible, or else Prom would have already ended and we would have gotten a text from Summer or something…”
“What about a video of a teacher hammered?”
“Come on,” Nancy tutted, “You know they aren’t that irresponsible…” her laptop finally flash the home screen, with nimble fingers she had already open up Internet Explorer and onto Aisha’s UStream. She scrolled down the page, “What are we looking for?”
“Probably the latest video or live stream…” Peyton mumbled, “There!” she points at the screen, “Aisha’s doing a live streaming right now!”
Within seconds the site changed and pop out a video. Aisha looked into the camera and yelled, ‘Hey viewers, currently I'm at my High School Prom and let me tell you this right now; things are about to get heated up,’
The image shifted over to a man at the music station, standing next to him was a girl they instantly recognize as Summer.
‘I have just dared a friend of mine, Summer Tyler, to dance a dance with someone on the dancefloor.’
Their jaws slacked and fell to the ground; “Is she serious?” Peyton gasped.
“The video started right from the start of the stream, it’s all happened already,” Nancy pointed out. “It’s been almost fifteen minutes since it started.”
“So we’re watching it from the start?” Amelia grumbled. “Can't we skip?”
“No.” The others said unanimously.
‘Now this won't be like the dance you see right now,’ Aisha groaned; revealing the grinding and the rough movements of the crowd, ‘I mean like a proper dance, like tango or salsa… but I didn't tell her what kind of dance so I'm guessing she has one in mind…’
‘Under the conditions of the dare, I'm going to pick her dance partner and I have someone in mind.’ They could hear her methodical mind tinkering away as she roused one of her infamous plans; the image zoomed in, ‘I've decided on… Maddox Bosque.’
Their jaws dropped to the floor. ‘Oh shit, here she comes.’ She dropped the camera to her side so that it's looking up to them. Aisha revealed to Summer her dance partner, rousing a shock and horrified gaze before she was pushed towards Maddox’s direction.
***
The song had ended, sounds of applauses and mischievous cheers boomed through the speakers; pausing the streaming, they all looked at each other with disbelief.
As always, Amelia was the one to break the silence, “Damn, that was hot.”
Aurora stuttered, “I – I have no idea what to make of it…”
“Neither do I.” Peyton agreed.
Nancy reclined back into the couch, “Wow, who would have thought it?”
“Hey, you were friends with Summer since Year 9,” Amelia pointed out to Aurora, “Were Maddox and Summer ever close? I mean, tight close?” she signaled with her crossed fingers.
She pondered, “Well… I can't really remember…”
“Wait,” Peyton cut in, “Yeah, I think I remember, there was this one time where they were inseparable.”
“Oh my God, when was that?” Amelia drilled for information.
“Oh God, how could I forget that time!” Aurora furrowed her brows, “It was right after the Christmas Holidays and on the first day back they came to school together!”
All heads turned to Aurora, “Did they?” Nancy asked, feeling slightly confused, she wasn't friend with Summer nor Peyton, Aurora and Amelia till the beginning of Year 10.
At the start of Year 8, nobody knew each other, Peyton and Aurora were friends since they sat next to each other, then Summer joined the group halfway through Year 8 with their common interest of writing stories and reading manga, in particular: Fushigi Yuugi. Through their stories they bonded and then, for reasons beyond comprehension, Summer was Aurora’s mother and Peyton’s grandmother; in some sense she was like a mother, always telling them to eat their greens and making sure they don't leave their food half-finished.
“Yep, they even sat next to each other in lessons and he came over to her during lunchtime.” Peyton added. She remembered it, clear as daylight, how shock she was that they were conversing so casually; talking about things they were clueless about.
“Erm… guys?” Nancy squeaked, feeling slightly bad for cutting in, “I saw them in the English block together once…” her voice trailed off as she let the information sink in.
Peyton blinked a few times, “What do you mean?”
“Basically I needed to go to E3 to see Ms. Butler so I was heading to the back staircase in the English block when I saw them sitting together through the door. Maddox had her in his arms while they just sat there on the floor, whispering something into each other’s ears and quietly laughing; his arms wasn't just casually over her shoulder or anything if that's what you're imagining, it was possessive and almost… boyfriend like.” Nancy could practically hear the jaws dropping onto her carpet. “Yeah. If I didn't know better, I would have thought they were a couple, they were in their own little world, oblivious to anything and everything except each other.”
“Are you serious?” Amelia practically jumped out of her seat, “When was this?”
Nancy thought about it, “When we were in Year 9? I guess? I don't know…”
“Wait, what did you do? Did you —”
“What? No,” Nancy exclaimed, shaking her head, “I mean, how could I? They had this atmosphere that was pretty hard to break. So I went the other way…”
“No one saw this connection between them at all?” Amelia dished out. Aurora and Peyton looked at each other, then nodded. She tapped her finger against her chin; there was this one theory that's been nagging at her since she saw that video but… it couldn't be, it's not possible. Everybody would have noticed if something that big was going on between the two. Heck, since she was friends with the gang, as far as she knew, Summer and Maddox had no interaction with each other except of their Psychology lesson. However that’s just like how she would talk with Maddox too, so that theory is in the dust.
Nancy glanced around the room; she felt that this movie night had sudden turned into a mystery game, like something out of Sherlock only minus the death of an innocent or any criminal mastermind like Moritary. Aurora still seated on the couch was leaning forward with a frown on her face; Amelia had chosen the ‘pacing’ role where she continued to drill a hole into the carpet whilst Peyton mumbled something to herself.
“What is it Pey?” she whispered.
She shook her head, “Probably nothing, but…” she trailed off to nothing, back to her thinking. Then she shot up like a rocket and ecstatically yelled, “I got it!”
“Aurora, you said that this started after the Christmas Holiday right?” Aurora nodded, confused, “Well then, something must of happened between Maddox and Summer over the Christmas Holiday.”
“But we weren’t even here during Christmas and we kept in contact with each other.” Aurora added.
Peyton noted and continued, “I know but at one point she didn't talk to us at all,” she turned to the laptop, logged into her Facebook and flicked through her message with Summer. After a few seconds she felt a little embarrassed over the messages so she took the laptop to her lap and continued scrolling upwards from there, till she found the gap from almost two years ago. “There,” she pointed, “I messaged her on the, 22nd, right after I left for my holiday but she didn't reply till… almost the start of the school.”
“Damn, investigating Summer and Maddox? This is way better than watching that $hitty piece of film.” Amelia said under her breath, “So she didn't message you or anything till school? That's almost two weeks girlys.”
“What was she doing for two weeks?” Peyton raised an eyebrow.
“What everybody else doing? Sleeping in?” Aurora shrugged.
“Pft, I doubt you were sleeping in Aurora,” Peyton chuckled, causing Aurora to fume slightly.
“She's probably busy celebrating Christmas with her family.” Nancy simply suggested.
“Nah, nah, nah; you guys are all thinking it wrong.” Amelia chipped in, they all turned their heads to look at her; she had a mischievous glint with her eyes.
“The question you all should be asking is: was she with Maddox during those two weeks?”