The Girl in My Dreams (13 page)

“Smells good in here,” Belle said as she walked inside.

“You don’t have to be nice. It’s all going to hell,” I said before running back to the kitchen.

I stirred the pasta a little more before dumping it into the colander and then back in the pot, then put on some sauce and heated it back up a little.

“It doesn’t look all that bad,” she said as she walked into the kitchen.

I looked up at her, getting a good look at her this time, as her coat was off and her dress was fully in view. She looked amazing. I was almost speechless.

“You look . . .”

“Do I look okay?” she asked.

“Amazing,”
I replied, walking over and kissing her softly.

I still got butterflies when we kissed, like it was our first time all over again, and I knew that it was the best sign I could ever have that we were meant to be together forever. I think it’s rare in life to find somebody who you know will still make you nervous at all stages in life. That person you can always count on, and that person who knows you have their back through thick and thin. Those people don’t come along very often, but when they do, you better hold on to them as if your life depends on it. If you let them go, you may never find it again.

“You’re always so sweet to me,” she said.

“It’s hard not to be,” I said.

“Why’s that?”

“You’re the most perfect girl in the world,” I said.

“I hardly think so,” she replied.

“You’re the most perfect girl in my world,” I replied.

Blushing, she bit her lower lip and clasped her hands together, twiddling her thumbs. When she looked up, our eyes locking, I saw it all. I saw our engagement, wedding, kids, old age, and even dying together. It was like the universe, in all its glory, let me see the life we were going to have together in an instant. I couldn’t wait.

I finished up the dinner, and Belle helped me put it on the kitchen table. I poured us some ice water and got a couple of napkins.

“This looks good,” she said as she looked at the spread.

“It’s definitely not as good as your meal, but I tried, and that’s all that matters,” I said.

“You’re right, it is. The taste won’t matter to me at all. The fact that you’d willingly make me dinner and treat me is more than I could ever ask for. It shows a lot about you,” she said.

I twirled some pasta around my fork and put it in my mouth before biting down and realizing something was off. The pasta wasn’t cooked through all the way, and it had a small bite to it. I guess in my haste I didn’t think about how long it had been in the boiling water. You’d think pasta would be one of the easiest things to cook, but you’d also be wrong. At least for me, that is.

“Mm,” Belle said, but the look on her face said otherwise.

“It sucks, you can say it,” I said, putting my fork down.

“Okay, it sucks, but that’s okay! We’ll eat it anyway,” she said.

“Are you sure? I don’t want you to get sick,” I said.

“Theo, it’s just undercooked pasta. It can’t make you sick. It’s just a little hard is all,” she said.

“That’s a nice way of saying that it’ll chip your teeth and tear up your stomach,” I said.

“Yeah,” she replied, with a small chuckle.

I wanted to be upset with myself, but I couldn’t help but crack a smile and laugh a little about the entire situation. Here I was, stressing out over making a perfect dinner for the two of us, instead of just focusing on the experience together. It wasn’t about the food, or what we were drinking or doing. It was just about us being together and enjoying each other’s company. In the end you only have your relationships with people, and we wouldn’t remember this awful meal in a few days. We might, however, remember what we talked about or how we felt in this moment.

“So, how are your feet feeling?” she asked.

“Good, why?” I asked inquisitively.

“Because you’re going to be on them for quite a while. I need to make sure you’re still up for it,” she said.

“Oh, I’m up for it, all right. Let’s just hope you can keep up,” I said.

“Honey, I’m a cheerleader. I dance and cheer all the time. If anybody’s going to struggle, it’ll be you,” she said jokingly.

“Then bring it on,” I said.

“Oh yeah?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I replied.

We stuck our tongues out at each other and then instantly started to laugh at ourselves. This girl. She was something else.

A few minutes later, Martin texted me and said he was on his way over. He said that Kara was making him nervous, and that he had nothing at all to say to her and was freaking out about it. I reassured him that he was doing fine and said we’d come out when he got here.

We put away the rest of the food and cleaned up a little, then she freshened up, whatever that meant, and we got into our coats. We stood at the front door for only a minute or two before Martin pulled into my driveway. The snow had picked up and almost blurred out his headlights.

“Ready?” I asked with my hand on the doorknob.

“Let’s do it,” she said

We walked as briskly as possible as the snow fell down and stuck to our hair and our clothes. I opened the passenger door for her and helped her inside before shutting it and running around to my side. I sat down, closed my door quickly, and brushed the melting snowflakes out of my hair so that they wouldn’t mess it up too much.

“How’s it going?” I asked.

“Great,” Martin said with a crack in his voice.

“It’s nice to see you, Kara,” I said.

She nodded, not saying much from the front seat. Belle looked at me with widened eyes as she buckled her seatbelt.

“Everybody ready?” Martin asked before backing out of the driveway.

He drove slowly as the snow was heavy and limited our ability to see clearly. I hadn’t seen it snow this heavily in a while, and I almost thought about saying that we shouldn’t go any farther. Was going to this formal worth the risk? I didn’t think so.

With the heat blaring and the radio on, we all sat in silence, nobody saying a word, as Belle and I held hands and Kara gazed out her window. The parking lot was full of slow-moving cars as cops directed traffic and helped everybody park. Snowplows went slowly through the parking lot and pushed it the snow away while salting the pavement. The maintenance staff on the sidewalks and entry did the same so that nobody would slip or get too wet.

We found a parking spot and got out. Belle put her head down and walked with her body pushed up against mine as we made our way to the entrance of the school, which was covered inside with rugs and mats to make sure as much water as possible came off our shoes. Ushers were there to take our tickets. I confidently handed them two tickets, and they ripped them and gave us the other halves. I was finally here. I was finally at a school dance.

The music was blaring in the gym, which had its doors open and lights flashing everywhere. It looked more like a nightclub than anything.

I squinted a bit as we walked inside and my eyes tried to adjust. I saw chaperones walking around and checking things out to make sure we were all behaving, but then again, I saw a few couples in full make-out mode like it was their last night on earth. It was almost like watching a nature documentary.

“Do you want to dance?” Belle shouted.

“Sure,” I replied.

We walked onto the dance floor and turned to each other before dancing to the fast music. I had no idea what to do, just kind of moving around, so she grabbed my hands and guided me around a bit so that I wouldn’t look totally foolish.

A few of her friends found us and came up to say hi. The girls talked endlessly, and the guys just kind of stood there and waited for them to finish. None of the other guys seemed that thrilled to be here, either because they’d been to one of these many times before, or they just didn’t think it was all that exciting. I was beginning to feel that way too, as half an hour had passed and I’d done a few minutes of dancing and the rest listening to Belle and her friends complain about their cheer coach, who was over in the corner talking to another teacher.

I told Belle I’d get us some punch and walked over to the table, where luckily a teacher was making sure nobody messed with it. Martin ran up to me and asked for something to drink.

“You okay?” I asked.

“I don’t know what to do,” he said.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“This girl, man, this girl is like a wall. All she wants to do is sit around and watch people. She doesn’t even want to dance or anything,” he said.

Martin had a way of getting worked up about the smallest things, even if he knew they weren’t that big of a deal. One time his order was wrong at a drive-thru and he broke out into a sweat when he thought about how it would affect the rest of his day. He could be suave and cool sometimes, but this wasn’t one of those times.

“Have you asked her to dance?” I asked.

“Yeah, once, near the beginning,” he said.

“And what did she say?” I asked.

“She said maybe later,” he said.

“So that’s a good sign. She’s open to it, but maybe she’s just nervous,” I said.

“Well, she has a funny way of showing it,” he said.

“Just talk to her, get comfortable with each other, and then try it out. Don’t rush it,” I said.

“You better be right on this one,” he said.

He grabbed two cups of punch and went back to his table as I took mine and turned around to see Belle walking toward me.

“Sorry about that. I feel bad that you waited so long,” she said.

“It’s fine. I understand that you’re popular and such,” I said, smiling.

“Oh, stop. I am not,” she said as she took her punch and took a sip.

“And now we’re going to slow it down a bit so you crazy kids can catch your breath. Grab your sweetheart and get on the dance floor to show them you care,” the DJ said over the speakers.

“Come on,” she said, grabbing my hand.

I set down my cup after only taking a small sip and was dragged onto the dance floor, where she turned to face me and wrapped her arms around my neck. I set my hands on her hips, my arms slightly bent, as the music began to play and dozens of other couples doing the same thing surrounded us.

“How is it?” she asked.

“What?” I replied.

“The dance! Is it everything you thought it would be and more?” she asked.

“It’s . . . interesting,” I replied.

“Yeah, they aren’t always the best, but they can be fun. It’s better to go and have an all-right time than not go and wonder what could’ve happened,” she said.

“I’m having a good time so far,” I replied, smiling a little.

“Me too,” she said, kissing me quickly before a chaperone could see.

Dancing as much as we did, or rather as much as she made me, made me a little hungry so I looked around for something to eat. They didn’t have any food for us. When I heard my stomach rumble a bit after being there for a couple of hours, I told Belle I’d be back and I went out into the hallway, escaping the humid gym, to a vending machine nearby.

The selection had been picked over, but there was a bag of trail mix in there that I’d had a few times and liked. I forked over the dollar-fifty and got the mix, which I ate, or inhaled, rather, right next to the machine.

I pulled out my phone and saw a text from Martin asking me to find him when I could. It was sent only a few minutes ago, so I threw away the empty wrapper and walked back into the fray to find him. I was hoping he’d surprise me and not complain about Kara, especially since I’d seen them dancing a little earlier, but I never knew with him.

After walking around for a couple of minutes, I found them sitting at a table.

“What’s up?” I asked Martin.

“We’re starting to get ready to leave. I looked at my weather app, and the roads are getting pretty bad. They’re icy, and there’s a blizzard warning within the next half hour to hour. Are you guys about ready?” he asked.

“I didn’t know it was that bad. I’ll go talk to Belle and then text you,” I said.

Belle was talking and laughing with a few friends as I walked up, and she grabbed me and wrapped her arm around mine.

“Can I talk to you?” I asked, pointing in the other direction.

“Sure,” she said as we walked a little away from the group.

“Martin and Kara are about ready to leave. There’s a storm coming in, I guess, and the roads aren’t looking that great. Are you about ready?” I asked.

“Leave already? The dance isn’t even over. I’d rather stay,” she said.

“I know, we’re having fun and all, but they
are
our ride, and we’re kind of bound to them,” I said.

“Well, Nicolette is having a small get-together at her place after the dance. I want to go, and I want you to come with for a while before we go home,” she said.

“I don’t know, Belle. It seems a bit risky. Martin won’t want to go there either,” I said.

“They don’t have to. We’ve already been offered a ride there and home. It’ll be fine,” she said.

Not only did I not want to go to an after-party in the first place, I especially didn’t want to in a snowstorm and after I’d been dancing most of the night. I was tired, my pits were drenched, and it just didn’t seem like a thing I’d do. I knew there would be alcohol, and even though I didn’t drink, and I knew she wouldn’t, other people would, and I didn’t want to be around that.

“I don’t think so. Not tonight,” I said.

“Well, I really want to go, Theo,” she said.

“Then what do we do?” I asked.

“I guess I could go with them and get a ride back later. I could always text you when I get home, and maybe if you’re awake, you can come over?” she asked.

“I just don’t feel right about you going alone,” I said.

“It’s fine. Everyone’s already in a relationship except for Pauline. It’s not a big group anyway. I’ll only stay for a little bit,” she said.

“I’d rather you come with me, but I understand if you want to go. I won’t be that boyfriend who ever holds you back or tells you what to do,” I said.

“Thank you. It really means a lot to me. When are you leaving?” she asked.

“I guess in a few minutes. They’re ready to go now,” I said.