Because he was so different to the other kids in his class, John got bullied quite often. The day he met her, had been the worst yet. Five boys from his class had told him how stupid they thought he was, and one of them had even punched him. John had run to the nearby park, where he had a little hiding spot, where he often ran too after being bullied. He liked the peacefulness of it all, and enjoyed watching the animals. But this time, he wasn't the only one there. There was a small girl sitting right on his spot. He was starting to walk away, when she noticed him.
"Hi" she said, shyly.
"Hello. That's my spot." he blurted out.
"O, I'm sorry…" she said, moving to the side, clearly feeling intimidated by the boy. John sat down on his spot.
"I'm Clara." the girl said, moving a little closer to him.
"I'm John." John replied.
"Do you come here often?" Clara asked.
"Yeah." John replied, not in the mood for talking. Clara being the person she is, noticed that, and stopped asking questions. They sat there for quite a while, listening to all the birds in the distance. After a little while, Clara got up, and said "I have to go home now… Are you going to be here tomorrow too?"
"Probably." John replied, staring into the distance. Clara accepted the answer, and went home.
The next day, after school, they both went to the little spot again. Clara was already there when John arrived.
"Hi! You did come." she said with a smile.
"Yup, I did." he replied, and he actually smiled too.
"Can I talk to you this time?" she asked.
"I guess so. Yesterday was a bad day, today's a bit better."
"What happened yesterday?"
"The kids at school said I was stupid and punched me."
"I don't think you're stupid."
"But you don't even know me!"
"Wait…" They both stayed silent for a second, until a bird started chirping. "What kind of bird is that?" Clara asked John.
"Woodpigeon, probably a young male."
"See, you're smarter than you think." John didn't know what to reply to that.
After a bit more silence he said "Thank you, Clara." She didn't even reply, she just smiled, almost proudly.
The next couple of days, they went to the spot, that was now theirs, and John taught Clara how to hear the difference between birds. Clara was fascinated by it, and tried to remember everything he tells her. When she turned 11, just two months later, she invited him to come to her party. He agreed after some persuading.
After that he came over more regularly. Both of them never really had a close friend, so they were really glad to have someone to go to now. John knew way more than Clara could have ever guessed. Often on boring afternoons, he'd teach Clara about one of those topics. A lot of what he knew was about animals and plants, but he also knew a lot about history and geography. Clara enjoyed learning about these stuff, and was genuinely curious to what John wanted to tell her. Clara would often help John in social situations, because dealing with people wasn't really his thing. John felt very thankful for that. She'd even given him cards for in specific situations, because she knew he'd forget what to do if those situation really arrived.
When one of them got bullied, or felt horrid because of whatever reason, they could just call the other, or come to their spot in the woods. John wasn't too good at the whole comforting thing, but he did the best he could. Clara appreciated him being there, and often his comforting attempts were quite comical, so that would cheer her up a bit.
The older they got, the more people started thinking they were a couple. But they both knew they really weren't a couple, and they kept denying it. After a while they just got used to it, and stopped bothering about what other people said.
When John had to leave town to go to college, Clara was devastated. He only moved about 20 miles away, but this meant that he couldn't come by at random each day. Luckily, they could still phone, and he was going to get his driver's license soon.
Two years later, Clara had to go to college too. John asked her if she'd like to live in the same flat as he did. Clara liked the idea, and luckily for her, her parents didn't mind either.
The first year of college was great fun. John and Clara were able to spend a lot of time together, and both were studying a subject of interest. Well, subject, John was doing three studies in parallel. He was doing history, astrophysics, and math. He would have done more, but his parents and his university wouldn't let him. Clara was studying English.
They were planning on going on a vacation to Australia, when just before they booked the tickets, Clara's mom died.
The moment Clara heard, she immediately stepped on the bus to her parents home. When John returned to their flat and didn't find her, he tried to contact her, but she ignored him.
Clara went to look for her dad, and found him in her house. Everything felt so surreal. Both of them expected her mom to walk in any second. But she didn't. Her dad told Clara some stories about her mom, and after the first few stories, Clara added some moments too. They relived memories, until they were so tired they could barely talk. The next morning, Clara decided to go to her flat again, so her dad would have some time to grieve on his own. When she opened the door, John practically ran to her, and told her how worried he had been.
"My mom died." Clara interrupted him. He went silent, and just gave her a hug. The rest of that day, both of them barely said anything. When it got dark outside, Clara asked John if he would lay in the same bed as here. Just so she wouldn't be alone. She had a double bed anyway. On any other day, John would've protested, but he knew Clara needed someone now, and he was the only one she'd dare to ask.
That whole week, Clara and John slept in the same bed. At first it felt very awkward, but after a while, they both got used to it.
After that week, Clara noticed they were getting just a bit too close, so she shyly asked John if he'd mind moving back to his own bed again.
John said that it was okay, and that he didn't mind. But actually he did. Not that he was in love or anything, but having another person close by, just felt better than being alone.
John noticed that after Clara's mother died, something had changed in the way she behaved. It was just a small change, and he didn't even know what was different, but he knew something had changed.
The biggest change, came only a month after that. Clara had found herself a boyfriend. Clara said John would like him, but John really didn't. He didn't tell her that, but it was probably pretty clear. And even if it hadn't been clear, Clara would probably have noticed. At first, she'd bring him along to their flat, but after quite a lot of bickering between the two guys, she'd more often go to Danny's place. John missed Clara being around. It was so much quieter around the flat, in a negative way. When she was around, she would often tell him about Danny, and when he would complain about it being so quiet, she'd recommend him to look for a girlfriend. (Or boyfriend, hey, she knew almost everything about her friend, but she would never ask him about who he liked.)
He never even considered her advice, until he found this girl in his class. Nobody seemed to know her name, everyone just called her 'Missy'. She was quite weird, and John quite liked her. Missy seemed to like John too, so the time John asked her if she wanted to come over, she accepted, and they had dinner together in his (and Clara's) flat. Missy and John were happy for a few weeks or so, but John never invited her again after one Friday night. She'd had dinner with him, and had liked it, but had complained about the lack of meat. And because there wasn't any more meat in the fridge, she decided she'd just cook Clara's cat. Luckily John caught her just before she'd killed the poor animal. After that, he really disliked her. He could tolerate her, and sometimes noticed he almost liked her again, but then he would remember what had happened, and would go back to hating her again. His hate didn't even seem to be because of her attacking an animal (he didn't like Clara's cat much anyway), but he just couldn't live with the fact that she'd indirectly hurt Clara. What if he hadn't been on time? Clara would have been so sad. He couldn't let anything like that happen.
The relationship between Clara and Danny was quite good, but John noticed Danny asking her about who John was to her often. It seemed even her boyfriend didn't believe they were just friends. Clara seemed to convince him most of the time, but he just didn't believe it.
A year after they met, Clara told John she wanted to propose to Danny. John's first reaction was that this was a man's job, but he was quickly reminded that Clara was never one to follow the 'rules', especially if it limited what she could do. So he asked her how she planned to do it. She explained, and he actually liked her plan. She asked him if he could live with her being married with Danny, and he answered, selflessly, that he could as long as it made her happy.
Clara's plan was basically to tell him to come to dinner with her, and there she then would have decorated a table with "Will you marry me?" on it. She called Danny, and he agreed to come to the restaurant. She urged him to be on time, but not too early. Danny agreed.
When the day arrived, Clara was up early. She had to sit through half of the day first though, so she binge watched her favourite show, to keep her mind off her plan for the day.
That evening at the restaurant, arranging the table went way quicker than planned, which left her sitting at the table nervously. Danny wouldn't be there for another hour! Clara decided to call him, and ask him if he could come sooner. He, after a bit of persuading, agreed, and went on to rush over to the restaurant.
After half an hour, Clara figured he was just taking long choosing what to wear, but when a whole hour had passed, she knew something was wrong. He left earlier than planned, so he would arrive earlier, but he still hadn't come yet. She called his mobile, but nobody picked it up.
She ran out of the restaurant, after asking a waiter to alert her if Danny would show up in the meantime.
Clara planned on walking the whole way from the restaurant to Danny's house, on the route they would usually take. But she couldn't follow it completely, because halfway through there was some weird road block, so she had to take a detour.
He ended up not being in his house, so she tried to call him again. When again she got no reply, she tried to think of places he could be. It was the correct day, so she hadn't mistaken that. He wouldn't just forget her would he? Not knowing what to do, she started on her way back towards the restaurant.
She hated that stupid road block for sure now… It was going to take her at least another ten minutes to get back to the restaurant. 'Why was there a road block anyway?' She thought. Then it dawned on her. 'NO… it can't be…' She was now running, as quick as she could, towards the road that had been blocked. The was an ambulance standing there, and also several police cars. She ran towards the ambulance, ignoring all the signs and people telling her to stay back.
"What happened?"
"You have to get out of here ma'am"
"NO! My boyfriend could be dead!"
"What's your boyfriend's name?"
"Danny, Danny Pink."
"I'm sorry. I'm afraid Danny Pink just died."
"NO! He can't have!"
"He did, now, you have to go." Clara wanted to see him, but the police officers wouldn't let her, so she ran home.
She burst through the door, tears streaming down her face. "Danny died." she exclaimed, running to John. John didn't want to believe it.
"Are you sure it is him?"
"Police found his ID, it matched. It's him. Danny's dead."
"I…. I'm sorry, Clara." John said, almost crying a little himself too. He couldn't stand Clara being sad, he just wanted her to be happy.
After Danny's funeral, everything slowly started to get back to normal. Just like after her mother's death, Clara had changed a bit. Though again, John couldn't pin down what exactly had changed.
John graduated that year, getting three certificates because of the three studies. Clara was very happy for him, but she was afraid of the future. Would he move out now? She couldn't bear 'losing' him too. She had never dared ask him about it, but after the ceremony, she couldn't bear it anymore.
They were sitting on the couch, eating some crisps (John loved crisps), and watching some stupid television program. When it got boring, Clara turned the sound of and just blurted out: "Are you moving out now?"
"What? Why would I? Do you want me too?"
"No, no certainly not. Just… You've finished college now. Usually people who finish college get a job, and go and live with their partners." "I'm living with you already right?"
"Other kinds of partners, like husband or wife."
"Oh."
"But you're staying then?"
"Yeah, if you want me too"
"Of course I do, I just… I was afraid you'd want to leave now. I don't want you to leave."
"I'd never leave you Clara Oswald."
"Nor I you, John Smith." She gave him a short hug, and turned on back the sound of the telly, not wanting more awkward silence.
A few months after that, it was Christmas. The college Clara and John had gone too, always organised a Christmas ball, and Clara loved it. John actually really disliked it, because balls meant socialising with people that weren't Clara, and he didn't really enjoy that too much. Other years, Clara hadn't really minded his absence, having Danny, but this year, him not being here, she didn't know what to do. All of her friends were taking boy/girlfriends, and she was the only one who would have no one to dance with. She told this to John, who then, (regretting it after he had said it), told her he could come with her if she wanted him too. Clara didn't know what to say too that. She really enjoyed spending time with John, but she was afraid things would take a weird turn if they got too close. She told him she'd think about it. John hoped she'd never come back to it.
But to his disappointment, Clara's friends had been bragging so much about the person they were taking, Clara decided she couldn't go alone. So now they were both getting ready for the Christmas ball. Even though they spent most of their time together, they were both pretty nervous. Not only of what all Clara's friends would think, but also, that they'd probably have to dance together. For John, that was practically the thing he looked forward to the most. He had read enough books in which characters didn't notice the world around them when they were dancing. Which would mean, not having to talk to other people. Also, he'd been wondering for quite some time if Clara was a good dancer.
When both of them came out of their rooms, in their fancy ball clothes, they stood still and stared at each other for a while. Clara was wearing a beautiful (at least, that's what John thought), red dress, which (again, according to John), made her look even better than normal. John was wearing a suit, with a longer black coat. Clara thought he looked amazing. Of course, they didn't tell each other that, the whole night was going to be awkward enough already.
They also both ignored the fact that they had both stared for a few seconds, because talking about that would also make it an awkward conversation.
When they arrived at the college hall, Clara took John's hand. He could sense that she was nervous.
Clara greeted all of her friends, and introduced them to John. Most of them had heard of him (he was a small school celebrity because he'd done three studies)(And Clara had casually mentioned him before too). Clara's friends in turn introduced themselves to John, and he did his best to look interested and remember their names, for Clara's sake.
Everything actually went quite well. Clara was happily chatting with her friends, and John was on his phone, working on a research he was doing, about the chance of there being alien life. When he put his phone away to get something to drink, he saw Clara coming towards him.
"All of my friends are going to dance now. Would you..."
"Sure" She grabbed his hand (for the second time that day) and they walked towards the 'ballroom floor'.
Luckily they started with an easy dance, as neither of them had practiced at all. They turned out to both be pretty good. After a while they were the only couple still dancing, and they weren't planning on stopping soon. They both didn't know where they had learnt to dance, and they certainly didn't know why they enjoyed so much, but John mentally noted that they should dance more often. When the song changed, people clapped, and joined in again, as the next song was easier to dance along too.
When after swirling around what seemed like a million times, Clara remarked that she was beginning to feel a little dizzy, so Clara and John decided to stop dancing, and they walked off of the dance floor. They sat down at one of the free tables.
"We definitely should do that more often." John remarked.
"Yeah, I guess we should. You're an amazing dancer!"
"As are you." Clara blushed, and quickly looked down, hoping John hadn't noticed. But he had.
"Why are your cheeks going red."
"Blushing John." she said, quite softly.
"Oh."
Clara's friends soon after noticed that Clara and John were gone, and they walked towards them.
"You are both soo good at dancing!" a girl named Heather remarked.
"How much have you practiced?" her girlfriend Bill asked.
"We hadn't practices at all actually." Clara replied.
"Of course you did!" some other girl said.
"You're just too shy to admit." the boy next to her added.
"No we didn't." Clara defended herself.
"How come you're so good then?" someone asked.
Clara shrugged, but John answered: "Probably some of the tv-shows we've seen? They dance in quite a lot of them."
"That would explain it…" Clara said.
"Okay, okay, fine… We should all watch more tv-shows then. Noted." a voice said. Everyone laughed, and Clara smiled along. John tried, but he wasn't too good at faking smiles. It made Clara laugh though. And as that made him laugh, they were all laughing for a little while. Sadly for Clara and John, the questioning hadn't ended yet, because the boy who had talked before, apparently named Rory, had seen the reasons why both of them had laughed. He quickly made his conclusions, and asked: "How long have you been a couple?"
"We're not a couple." they replied in unison.
"Right…" Rory said.
"We're really not." Clara said.
"What are you then?" his girlfriend, Amy, asked.
"Just good friends. Have been for years." John said.
"O common guys, fess up. You clearly love each other!" Bill said.
"No we don't" Clara replied.
"Only as friends" John said at the same time.
"Oh gosh they don't even know it yet themselves... " Heather said, more to Bill than to the rest of the group, even though everyone heard it. Everyone was by now staring at the pair. Clara couldn't take it anymore, and she saw John didn't like it either.
"Please guys, can we just talk about something else?" she said.
"Okay, okay." Bill said, and continued: "But do think about it. You were enjoying dancing together way too much for 'just good friends."
With that, the conversation luckily turned to another topic, and John went to finally get the drink he was going to get about an hour ago.
The rest of the evening went okay, with everyone talking about random things. Clara thought about dancing again halfway through the evening, but didn't want to face the whole group like they had again. Instead, she figured she'd just go and talk with John a little. He'd been sitting in the corner the whole evening, working of that research of his. Clara caught herself smiling thinking about his 'nerdy side'. "O god." she thought, and quickly walked on.
"Hi." she said, taking the chair next to his.
"How's the research going?" she asked.
"Fine, I think." John replied, not looking up from the screen.
"The thing is, I know how to calculate the chance of alien life, the only thing I need to know, which I don't yet know, is how big the universe is. The problem is, no one seems to know, and math isn't helping me."
"What is the solution if the universe was infinitely big?"
"A number pretty close to hundred, I think. Which would mean, that if the universe is infinitely big, there is a very big chance there are more lifeforms than just us. The thing is, I can't really calculate that, because this equation I made doesn't work with the rules that are needed for calculations with infinity."
"Could you rewrite the equation?"
"Not easily, but that is the best idea I've heard since I started, so thank you." They were both silent for a moment.
"Are you enjoying yourself?" John asked.
"Yeah I guess so… Debating if I'm going to ask you to dance again, or if I'm not ready for another question fire."
"Umm… I thought I was the one with a difficult question," Clara laughed, "but I guess we could just ignore the people? The ball's almost finished anyway, we could leave directly after dancing?"
"The question was so complicated you found an answer immediately." Clara remarked, smiling. John smiles back, and gets up. He reaches out for her hand, and they move towards the 'ball floor'.
"Finally acknowledge your feelings?" Amy shouted after them.
"What feeling?" Clara shouted back, before starting to dance.
They danced for another half an hour. Again, they seem to be the better dancing couple on the dance floor. When the music stops, they are pretty disappointed, but also pretty tired, so they accept that it's time to go home. After getting their coats, they walk towards the car. Whilst walking, Clara quickly says goodbye to her friends, before they drive home.
Clara was planning on going to bed immediately, but her head wasn't in a sleeping mode, and it appeared that John's wasn't either. After putting on her PJ's, she went to the little kitchen, and put the kettle on.
When the tea was made, she sat down on the couch, and John joined her.
"I actually kind of enjoyed myself."
"Me too. Just didn't like all the questions of my friends."
"Yeah… Me neither… The dancing was nice though."
"Yeah." They both smiled.
"We could do that more often you know, if you want. The living room is pretty big if you move the furniture in a corner."
"We could do that yeah… Sound pretty nice."
"How about today next week? We'll have time to rest our legs from today, and it's the first day of holiday."
"Good idea. I think I'd better go sleep now though, otherwise I'll fall asleep whilst dancing next week." Clara said, with a grin. She gave John a hug, and walked to her room.
"Goodnight." they said in unison. Laughing, they both walked into their own room.
The rest of the week was weird for Clara. She couldn't get the words of her friends out of her head. What if she did have feelings? She tried to dismiss that thought as soon as it popped into her head, but it didn't seem to work.
John was also thinking of it, but he wasn't trying to dismiss the thought, he just didn't know what to do with it. What if he did have feelings? Like, it sounded pretty good to him, having a valid reason to live with Clara for the rest of his life, but how would it change the way they treated each other? And if he was the only one with feelings, would she still want to live with him?
When it was finally Friday, they were both pretty happy. John had to work in the morning, and Clara had to finish something at college, but they were both home by lunch. They first ate lunch, and then debated if they were going to save the dancing for the evening, or if they would just start now. Eventually they decided to wait till evening, because the light would look nicer then. They figured they'd watch tv till dinner, and then change clothes after that.
They watched some movies, and one tv-show (in which some people actually danced), and Clara looked up a nice music playlist during the movie she'd already seen.
John remarked that they'd never eaten dinner this fast, and he hoped that Clara wouldn't take too long getting ready.
They moved all the furniture and lighting first, and then retreated to their rooms. About twenty minutes later, Clara finished. John finished a few minutes later.
John was wearing something similar to last time, but his suit was a kind of bordeaux red instead of black.
Clara had gotten out her favourite dress. It was light blue.
Just like the week before, they stood still for a moment, and stared at each other. After a little while Clara moved towards the speaker box she had put next to the tv, connecter her phone to it, and started the music.
They walked towards each other, and John couldn't help saying: "You look beautiful, Clara!"
"You do too John." Clara replied, blushing.
They started dancing. It went quite well, but both of them seemed to be pretty nervous, and they bumped into the furniture quite a lot to begin with. After a few minutes they knew where not to step, and they danced without being interrupted by furniture.
After about half an hour, John stopped, and got something to drink from the kitchen.
"Everything okay?" Clara asked him.
"Yeah fine, just very thirsty. I did just say that didn't I?"
"Not that I remember?"
"Probably whispered it then… sorry."
"No, it's fine."
"Here" John handed Clara her glass.
"Wine?" Clara asked, clearly not expecting that. "I didn't even know we had it in the house."
"I got it this morning, after work." John replied.
"Why's that?"
"Well, holiday, almost Christmas I guess, why not?"
"Fair point."
They drank some of their wine in silence, before putting it down, and continuing the dancing.
After that they literally danced till midnight. They had done all kinds of dances, and had enjoyed themselves very much. John never knew he could do one and the same thing for so long. Both of them was hoping the other would agree on doing this each week.
When midnight arrived, the dropped down on the couch (which was in the corner of the room) with their glasses of wine. They sat there in silence, both far away in thoughts. When John wanted to say something, he noticed Clara had fallen asleep on his shoulder. Not wanting to wake her up, he carefully removed her empty glass of wine out of her hand, and put hers and his on the nearby coffee table. Luckily the blanket that was usually in a random spot in the room, was also moved to the corner they were sitting in, so he carefully picked up the blanket, and spread it out over them, and fell asleep.
The next morning, Clara woke up first. She was in full holiday spirit, so she made a good English breakfast with bacon, eggs, toast, baked beans, and of course, tea. When she was almost finished, John woke up. "Goodmorning sleepyhead."
"Goodmorning! You're up early!"
"Yup."
"Wow that smells good!"
"It's almost done. How about we move the furniture back first?"
"Good idea." They quickly moved the furniture back, and Clara dished up the food. They sat down on the couch again, and started eating.
"Wow, this is so good!"
"Thank you." Clara smiled.
"Could we do that more often?" John shyly asks, halfway through the meal.
"The breakfast or the dancing?" Clara asked teasing.
"You know which one."
"Sounds like a good plan."
So that's what they did. From then on, every Friday night was dance night. After a while they knew all the music, but it was still amazing. John had really thought he'd get bored of it, but somehow he liked it more each time.
Clara would also take him to social gatherings more often. Her friends seemed to like John, and some of them would even try to talk to him about sciency stuff. Every time she'd see him socialise with some of her friends, she'd smile. Sometimes, he'd notice, and smiled back.
Then one day, Rory came to Clara, and asked her if they could talk in private. Clara didn't know what to expect, but what he actually said wasn't even on her long list of things he could have to say.
"John fessed up."
"Fessed up?"
"He said he loved you."
"He did what?"
"We were talking with some of the guys, about our girlfriends, and we asked him if he had a girlfriend, and he said he'd tell us who he liked, if we swore we wouldn't tell anyone else. He told us he loved you, and that he'd only realised this past weekend. He urged us not to tell you though, he didn't want to ruin your friendship."
"How do I know this is true?"
"Why would I lie?"
"I don't know, there must be some reason."
"You can ask John yourself later."
"But he didn't want me to know."
"You needed to find out eventually."
"But I would have liked it being me finding it out, not someone telling something he told you in confidence."
"You love him too don't you?"
"He's my friend. And apparently you are not."
"What? I was just trying to help."
"Don't try to help by betraying trust."
Clara walked off, quite mad.
She didn't know what to do. Should she talk to John about it, or should she just leave it? She decided to leave it for the time being, not wanting to risk asking him about it.
That Friday was dancing night again, and Clara noticed how much of a routine it had become. They still enjoyed it just as much as on that college ball, maybe even more, but all preparations just happened, taking no thought whatsoever.
Despite all of this, John noticed Clara wasn't at ease. She seemed more nervous that normal. He asked her: "Are you okay Clara?"
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" she answered, more like a reflex than an answer.
"You seem to be… almost nervous?" he said, hoping it didn't sound weird.
"Probably it was just a busy week."
"Would you rather rest now, in stead of dance?"
"No, no. I'd love to dance now."
"Okay… You'll tell me if something is really bothering you right? I'm your friend, I want to help."
"Will do, thanks." Clara said, before retreating to the bathroom.
Clara felt so weird. Last Wednesday night, she'd been thinking about everything that had happened to her in the past couple of weeks, and she somehow felt very happy when thinking about the moments she'd been dancing with John. She'd wanted to not think about it, but she couldn't stop thinking about him. She hadn't really noticed, but looking back, she seemed to have been falling in love with him for the last few weeks. 'O god.' she'd thought.
Her mind had since then made up several ways she could tell him she loved him. Quite a lot of those involved eventually kissing him. She tried not to linger on that thought too much, because she was afraid he'd somehow read her mind. (She didn't know how, but he always seemed to know what was going on in her head.)
When she came back into the room, she'd made up her mind. She'd just carefully tell him. Clara hoped her nerves wouldn't be too noticeable, but she knew she was so nervous, nearly everyone would notice, especially John. She walked towards the speaker to plug the music in, but John stopped her.
"You don't seem to want to talk about it, but something is really bothering you Clara."
"You notice everything don't you?" Clara said sighing. "How about we sit down for a moment." she said, walking towards the couch in the corner of the room. John sat down next to her. She rested her head on his shoulder, so she wouldn't have to look into his eyes. Now she'd have to say it. Was she really going too? Her nerves were reaching new highs, as her heart pounded in her chest.
"Clara, are you okay?" John asked her.
"I love you." She blurted out.
She was so scared of his reaction, that she closed her eyes, and hoped that he'd react soon. But John was apparently so surprised, that he just sat there, in silence.
"John?" She whispered, barely audible.
"I love you too." John replied, also whispering. Clara didn't know what to say. She'd hoped he'd say that, but never expected him to really do so. She sat up again, and looked him in the eyes. She was so happy, she almost cried. She noticed her vision going blurry.
"Clara, is everything okay? Why are you crying?" "Happy tears John, happy tears."
"O thank goodness." Clara laughed, and that made John laugh.
"Well, here we are then. How about we dance?" Clara said, as she already started walking towards the speaker. John just smiled, and followed her.
They started dancing, and they danced more and better than they ever had. Somewhere halfway through their dance, Clara had randomly kissed John, which startled him so much, he nearly fell over. When he was standing steadily again, they decided to try kissing again, hoping none of them would fall over this time.
The whole thing went on the whole night. Dancing, kissing, dancing, kissing, and dancing again. They had never been so happy before.
A month or two later, when Clara went out with her friends, she took John along, and they told her friends that they were a couple now. Clara's friends cheered, and congratulated them. Some jokingly asked when the wedding was going to be. John, taking the question seriously, answered: "Probably within two years? What do you think Clara?" Clara laughed, and whispered into his ear that it had been a joke.
"O woops," He whispered back, "Still…" he said, and paused, looking for something in his pocket.
"Clara Oswald, will you marry me?"
"NO WAY." shouted Bill, excitedly. Clara looked at John and smiled, and, not knowing anything more original to say, said "Yes." John slipped the ring around her finger, and stood up. Clara got up on her toes, and kissed him. The crowd of friends around them cheered, and they both blushed.
"Never knew I'd get to marry you eventually." Clara said. "Wouldn't have changed a thing if I did though."