My Valentine

My Valentine
By: Manny

It didn't start off well.
In fact a lot of things were off about that day, I should have taken most it as a sign, but I did not. That’s mostly because I’m a stupid, naïve loser, but that’s going to be clear right from the start.

I remember I woke up that morning on the wrong side of bed, dead tired even though I made sure I got to bed early the night before.

I was in that moment.

moment that I have every morning were I'm still asleep yet conscious enough to realize this is the last moment of sleep I should get before I force myself out of bed and off to get ready for my day. But today, in that moment, I couldn't shake the feeling of worry. But in a final moment of dreaming I pictured tonight.

I pictured my friends happy and with they're girlfriends, were all dancing and having a grand old time. It then dawns on me that this time I won’t be the wallflower loser standing around, pathetically bobbing my head to the music by myself, while making even more pathetic and futile attempts to get girls to dance with me. This time I actually had a date. So I pictured her in my head. Her flowing auburn hair, her big, light brown eyes. I thought of how I'd spent (or wasted, depends on who you ask) the better of this year getting to know her, of how I rearranged my schedule and got rid of a class I might of needed in the long run just cause she had drama class that period and it was easier for me to get into that class than any other she was taking. I thought of how every B schedule day we have that 2nd period drama class together and it's the highlight of my entire day, because I spend it with her.
I also thought that maybe I was allowing myself a few too many extra moments of sleep this morning and I was going to be late if I didn't wake up immediately.

I thought of how stupid I must have looked with my jaw hitting the floor as she said yes.
And then I got up out of bed just as my mom crashed in screaming about how I was going to be late and how I wasn't going to be leaving until I helped her with my little brothers.

So I quickly showered, got dressed and helped my little brothers A.J. and Angel, do the same.

My mom meanwhile is yelling at my brother Matthew who is still asleep. He's only 5yrs younger than me but you'd think he was as young as my baby brother angel, the way he cried and threw a tantrum about going to school every morning. By the time he's up I'm fixing breakfast, which today is cereal cause it's almost 7:40 and I need to be in school by 8:00 and I'll be dammed if I'm going to get detention again today, I just can't, I have places to be after school today.
He finally gets up.
His hair's sticking out in every odd end possible; his eyes have huge bags under them.
He yawns and gives me this look like he expects me to bath and dress him too.
“I want frosty flakes!" he demands sleepily.
A.J. laughs like it was the funniest thing he ever heard. Angel is only 3 and doesn't talk much. He's starring at the cereal box attempting to read the word Kellogg.
I glare at him, mumbling obscenities under my breath and push him into the bathroom. I glance at my watch.
7:45!!

"MOM!! I GOTTA GO!!!"

She screamed back something about being late for work and me needing to stay and possibly take the kids to school myself .all of which is bullshit (excuse my French), she leaves for work at 10:30, she has time, I wonder sometimes if it would kill her to be the parent every once and awhile.

Before I go I thought of how Amanda would look tonight, all dressed up, and all for well, me really.
It wasn't her senior Polls; she's just a sophomore. She’s agreed to go with me, and she wants to be with me. I can't believe it. But I still I couldn't shake the worry.
"DON'T FORGET TO TAKE YER' PILLS" Mom screams from her room.

DAMN!

Anti-depressants are supposed to keep a person with depression in check, and me being manic and all I know I should be taking them, but...

I started to rush out but turned back to the medicine cabinet and swallowed 2 pills. I Then changed my mind rushed back and forced myself to throw them up into the toilet. Not smart I know but I'll do a lot worse with my life as it continues.
I rushed for the bus uptown.
I had no money left after bus fair, no candy to give me my usual morning sugar rush, and if that wasn't enough of a sign of a day gone wrong, once I got into the building the 1st of many apocalyptic signs plagued the world.
The malevolent, arrogant, often bitchy, Mr. Jack (-ass) O'Connor was absent for the 1st time in his bazillion years of teaching. Ok fine that wasn't a sign so much as a sigh of relief from the entire student body. Someone once said he'd gone to school even after being in a serious accident and going through surgery. And that he healed abnormally quickly. This only goes to prove my theory that he's a vampire that feeds on the despair and lost hope of children. But with him gone, that meant I was to spend a day free of his brand of evil. And this was certainly a day that didn't need his ruining.
It was the day before Valentine's Day, and a Friday.
The hallways were filled with dozens of heart shaped balloons and giant teddy bears that played music when you squeezed their paw, and there was just a general feeling of bubbly delight and happiness through out the whole school.
I was in desperate need of a sugar fix so I lingered around every and anyone I knew who had the fancy chocolates and scavenged until I ran into a teacher that was giving out doughnuts and soda and I gorged out and quietly left to the class I actually had that period.

In the hallways every senior was a buzz and giddy to go to Polls. The girls were gloating about there dresses and stuff. The boys about what they have planned for the after party. Me about how this has to be the best strawberry jelly doughnut I've ever successfully pitied a teacher into giving me. If there was an upside to me being anorexicly thin it was that everybody always assumed I was starving and would just throw food in my direction from time to time.

Today even, though it was a half-day, was amazingly long an uneventful.
I went to check up on my date and almost had a heart attack.

Amanda wasn't in homeroom today.

At 1st I worried and naturally panicked and assumed she backed out, but as her friend Sabrina told me she already bought the dress and chose not to go to school today cause she had a appointment for her hair and nails other such stuff that told me that the girl of my dreams was spending good money on making herself an even bigger knockout, if it was even possible, and just like that I was self conscious.

I went to the bathroom and looked at my pathetic excuse for a reflection in the mirror
I'm a gangly, scrawny, geeky, an unattractive lame excuse for a human.

If it weren't for the hair cut that I got yesterday that made me look somewhat presentable, I'd be a complete wreck.

Oh and there’s also the fact that I'm talking to myself in the mirror.

“What is wrong with me?”
I thought out loud.
“Going to the senior polls with a psychopath loser like me, what was she thinking?
What do I have to offer her?
I want to be the one who she's genuinely happy with; I want to be her boyfriend.
But I have nothing! No job means no money. No money means no car, or place of my own. No money to shower her with gifts or even take her anywhere.
I'm not hot or attractive or even remotely handsome in any way shape or form.”

“Thomas was gorgeous! And he REALLY knew what to do to a girl, if ya know what I mean!"

I once overheard her gush over a.... um...”experience” with a past boyfriend and now the words echoed loudly in the empty bathroom where I was truly disgusted with what looked back at me in the mirror. Now I'd never met or seen the guy but the way she described him you'd think he were a model for one of those really fancy places only rich people shop at, you know the kind of place were a shirt and khaki's cost as must as your week's pay at your minimum wage job at the local McDonalds.

He's probably like 7 feet tall and built like superman, the bastard's probably blond, blue eyed and everything.

In a panic, I dropped and did push ups. Or at least I attempted to. I don't weigh very much nor do I have a whole lot of upper body strength so it looked more like I'd fallen on the ground and was trying to get up, as my best friend in the known universe and adopted father figure, Sean walked into the bathroom, confused.

I'd been his geeky henchman sidekick since about the 6th grade. He has this uncanny godlike ability to get just about any and every girl interested in him. This is surprisingly a great burden for him because this means he's often dating four or five girls at the exact same time. And a lot of time he's missing that voice of moral guidance that tells him "cheating on girl A with girl B is wrong cause they're sisters and your bound to get caught and your already messing around with each of they're best friends, they're hot underage cousin,
And we won’t even get into the complicated nonsense with girl C."

That's where I step in.
I kind of "manage" his respective relationships and the troubles and complications that come with each new girl that comes along. That was Until the Vanessa thing that is.

"Manny what the hell are you doing?" he asked as he helped me out.

"I ...just fell. I guess."

He laughed
“You a ‘right? Yo man!!! , Ya ready fo' tonight? You gotta see what I got!! I'll be the biggest pimp in the joint!!! I'll show her just what she's missing!!"

"No Hazel huh?"

"Na man, fuck her!!"

"I'm sure you have, if anything u tell me has any merit you've had sex with half the school"

I wanted to say that, but I shut up and instead inquired about Vanessa, girl of stunning beauty, honesty, kindness and just the sweetest person ever, she was the other half of the triangle. When he wasn't with Hazel, he was with her, or whichever random girl happens to catch his eye that day. He cheated on her too many times and Vanessa's too nice a person to lie to blatantly, so I gave up being the one who manages his girlfriends and keeps them from knowing about each other cause till this day I feel bad for her. And I wonder if it was her he was going to crawl back to.

"Naw man, to hell wit' her too!! That little…. Do you know who she’s takin'?"

The bell for next period rings and cuts him off.

"Look you'll find out tonight. I'm heading out early today so we can't walk home today. Kay? Seeya tonight man, YO you and Mandy dawg!!"

He gave a sly smile and obscene thrusting gesture that implied how tonight would end for her and I if things go well, then waved goodbye.

I'm still not shaking the worry.

I give one last look at the mirror. Sometimes I think it would be best for the whole world I just dropped dead, but I'm still alive and I have a date tonight, but not before enduring my last class.

"What do I bring to the table?" I echoed in my brain while my history teacher who's voice could lull anyone into a coma; proceed to cast its sleepy spell on the greater part of the class, not a single person of which was really paying attention.

“I 'm sort of funny, I guess, and I listen to her every word adoringly, and.... wow how pathetic am I?”

Amanda loves to talk about anything and everything. It's a difficult thing to shut her up; in fact if she's in the room the sound of her voice is always the background noise. Even if no one is really listening. It’s Almost like she loves her own voice which is ok because I do. It's sort of hitch pitched and whiney but seeing her through rose-colored glasses as I am, I think it’s what angels must sound like.

At some point someone dropped a book or something because there was a loud BAM!! And all the little freshmen woke up. It's a sad day when I'm the oldest person the room other than the teacher, but it is entirely my fault. I failed this freshman history class
Way back when I was one and then I lied and said I passed it so I could take the other ones and it took them that long to check up on it and force me to take it this year with underclassmen all looking to me with confusion and need for an explanation for why I'm here and I have none to give that they would care about. I had very few of them that I could talk to without feeling like I would have a better conversation with a wall, and Jessica was one of them.
She woke up and was suddenly grilling me with questions about Polls, who I was taking, what was I wearing, etcetera.

I told her I was taking Amanda, and one of the lesser brained, but well meaning freshman, Mike, perked up and blurted, quite intellectually,

"Amanda? .... YO!! DA one wit them big ol' boobies?"

"Uh...yeah.... that's the one."

Jessica gave him this big speech about how big a disgusting sexist pig he is.

I meanwhile had impure thoughts about this night going well enough to see her "girls" in person.
You see recently the puberty fairy had blessed the slim and other wise not very much to look to at psychically Amanda with a pair of C cups that she flaunted at every opportunity available, especially by wearing things that were low cut, tight or otherwise sheer or on a good day all of the above.

Now at a glance my intentions with Amanda are purely psychical lust. But I liked her a few years ago even before they became the focal point of her body and she was just a whiney voiced girl with psychotic tendencies. One who
Told me stories of her messed up life that I would always trump or match her with a bizarre tale of my own. I want her for her big sexy chemically imbalanced brain, her big brown eyes, and heck even her sometimes-earsplitting voice. The great rack is merely an unaccounted for, yet truly awesome, bonus.
Not that Sean believes me. He thinks I'm in it just to see her naked, and that I cant handle that I'm turning into just as big a shovanistic pig as he is because I've spent to long being the naïve nice guy.
I think he needs me to turn into the "Casanova" he is, well that he used to be, cause Hazel has him on such a short leash that I think he's lost his touch. And cause of that in an odd case of reversal of fortune he needs to live vicariously through me. So there!! Or maybe I'm the delusional one. That makes so much more sense. I guess I am the delusional one, but a delusional one with a hot date tonight so there!!

Man did that class drag on. I didn't know then what the heck we "learned" that day in history, and I never will.

Eventually, after the class dragged on some more, Jessica told me of her relationship troubles. Some girl she "forbid" her boyfriend to even look at ever again and there lab partners in class or something, I didn't care very much at the time but I'll be in the front lines of this conflict more than once before the year ends. I'm always inadvertently involved in other people's relationships, don't know why I am it just sort of happens.

In the middle of this the bell rings. Every senior in the building makes a mad dash for a door, window, hole in the wall, and any immediate exit from the school possible.

Under different circumstances we'd need to be kicked out kicking and screaming from the hallways after school, loitering at lockers for hours afterward, we even made up clubs and things just for a legitimate excuse to hang out on the school's dime. But not today. You see holding a major dance on a Friday and making a stipulation that any senior that is late, absent or isn't in class for any reason is banned without refund of ticket price and the obvious waste of whatever was spent on clothes and etcetera, the senior's were trapped rats in school. Rats with hair appointments to make, shirts to iron, shoes to shine. Me, my 1st stop was my dad's house a few blocks up from the school.

On the way I noticed the local barbershop was packed to point were there was a line outside just to get a haircut. Anticipating the rush, I got mine yesterday. But that was pretty much the only thing I did ahead of time.
Ran with the speed of the flash himself to dad's house, captured his digital camera, and the few bucks spending money he left me.

I Ran all the way home, a major feat of endurance when you realize that my dad lives on 56th St. and I lived at 8th St. at the time.
I bathed, changed to my modest grey dress shirt, black tie and black dress pants, then nervously called up Mandy to see if she was alive, breathing, and otherwise getting ready and not backing out at the last second.

Her mom picked up and made me swear to not let her drink and to get her home early.
I was all like:
"Madame But of course I won’t, scouts honor!!"
While my fingers were crossed behind my back, which made no sense cause she can't see me over the phone.

So like that off I went to pick her up.
I get to her door, and ring the bell.
Her father, who introduces himself as quite powerfully as "MISTER
FRITZGERALD" greets me, her mom then showed up and rushed me into the living room and we sat there, the three of us awkwardly awaiting Amanda who was noisily scurrying around in the room behind us.
My eyes dart around the room as the dreadfully uncomfortable silence grew. Guess she didn't get the chatterbox gene from her dad.

I couldn’t help but notice there was a lot of Jimmy Hendrix memorabilia. In a lame attempt at conversation, I wanted to nervously utter "so um….Mr.Fritzgerald…uh… big Jimmy Hendrix fan, eh?" but I feared I'd come off a smartass and I'd never make it out of the house alive, so I stayed quiet, and look around the room some more.

The place was covered everywhere with pictures of my Marvelous Mandy from birth all the way to one that seems to have been taken a few years ago cause her face was identical but puberty had yet to grace her body with a single curve.
And then I spot that stupid Cheerbear, smiling at me from on one of the couches. I wanted to laugh so hard but didn't.

You see this Christmas I wanted to get Mandy something and she loves Carebears especially “Cheerbear” so I had to pummel this little blind orphan girl half to death on the day before Christmas for the very last talking Cheerbear. And on the day I gave it to her she was just SO happy...

The eerie silence killed me.
So in a lame attempt to break the ice I inquire:

“So…. Jimmy Hendrix. Big fan of his you are?”

Apparently I was channeling Yoda. He was unamused and didn’t respond but gave me a very telling glare.

The glare said: “don’t be a smartass.”

” Mister Fitzgerald" might have well
Had been cleaning out a shotgun this entire time.
Just my luck he’d cleaned it earlier and was currently polishing a revolver.

"Um...is she um... ready...yet?" inquired as her Mom went to go check in on her.

While I waited I had a staring contest with Her father, who spoke no words since declaring who he was and sitting down and burn a hole in me with his eyes.

It goes without saying that I lost. Twice. The last time I almost had him. I swear!
It would have been thrice, but finally it seemed that the girl of my dreams was ready.


She’s finally ready, and she's as stunning as I imagined she'd be.
Even more so.
Just perfect, she's just absolutely perfect.

If only I could tell her that without messing up.

She’s in this black dress with flowery type things on it and I'm bad at describing things but we'll leave it at she looked really really hot. More importantly though, she could of burst out of the top of it at any second so I took that as a sign that today was finally going to end well.

"WOW!!" was my brilliant and well thought out reply.

"That’s all you’re going to say? All day I... two hours at the salon, three weeks searching for a dress.... and wow?"

"I’m speechless, genuinely speechless, you couldn’t ask for a better reaction. Wait. There are no words for your beauty at this very second.
Was that good?"

“Uh, let's just go, I had to starve myself to fit into this you know?"

"And it looks marvelous on you!"

"I know, I know, it’s late let's just go! Um hello! Up here!!"

"I'm sorry it’s just I...I think they’re going to fall out. Uh I mean...you look amazing!"
She did.
Then she smiled and looked at me in that way she does when she wants to give me false hope, like the way I look at her everyday.

We laughed to break the awkward moment and with that we were off to the gym, Mandy clunking along in thick heels.

We get there right and the gym looks ok, its all red white and full of balloons. The student council slaves out did themselves on decorating this year. No one really important showed until well into 1st hour. But me and Mandy made the best of it. Critiquing folks sarcastically as they walked in.
Eventually my friends piled in.
Andy's already really drunk. Shadi's high on something and brought the gorgeous Tailene with him as his date. My grade school crush Myra shows up, still the most gorgeous thing I've ever seen. (2nd only to Mandy, of course) when she smiled at me from across the room it’s like my heart melted... but I could write a Myra appreciation story later.

Tailene aka the only reason I bothered to show up to journalism class last year cause I liked to gawk at her, looked hot.

Angela, Ms. Modeling club president, my sometime drama partner, and future prom date by bizarre circumstance,
Looked really hot. Johanna, aka who I stalked in grade school and forgot she existed when high school started, looked really hot, and also seemed thrilled that I’ve forgotten about her for so long.

Franz and Erick, friends of mine from grade school who didn’t even go to my high school, showed up randomly. No one asked questions.

Sean appears, “Pimped out” to the fullest in suspenders and a hat. All he was missing was the cane.

All was well, but what's a school dance with out tons of needless drama?
Ali shows up with Vanessa under his arm. She was looking so pretty, and she seems so happy until.

"Um.... Manny..."

"Yeah Mandy?"

"Is that...?"

"I think it is, but why is she with...oh no!"

Sean had gotten up, glass cup in one hand and was literally charging in they're direction.

Alejandro, Freddy and just about the better part of the clique of guys ran interference.

"Mandy. I think I gotta go, I’ll be right."

"Just come back with all the juicy details."

"You got it!"

I got up and started to walk.

"She does look great though."

"I know right? That dress!"

"Yeah, really pretty! Not nearly as pretty as you..."

"Ha-ha! Would you stop it and get over there before there's blood shed!"

No blood just lots tears.
Angry Sean was considering leaving as the group took him aside to an obscured back stairway.

Ali had hurried Vanessa to a table on the opposite end of where Sean was.
It took a lot of convincing but Sean had decided that he was going to forget about her and run solo and have a good time. This convinces everybody else to let him go. I rushed back to the table and filled Amanda in.

All was going well again until I noticed him angrily rushing back to the obscured stairway.

"WAIT! Manda.I..."

"I understand, he needs you. You know you really don't get the credit you deserve for keeping things together in that group."

"Um…wow! Thanks, No, I guess I don’t and I doubt I ever will."

I rushed over to him.

"HAVING A GREAT TIME THERE BUDDY!!"

".... Oh yeah, the best...how's it going
Wit you an' Mandy?"

"Great, I guess. She looks hot doesn't she? Right now I think I’m more worried about you."

"Yo, don't worry 'bout me man, I'm cool. ...Uh...listen do you think...."
Gah!
I knew what was coming and I didn't want to but....
I walked passed our table to the other side of the room.

Said hi to a bunch of people I hadn't notice walked in yet and stopped at the table where Vanessa was sitting as a vision of stunning beauty while Ali was greeting people elsewhere.

Now the creepy thing about Vanessa is that she didn't talk much. In fact I only ever heard her speak once while Sean 1st dated her and the two of them plus me the third wheel went CD shopping. Over the sound system they started to play a Hilary Duff song and at the time she was sort of my guilty pleasure and only Sean knew I was genuinely into her music and he made a sarcastic comment about it. She spoke up and talked about how much she loved that song and couldn't wait for the album to come out. Since that day we shared an eerie bond. There were times when we were out and Sean was out right lying to her and I'd be dead silent and she'd look me in the eyes and know exactly what I was going to say. And still there were other times were she'd be quiet and we'd look at each other face to face and I'd tell Sean exactly what it was she wanted to say.

Like we were psychically linked or some other creepy nonsense like that.

This was another of those moments, were this entire conversation is happening telepathically.

"Hi Vanessa"

"Hey! You look great! Look at you! You look so handsome!"
“Aww.... not nearly as awesome as you look!"

She blushed.

"So...how is he? Wait, let me guess, that why you're here, right?"

"Uh huh!"

"He wants talk to me?"

"Yup"

"Okay, but only to talk him down, I didn't mean anything by this, I don't even like Ali like that, he's just a friend."

"He's over there."

I walked her to where Sean was and sat back down next to my date.

"What's going on?" demanded Mandy.

"You don't wana know" I thought but then realized by confused look on her face that we didn't have a psychic link so I spoke.

"Oh just some stuff. Wana dance?"

"Nah, I don't like that kind of music, when they play something I like then we'll dance."

"Uh okay"

After awhile of entertaining her stories even I got bored of her. I wanted to be out on the dance floor, not that I knew how to dance or anything, but.... damn I was bored.
And sober.
A school function and nobody snuck anything in? What went wrong here? Surely everybody wasn't holding out for the after parties, where they?
Mandy said she'd be fine if I decided to go see what other people were doing.

"Oh my god, I could go for some liquor right now, how about you? Go find someone that has some!!" she said.
And with that mission in mind, I went out to the floor, bobbing my head pathetically by myself.
Shadi wasted whatever it was he was on already and was mumbling some psychotic sounding nonsense so I quietly distanced myself from him.
Andy too drank prior to this and was in high comedic form ridiculing every aspect of tonight's festivities.
Then I noticed a small table of "Ravers" or "rockers" or whatever the kids, who shop at hot topic and color their hair in bright obnoxious colors, call themselves. Surely they must have something to bargain with.
I inquired and one of the longhaired boys with the spikes asked me to dance because I "look really good in that tie”. This kind of wierded me out so I never passed by that table again except to talk to Sintia.
We hung out and talked and even danced like idiots to songs we didn't know how to dance to.

While on the dance floor I notice Sean was with hazel.
The drama this will because I really want no part in anymore.
Between songs I checked on my Mandy. She was sitting were Vanessa was and boring to death some other sophomore girl that she knew and was brought as the date of some guy that was ignoring her. I felt sort of like I was neglecting Mandy myself, for the 1200th time I asked her to dance.
She declined.
I desperately needed food in my system if there was going to be any sort of drinking today. So I sat with them and ate .The whole time Vanessa sat there glaring at Sean and Hazel, who never left the dance floor.
"It's going to be okay, you can do better than him!"
I said telepathically to her across the table. She gave a weak smile and continued her gaze.

The Polls itself was ok. More like a dance with an impromptu award show in the middle but hey my friends cleaned up.

Drew won a few. Harold won a few. Freddy and Alejandro were snubbed for best friends but whatever. There was an award for class chatterbox that sparked a conversation between us:

"Where's your competition for that in your class?"

"Its very slim, but I bet I'm a shoe in."

"I bet. You haven't even stayed quiet during the awards ceremony!"

"Can I help it if I have lots of things to say?"

"Yes but half the time no one cares, well…except me…”

"And the other half?"

"Well the other half of the time there trying figure out if your breasts are real or not"

"Is that what it was? And all this time I thought they were trying to read what was written on my tee shirt."

"And what your excuse for when you're not wearing a tee shirt with a funny slogan on it?"

"Well it's cause I want them to be ...eek! What IS she wearing? "

Michelle Raeis accepts her award looking the right mix between gaudy and trendy.

I had a crush on her freshmen year. We were in drama class; she talks a lot and has emotional problems and anger issues. She’s Kind of psycho. She then went on to gain an "unsavory" reputation for giving "sexual favors" to a friend of mine. This kind of thing happening to me twice in less than 4 years is all only a coincidence, I swear! Some sort of sick cosmic coincidence. But I’m getting ahead of myself….

"I'm so much louder than she is!" said princess loudspeaker.

“Well this isn't your class, no one here's nearly as annoying...you were saying?" assured her lowly, adoring henchman.

"What was I saying?"

"Something about your breasts, they look magnificent in that dress by the way."

"How many times will you say that tonight? And they are you know."

"Beg your pardon? What "are"?

"Real. I used to stuff and one day I they just sort of blossomed. They're a 34C."

"Ah...September 28, 2003! It was a good day!"

"What?"

"Nothing just the 1st day I noticed them. Olive's birthday party, you were fixing your hair and you dropped your scrunchie and we both bent down to pick it up at the same time. I bent down a split second before and got down to it 1st. When I looked up they where hovering above me like twin Goodyear blimps.
You blushed and said thank you. That was also when I noticed your beautiful eyes, and the cute way you turn pink when you blush.i.mean.umm...…God how much longer is this going on for?"

"I know!! I wana drink!! We are going to an after party, right?"

"But I promised your mom I wouldn't let you drink?"

We both laughed loudly and were told to shut up by everyone around us.

The last award was given out and there was about an hour or 2 left to dance.
And I wanted to dance even though I still didn't know how, but Manda still didn't budge.

"If they play some Justin Timberlake, the dance floor is ours!!" she said sarcastically.

"Fine, but god help you if they play any Hilary duff! Or Avril Lavine, do you think the Dj
will play sk8r boi"?

Vanessa's eyes lit up at the mention of Hilary duff.

If I could go back a change anything, and I'm going to want to change A LOT about how this night went, I think I would've asked Vanessa to dance.
Thinking about it I don't think Vanessa ever got up to dance, shame too, she looked so pretty that night. But that would've cause conflicts on three points.

The 1st being Sean's a raging jealous ex-boyfriend and I’m his best friend.

2nd I'm Amanda's date and regardless of how I explain that she doesn't want to dance, it'll look like I dumped her for someone else in her face.

Oh yeah and the 3rd being that she's Ali's date, not like he cared or anything, I still think he only brought her cause for every school dance there needed to be conflict and being involved in the Vanessa/Sean/Hazel thing was just what he needed to get people talking about him. Get his name in a headline, even if it's just in passing.

So we spent the last of the dance talking, me and Mandy did, my ears perking at even the slightest resembling note of something "boy band-like" or "teen poptart-ish" to no avail.

Of course they played neither, us being in a urban, hip hop and reggae oriented school, so she never got up to dance with me, although later she claimed that she would've if she was ask more persistently or was drunk, but too late now.

Or was it?

Soon it was over and the cars were getting filled with people on their way to the much awaited and promoted after parties. I decided to take Amanda with me to one in a nearby hotel and that's where I think the night officially began to turn sour.