The night was starting to get boring and Hannah and Dwayne were doing anything to keep themselves preoccupied. They continued with truth or dare and Hannah had dared Dwayne to go steal a beer. Hannah was currently waiting in the hallway, sitting on the floor and hoping he didn't get caught.
She didn't have to wait much longer before Dwayne emerged with a cold one. He handed it to her and sat beside her. She just stared at the full bottle as Dwayne took off his vest. He had complained earlier about how hot he was. She agreed with him that he was 'hot'. He thought she was just joking, but she wasn't.
Are you going to drink it?
"No, do you want any?" She asked him.
No, I don't like alcohol
"You've tried it before?" Hannah asked curiously.
Yeah, last Christmas my Uncle Frank gave me some Sherry, it was horrible. And my mom ranted about it for weeks. Anyway, that's why my Uncle is banned from our house at the moment.
Hannah laughed at his funny little story.
So what are you going to do with that?
"Let's toss it out." Hannah said walking to the water fountain and pouring it down the drain and keeping the bottle. "Hey, why don't we have a talent contest? This could be our mike." Hannah said speaking into the empty bottle. It made her voice get deeper and echo only a little.
But I don't think I have any talents.
"Oh sure you do. I'll go first so you can think." Then she did her best rendition of Razzle Dazzle. It wasn't that good and she laughed threw most of the song and did this horrid little dance with it. She was being horrible on purpose to make him feel better and have more self confidence.
When she was done, Dwayne gave her a standing ovation. "And now put your hands together and welcome Dwayne! Woo!" They traded places and Hannah sat down in the middle of the hallway, watching him.
He bent over and it looked like he was going to touch his toes, what an impressive talent. But that's not what he did. He laid his hands flat on the floor, (man, he must be really flexible, she couldn't even touch her toes.) and he flipped his legs up in the air. He was standing on his hands with his legs straight in the air. He didn't wobble very much and he walked around a little on his hands before he leaned backwards and landed squarely on his feet and bowed.
"What an impressive talent. I could never do that. I'm so not flexible." Dwayne sat down next to her.
Glad you liked it. I do it for Olive sometimes to impress her, so I thought you might like it.
"I did. Now who wins?"
You, hands down.
"No way, I was horrible. You were much better." Hannah said being modest again.
You were brilliant.
And Dwayne leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. The little peck sent shivers down her spine and made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. They looked at each other for a long moment. Perhaps testing each other before Dwayne started to lean towards her. Her breath caught as he got closer, and closer.
Then a loud shrill sounded threw out the whole building. Hannah leaned away and covered her ears. It was the fire alarm. They quickly got to their feet, Hannah tossed the bottle away in the nearest trash can, and they followed the large crowd outside.
There was a large crowd already gathering by the door, and they walked to the back of the crowd. Dwayne pulled on his vest again and zipped it up. It was far colder than it was earlier.
"Brrr…." Hannah complained about the cold. Dwayne reached for her to give her a hug to warm her up when they heard Mrs. Eve calling for them.
"Hannah! Hannah! Where are you?" She called out.
"Over here mom!" Hannah yelled back. Mrs. Eve emerged from the crowd and ran to her daughter sweeping her into a large hug.
"I was so worried when I didn't see you. For a second I thought I might have lost you amongst the crowd or flames." Mr. Eve soon appeared out of the crowd and wrapped his arm around his wife.
"So there really is a fire?" Hannah asked.
"Oh yes, yes. Now we need to stay here until the fires out. Our coats are in there."
"Now Hannah," Mr. Eve said, "You and David go to the car and keep warm. Here are my keys." Mr. Eve handed her the keys.
"Dad, its Dwayne! Not David or Wayne or Cowboy Steve or whatever crazy thing your going to say next."
"Alright, sweet. Go to the car." Mr. Eve said in an overly happy voice suggesting he didn't even listen to what his daughter was saying.
Hannah and Dwayne sat silently in the car too afraid to talk because neither really wanted to discuss what almost happened inside. Hannah kept looking at Dwayne's watch, checking the time. It was past 12:40 and the fire trucks were there. They seemed to have put the fire out.
"Goodness gracious. This is going to take all night." Hannah said scooting closer to Dwayne. He looked down at her kindly and wrapped his arm around her when she complained of being cold. She snuggled her head into the place between his shoulder and his chest. Breathing him in deeply and closing her eyes. She was much more tired than she though. She barley remembered her parents coming back to the car. She remembered her mother rambling about 'stupid drunk people.' And she kind of remembers her saying something about a torch, or was it a flame thrower. It didn't really matter.
All Hannah could think about as she drifted off was Dwayne and how close he was. And about there almost kiss. She let out a soft sigh that only Dwayne heard as fell asleep.
