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Meaningless Words Written For You

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Your name is Dave Strider and you are currently trying to fit a note into your best friend’s locker. It’s nothing important, and he won’t even know it’s from you. Just a stupid “poem” (or song lyrics, as you like to refer to them) you wrote for him. See, you’ve been in love with your best friend for four years now. You haven’t told a soul about it because, damn, would they think you were weird. You figured since half of your last year in high school was over, why not give him a poem. That’s honestly just an excuse even you can’t bring yourself to believe. For the entire year, you’ve been thinking of telling John how you feel, you just got nervous at the last minute and never did it. No, you didn’t get nervous. You never get nervous. You just felt another time was more appropriate. That’s right.

Now what were you doing? Oh yeah. Trying to shove this obviously too big piece of goddamn paper in your best friend’s locker. That’s why you got here early. So you would have plenty of time, if there were difficulties, and so no one would see you. Finally, success is yours. After you’re completely sure it fell to the bottom of the locker, you get the hell out of there. Even though you and John are close pals, it would be strange to be seen hanging around his locker early in the morning. You step outside and the cool breeze tickles your face. You adjust your shades and see none other than the one and only Rose Lalonde waving at you from the student parking lot. You take a hand out of your jacket pocket and give her a friendly wave back. When she gets closer to you, you see she has a sly grin on her face. What the hell does she have to be grinning about?

“Good morning, Dave. Were you successful in your ah… mission this morning?” She gives you an actual smile this time.

Oh yeah, you forget to mention that. You and Rose are pretty close childhood friends, much like the rest of your group of friends. Rose was like a sister to you and you’re pretty sure you were like a brother to her. Anyways, you tell Rose just about everything. And boy do you mean everything. She knows how you feel about John and she is strangely accepting of it. If only everyone was like that, huh.

“It went perfectly fine, thanks for asking Rose.” The edge of your mouth twitches into a smirk. Every time you talk to Rose you feel like you’re playing a game of wits, and you can’t help but love it. She’s the only one who can top your ironic jokes with better commentary.

“Well that’s good. Are you going to let me read any of your poetry, Dave?” There’s that sly grin again.

“It’s not poetry, its song lyrics, and just for that, no you can’t, not even if my very life depended on it, not even if the world would implode if I refused to let you read it” Your voice sounds like you’re upset, but your smirk gets bigger because damn, that was a good one on your part, and you always make the best lines.

“Hmm, too bad. One of these days, Dave. One of these days.” She simply shakes her head and makes a tsk-tsk sound with her mouth.

You sit on the stairs in front on the entrance to school and she joins you, adjusting her long lavender skirt before sitting down and crossing her legs. You two just sit together, staring at the parking lot, not talking at all. It’s not like it was an awkward silence or anything. You never make awkward silences. You two just didn’t need to talk to know how the other was feeling. The world around you was still waking up and it was a peaceful calm before the storm of the day. It was so quiet that you just began to doze off slowly…

White. Everything is white. Where are you? You spin around and just see white. No outstanding landmarks, or anything else for that matter. You start walking but you can’t really tell since the scenery isn’t changing at all. But hey what’s that over there? Is that a person? You stalk walking a bit faster when you realize it’s John. His back is facing you and doesn’t seem to hear you when you say his name. You place your hand gently on his right shoulder and he jerks away. He spins and glares at you. You shrink back.

“John I… What’s the matter?” you barely whisper, fear slowly creeping up your spine.

“You Dave. You’re an issue. A problem in my life. And I can’t take you anymore”

Suddenly you feel a hard kick to your shin that jerks you back to reality. You look up to see who had the balls to kick you in the shin to see the goofiest face being made by the only person you know who can make such a dumb face and still look cute, John Egbert.
What the hell was that dream about? You shake your head, as if that would help rid the images of John’s face twisted into hatred and… disgust. You look up at John, making sure your face didn’t betray anything you were feeling right now.

“John what was that for?” You rub your shin and raise your eyebrows.

“To wake you up, dude! School starts in twenty minutes! You didn’t know that because you were too busy daydreaming, silly” He sits next to you on the stairs and looks at you with a huge smile on his face.

“So, what’s the goofy grin plastered on your face for, Egbert?” You lean back on your hands and stare right back at him, straight into those eyes, the purest blue you could possibly imagine.

“Look what I found in my locker, Dave!” he pulls out a slightly wrinkled, folded up piece of paper. Your slightly wrinkled, folded up piece of paper to be exact. You breathe hitches and your heart beat accelerates.

“What’s that?” You raise one eyebrow, faking curiosity. You are curious, just not about what the note says. You know full well what it says. You want to know what he thinks of it.

“It looks like a poem or something… Doesn’t say who it’s from though… Do you wanna hear it?” He smiles and waggles his eyebrows at you, something you’ve come to learn he’s gonna do what he asked you about whether you say yes or no.

“Lay it on me, dude” You haven’t broken eye contact with him the entire time. Your excitement is hard to keep under wraps. You really want to know if he liked it.

“Okay, here it goes:
I’ve watched you from afar, but up close
Enjoying every second, every moment with you
Wishing, hoping, dreaming, loving
Wishing I could hold your hand and you would hold mine back
Hoping your heart swells when you see me like mine does when I see you
Dreaming of those blue eyes that swallow everything
Loving everything about you
You are the key to unlocking what is inside of me
You are my other half
And that’s what I will always believe
Yours truly”

John lets out a sigh when he finishes and smiles with content. Your heart flutters. He really liked it. He really, really did.
“So what do you know, little John Egbert has a secret admirer.” You say playfully. You smirk when you see his checks get a pink hue to their complexion.

“I wouldn’t say that Dave. It’s just a poem. But…” He whispers the last part, as if it was just to himself. He trails off of his sentence, seeming to have gotten lost in thought. Like he’s imagining who sent him that note. He faces gets a bit redder when he notices you’ve been staring at him the entire time. He gives you a punch on your shoulder but you know he’s not mad. He’s smiling too big. The face you saw in your dream pops up again and you flinch a bit. You didn’t mean to but John notices.

“Oh sorry Dave… I didn’t think I hit you that hard” He rubs his hand behind his head, raising his eyebrows in an apology.

“No dude it’s okay. I was just zoning out again is all” You wave your hand, dismissing what happened but can’t stop thinking about it. That dream keeps blinking in and out of your thoughts and you hate it. You grit your teeth and take a deep breathe to calm down.

“I just think it’s someone trying to mess with me is all, Dave.” He responds softly He doesn’t stop staring at the note though. John may not tell you what he really thinks about this ‘mystery’ sender of the letter, but you can tell. You’ve always been able to tell what he was thinking. You can tell he has an idea of who sent it and thinking about this person really fills him with bliss. You stand and lightly brush off any dirt from your pant legs and offer a hand to John.

“Well, Egbert, I believe it’s time for school now. I’ll see you later?” You always say the last part as a question even though you know you’re going to see him later.

“Yeah. See you later Dave!” He grabs your hand and stands with your assistance. He stares at you for a few seconds and smiles. He gives you a small wave and walks into the building. You let yourself smile now. The fact that John liked your “poem” is in itself a great thing. You feel like you are actually happy right now. Something you haven’t felt in quite a long time. You hope it will last. You’ve got a nagging feeling about that dream, but you push it to the back of your thoughts and start to walk to your class.

Chapter Text

You open your eyes and all you see is white. Shit it’s that dream. Your mind screams for you to turn, to run from what you know you are going to be faced with, but your legs refuse to obey. They walk forward, completely ignoring your obvious protests. It’s as if you only have viewing privilege in this dream, like you are imprisoned in your own mind. Forced to endure this torture. After many tries to get your body to turn around, you give up. There’s no point. Your body won’t listen at all. Your back tenses up when you see John again. Out goes your hand, just like before. Your gently tap his shoulder and he whirls around to face you with the same look of disgust and anger. That look absolutely shatters you. You shrink back, exactly like last time, and ask him what’s wrong. It’s all going the same. That same hateful glare, that same tingling sensation of fear trickling up your spine, the same crushing words being said to you. Except… You haven’t woken up yet.

John takes one step forward and is right in your face. You can feel his shaking breathe against your check. He’s so close you can see the anger and pain dancing like flame in his eyes, tainting their beautiful blue hue. When he speaks, it’s just barely audible, but you can feel the hatred in his words.

“Dave, I want you out of my life. I want to be normal again” His voice cracks when he says normal and he grimaces, as if experiencing physical pain.

What the hell did you do to upset John this much? You open your mouth to ask and-

A loud, screeching bell wakes you up with a start. Shit. You were sleeping in class. You can’t be doing that where people can see you. You don’t know what faces you could be making in your sleep, or if you’re talking or not. You lean back in your chair, stretching your arms behind you head. God what the hell does that dream mean and why do you keep having it? And why does it really matter?

“I saw you were sleeping in class, Dave. Up all night writing poetry?” Rose is right next to you with that goddamned sly grin again.

“No I just like sleeping in every public area at least once. It’s a new ironic hobby of mine, haven’t you noticed? Why were you staring at me anyways, huh? Couldn’t look away from this perfect face?” You try to sound like your usual sarcastic self but even you can’t hide the slight shake to your voice.

“What’s the matter?” She furrowed her eyebrows, actually looking concerned. Damn, does she have fantastic hearing.

“Come on, we gotta go to lunch. I wanna talk to you about ah… something, on the way” You slowly stand, making sure your legs are steady beneath, snatch your bag from underneath your desk and walk as normally as you can out of the classroom and out into the hallway. When you’ve made completely sure no one else was out there, you slumped against the wall. You hear Rose quietly sit beside you. She lays a gentle, caring hand on your back.

“What is the matter?” She asks again, her voice softer but a bit more urgent. She’s worried. You sit up and straighten your legs out in front of you.

“I uh… I keep having these weird dreams today. I kinda was hoping, since you’re taking those psychology classes, maybe you could tell me what they mean?” You haven’t looked at her since you started speaking. You just keep your eyes forward, trying to not see John’s eyes filled with such hatred.

“Well, what do you see in the dreams that you classify as odd?”

“I’m in this white room. At least I think it’s a room. Anyways, I start walking and I see John turned the other way. So I tap his shoulder and he turns around and he has this look of… hatred and disgust. He just starts yelling at me saying I’m an issue in his life, that he wants me out of it.” You rest the side of your head on your hand. You take a deep breath and let it out in an exasperated sigh. “That’s about it. I keep waking up abruptly so the dream never continues like it wants to” You finally glance over to Rose, who is giving you a look that says she is deep in thought. She’s really trying to help you. She has her hands together and under her chin, absently on palm.

“Is there anything out of place about you in this dream?” She breaks the silence with this question. Her eyes glide over to you and she slightly raises her eyebrows.

Out of place with you? You bring up the memory of the white room, trying to avoid John and think of you. Was there anything? Oh yes. There was. You noticed when John got so close to you. You weren’t wearing you shades.

“My shades. I didn’t… I didn’t have them on in the dream”

“There’s something. This dream could be mean that you are afraid of revealing who you really are to John. It could mean that you are afraid to tell him how you feel. Nervous even” She laid her hand on your shoulder again. “Don’t worry about it Dave. I’m sure just about anyone would be nervous in your position. You can’t just hide your feelings because of it though. You have to push through even if you’re scared out of your wits. Just know that I believe in you, no matter what you do, okay?” She gives you a reassuring smile and that actually helps you quite a bit. Having someone say that they believe in you can really help boost your self-esteem.

“Thanks Rose. That was nice of you to do.” You give you a small smile back.

You stand and brush yours pants. You’ve got no clue what these kids throw into the hallway just because they’re too lazy to find a garbage can. Rose stand beside you and smiles again. Her smile has such warmth that it really helps you to feel better about everything.

“Well, I believe we should be going to lunch, yes Mr. Strider?” Her smile turns into a smirk, the game of wits being on once again.

You give her a slow nod, almost a bow, and begin to walk to lunch with her. You two joke and play the battle of wits with each other, which really helps calm you back down to your normal self. When you finally get your breathing back to normal, you reach the shady lunch area outside. There a several black benches and tables clustered under a looming tree that provides more than ample amounts of shade.

You scan the crowd for that usual outcrop of messy black hair when you spot it. You heart stops when you see John laughing with a girl. Laughing with a girl who has your poem in her hands. You walk up to John and gave him a fake smile. You hope he doesn’t notice. He turns and smiles wide to you. Nope. He didn’t notice a single thing.

“Hey there, Egbert. Who’s your new lady friend there?” You raise your eyebrows, trying to hide the thumping of your heart in your ears. When the stranger saw you walking towards John, she hurriedly gave John back the poem. Nope, I saw you, you think, I saw you with your hands on my poem and I don’t like it one bit.

“This is Jessica! She wrote this poem I found in my locker, Dave!” He holds it up and smiles wider, obviously very happy. And quite oblivious to the fact that this Jessica girl is a huge liar.

Your eyes glide over to Jessica. She had long auburn hair spilling over her shoulder and dull moss green eyes. Her smile was strained. She knew she was caught. You were glade to be wearing your shades because you were giving her the most hatred filled look right now, and you certainly wouldn’t want John to see you staring his new “friend” down. Nothing on your face betrayed it though. You were very good at masking your anger, any emotions whatsoever. You’ve had years of practice

“Well aren’t you lucky John. Nice to meet you, Jessica.” You try to sound polite as possible. It’s hard to do when someone is lying to the person you love. But of course you can’t say a damn thing. You just have to grin and bear it when all you want to do is release this crushing pain in your chest. You spend the rest of lunch with John, Rose, and Jessica and you absolutely hate it. You hate her. Every word that spills out of her mouth is a lie and you want to put her in her place.

Your name is Dave Strider, and this Jessica girl may have single handedly ruined any chance you had to tell John how you feel and you aren’t letting her get away with it.

Chapter Text

Your name is Dave Strider and you don’t know much about anything anymore. You lay in bed, eyes fixated on the celling. The rectangle of light beaming in from your window facing the street grows brighter, and then fades ever so gently back whenever a car passes by. You couldn’t sleep, but it’s not like you even wanted to. Sleep, once a comfort, is now a prowling predator. The only dream you have is that horrendous nightmare, with John. It has tainted sleep for you to the point that you can’t blink without horrendous images of John’s twisted face flashing before your eyes. The hellish dream hasn’t changed one bit. It shakes you up inside every single time and when you wake up you can still feel the clenching pain in your heart. The only way you can think of describing this feeling is your very soul being ripped in half. You have to take deep, calm breathes to steady your heartbeat. You don’t believe that dreams signify anything but this one screams that something horrible will happen between you and John. Of course, with that kind of mindset, your relationship with him could spiral out of control without you doing anything at all to cause it.

You inhale deeply and exhale slowly. You repeat this over and over until you are calm again. You can’t think about what’s going wrong with your dreams without getting so nervous. You’ve tried talking to Rose about it but every time you do, your hands begin to tremble and your legs shake from your anxiety. She tells you that you have to confront this issue within yourself to be able to get rid of it for good. You have attempted it but you always pull back when you see John’s face. You rub the palms of your hands slowly against your eyes, trying to prevent sleep from crawling in them while you weren’t paying attention.

You sit up on your bed and let out a ragged breath. Your gaze slowly drifts towards your window, quickly being attracted by the rare but beautiful pinpricks of light in the sky. You turn your entire body towards it and gather your knees beneath your chin with your arms and relax. It works. Your heart has calmed, the pain subsiding into only a throbbing reminder of what’s to come when you close your eyes. You are able to relax by losing yourself in the sky. Its dark canopy, its majestic limbs and body, its color, a dark purple violet is spread so perfectly against your neighborhood. The trees reach towards the sky with their branches, begging to touch its silky face, but never reaching far enough.

Your eyes begin their slow descent while you stare out the window. You cannot fight this losing battle much longer. Your body needs rest. You lay back down, your entire being aching, crying out for rest. As you float off into sleep, your dazed mind remembers why you don’t like sleeping but you don’t care anymore. Yes, the dream still scares you, terrifies you even, but you must deal with it. You must fight this beast within you if you wish to truly gain what your heart dreams of. You quietly thank Rose for her, as usual, spot on advice, as the world around you slowly fades to black.

Chapter Text

Sunlight peeks through your window and blankets your room in a golden glow of mid-afternoon light. You crack open your eyes and blink a few time to fully awaken your vision. You are currently laying on you back with your blanket wrapped around your chest and most of your left leg. This usually happens when you sleep because you tend to roll around a lot. You slowly sit up, sliding the blanket off of yourself. You glance at the clock and see that the time is 1:03 P.M. It is Saturday so sleeping in is no big deal. You take in a deep breath and sigh. You didn’t have that dream last night. Seems like Rose actually does know what she’s talking about when she spouts that psychobabble at you. Not that you don’t listen when she does. You always listen, because it’s something she is passionate about. And it is a nice thing to do since she always listens to you when you talk about your music or writing. But you mainly listen because she becomes so animated when she talks about it. You can tell it really interests her to no end. You love seeing her so happy about something.

You gingerly place both of your feet on the ground and stand. You grab your shades from your nightstand and place them carefully on your face. You stretch your arms out in front of you until your muscles are pulled out of their sleepy stupor. You grab your phone off of your desk and walk into the kitchen while clearing out boring e-mails and spam from your notifications. A certain name grabs your attention long enough for you to actually read what the message says. It’s a missed call from John. Your eyebrows pull together in a moment of confusion while you click John’s name to call him back. In the pit of your stomach, anticipation begins to stir. You ignore it, although it is a bit odd since you’ve never felt anxious when speaking to John before. Why should you now?

“Hello? Dave?” John’s voice comes across upset, like you’re bothering him

“Hey, John. I’m returning your call. What’s up?” You ignore the annoyance in his tone, trying to push the sudden drop in your stomach out of your mind. It brought up the memories of your dream and you don’t care to recall about that right now.

“Oh, well, I was calling because we were supposed to hang out today, remember?”

Oh. That’s right. Shit. Well this isn’t good. Not at all. You suddenly remember that you had promised to see a movie with John today and had completely forgotten the previous night when you stayed up far too late. You glance at your fridge in front of you and see a reminder about it right next the left handle. “Oh man, John, I’m sorry about that.” You quickly move into your living room, yanking your jacket off of your couch and sliding your right arm into it. “I am totally on my way now, so now worries.”

“Oh no it’s totally okay Dave! I called about an hour before the movie started and right as I hung up, Jessica messaged me! So I asked her if she was busy and she wasn’t so she’s taking your ticket… I hope you don’t mind. I thought you were busy and I didn’t want to interrupt anything”

John keeps babbling into his phone while you go completely numb. Your right hand still holds your phone to your ear but you aren’t listening anymore. You’ve gone numb. You can’t feel anything in your boy except the drumming of your heart against your chest. The numbness subsides and pain crashes over you. You clench your teeth, holding in your anger towards yourself, the sudden desire to scream because the pain is very intense. It sits in your chest and refuses to leave. It claws away at your heart. You take a sharp intake of breathe and breathe in to relax yourself. You are still on the phone with John after all.

“Dave? Dave, are you there?” John asks “Sorry Dave, but I’ve got to go soon. The movie is about to start.” He seems impatient again.

You realize you haven’t been speaking at all in the past few minutes. You swallow the lump in your throat and clear your voice of any sign of emotion. “No, it’s fine John. Sorry for missing the movie. I hope you enjoy it with Jessica, alright? I’ll make this up to you soon, I promise” Your words are hollow, despite your terrible attempt at trying to paint over your wound with fake encouragement. You don’t wait for a response. You just click the end button and drop your phone onto the coffee table beside the couch. You slump down on the soft cushions and curl your fingers into your hair. You scold yourself, saying how much of an idiot you are, how dumb it was for you to forget hanging out with your best friend. The pain drips through you like it was fresh as you revel in the fact that he asked Jessica of all people to replace you. No, not replace. It’s just a movie, not like he’s gonna start calling her his best friend or anything. You take deep breathes, inhaling through your nose and exhaling out of your mouth. You repeat this until you are calm again, until your emotions have returned to their placid normality. Your heart puts its armor back up and you are fine again.

Your phone buzzes and you tilt it up so you can see the screen. Rose is calling.

“Yeah?” you wince immediately after you hear how harsh your voice sounds right now. Maybe you aren’t calm just yet.

“Dave? What’s the matter? Am I calling at an inopportune time?” concern bleeds into her words. Damn, she is good. You only spoke one word and she already knows something is up.

“No, no, everything is fine. Things are just going perfectly” Your voice cracks unintentionally on the word perfectly and you bite your lip. Shit, well now that’s just gonna give her all the clues she’s gonna need and if not, she’ll figure it all out through divine intervention or however she is able to piece everything together.

“Now, Dave, I know it’s not. Would you like for me to come over so we can talk in person?” Her words radiate warmth and her offer to talk is very comforting indeed. And yet… you can’t. Not this time.

“No it’s alright Rose, really. I can deal with this myself. Thank you though” you hang up before she can say anything different. You gently push the phone back onto the table next to the couch. You continue to take deep breathes to maintain your calm. It is very difficult to become calm in your current state. Pain keeps rising in your chest no matter how many times you push it back down and try to ignore it.

You’re overreacting. You remind yourself it is just a movie. You messed up this one time, but you won’t again. You’ve got to make it up to him and soon. And you can’t let Jessica upset you, no matter what, or else that could end in terrible consequences with John. You stand from the couch, confidence beginning to run through your veins. Now that you think about it, John’s birthday is right around the corner. A grin stretches across your face as plans begin to sprout in your head on how to make his birthday the best he’s ever had. You grab your phone and quickly dial Rose’s number again.

“Changed your mind?” She answers and you can almost see her face, one eyebrow raised in anticipation.

“I sure have Rose. I would love for you to come over, but not for a feelings jam. I’m going to need your help with a plan of mine, and your field of ah… expertise, is exactly what I am looking for”

Chapter Text

Your name is Dave Strider and your body is buzzing with adrenaline along with a dash of anxiety that tends to creep up your spine whenever you stop for a moment to really think. It has been a week since the… incident, you suppose you should call it, with John and the movies. A stupid incident, you remind yourself, an incident that shouldn’t have happened. The following week you’ve kept up a normal facade, not that you were honestly hiding anything anyways. The wound has healed and the pangs you get from time to time pass faster as the days go by, and anyways, you’ve got bigger and better fish to fry. You’ve spent quite a lot of time with Rose scheming and plotting for John’s birthday. You honestly feel like you need to make up for what happened and you really do just want to give him a nice birthday.

Today is April 13th and you are extremely nervous. You’re currently sitting on your couch with your legs crossed under you, patiently waiting for a phone call from Rose to signify she has picked up John and Jade and is on her way to your apartment. You are absently tapping your index finger against your right knee and after an agonizing five minutes, your phone finally buzzes in your pocket. You quickly grab for it and see it is the very much anticipated phone call. You answer the phone and simply bring it up to your ear.

“Hey I’m almost there. I sure hope you’ve gotten out of bed and gotten ready” Rose jokes when you answer. “Haha very funny. For your information, going out in my pj’s is my favorite hobby” you retort. “That’s fantastic. Well I hope your pj’s at least match. We’ll be there in a few minutes. See you then” she hangs up the phone. You slowly place the phone down on the coffee table in front of you and take in a deep breathe. You almost jump off the couch with all the energy you’ve had pent up. You begin to pace without really thinking about it. You stop in the middle of the room and your eyebrows crinkle as you try to think about why you are so anxious, why you are downright nervous about seeing John again. You close your eyes and breathe in deeply, slowly, to calm your nerves. You repeat this until you are completely under control again. This is stupid, you reprimand yourself. You shouldn’t be getting this upset over a silly little thing like John. But you can’t help it. Just thinking of his name sends all the air rushing from you lips. Thinking of his face, his smile, starts a warmth in your chest you never want to let go of.

Your thoughts are interrupted when a gentle knock comes at your door. You take in another deep breathe to steady yourself before answering the door. By the time you open it, you have a sly grin on your face.

Rose is standing at the door. She’s wearing a burnt orange shirt with deep blue jeans. She looks nice. She always does.

“Why hello there, dear Rose. How can I assist you on this fine day?”

“Oh well Dave, I was wondering if you could possibly come along with us on this superb Saturday morning.”

You two start laughing and your nerves have certainly calmed themselves. You can do this, you say to yourself, you can make it through this.

You follow Rose to her car and climb into the vacant passenger seat. You slowly turn around, for dramatic effect, and face John. Excitement and happiness rush up from your chest and mix with the mingling anxiety hiding at the back of your thoughts. “Well, birthday boy, are you ready to have some fun today?”

***
You’ve spent the entire day with John and you’ve been having the time of your life. You didn’t get nervous, you didn’t get anxious, you were you. And you got to be with the person you cared deeply for and made his day great. You went and saw a movie with Rose, Jade and John, then walked around the mall connected to it, and enjoyed a lovely dinner where the restaurant staff sang an off key version of happy birthday to you, and you happily joined in after a couple drinks. After the dinner Jade has to go home and finish some homework and wishes John a happy birthday before Rose leaves to take her home.

You and John continue walking aimlessly down the sidewalk downtown when you hear both hear pounding music spilling onto the quiet street. You both look forward and spot the source. It’s a late night dance club, people rushing in and out of the front entrance, almost at the beat of the music. You turn to John and say “Ever been to a dance club, birthday boy?”

He grins and shakes his head. You get a mischievous twinkle in your eye and grab his elbow. “Well guess what mister, tonight is your lucky night.”

You push your way through the bustling crowd at the entrance and into the hypnotizing dance club. The pounding music increases tenfold the minute you walk in. You can hardly hear John yelling next to you, much less talking. You both walk out onto the dance floor and try to dance. At first it’s a bit awkward but after a while you’ve just fallen into the rhythm of the other people there. After a while John says he’s tired and you both squeeze out of the mass of people and grab two seats at the bar. You order drinks and you start getting nervous again. You don’t know what brought it on, but you’re trying to drown in in alcohol and it seems to be working. Your senses are absolutely numb and the only thing you can think about is the lovely boy with the blue eyes laughing next to you.

And then you do something unexpected. You lean over and kiss your best friend.