July 23rd, 2013 - 5:45 p.m.
I don’t tell Anna about Dalton’s date. One, because I still don’t know who he went out with, and two, I don’t know how serious he was. Meanwhile, I curl up the hotel sofa with Dana next to me as I catch him up on season two of Teen Wolf. Dana almost cried during the season one finale.
“Did not,” he reminds me when I bring it up. I laugh and lean my head on his shoulder as we stare suspensefully at the lizard thing crawling around the swimming pool on screen.
Ever since that kiss, I’ve felt ten times more comfortable around him — I don’t know why. Maybe it’s the fact that my self esteem is raised a little bit higher. (“Kylie, you ought to love yourself. Don’t base your worth on whether other people like you.” -Wise words of advice from Anna M. Chase). Or maybe it’s that the kiss was a tipping point. Like, we were just skirting around on friendship and now we can be more. And maybe it’s the realization that July is almost over and I don’t have much time left and even less to lose.
I grab Dana’s hand, which is stuck awkwardly between us, around my shoulders and tug it tightly closer. The extra body heat on a summer’s day doesn’t seem to bother either of us. In fact, to me it feels like the perfect temperature.
When the credits roll, I muse, “Where do you think we’ll be a year from now?”
“Well,” Dana says, “You’ll be fifteen and I’ll be sixteen.”
“Yeah, but,” I rephrase, “What do you think we’ll be doing? What will we think of each other?”
“I’ll be on tour still, probably. I don’t know where you’d be. Soccer?”
“I’m trying to have a deep conversation here.”
“Don’t worry about it.” He kisses my head. “Live in the now.”
“I am. I’m just wondering.”
He brushes me off. “Let’s just watch.” Dana clicks the remote and the next episode starts.
I frown, slouching into the couch. Sometimes, this whole “Live in the now” stuff just isn’t enough.
As we watch more, though, my thoughts slip away and my mood subconsciously brightens. As the next end credits roll, I rope Dana into singing for me. He starts at a medium dynamic, but quickly gets louder, like he’s belting out lyrics on stage.
“You’re disturbing everyone!” I say.
He tries to quiet down, but loses some of the tone. He doesn’t sound as good singing quietly. He sounds like a normal boy, trying to match the pitch of the song but missing by half an octave. I shake my head and start to match him in song and volume.
“We can run down the street with the stars in our eyes. We can tear down this town in the dark of the night. Just open the door; we’ve got time on our side. We can make it out alive.” I’m about to break out into the chorus, air guitar and all, but Dana grabs my arm with wide eyes.
“You can sing?”
“Anyone can sing,” I inform him. “It’s a matter of practice.”
“You learned by yourself?”
“Cole taught me,” I explain. “When he took up singing and acting, he wanted to form a band and tried to convince me to join. I didn’t know anything about music until he made me learn piano and singing.” I poke him. “You need to work on your inside voice. Like the band directors always say, ‘Anyone can play loudly. It’s who can play softly that matters.’”
“How ‘bout you sing quietly and I sing loudly?” He asks. I notice he doesn’t question why I never sing in public.
“That’s not how it works.”
“I think it works pretty well.” He winks.
“Ugh. Fine. Don’t complain if we get kicked out.” The idea makes my adrenaline run, and I grin. “One, two.”
“One, two, three, four!” We count off together. “Hey, we’re taking on the world! I’ll take you where you wanna go! Pick you up if you fall to pieces; let me be the one to save you! Break the plans we had before! Let’s be unpredictable!”
We sing the lyrics we remember over and over again until they’re worn thin. Then I remember what song we’re singing. “Unpredictable by Five Sauce,” I mutter.
“5SOS,” Dana agrees. He says it like “five-ess-oh-ess”.
I study him curiously. “I thought you’d never heard of them.”
He looks sheepish. “I looked them up.”
“You’re the greatest. Besides Anna of course,” I correct. “You’re not at her level yet.”
“Aw, darn!” He snaps his fingers. He fidgets. “I need music. Like, actual music playing in the background because this is way too silent for me.” He pulls out his phone and stares at it, moving his thumb randomly for a few moments. I try to see what he’s doing, but he keeps moving his phone just out of my gaze. Then he sets it face down, speakers up on the couch.
Stepping toward me, he offers me his hands in a manner that might be intended to resemble a prince. “Care to dance, my fair lady?” He courts in a completely mangled British accent.
It’s hard not to laugh at him. “Um, okay?” I rest my palms on his and watch him carefully. I don’t believe he knows how to dance formally. The music starts, apparently before he intended it to, because he winces. I can’t contain my squeal at “Percussion”. “Oh my god! The Little Mermaid! It’s ‘Kiss the Girl’!” I hop up and down excitedly, almost bouncing on Dana’s feet. “Whoops,” I apologize.
“Watch this,” he instructs. He pushes me away, then snaps me back in, so I’m curled into his body. He then lets me out again and lifts one hand up into the air. He lets go with the other and kind of nudges me into spinning. When I do, and reset, he beams. “And that’s all I remember from the eighth grade dance unit. Do you remember how to dance?”
“No!”
“But you were just in eighth grade.”
“Dude, dance was first semester. I don’t even remember the name of Dalton’s date.”
He blinks. “Dalton never told us.”
“Oh. Right.”
A wicked grin splits his face. “Let’s ask him.”
“Okay, but he’s not back yet. And why do you look so evil?”
“Darling, evil is my middle name.”
I roll my eyes. “You’re, like, the least evil guy I’ve ever met. Get a grip.”
Dana ignores my comment. Checking his phone for the time, “Kiss the Girl” forgotten by both of us momentarily, he nods sinisterly. “He should be back any moment. I need to leave now in order to complete stage one of my evil masterplan.”
“You must have flunked supervillain school. Text me when he comes.”
“Yes. I will make note of that.” His villain voice still is phonier than his British accent.
He walks out of my hotel room, bopping his head to “Kiss the Girl” while trying to keep a scowl on his face. As the song wraps up, he turns around and races back to me wildly. “I forgot something!”
“Wha-?” I’m cut off when he kisses me with full force. Since he never slowed his running speed, I almost feel like I got punched by his face. I shove him off. “That’s not how the song ends!” He sprints to his room for real this time.
I close the door on him before giggling and bouncing like the schoolgirl I am.
No more than five minutes later, my phone buzzes with a text message. It’s from Dana, and reads “nrldkjreu”. I shake my head at him. Without hesitating, I drop everything and swing open the door. Racing to Dana and Dalton’s room, I grab the threshold and skid to a stop at the open doorway. “How was your date?” I blurt.
Both of them look shocked, but for different reasons. “It was fine?” Dalton answers uncertainly, still worried about my burst in.
“What was her name?”
“Kate.”
“Does she play tennis?”
“No. Wait — what kind of question is that?”
“What does she look like?”
“Blonde, green eyes, tan….”
“How was she?”
“Nice. Pretty. Smart. Why are you interrogating me?”
I grin like a five-year-old caught stealing a cookie. “Uh… I’m interested? I mean, ahem, I care about you.” I blink angelically.
He turns to Dana. “Tell your crazy girlfriend to calm herself. It’s just a date.”
“We’re not officially dating,” Dana corrects at the same time I object, “I’m not crazy!”
--
A/N: 20 CHAPTERS! YAYYYY
On the downside, nobody guessed correctly :( The answer was e) other! Sorry!
This chapter, I might or might not have been slightly influenced by Despicable Me (our homecoming theme yay) so I kind of ended up with that whole villain!Dana thing oops. This chapter was basically fluff and headcanons (like the dancing scene and the running into D&D's room). I'm sorry if you were hoping for more plot. I did have the date reveal thing at the end, though it didn't really reveal much. Just wait 'til you meet her.
5SOS <33 Unpredictable will forever be my favorite song. Currently loving all of their album, though. DID YOU GUYS SEE THE GOOD GIRLS VIDEO? omg <33
QUIZ: Which Teen Wolf episode were they watching? (The first episode they were watching, not the second one.)
a) Formality
b) Abomination
c) Shape Shifted
d) Venomous