Week of Prom, Thursday

Kevin has seemed to digress severely in the past 48 hours. He's stepping on feet, making jerky motions, and loosing complete track of tempo and the movement of his body.

At one point, he almost fell over, taking Edd with him, but it was nowhere near as funny as the last time he caused them to fall over. When they regain their balance, he lets go of Edd, grabs his phone from the coffee table, and stops the music. He starts pacing, clearly frustrated.

"I'm sorry dork, I'm just hella nervous. I feel like I'm going to make a damn fool of myself."

"Kevin, you've been doing fine."

"No, I haven't. This is just awful."

"Well, today's an off day, but otherwise, you've been improving marvelously."

"But now I'm absolute shit."

"Language! And you're not! Like you said, you're nervous… you're probably going through what I've was going through on Tuesday."

At that, Kevin stops pacing and looks at Edd for a moment. He maneuvers around the coffee table, to lay across the couch, draping an arm across his eyes. Edd gingerly sits down on the recliner, watching Kevin for a few moments, as they sit in silence.

Suddenly, Kevin takes a deep breath. "Hey dork, tell me I'm not going to mess this up."

"Kevin, you're not going to mess this up."

There was a few more moments of silence before Kevin says, "Tell me I'm not going to trip all over the place."

"You won't trip all over the place."

"Tell me I won't make a damn fool of myself."

"You won't make a fool of yourself."

"Tell me I won't fuck up at prom."

"You won't… well... you won't mess up at prom." Edd felt less tense as he saw how Kevin had smiled at Edd's attempt to edit his last statement.

"Tell me I won't ruin everything."

"Kevin, I'm not even sure how all this can 'ruin everything,' so safe to say, you won't ruin everything."

"Tell me I won't get rejected."

"Of course, you won't get rejected! Absolutely anyone would feel lucky to even have you ask them to dance with you!"

Kevin uncovers his eyes and stares at Edd for a minute. Edd could feel the blush invade his face, a frequent occurrence of this past month.

Kevin stood up, and carefully maneuvered around the coffee table, while fiddling with his phone. He places his phone on the coffee table and goes to stand in front of Edd, still seated on the recliner. Edd hears the start of a slower waltz starting, as Kevin says, "Well, if that's how you feel, consider yourself lucky."

"What do you mean?"

Kevin holds out his hand, helping Edd up. But once upright, he doesn't let go. "May I have this dance?"

Edd doesn't say anything in response. He just steps closer, placing an arm on Kevin's shoulder, while adjusting their clasped hands.

As they started dancing, Edd was thinking that he did indeed feel lucky to be dancing with Kevin. These dance practices may be ending soon, but he quite enjoyed them, and he shouldn't be bitter over whatever was happening between Nazz and Kevin. He was taking in the moment for what it's worth, enjoying it in the present, instead of worrying about the lack of it in the future.

However, halfway through the dance, Edd recalled all of Kevin's requests to tell him specific things and got curious about them.

"Kevin… did you make me say all those things just to stroke your ego?"

"Perhaps," Kevin said, looking directly at Edd with a smirk. But the smirk faulters, and he quickly focuses on their clasped hands instead. "Actually… it was less of an ego stroke and more like encouragement."

"I see."

"Yeah. Sorry I made you do that. But it really helped me out, dude. I was getting super stressed. These past few days my confidence started to plummet, to the point where I wanted to bail on prom myself."

Edd tightened his grip on Kevin. "If I'm going, you'd better go. I am only going because of you, after all!"

Kevin looked back up at him. "You don't say."

"Yes… well… you kept asking me if I would go… you know… peer pressure and all that."

"Uh huh, sure. You also going to go to Nat's after, or should I keep peer pressuring you first?" Kevin said, trying to suppress his smirk.

Edd rolled his eyes. "No. No peer pressure necessary. As long as I have a place for my overnight bag during prom, I'll go."

"Lock it in Nat's trunk," Kevin said hastily, almost as if it were all one word.

Before Edd could ask what he said, the song ends, and a much slower song starts. Kevin stops his feet, not as smoothly as he once was, but much better than earlier today. He pulls Edd completely up against him, and they start to slow dance.

Edd enjoyed the feeling of dancing with him one last time, wishing this was prom.