Vi Presento a Athea (Introducing Athea)

XI

As his ex-girlfriend had witnessed, Jason had indeed approached Athea after the King and Queen dance – completely ignoring Cyrus's shouts to come back to their table (a failed attempt to get him to stay away from the foreign girl). As he reached her, she still had a mesmerized gaze.

"That was absolutely beautiful!" She complimented him excitedly. 

"What? That dance?" He couldn't take her seriously. 

"Yes!" She answered lively. "I had never seen anything like it before! The lights, the music, the ceremony, the dance, the ambience... it was... dazzling to watch!" She finished with a dreamy, faraway look. Jason chuckled, thinking about how the conversation he had had on that dance floor wasn't in the least bit "dazzling".

"I think you're overreacting a bit." He tried to calm her down, still laughing at her silly – yet adorable – child-like wonder.

"Well, maybe I am." She gave in, shrugging her shoulders. Wait a second, did he just say 'adorable'? His confused mind started working in the background. "But everything's just so new to me, I used to see this stuff in movies, and to be experiencing all of it feels... almost surreal." She looked around her, taking in her surroundings. He definitely did not say adorable, right? He, however, watched her awed looks above his own talking head, his mind, body and heart, all telling him to take different directions.

"Well, would you like to dance, then?" The invitation came out naturally, reality checking on him only seconds later as he gave an odd glance to his stretched-out hand.

"What? Me?" The question took her by surprise, Athea still feeling a bit confused as to if this was really the same boy who had contributed to her worst first day so far. Jason nodded. "B-but I don't know how to." She gave him the classic excuse, stumbling a bit with her words.

"Me neither." He shrugged his shoulders, taking a step towards the girl. "We'll learn as we go." He quickly took her by the hand, impeding her from any reaction.

"That's not what it looked like a few minutes ago!" Athea tried to justify his answer, tripping over her own feet as Jason dragged her around the dance floor, unsure if she should try to fight his grip or not.

Once Jason found a spot he was pleased with – not too much in the center, not too much in the corner – he placed his right hand on Athea's waist,the touch of her delicate body sending shivers through his fingers; with the other, he held her right hand on a shoulder level, her soft skin interlacing with his'. The girl looked a bit lost as to what to do with her spare hand, so Jason nodded over to his right shoulder and she placed it there.

"Okay, so just follow me. One step back, one step forward." He taught her. The girl nodded, as they slowly began to pick up a pace. Athea would occasionally bite a bit more than she could chew, stepping on her pair's toes one too many times. Apologies quickly followed but Jason just laughed amusingly. 

They hadn't been dancing for over a minute when the tune quickly changed to something livelier, and the dance floor began to crowd up. Athea looked around confused, as Jason continued their stance. She returned the other students' awkward stares as she commented:

"Looks like the music changed..."

"I know." Jason answered simply and when she turned her gaze to him, his eyes were fixed on hers. "Let's just stay like this a little more." He couldn't keep a smile from forming on his lips.

Athea was not very sure how parties or dancing events worked but she was almost certain that was not how people danced to electronic music. Jason, however, did not seem to show any signs of stopping and, trapped in his firm yet gentle grip, she did not have much of a choice but to finish their slow dance. A few minutes later, through which Athea couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed under Jason's glance, they parted. Jason jokingly bowed and Athea, holding up her skirt by her sides, did the same. They both laughed.