It didn’t take me very long to get ready for the dance on Friday night; after pinning my long blonde curls to the side of my head so that they hung loosely over my shoulder I moved onto applying a bit of concealer and a touch of mascara. I slipped into my light blue dress and pulled on my rhinestone heels; after placing my new diamond necklace around my neck I dabbed on a bit of strawberry lip gloss and was ready to go.

          Sam showed up a few minutes after I was ready and after placing a silky corsage on my wrist we headed out to get into his shiny black Porsche convertible; I was happy that he left the top up so that my hair was still in place when we arrived at the school. The gym was decorated from top to bottom in sparkling lights and streamers; the theme was ‘heaven on earth’ and fake clouds were hanging everywhere from the ceiling. The floor was covered in white, blue and silver glitter; I could only imagine that some of it would be hanging around for the rest of the year, it would be impossible to clean it all up.

          Sam pulled me onto the dance floor almost immediately and we got lost in the crowd; all things that may have stressed us out or bothered us completely forgotten as we got lost in the music. We had been dancing for almost two hours when we decided to take a break and get something to drink; throughout the dance I had noticed a girl that I had never seen at the school before looking at Sam. She had long light brown hair set in perfect curls around her face, golden brown eyes and perfectly set pink lips; to put it short the girl was breathtakingly beautiful. I seen Sam lock eyes with her a few times too but he seemed reluctant to leave my side; I had a feeling that he thought he was obligated to stay with me since he asked me to the dance.

“If you don’t go over there and ask her to dance then I will.” I said before taking a sip of my punch.

“Huh, what?” Sam asked looking slightly confused.

“That girl, the one that has been staring at you all night.” I said motioning in her direction; Sam glanced over at her before shrugging his shoulders and turning back to me.

“I came with you Haley; I’m not going to ditch you for some other chick.” He took a sip of punch before looking back over his shoulder at the girl.

“You’re not ditching me Sam, it’s a school dance, you should dance with any and every one you can. Besides the way she’s looking at you I can tell she really wants to get to know you.”

“Haley I…” I cut him off before he could come up with some other excuse not to ask the girl to dance.

“Sam we came here as friends, you’re not obligated to stay with me the whole night. Now get your ass out on that dance floor and ask that girl to dance.” I said taking his punch glass away from him before not so lightly shoving him in her direction; he threw me a ‘thanks’ look over his shoulder before walking over to the girl.

          I watched as he nervously asked the girl to dance and she happily accepted; as if on cue a slow song started and they twirled around the dance floor together. Their smiles never once fell from their faces and I couldn’t help but be happy for him; he was such a great guy and he deserved someone that could make him happy, I had a feeling this girl was the one to do it. I made my way back out on the dance floor after a few more minutes and spent the next few hours just dancing with whoever happened to be around at the time; the great thing about school dances is that it seemed like all stereotypes were threw to the wind and everyone seemed to get along, at least for one night. It was almost midnight when Sam made his way back to me, the girl still attached to his arm.

“Haley this is Cherish, Cherish this is Haley.” Sam made the introductions and we shook hands before saying how nice it was to meet each other; we spent a few more minutes talking about the dance and how much fun we were having.

“Sam did you want to go to that party?” Cherish asked after we fell into an awkward silence together.

“Uh yeah, I just have to drop Haley off at home first.”

“Ok, let’s go.” She said as she started pulling him towards the doors of the gym.

“Well I only have two seats, so I will have to drop her off then come back and pick you up. Is that ok?” He asked I didn’t miss the way her face fell slightly but she nodded in agreement; I didn’t want to have to be the one to separate the two so I decided to step in.

“Actually Sam I’m not really ready to leave yet.” I lied; I was ready to go home about thirty minutes ago but didn’t want to cut his time with the new girl short. “I will just hitch a ride home with someone else; you guys go and have some fun.” I offered them a smile as Cherish’s face lit back up with excitement.

“I can’t make you do that Haley, I brought you, it’s only right that I take you home.” Sam said sounding unsure about leaving me here.

“Really Sam it’s fine, actually Nick offered to take me home a few minutes ago so I will just take him up on his offer.” I lied again; geez, I was offering him an out, did he have to make this so hard?

“Nick?” He asked looking like he didn’t believe me in the least bit.

“Yeah, now you two get out of here before your late for the party.” I said giving them a shove in the directions of the doors.

“It’s a party, you can’t really be late.” Sam joked but he latched his arm around Cherish deciding to take my advice as he led her out the door.

          I went to the punch bowl and got another glass; I knew that I would be walking home but I wanted to make sure that they were long gone before I made my exit. I looked down at my feet frowning slightly; man it was going to be a long walk in these heels. I finished my glass of punch and tossed the empty cup into the bin; I was almost to the door when someone grabbed my arm and pulled me to a stop.

“Did you scare away your date?” Colt asked as I spun around to face him.

“No, I told him to leave.” I said a little defensive.

“How are you getting home?” He asked. Why he would even care was beyond me, but something told me that telling him I planned to walk wasn’t a good idea.

“I’ve got it covered.”

“Dance with me?” He asked motioning towards the dance floor; I glanced up the clock seeing that it was close to midnight and the dance would be ending soon. Sensing my hesitation he spoke again. “There’s always time for one last dance Haley.” He said before dragging me out on the floor before I had time to argue.

          The music changed to a slow song much to my dismay the moment we made it to the middle of the crowd; I wrapped my arms around his neck as his hands wrapped around my waist. It was one of those awkward, staying as far away from each other as your arms would allow, type of dances as we swayed back and forth to the music; the song seemed like one of those that were going to go on forever as we stood there in our awkward position.

“This is my favorite part.” He said before he surprised me by pulling me close then using his leg to knock my knees out from under me as he effortlessly dipped my body before pulling me back up to his chest.

          My breath hitched at the movement and I held onto his arms for dear life as I thought for sure that he was going to drop me; he seemed more than confidant in his moves and not once did he let me slip out of his tight grasp. Once I was back upright and my heart rate turned back to normal I let out a small laugh; as much as I couldn’t stand him most of the time I had to admit he was really smooth. He seemed proud of himself that he finally got some type of response out of me as he twirled me around a few more times before returning to our normal back and forth sway; I hadn’t even noticed how close our bodies were until the song came to an end and I found myself pressed up against him. We were so close that I could feel each breath he took brushing across my face; I really wanted to hate being this close to him but some part of me actually found it comforting.

“Umm, I have to go, thanks for the dance” I said nervously looking up at the clock before pulling out of his embrace and quickly walking towards the exit.

          Once I was through the door I basically ran the rest of the way through the school until I was outside; I shock my head to clear any thoughts of him out of my mind before starting the long walk back home. I don’t know why it bothered me so much that I felt comfortable around him for the first time; I would guess it was just due to the fact that we have basically not been able to stand each other since the first day we met. I sighed loudly to myself as only fifteen minutes into the walk my feet were already starting to ache from the heels; I lived about a mile and a half away from school so I knew that I still had a good hour of walking ahead of me. Stupid heels, who invented these things anyway?