“Cal and I are performing at the prom tonight. Did he tell you?”
He had. After spending years listening to them practice in my parents’ garage, it would’ve been amazing to see them live that night. A dream come true.
“Stacey’s going to record the performance and send it to you, you know, if you want to see it.”
I took his hand in mine and squeezed it twice. Yes.
He squeezed my hand back.
Yes. Yes.
“You want to dance with me, Maggie May?”
I turned his way and his cheeks reddened. My stare met his lips, almost wondering if I had imagined the words leaving his mouth. He nervously chewed his bottom lip as a small chuckle came out. “I mean…you don’t have to. Sorry. That was stupid. I just… With Lacey breaking up with me, and with Cheryl being…Cheryl, I thought it’d be nice to dance with someone I actually care about on the day of my prom.”
My inhales were heavy and my grip on my novel was slipping, as my now panicked stare met his nervous eyes.
I’d never danced. I didn’t know how.
I’d only read about dancing, and proms, and two people becoming one in each other’s arms.
“You don’t have to. Sorry.” He cleared his throat and looked back at the window. He muttered the word “stupid”, and I could tell he was internally beating himself up.
I placed my book against the windowsill and nodded.
He must’ve been watching me out of the corner of his eye, because his smile stretched without turning my way. “Yeah?” he asked.
Yeah.
I ran my fingers through my messy hair and goose bumps formed on my skin. My long white maxi dress didn’t look anything like Cheryl’s and nothing like Stacey’s. I wore no makeup and had few curves to my ghostly pale body, but Brooks didn’t seem to care. He always looked at me and made me feel like I was enough, no matter what.
He turned my way and smiled.
“Can I have your wrist?” he asked.
I held it out, and he opened the box with Cheryl’s corsage then slipped it on my arm.
“Just for now, you know, to make it seem more real.”
He pulled out his iPod from his pocket and flipped through his music before landing on the song of his choice. He handed one earbud to me, and he took the other, then he pressed play and placed the iPod in the front pocket of his slacks. I raised an eyebrow, unsure of the song playing.
“It’s something I wrote and played acoustic a while back. It’s just instrumentals. No one has heard the lyrics or anything, but I guess you can hear them now. Because, I wrote them for you.”
Swoon.
I loved it already.
He walked over to me and held his hands out. I stepped forward, and he wrapped his arms around my lower back, then my arms fell around his neck as he pulled me closer. His skin smelled like shaving cream and honey—my new favorite scent. If it was a dream, I swore I’d never wake. As we swayed, he pulled me closer. And as he pulled me closer, he began to sing.
She lies against my chest as her raindrops begin to fall
She feels so weak, floating aimlessly, slamming against the walls
Praying for a moment where she won’t begin to drown
Her heart’s been begging for an answer to the silent hurts her soul keeps bound.
An ache formed in my chest as I listened to his voice. His lips lingered over mine, his words falling against me. I felt the small breaths he exhaled into me and felt his shaky fingers against my spine. I felt his soul, my body pressed against his, my eyes staring at his singing lips. Brooks…