Alex
Jesus Christ! Can you help a girl out here? You made a real stubborn one for me you know. What is this my calling or something? After Austin walked off, I decided not to chase after him. He probably needed to be alone and I did kind of deserve it after how I treated him yesterday. But hey, he wasn't apologizing to me.

I mean he was being mean to me first. That's the whole reason I was so tight and didn't even bother trying to have a conversation with him. Whatever. I don't need him anyway, Darrell does. Ugh, Darrell. What was I going to tell him? I'll just have to be honest I guess. I mean it was wrong of him to thrust this responsibility on me in the first place. When you think about it, he didn't even give me the chance to answer when he had asked me to talk to Austin.

So technically I'm not breaking a promise or anything. So yeah, I'll just tell him today at dance. But I couldn't help remembering how good it felt to see Austin smile. I had ruined that with my pride. And if I told Darrell that I didn't want to help Austin out then I wouldn't have an excuse to talk to him.

If I kept trying to convince him I could pretend that I was forcing myself to talk to him. Then he wouldn't know how much I wanted to rub his body down with some butter and run my hands all up and down his chiseled abs. Oh. My. Gosh. I did not just think that. Must be the heat in here. We just gotta be the cheap school who can't afford ACs in every room and aint even got an auditorium.

Phew. I'm just gonna go to class before I'm late. Seriously need to get my head straight. There's just something I couldn't help wondering. It was wrong to use Austin and Darrell and this whole dancing thing to foster my own desires even though I kept telling myself I didn't think he was hot. Would I ever get him to join? Something told me I wasn't going to like the answer.

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Lunch time. My favorite time of the school day. But we had to pay for our lunch here. I know, right? We didn't have to pay when I used to go to school in Brooklyn. I piled on a heap of food and sat down. I had two cheeseburgers, a slice of pizza, popcorn chicken, two orders of fries, a soda, a slushy, and two cookies.

The lunch ladies used to look at me weird but then they started complementing me. Like yesterday, Betty, my favorite lunch lady, was like "The usual?" and when I nodded she said, "It's good that we finally got a girl up in here that can eat more than my husband. Too many girls these days starvin' themselves." Then she smiled and gave me two extra cookies. I was about to return them when she shook her head and winked at me and I understood.

I sat down and began eating my lunch. My table was packed as always. I'm not exactly unpopular. Not that I care. I think popularity is a scale people use as an excuse for why they have a right to be jealous of someone else.

"Hey. Guys I think I'm going to sit over there. The enclosed is space is getting to me today," I said.

They all looked sad at first, but when Haley shot them a look they all brightened instantly. "Thanks Haley."

I walked over to the other table and sat down to eat my lunch. I didn't even get to look at my food when I heard it. The laugh. Again. Would this kid ever leave me alone? I looked up at him annoyed then started on my first cheeseburger. If he wasn't going to be nice to me then I wasn't going to be nice to him. He had a tray in his hand stacked with food that you'd expect someone like him to eat. He had about half of what I had on his tray and a Propel.

When I didn't say anything to him he smiled and said, "Now I KNOW you not gonna finish all of that food."

"Obviously you don't know much. But I guess you already figured that out when you had to repeat kindergarten," I said rashly.

"How did you know I had to repeat kindergarten?" he asked his face tense with his fists and jaw clenched.

"I uh didn't. You had to repeat kindergarten?" I asked.

"I doubt it matters," he said head down jaw still clenched.

"Do you actually need something this time? Or are you just here to criticize me for your own entertainment?" I asked.

"Nah. It's not like that. I actually do need something," he said looking up. I looked at him and waited for him to say something else.

When he didn't I said, "And that thing would be?" He sighed and then looked at me very seriously and I noticed he had nice brown eyes.

"I need us to be friends Alex. I can't fight with you anymore. It's hurting me. I can't even think straight anymore. We cool or what?" he asked smiling.

My eyes were wide. This was not what I was expecting. I tried to make some words come out my mouth. "Uh yeah. Yeah we cool," was all I could muster.

We started eating and when we were both finished I decided to ask him about what Darrell had said. "So you been thinkin about the dancin' thing lately? Darrell really thinks you got some potential." I said. He smiled and looked at me with those eyes.

"Well Alex, I don't know why Darrell would tell you this. Maybe I can dance, maybe I can't. Doesn't mean I'm going to join some dance group. I'm not sure if Darrell told you this, but my parents don't support me dancing. So there you go," he said keeping his calm tone.

I don't know what happened to me, but something made me brave enough to sit down beside him and rap an arm around his shoulders. I felt for him. I knew what it was like. I said to him, "Hey. Look at me, come on. Listen, I know what it's like. My parents are the same way. I have to sneak out everyday just to get to dance class. I can help you with that. I do it all the time. All you have to do is say yes."

"Well even if you could get me there, doesn't mean I'm going to do it. I'm not that good anyway. Listen, I gotta go to class. I'll see you if I see you," he said to me and walked out the cafeteria.

I stood there for three seconds then realized I would be late for my next class if I didn't leave right away. When school was finally over I told Haley I couldn't walk with her to dance today because I had something to do. She cocked an eyebrow at me and said, "You never cancel on me. The last time you did was because your grandfather died, not to bring that up again. What's going on?"

"I just have something to do. Ight? I'll meet you at dance."

I walked outside to go check the basketball court to look for Austin. On my way there I heard some music in the alleyway behind our school. Sure enough, it's Austin. After realizing that he's paying no attention to his surroundings, I decide to come out of my hiding place and lean my shoulder on the building in front of him. After maybe 10 minutes, he stopped dancing and realized I was standing there.

I quickly said, "No, don't stop. Don't let me bother you. That was really good. I thought you said you couldn't dance."

"I didn't say that. I said maybe I can, maybe I can't. You seriously want me to do this dance thing don't you?" he asked me.

I nodded. He smiled and I just about melted right there on the spot. Then he said, "Ight fine. But just because you're so...annoying."

He threw his head back and started laughing. "You really thought I was going to complement you. Dude, I don't even know you. But I'll do your dancing thing."

Then I said, "For your information I was not expecting a compliment. But don't do it for me, Austin. Do it because you want to."

"I do want to…but just because of Darrell and the fact that he got someone so damn persuasive to convince me."

"Is that a compliment?? From Austin James?"

"It wasn't a compliment, it was a regular statement. You are very persuasive. You know I was kidding about before with the thing before about you expecting a compliment right?"he asked.

"Yeah I know," I said looking away.

"Let's just get this over with."

"Yea let's go," I said even though I knew I'd rather just stand there and watch him dance.

I turned and led the path away from my desires and a royal pain in the you-know-damn-well-what.