Chapter 8: A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More Touch Me

I confess, I messed up

Dropping "I'm sorry" like you're still around

And I know, you're dressed up

Hey kid, you'll never live this down

You're just the girl all the boys want to dance with

And I'm just the boy who's had too many chances

I'm sleeping on your folk's porch again, dreaming

She said, she said, she said

"Why don't you just drop dead?"

I don't blame you for being you

But you can't blame me for hating it

So say "What are you waiting for?

Kiss her, kiss her"

I set my clocks early because I know I'm always late

Write me off, give up on me, 'cause

"Darling, what did you expect?"

I'm just off, a lost cause

A long shot, don't even take this bet

I'm sleeping on your folk's porch again, dreaming

She said, she said, she said

"Why don't you just drop dead?"

I don't blame you for being you

But you can't blame me for hating it

So say "What are you waiting for?

Kiss her, kiss her"

I set my clocks early because I know I'm always late

DEAN THOMAS?

He was losing Blaise to DEAN THOMAS?

Oh, this move was not going to fly.

Draco spun around in mid-step, nearly tripping and burst back into the Great Hall. He kept walking past Pansy, who was calling his name, Clarissa who was yelling at Graham, Goyle who was trying to see how many French toast sticks he could fit into his mouth at once, Cho Chang who was showing everyone the new bag her mother had sent her, Luna Lovegood who was stirring her oatmeal violently, Hermione Granger who was reading the Daily Prophet, Seamus Finnigan who was arguing with Ron Weasley, Harry Potter who was eating his pancake, until –

He reached Ginny Weasley who was staring off into space. "Ginny." He said, tapping her on the shoulder. By now, he could feel several pairs of eyes boring into his skull. Ron had stopped arguing, Hermione had stopped reading, Harry had stopped eating, Kristen had started fuming-

"Don't touch her, Malfoy." Ron said, causing Ginny to snap to attention.

"What are you doing?" Kristen harped, rushing over from the Ravenclaw table.

"Ginny, we need to talk," Draco said, ignoring both Ron and Kristen, two people who were not taking well to being ignored.

"What?" Ginny asked, as if she had just woken up.

"Talk. Alone. Without these two pain in the asses." He said, not thinking before he spoke. Ron burned scarlet and Kristen practically billowed steam out of her ears.

"Stay away from him!" Kristen growled, moving in between Draco and Ginny. Ginny stepped around her, clearly unafraid of the blonde Ravenclaw.

"Let's go," Ginny said in a way, that made Draco think that she may have been expecting this conversation.

"You go with her and I'll –" Kristen started to say but was cut off by Draco.

"You'll do what?" He snapped. He had no time for this nonsense. Kristen had been getting on his nerves more and more ever since she asked him to the dance, and now it seemed he had the perfect opportunity to get rid of her.

"Go with someone else to the dance!" Kristen screeched. By now, several more Gryffindors and Luna Lovegood were watching.

"Be sure to tell me who so I can send them a sympathy card!" He hollered back before walking out with Ginny.

"I HATE YOU, DRACO MALFOY!"

Draco led Ginny down the hall for a few minutes until they had finally lost the last of the lot following them. (Kristen, Ron, Pansy, Rose Zeller….the list continued)

"Dean." Draco said.

"We broke up." Ginny said, folding her arms across her chest.

"He's with Blaise." Draco said, not able to come up with any sentence more advanced than that.

"I know." Ginny said. "They are going to the dance tonight. Apparently they have a lot in common."

"What the hell do they have in common?" Draco asked, suddenly quite aware that now he was not going to the dance.

"They're beaters?" Ginny suggested, clearly not knowing why.

"This dance was the dumbest idea ever." Draco hissed.

"Tell me about it." Ginny snarled, surprising Draco. He thought for sure that she would defend her precious Dumbledore's idea.

"You're not going?" Draco asked, quite surprised. After all, this was Ginny Weasley, the second prettiest girl in the school, in his opinion.

"I am going with Seth Beriatti." Ginny swung back.

"Seth has a girlfriend at Salem." Draco pointed out.

"We're going as friends." Ginny said of the seventh year Ravenclaw. "And you can't make fun of me, your date left you."

"Thank god, she is gone." He said of Kristen.

"I cannot believe that you went out with Kristen Hart." Ginny laughed. "I thought even you had better taste."

"I never went out with her." Draco replied. "Anyway, I'm friends with her cousin, he set us up to go to the dance."

"You couldn't find your own date?" Ginny laughed, and Draco was suddenly crossed with the thought that Ginny was much nicer a few weeks ago.

"I couldn't go with who I wanted to because she was a Slytherin," Draco defended himself, not realizing until after he had said it that he implied that he liked Blaise.

"Dean is trying to hurt me and you." Ginny confessed. "I was talking to you and that hurt him and he knows that you are only really close to Blaise and so he could hurt you by taking her away from you."

"Stupid prat." Draco said, jealous of Dean's manipulative, Slytherin like ways. "And Blaise wants to hurt me, so she went with him."

"Don't you hate when the ones you love turn against you?" Ginny said, sinking to the floor next to Draco. Draco assumed that she still loved Dean. Which meant that Dean was an even bigger jerk than he imagined.

"Oh, yeah," he muttered to her. She glanced at him and he gave her a smile.

"So, you're not going tonight?" She asked, trying to make conversation.

"Doesn't look that way." Draco honestly answered. He didn't know why he could talk to the female Weasley. He just could. "I can't go with any Slytherins, Gryffindors and I don't exactly mix, every Ravenclaw will be supportive of Kristen and no offense, but the Hufflepuffs are a little –"

"Be glad you're not going to this dance." Ginny sighed. "It's not worth it."

"But you're going?" Draco said, arching his eyebrow.

"Dean is an asshole and assholes should not win. I have a date. I'm not a loser." Ginny said.

"Oh, thanks, I'm the loser without a date." Draco half-joked.

"No, you're the guy that cares for someone so much that they want to fight for her. You're not afraid to be left behind without a date, because you want to prove that you care for her." Ginny answered honestly. "Blaise is the one who is afraid to be hurt and alone."

Draco wished that Blaise was the only one that was afraid to be hurt and alone. But he knew, deep down, that she was far stronger than he could ever dream to be.

The Slytherin dormitories had never ever been that particularly noisy. The excitement of the rapidly approaching dance from students that were going and the whiny teasing of those who weren't going but wanted to and the grumbling of those who wanted nothing to do with dance, filled the room.

"Who are you going to dance with, Joel?" Corinne asked as Draco entered the common room.

"I'm not going." He answered, his girlfriend's arm tightly clenched around his waist. "Clarissa and I are staying here."

"Well, I'm going with Alexander Cabot, he's just a friend, don't you worry –"

"He wasn't worried." Clarissa interjected.

"- and he's got some friends if you perhaps wanted to come with us, Jordana Palass is quite pretty, you could be her date but we could perhaps switch and share a dance or two, I'm sure Jordana and Alexander won't mind."

"But Clarissa might," Draco heard Jesse whisper to Corinne. She ignored him.

Joel just stood there. Clarissa glared. "I'd listen to Jesse." She warned Corinne.

"Suit yourself. I'll give you full details when I get back though. Let's just say, I think some of those couples who decided to find dates for this dance, are going to permanently split up."

She skipped off, getting Christina to help her with her hair.

"And I'm sure little boyfriend stealer over there will be right there to help the splitting up of those couples." Clarissa hissed, pointing a perfectly manicured finger at Corinne, causing Joel to grab her hand and plant a kiss on her cheek. She wasn't happy, but she looked reassured that "the boyfriend stealer" would have to do a little better than that show to take Joel away.

"Tie." Graham said, plopping down on the arm chair adjacent to Joel and Clarissa. It took Draco a second to realize what he meant, but Clarissa knew instantly, abandoning Joel to fix the mess around Graham's neck.

"Honestly," She said, nearly strangling him as she tried to fix the knot he had managed. "Who would agree to go to a dance with you? I still have marks from that time last year when I tried to teach you to ballroom dance."

"I said I was sorry about that! Geez! Will you ever let me live it down?" Graham muttered, now with a straight tie and the ability to breathe.

"I'll drop it the day you manage to dance with a girl without her leaving with a bruise." Clarissa teased.

"You won't drop it," Joel laughed, putting his arms around Clarissa's waist and pulling her onto his lap.

"You're right, I won't." She laughed and turned to kiss her beau.

"You two are sickening." Graham muttered and Draco had to silently agree with the fourth year. Of course, it was not so him being grossed out by Clarissa and Joel's public displays of affection, like it was for Graham, as it was jealousy that he did not have what they had. The most serious relationship he had ever had was Kristen. He realized how pathetic that was and it only worsened his mood further.

Over the next hour, his mood slightly improved due to a hilarious episode of Jamie stepping on Corinne's dress and ripping the hem, which sent Clarissa rolling on the floor, practically hyperventilating while Corinne was sobbing and smacked Jesse, who was only trying to comfort her when he made the tear worse.

"Corinne, stop crying," She said and suddenly the hem was fixed, the damage vanished.

Draco didn't want to, but he turned around on pure reaction to see her. He saw what he had been afraid to see. She was beautiful. Drop dead beautiful. Her pale skin contrasted lovely with her emerald green dress with the silver ribbon straps and silver ribbon around the waist. Her silky dark brown hair was pulled back with a matching silver ribbon. Her trademark locket still hung from her pale neck, the locket dangling near a lone freckle on her chest. Her brilliant green eyes were outlined with eyeliner of coal color and a hint of silver sparkle. She was the epitome of perfect in Draco's eyes.

"Mmmm." And apparently in Jesse's eyes too.

"Thank you," Corinne muttered sheepishly, ashamed that she had not thought of the charm herself. She wiped her eyes and Draco saw that her eye makeup had smudged. No one said anything to her, not even Jamie or Jesse.

"You look lovely, Blaise." Clarissa said, without an ounce of jealously in her voice, something that Draco realized she rarely did.

"Thank you," she said, deliberate to avoid Draco's eye contact. "Well, I ought to go. Good bye." She said, picking up the hem of her dress and heading out of the Slytherin common room towards wherever traitorous place she was to meet Dean.

"Bye," Draco whispered back to her, although he was sure, no one, especially her, had heard him. "I'm sorry."

"Damn." Jesse breathed out as soon as Blaise was out of earshot.

Now, Draco had known Jesse for years. Jesse had always loved girls. Like always. He never had that typical eleven year old boy phase where girls were drooling over guys and the guys still thought girls were from another realm. Jesse was always attracted to them. So he had always talked about them. Never in a particularly vulgar way, he was fairly good about that. He just made his feelings clear on who he thought was particularly fine. Although, this time Draco felt the sudden urge to smack him when he had never felt that way about the many comments Jesse had made about Corinne, Clarissa, Lavender Brown, Madrigal Evans, Ginny Weasley, Luna Lovegood (Draco was still a little baffled by that one), and the list continued on and on.

Draco suddenly could no longer sit there with the Benedict Arnold formerly known as Jesse and the sickening lovebirds. He darted out of the common room, through the entrance and down the hall, just in time to see a flicker of emerald green flip around the corner. He took of running in that direction.

"BLAISE!" he yelled when he had reached the perpendicular corridor. The beauty of the ball spun around, her silver ribbon catching the light from the palladium window at the end of the hall.

She stopped, but she did not say anything. Draco was disappointed, but her stopping was more than he had expected.

Draco continued running down the hall, slowing down as he reached her. He was out of breath by the time he had reached her, although he was in top physical shape, and was unable to say anything.

"Blaise." He breathed, trying to catch his breath, his hands planted on his knees.

"Good, you know my name. It's only October, didn't take you too long, now did it?" She snapped, folding her pale, fragile arms across her chest.

"Will you hear me out?" Draco said.

"I've been listening to you." Blaise replied. "And all you have said is my name, which quite frankly isn't that great, so I really don't want to spend my night standing here while you repeat it over and over again."

"Blaise," Draco said instantly regretting it because it clearly signaled to her that he had not been listening, all though he very well had, it was just that his brain did not process fast enough to keep pace with her.

"Draco." She snapped back.

"Don't go." He said, moving closer towards her.

"And why should I not go?" She asked, glancing over her shoulder.

"Just please don't." He said, knowing that he had very well reached a level of whining.

"You're very convincing, you know that?" She replied.

"I'm glad." Draco said, running his fingers through her silky hair.

"Me too," she smiled before turning and taking a book out of her bag.

"What's that?" Draco asked, glancing over her shoulder at it, leaving his fingers gently resting on her shoulder.

"My favorite book in the whole world." Blaise said, hugging it to her chest.

Draco glanced at it. It wasn't what he expected it was a book of-

Draco sat straight up in bed. He had fallen asleep. He hadn't known when. He certainly had not fallen asleep right away. He had been cursed with thoughts of Blaise having a wonderful time at the dance. All he could see was that cold look on her face when she turned and left him standing in that cobwebbed corridor all alone.

That cold look. That look was seared into his brain.

Not a murderous cold look but a lonely cold look.

A cold, left-alone-in-a-cemetery-at-midnight-in-a-rainstorm look.

A look that was on the face of the one person that could wipe that very look off of his own face.

And he had put it on hers.

Please, please review! I really need motivation. And another six hours in every day. But right now, I'll just settle for motivation. Please, please review!

Love ya!

Preppy in Pink