Rowan Nightshade's Short Stories

Who Knew?

Tanya was about ready to go home. She'd had quite enough of this school dance. Her friend Rita was in tears because her crush didn't ask her to dance, her friends Ora and Shirla were totally removing themselves from the drama, Heather actually was dancing with her crush, and Gina and Jasmine were dancing crazily with each other.

So Tanya was leaning up against the padded wall of the gym, watching the other dancing couples, and trying to ignore Rita, who had reduced to sniffles.

"Why don't you go get something to drink?" Tanya suggested.

Rita nodded and left, and Tanya was finally on her own. She sighed in defeat... and brightened a bit as her friend Devan sidled up next to her.

"Hey, you OK?" he asked with concern on his face.

"Yeah, I'm good. Rita's just being a handful." she smiled grimly, and he smiled back. They didn't say much after that, just stood and watched the dancing couples.

"This is boring..." he suddenly sighed.

"Well...." she thought a minute, then said with recklessness, "You could ask me to dance." He stared at her with wide eyes, and she grimaced. "Just kidding."

So she turned back to the couples dancing, mentally kicking herself.

"Tanya..."

She turned to him. He was grinning.

And his hand was held out to her.

She looked at his hand, then to his face, then back to his hand, which she hesitantly held. And he led her out to the dance floor!

They faced other, and she put her hands around his neck, her put his hands on her waist. She tossed her hair over her shoulder and looked at him with fake indifference.

"I was just kidding."

"I wasn't." he whispered back.

Abruptly, feelings crashed over her. She felt a beautiful desire to protect him, make sure no one hurt him.

Who knew?