Song of the chapter - Dynamite by Taio Cruz

I had no idea what to wear. This was a completely new experience for me and being girly was not my thing. But a dance meant at least a little bit of girliness should be attempted, so I was trying my best. I had almost nothing that qualified for girly dance attire, and TJ had only given me about twenty-four hours to figure it all out.

Thanks a lot, buddy.

It was Robin to the rescue at the last minute. After looking through my closet, which was a dumb idea to begin with based on the fact I had never been asked to a dance so therefore I had no dance wear to hang there, I spent half of Saturday shopping. The dresses I liked were out of my price range, or the range my mom had given me, which was next to nothing. The ones I could afford were god-awful. Hideous, to be exact. So they were all a hard pass. Thankfully, Robin told me to pick through her closet, she had a bunch of fancy dresses to choose from.

"Why do you have all of these? I don't remember you going to dances."

Robin just shrugged. "My mom likes to sew, and her work has all of these fancy parties. I wear them once to a party and then they die in here."

They were all pretty nice, actually. They didn't seem homemade, more like designer dresses. I picked out a navy blue dress with thin straps and a short skirt. The material was gathered at the waist so the skirt flared out when I spun around. "I like this one. Do you think it will fit me?" Robin was taller than I was.

"If not, my mom will hem it. She loves you." Robin winked. And sure enough the length was past my knees. That type of dress needed to be just above the knee to look good. Her mom pinned up the hem to the right length and ran off to sew it up. Robin was totally right about her mom liking to sew. She was giddy at the fact she got to hem the dress.

Worked for me. It was a win with the cute dress, customized and everything. And Robin insisted on doing my hair and make up, which was definitely a big improvement on what I did on my own. Not that I wanted to glam it up, but a little more polish was appropriate for the occasion.

An hour and a little hairspray later, I was ready, and waiting, and nervous as heck. TJ had been around enough that I shouldn't have felt that way. I should have been used to him at that point. But this was different. I wasn't just holding his hand between classes, or kissing him goodbye on the porch. This was public body to body contact to the beat of the DJ's spin. This was arms and chests and stomachs in close contact. For hours. I was just hoping not to pass out at some point. That would be a win, too.

I paced in my room, not wanting hear anything from either of my nosy parents, or my snake of a brother. He had been nicer to me lately, but I still didn't trust him. That would have been pretty stupid to do, considering our rocky history.

Waiting for the doorbell to ring was torture. Well, relatively speaking of course. The plan was for TJ to pick me up, and then we would go straight to the dance to meet up with some of the other guys from his team. None of my friends were going, which was another reason I felt like I might throw up at any second. My ride or die crew had left me high and dry. I couldn't really blame them, though. The male population at our school wasn't clued in to my girls' qualities.

Before I could contemplate the logistics of puking and not getting it on my dress, the doorbell chimed, signaling the beginning of the great high school dance labarynth. Why had I been so excited about this? I had forgotten what possessed me to ignore the fact that this was a date. I was totally wrapped up in my now massive bout of hysteria. How would I get through the night feeling that way?

The sound of TJ's voice brought me back down to Earth, and to my current surreal reality. He had arrived. To take me to the dance. As his date. Oh my gosh...

"Mallory!" My mom called from downstairs. Without thinking about my stomach and it's cry to purge itself of its contents, I rushed out the door and down the stairs. Hearing my mom's voice had reminded me that TJ was down in the bowels of my house, alone with my unstable family. He needed to be rescued before any irrevocable damage was done. I made it down the stairs quickly, then rounded the corner to where everyone was standing.

Everyone. Even Seth. Crap.

"Wow, you look great," TJ said as he stood in the middle of the Bennings' family gauntlet. Dad was on one side, Mom was on the other, and Seth was standing off to the left, leaning against the wall with a smirk on his face. It was a look that told me I would be paying for my night of happiness later. Although, at that point there hadn't been any happiness, just a lot of stomach pains.

"Thanks," I told him. He looked really good too, with a dark suit jacket and pants, his blonde hair sort of slicked back and those green eyes twinkling at me. But I'd tell him all of that later, right then I just wanted to get the heck away from my family. "Are you ready to go?" I added, anxious to get going even if it meant spending the rest of the evening in an awkward social setting.

"Just a minute, we need some pictures of this occasion," my mom said, stepping forward while holding her camera. "Now, go stand in front of the fireplace and smile." Looked like the awkward social setting had already started.

Dang it!

***

"Are you sure you're okay?" TJ asked for the third time since leaving the house. My mom had forced me to kiss him on the cheek for one of the pictures. I know we'd done much more than that while standing on my front porch, but my god, woman! What was she thinking? I hadn't spoken more than a few words since then. I could tell TJ was concerned, so it looked like I needed to put on my big girl pants and deal.

"Yeah, I'm fine. My family is just so..."

"Nice?" TJ finished for me when I couldn't think of a word strong enough to express my thoughts. And no, that wasn't the word I was looking for.

"Because they really seemed like it to me. It would be great if my mom had been able to see us together, all dressed up. They were just excited for you."

Well, if that didn't just suck the irritation right out of me, I didn't know what would. How could I argue with him, knowing what TJ had already gone through with his own family.

"You're right," I said, turning to face him before walking into the smelly gym. "And although I haven't mentioned it yet, you look..." I paused as I took him in appreciatively from head to toe, "really good."

That put a big smile on his face. Then TJ wrapped my hand, which he had been holding, around my waist, along with his own, forcing my body much closer to his. I could feel the warmth from his chest up against mine, even through his dress shirt and jacket. His lips came closer to my own, stopping just before they touched.

"Mallory, when I said you looked good earlier, what I meant was, you look so beautiful that it practically stopped my heart when I saw you."

Then he moved the millimeter closer that he needed to in order for his lips to capture mine in a searing kiss. It was honestly one for the books, all this time later I can literally still feel it on my lips. Thinking about it makes my toes curl up a little.

He pulled away, and thankfully no one had walked by in those few seconds, or minutes, or maybe it was even longer. My brain was a bit mushy after that kiss. "Now, we need to get a picture before we get all sweaty from dancing. Because I'm planning on dancing pretty much the entire night with you."

"More pictures? Haven't we taken enough?" I was really sick of smiling by then.

"Just one. It's a very important picture." TJ had a little smirk as he led us into the dance and dragged me to the photo booth. Instead of a photographer, all week the student council in charge of the dance had plastered all over school that they'd have an arcade style photo booth to capture the moments. TJ must have liked the idea because he didn't even bother looking for any of his soccer buddies. We went directly to the booth and got in line behind a few other couples.

After about ten minutes, it was finally our turn. We had passed the time by dancing in line, because apparently TJ had no shame and could care less what kind of looks the other kids were giving us. He still had my hand in his, which it had been the entire time in line. TJ led me into the booth and sat on the bench, putting me on his lap. His arms came around me, then he pulled me back against him. His face was right next to mine when he whispered, "smile."

After the flash of the first picture, TJ leaned in to kiss my cheek, the same way I had for my moms picture. I felt the blush rise in my cheeks, warm and pink. Great, perfect for the pictures.

Once the second flash blinded me, I felt TJ's lips make their way toward my ear. I was really hoping he wasn't planning to kiss my ear. That would tickle, and then I would laugh. I had a feeling I'd hate that picture. But instead of a warm, tickley kiss, he started to whisper again.

"So...can I start calling you my girlfriend?"

I gasped just as the flash went off, knowing that my gaping mouth would be on display in that shot. Without thinking more about my actions, or the photos, I turned to face TJ fully. His bright shining eyes met mine, a hopeful smile on his face. I smiled at him, then nodded my answer as I heard the last flash capture the moment.

"I told you. This was a really important photo." He reminded me.

"As usual, you were right," I said as I smiled. TJ's eyes glanced down to my lips. My heart leapt in anticipation, remembering the hot kiss we had shared in the hallway. But our latest moment was rudely interrupted.

"Yo! You're turn's up! Get out!" A loud voice screamed from behind the curtain. I hopped up immediately, ready to rush away from whoever had judged us. TJ just took my hand once again, casually leading me out of the booth and around the corner to where our pictures awaited us. That boy had confidence, that's for sure. He held his head high, the biggest smile on his face I had ever seen. I ducked my eyes in embarrassment at the guy right outside of the booth. He probably figured we had been making out the whole time.

"Finally," the dude huffed as we walked by. Sheesh, I didn't need any more embarrassing moments. The night had been perfect just minutes before, I wanted it to stay that way.

TJ grabbed the set of photos that had been printed. I took a quick peek, expecting to be horrified at whatever ridiculous faces I had been making in each one. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I looked pretty good. Actually, we looked pretty good, in all of them.

"Not bad," I said while looking over TJ's arm at the pictures.

"Oh they're better than that," he said. "This one," he pointed to the picture that captured my smile when I answered his question, "This is the one I want to keep. You can have the others, but I really want this one."

How could I say no? I couldn't, of course. Plus, the one where he had whispered in my ear was actually my favorite of the two of us. "And I love this one," I said while pointing to my choice.

"Come on, let's go celebrate." TJ winked and walked with me to the dance floor. His buddies were in the corner, being rowdy boys as usual. But TJ stayed with me and danced the entire night. He made my first dance experience better than I ever expected it to be.

^^^^^

An official couple! But there are still many unanswered questions. I promise to update again soon, and there will be more high school drama included.

Thanks so much for hanging with me!

Have you noticed that the playlist for this story has a theme? Overplayed cheesy tween songs seemed to fit the plot so I dove right in and went with it. Dynamite has high school dance song all over it, but I actually love this Mike Tompkins version. If you haven't heard his A Cappella covers, you really need to look him up!

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]