AllFreeNovel
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“Yeah. Just say whatever comes to mind first.”
“A pug?”
“Excellent. Now ask me a random question.”
“Um…what’s your favorite…shape for a cloud?”
(Ryan has no idea where this question comes from. It’s like it was unlocked by the wordrandom.)
“A castle,” Avery answers with a smile. “No—a dragon. No—a castle shaped like a dragon!”
“Is that your final answer?”
“Yes.”
“Okay…what’s your next question?”
“I think we’re good, don’t you? We know each other thoroughly now. I think we’re ready to dance.”
Ryan can’t tell if Avery is kidding or not. Avery can’t tell if Ryan is as into it as he is. There is a momentary teeter, a lurch of anxiety. Their consciousness of everyone else in the room returns—more acutely for Ryan, because it’s his town. The interruptions will soon be closing in. In less than a minute, Lana is going to return from the bathroom, resolute, and Pope is going to look for Avery in order to gather their group together. In less than two minutes, Alicia is going to decide Ryan is being a drag, and will naturally attempt to drag him out of it.
The pink-haired boy looks at the blue-haired boy and sees he has no idea what to do.
The blue-haired boy looks at the pink-haired boy and asks him silently for help.
“Oh, wait,” Avery says. “I forgot something.”
Ryan thinks he means he’s left something in his car. Or he’s looking for an excuse not to dance, not to prolong this.
“Okay,” he says. “If you need to go…”
Avery laughs. “No! I forgot to say, ‘Hi, I’m Avery.’ ”
Ryan feels the seesaw of his heart dip low, then even out.
“Hi, Avery. I’m Ryan. But you can call me Ryan.”
From Avery: that smile again. On a chemical level, Ryan already loves that smile.
“Nowwe know each other completely,” Avery states.
“Guess we’d better dance, then.”
The dance floor—the same floor as the nondance floor, really—is only a few short steps away. Ryan gives Avery anafter you,and Avery returns with ano, after you. Ryan feels the impulse to take Avery’s hand, to link. But he doesn’t have that confidence in himself or the moment yet. They arrive together, separately. Separately, together.
A song has been playing the whole time, and it’s the song, more than the dance floor, that they step into.
—
This is whatit’s like to dance with a boy you like, even if you are liking him for the very first time: The capacity of your awareness expands, but even as it expands, it only contains three things—you, him, and the music. Nothing is effortless, and this certainly takes some effort, but the effort hasa joy to it. Even the awkwardness is a giddy awkwardness, because there is no room for shame here. Only hope.
—
Ryan is taller.Avery knows his body better. They are strangers and they are a pair at the very same time. Avery’s hair gets in his eyes. Ryan can feel the sweat on his back. They cannot stop smiling. They pull into each other, their hands finding an easy way to hold. Avery sings along a few words, and Ryan sings a few words back. Everything is in agreement. Their bodies are in agreement. Their smiles are in agreement. The music is in agreement. It’s so much more than they ever would have asked, and also exactly what their hearts deserve.
One fast song leads to the next, which leads to the next. Then the DJ bends the path, sends them into a slow song. Ryan hesitates; a slow dance is a lot to ask of someone else, and he doesn’t know how to begin to ask it. But Avery smiles. Avery says, “Come here.” And Ryan gives himself to that. He lets Avery introduce him to closeness. He lets Avery’s hands tell his hands where to go. He lowers his head so his cheek can rest above Avery’s ear. Blue hair on pink hair, pink hair on blue.
This.
