The Christmas disco at Leadworth comprehensive was never the slickest affair: paper snowflakes that had probably been cut out by drunk teachers at their Christmas do were cello taped sparingly around the dingy hall as the only visible decoration and in the corner one of the tables from the classroom across the hall had been loaded with luke-warm bottles of "panda pop" and sticky bags of Haribo, as if the event was meant to be for 6 year olds. Still, it was about the most exciting thing that ever happened in Leadworth and had the potential to be a laugh, or so Amy thought as she tottered into the crowded room on heels she could barely stand up in, but even her low expectations were dashed when she got a proper look around. The DJ looked about ninety and was blasting out some weird funk song she was grateful she had never heard before now and the few of her classmates that had shown up were just clustered around the edge of the hall bobbing awkwardly to the music and avoiding eye contact with each other. what a complete mess.
Mels had absolutely refused to come, saying that it wouldn't be a patch on some of the clubs she had got into in Gloucester, but Amy expected that Rory would be around somewhere- he tended to go wherever she did.
She finally located him hiding around the back of the crowd, trying to look inconspicuous despite being about a foot taller than everyone near him.
"Rory!"
She waved manically to try and get his attention and then gestured to a spot near her mouthing "Get your stupid face over here!"
He grinned and made his way over, but he looked slightly apprehensive and once he'd freed himself from the crowd Amy knew exactly why.
Someone (she assumed his mother) had not just let him go in the scruffy jeans and half-decent shirt that most of the guys were wearing but had apparently gone to the formal men's department in M&S and bought….everything. Rory was wearing a three piece suit without the jacket, which he had slung over his arm in what was presumably an attempt to look less like the best man at a posh wedding. He had a tightly knotted White tie with gold "embellishments", a white handkerchief tucked into his pocket and Amy wouldn't have been at all surprised to see a monocle as well. His hair had also been slicked back horribly and she noticed how everyone who saw him did a double take and then sniggered. She had been on the edge of laughter herself, but seeing this she felt a rush of unexpected sympathy for her friend.
"Are you alright?" She was just about able to make herself heard over the music and he nodded wearily.
"Yeah," he shouted back "It's just Mum she-" the volume of the music suddenly rose earsplittingly loud, cutting him off and causing everyone in the vicinity to wince and the DJ to kick his machine angrily.
Amy rolled her eyes and grabbed Rory by the sleeve, dragging him off in the direction of the girl's loos where it would probably be quieter, ignoring his struggles and drowned out protests.
"-What do you think you're playing at Amy, these are the girl's toilets!" He said in frantic hushed tones, as she pushed him into one of the two empty cubicles and bolted the door behind them.
"Oh don't be so stupid, it's only you and I think we can agree that this is an emergency" she replied, eyeing up his outfit again and feeling a little uncomfortable about how close they stood together in the confined space.
"That's not the point." His face was now flooded with colour and Amy fleetingly thought about giving him a hug, but then realised there were more important matters to be dealing with.
"Look, you're one of my best friends and it's our year eleven disco and I am not letting you spend it dressed like that." He opened his mouth to speak but she didn't let him get the chance. "I know there's nothing else but we can at least get you to look a bit less….funeral director-y. Here…"
He let her push him down onto the closed toilet seat in a resigned sort of a way and then noticed her shoes.
"you…don't tell me you can actually walk in those?" he said, smiling a bit. She felt her own cheeks flush.
"I don't know what you're talking about," she managed to reply with dignity, avoiding his eye. "Take that tie off for a start, and I'll try and get some of this stuff out of your hair"
"Amy, you can barely walk 5 steps in trainers without falling over something" He smiled provocatively, but his expression changed to a grimace as he tried to undo the knot. "I can't do it…it's too tight."
Amy rolled her eyes.
"You are such a wuss. Let me have a go" she bent over a little to inspect the challenge and started trying to undo it, strangely conscious of the heat of his skin under her fingers and how his breath caught in her hair as she worked.
"There!" She said, finally freeing him and stepping back much too quickly with a sharp, false laugh.
"Thanks"
There was a strained silence in which both of them turned even pinker.
"Er….so…" she mumbled awkwardly, avoiding his eye.
"Yeah." He laughed nervously and gestured to himself "get on with it then – whatever it is you're trying to do to me"
She smiled and retorted slyly and everything went back to normal.
Around 10 minutes later Rory was looking a bit more ordinairy, with the sleeves of his shirt rolled up, no tie and rather wet but at least much messier hair. They were just seeing if they could scuff his shoes a bit to make them less shiny when a drift of familiar music caused Amy to suddenly straighten up, grinning.
"It's the Macarena! Finally something normal – come on!"
She slid the bolt back and ran towards the door as quickly as her shoes would permit her, Rory several steps behind her, before smashing the it open and joining the crowd on the dance floor.
She had actually completed the routine twice before noticing that Rory wasn't beside her anymore, but was once again just hanging around the edge of the hall . His eyes turned wide with horror when she indicated that he should come and dance and in the end she actually had to go and physically drag him onto the dance floor.
"You are not getting away from me that easily Mr Williams!" she shouted over the music "You can come and look stupid with meee!"
"But I don't know what to do!" he yelled back, looking in confusion at the synchronised dancers around him and jiggling awkwardly in time to the music.
"Of course you do- It's the Macarena! Just watch me!"
She joined in with the dancing for a few rotations, and then noticed that Rory was attempting to join in too, still occasionally getting the moves in the wrong order but doing much better than she expected.
"You're doing it!" she shouted, and he glanced over his shoulder, grinning and missing the "wiggle and jump" bit.
They both carried on dancing, occasionally turning to smile at each other and feeling that weird elation that loud music so often brings. Amy felt that she could stay here forever, the simple loudness of the music meaning that worries, walls and self-consciousness were left far behind. It was now, as she watched Rory triumphantly Jump 90 degrees with everyone else, that it came: the most important thought she had ever, and would ever have.
She saw her friend's laughing face, the joy and warmth in his eyes and how his arms and legs seemed a little too long compared with rest of his body. She saw the years they had spent together, the hours they had spent teasing each other and how he had been the first person ever to believe her about the Doctor. She saw all this and thought just one thing: that this gangly idiot was simply the most beautiful person she had ever met.
He turned to face her and without thinking, without even knowing what she was doing, she kissed him.
He froze with shock for a moment, blinked and then kissed her back, his lips so soft and his arms coming to wrap around her waist in the midst of the oblivious crowd. Then the music faded out, to be replaced by the superman song, and with it went the moment and all the surety she had felt minutes before. Rory. She was kissing Rory- her best friend. And people could actually see them.
She wrenched herself out of his arms and put her hand to her mouth, wiping away the kiss, before looking back up at Rory with a false, cheery grin on her face.
"Oops, Sorry about that. Sort of got lost in the moment." She forced out a laugh that did not belong to her and made her face into a kind of embarrassed grimace before turning away to face the sound system, but not before she'd seen his expression- shocked, horrified and miserable.
When she next dared to look at him he was gone. They never spoke of the moment again until years later, when the penny dropped.