Dare.

I did the unthinkable. I dared to touch the Blond and he did not flinch.

It was my friend Delia's sweet 16 last night and it was a long day. I was up at 5.30 to go to a debate tournament (surprise, I'm back on!) and my partner Joseph and I did okay, 3 and 1 because we got judge screwed. The Blond and the Best Friend got 3rd though which is cool. On the bus ride back The Best Friend took a nose dive as she thought of her beloved gentleman in India but she cheered up and fell asleep in the Blonde's arms and I watched them and thought to myself, "God, I just cant like him. I can't do it after everything that happened between them" As I retreated into myself, The Blond turned and gave me a heart breakingly sweet smile and I couldn't help but smile back and disregard my thoughts of giving up on him. As we pulled into the school, I quickly made my exit with the Best friend with promises to meet the Blond at the party.

The party was hosted at a local hotel and I couldn't help but notice how good the blond looked, dressed in well cut clothes. He smiled approvingly at my purple dress, possibly stunned at seeing me in a dress or anything cut above the knee. The Best Friend was a vision in blue-grey satin with an empire waist and a smile and we entered together, although he was crashing the party and sober. We suffered through the sentiments and stupid inside jokes, observed people and The Blond was upset over the music and the incessant freak dancing. He danced eventually though, and they played some salsa/cha-cha (Delia's Filipino) and we danced, one on one. I have the fortune of taking salsa lessons and being Cuban and Mexican and can dance to Latin music, and his parents are big on the arts and at some point forced hm to take dancing lessons. We knew what we were doing as we picked up on each other's rhythm and people stole glances at us and whispered. It's hard for me to look up when I dance and I focused on the movement and his hand laced through mine but I stole glances upward and found he was always looking at me. We just kept dancing, occasionally interrupted by The Best Friend, no longer focused on a specific step or beat but just us, my hands on his waist or his on mine, facing each other or else just almost holding hands.

We stopped for a while and The Blond went to get a drink and The Best Friend and I were alone at our table. I had already been harassed by my cousin and many others as to what was going on between myself and the Blond. The Best Friend looked at me in the eye and said "You two just need to get together already" I nearly had a heart attack and pointed out she was the one who set him off limits. She claimed not to remember such a thing and gave me her blessing, despite the fact that the Blond has a girlfriend.

Then we got the best friend to dance with her very cute debate partner and then we all stopped and got separated and I spotted the Blonde's back running outside. Alarmed by his pace, I followed and found the Best Friend crying in his arms. I spoke to her in low, soft Spanish (our language of choice when speaking of emotional stuff) and it finally came out that she was upset she was trying for other guys while her love wasn't there. Then SexyBack came on, a song the Blond had dared me to request, and he grabbed my hand and we bolted to the dance floor. I felt bad about leaving her but loved dancing with him. I have the unfortunate shoulder structure of a former swimmer and color guard trainer and cant support shoulder straps for some reason, they always seem to slide off. The Blond however noticed when I didn't and wordlessly slid his hand up my arm and gently put in back into place. He looked at me and smiled and we kept dancing and the Best Friend came, feeling better, and made the executive decision to let us dance.

At the end, he swept me into a hug and I inhaled whatever he smelled like. The mirror in his hands dropped and it struck me as a bad omen, but he defended me and took the blame when everyone said it was my fault

He was amazing and told me I was a great dancer.