Imogen and I danced silently. Leaned into each other. It wasn’t romantic so much as it was… relaxed. My hands wrapped around the small of her back, hers around my bare shoulders. But she seemed distracted. Distant.

Not terribly distant. Just enough for me to notice it. To recognize that it heightened every time she was facing the southwest corner of the auditorium.

We rotated slowly.

And then I saw her.

I knew her from a few of my classes over the years: Kimiko. A small-framed girl with hair the color of the darkest part of night. She was bubbly and smiley, and had a habit of whispering hilariously inappropriate jokes at the most inopportune moments of class. The sort where you either laugh or you die trying to hold it in. Tonight, however, she was wearing a bright red gown, and she was sitting all by herself, and she had clearly been sitting that way all night. She was wearing defeat like a burial shroud.

I looked at Imogen as we slowly rotated.

She was entranced.

It wasn’t long before Imogen realized I was looking at her looking at Kimiko. And then she turned pink.

“Sorry,” she said. “Just… lost in my own thoughts.”

“You should ask her to dance,” I said.

“What?” Now she was as red as Kimiko’s dress. She hastily stole a glance at Kimiko, then lowered her head, embarrassed. “No, it’s not what you… C’mon, Ezra. I came here with you.”

“And you’re here with me.”

“I mean… I asked you here.”

“And here I am,” I said, clapping my hands to my sides. “And I’ve had a wonderful time.”

I looked at Kimiko.

“And there she is. And she’s really pretty, and smart, and funny, and she looks like she’s had a rough night. And I can’t imagine anyone in the world making it better than you.”

Imogen bit her lip—practically gnawing it—in a moment of romantic crisis.

“One dance,” she said. “One dance, and I’m coming back here.”

“Hey,” I said, hands in the air. “You do what you need to do. I’m not counting.”

Imogen hugged me—a surprisingly intense hug that caught me off guard.

Then she turned, and click-clacked to the southwest corner of this perfect, fake-snow-dusted winter wonderland. She lifted a single finger straight into the air like a promise.

“One!” she said. “One, and then I’m coming back!”

I resolved to give Imogen and Kimiko a little privacy. Wandered to the northeast corner, closer to the stage, and the speakers, and the noise, and the sweat of a thousand teenagers misting the space. It was actually kind of gross, but I guess this was the human experience. Oh well.

I adjusted my dress and placed my hands in my lap and sighed.

I could already feel the loneliness setting in.