“Dance while we wait?”

He twirled and danced with me for a bit until I saw Kelly come back downstairs and beeline it to the bar. She was rapidly typing away on her phone.

I didn’t think much of it. She was usually scrolling social media when she was bored and probably wanted to have a few minutes to decompress and dry off. That, and get another drink. Her facial expression was still weird to me, though.

I tried to refocus on Garrett and the moment we were in. Dancing with him felt normal and natural. It was the normal way college kids dated–they went to parties, danced, and hung out. At least I thought they did. What wasn’t the normal way is how Brent put me on the back of his bike after being weird to me on the porch. Plus, it seemed like we were both seeing other people.

Maybe he did want to kill me but backed out at the last second. Or he just realized you weren’t an easy lay. Stop being so paranoid.

I wanted to have a normal sophomore year and do normal sophomore things. That meant I needed to have a normal boyfriend and go on dates with him–which is what I was doing. I think.

Garrett leaned down so I could hear him over the music, his breath so close to my neck it tickled and sent a shiver down my spine. “You look beautiful tonight.”

I swallowed the nervous lump forming in my throat. We were dancing so closely. He put his hand in mine and the other drifted slowly to the small of my back, pulling me closer. The room felt smaller and his face was inches from mine. Too close.

He wanted more than I wanted, and it was clear. Before this semester, if someone told me I would have been this close to two men, I would have laughed in their face. I never focused on boys, my mom grew sicker by the day in my younger years. They were the last thing on my mind, really.

The only thing I had any experience with was a kiss that happened on a dare in sixth grade. If you could call that experience.

We danced for a while but my eyes drifted back to Kelly at the bar. I couldn’t help but think she acted weird today. Not her usual weird. It felt distracted. She was still standing there at the bar, but only she wasn’t texting anymore. Her body language looked strange while she was focused on a taller male figure speaking to her.

Who is she talking to? The person wasn’t Shane. The way they spoke looked off to me with how she was standing. Kelly leaned in closer, looking to keep their conversation private. Whatever it was, it gave me an odd feeling in my stomach.