Chapter 8 - Dance Classes
NPOV
I couldn't understand why I was more nervous about telling Jacob about my date with Lukas than I was my parents. Surely he would be happy for me. I mean, he is my best friend so he would want me to be happy. A first date is a big moment in any girls' life.
I decided that it was best just to get it out of the way as soon as I can, that way I can focus on the positives, like going shopping with Aunty Alice for an outfit to wear. I also had a huge favour to ask Jacob, so I decided to run over to his house and told my parents I would eat there.
As I approached his house I could hear his voice coming from the garage and was almost relieved that he had company. I knocked on the door, even though they must have heard me coming a mile off, and then walked in. Jake had Embry, Quil & Seth all there with him and they were having a few beers while working on Seth's car. Not much work seemed to be getting done though. They all stood to give me quick hugs before settling back into their seats. I was glad they were here as it would make it easier to talk to Jacob about my date.
"What's up Nessie? I missed you today" he asked with a huge sloppy grin, meaning he'd had more than a few beers. All the guys jeered at him, calling him a girl for being so sucky to me, but I thought it was sweet.
"I missed you to Jacob!" I answered giving him a big hug. "I kind of have to ask you something and you need to not freak... I kind of need you to meet someone for me." I know I was dodging the point but I really felt awkward.
"Sure Nessie, who?" He asked lightly. I decided the best way forward was to just tell him.
"His name is Lukas. He's new at my school and... he's asked me to go to the dance with him this Friday. Mum and Dad wanted to meet him but... too many questions... you..." My voice trailed off as I noticed the sudden silence in the room. I looked up to find all the guys just gaping at me in shock. "What? Is it that shocking that someone would ask me out?" I was blushing furiously, hurt that they obviously thought me so undatable. I turned to Jacob, expecting him to jump to my defence, but he was frozen with his eyes closed, breathing deeply like he was trying to keep his wolf under control. "Jake?"
His eyes snapped open to look at me, and then he asked the guys to give us some privacy. They seemed relieved to get out of there and almost ran for the door. Jacob stayed silent for a few minutes, making me more nervous all the time. "Jacob?" I tried again.
He snapped out of his daze and gave me a sheepish smile. "When did you become old enough to date?" he teased me lightly. I just smiled, embarrassed by the blush that was burning my cheeks. "Of course I'll meet him Nessie" Jake reassured me. "I need to make sure that any boy who wants to date my Nessie is worthy, don't I? What kind of best friend would I be if I didn't?"
"Oh, thank you Jacob" I said, reaching up to hug him again. He hugged me back but I could tell something was still bothering him. I figured that maybe he was just afraid of losing me if Lukas became my boyfriend, but I knew that I would always want him around me no matter who I was dating. "Don't woory about losing me Jacob. You know I'll always be your girl" I said to reassure you and earnt myself the biggest smile ever. "Um... I kind of have one more favour for you though. Could you teach me to dance?" I found this even more embarrassing than asking him to meet my date.
Jacob just laughed at me. "Oh, Nessie! You don't need lessons on how to dance. I've seen you dance at parties and bonfires; you know what you're doing"
"No Jacob!" I really needed him to agree to this. I couldn't make a fool of myself on my first date to my first ever dance. "Please! I've danced by myself and I've dance with my friends and family, but I have never danced with a boy!"
Jacob just went back to staring at me with a glazed look in his eyes, so I decided to make a low blow to make him do what I want... I pushed my bottom lip out.
JPOV
I couldn't believe this was happening to me. I was having a really fun time, just hanging with the guys for the first time in forever, and it just gets better when my Nessie walks in the door. My god she is beautiful. I can see now that she really is growing up. Even my friends can't seem to stop themselves from checking her out. It annoys me but I can't blame them, she's irresistible!
Then she tells me that she needs me to meet some little shit that she wants to date and it's like someone has punched me in the gut. I can't breathe, I can't see, I can't speak... All I can do is imagine myself ripping this guy's head off but I can't even do that properly because I don't know what he looks like. I hear her snap something at the guys and then say my name, but I'm not ready to come back yet. If I don't maintain my control I might just phase right here, right now.
She waits a few more moments in silence then says my name again. "Jacob?"
"Guys, can you give me some time to talk to Nessie please?" They all seemed eager to get out of there. After while I heard Nessie say my name again, sounding worried. I realised my silence was hurting her, so I needed to suck it up and be what she needed me to be... her best friend.
"When did you become old enough to date?" She smiled at me in relief. "Of course I'll meet him Nessie" I told her, explaining that I need to ensure he is worthy of her. That earned me a huge hug which I guess made my discomfort all worthwhile. She must have noticed how tense I got because she began to reassure me that she yould always be my girl. My girl! I felt like I was about to explode with my love for her.
She suddenly she looked nervous again and asked "Um... I kind of have one more favour for you though. Could you teach me to dance?" When I tried to tell her how ridiculous that was because she knew how to dance, she began to beg, rambling about how she has never danced with a boy.
"Please Jacob" she begged and put on her fake sad face, pushing out her bottom lip. As much as I knew she was faking, I knew that I would to what she wanted. I always would.
"Nessie… what do you want to know?" I know I caved way too easily but I decided we may as well get this over with. She squealed and jumped into my arms to give me a quick hug, and I couldn't help but hold her there for a bit longer than was necessary.
She quickly pulled her i-pod out of her pocket and ran over to plug it in. This shouldn't be too bad, I thought to myself, I'm not the best at waltzing and all that but I'll just have to do my best for her. How could I be naïve? As much as she is my baby, she is still a teenage girl. I cringed as I heard the opening bars of Thong Song start to play.
"Nessie, I am NOT teaching you to dance to this music!" Damn it, how was I supposed to keep my thoughts about her clean if we danced to this? "Where did you even get this song anyway? You're not old enough to know this song!"
"I got it from Uncle Emmett. He loves it and dances with Aunty Rose to it all the time. They look great dancing to it!" She laughed.
"Ew… Nessie! That was not the kind of mental picture I need. I feel dirty now." Emmett and Rose are always completely inappropriate when they dance together.
"Fine," she sighed, going to change the song, but I just groaned as it got even worse "What Jacob? You don't like JT now?"
"No Nessie, I don't like JT, and I definitely am not dancing to Sexy Back!" I couldn't believe this.
"When did you become such a prude Jacob? It's oldschool!" she was laughing at me now. I stalked over to grab her i-pod so I could find something appropriate for us to dance to. Maybe if she had one of Edward's compositions… I felt myself relax as I found some nice classical, but she just laughed even harder. "Jacob! How long is it since you went to a school dance? I'm pretty no school dance has played this kind of music in at least 50 years! Please can we dance to something at least a little bit modern?"
"Fine, but I'm still picking!" There was no way I was going to let her have any control over the music after that. "I'm doing you a favour, remember!" I found some generic pop music playlist and put it on shuffle. I relaxed as some cheesy music started. "Come on then, how are we going to do this?"
Nessie looked shy all of a sudden and asked "Well, how do you dance with your girlfriends?" She walked slowly over to me and put her hands on my shoulders. I placed my hands on her waist and we started to sway slowly, very much like teenagers in a bad 80's kids' movie.
"What girlfriends Nessie?" I asked ruefully. "When have you ever known me to have a girlfriend?"
"Really?" she seemed surprised by my answer. "I just assumed you… but you're… why not Jacob? You're a lot older than me and you're so nice and you're really good looking. Why wouldn't you have any girlfriends?" She thought about it for a while then looked up at me with a cheeky smirk and asked "Or maybe I should be asking about your boyfriends?"
"WHAT?" I was completely flabbergasted!
"Well you've not had any girlfriends, you hang out with the guys all the time, and you're awkward about dancing with me." She asked with a smile as my jaw was pretty much on the floor. "It's ok Jake! There is nothing wrong with being gay. You should be proud of what you are." She was smiling up at me, batting her eyelashes innocently.
"I. Am. NOT. Gay! Nessie, how can you…" I cut off as she burst into a fit of giggles. "You nasty little pest! I can't believe you were teasing me again."
"At least you're dancing with me properly now" she laughed. I hadn't noticed that I had pulled Nessie against my body and while we continued to sway. It felt so good that I didn't push her away as I know I should have.
"So, tell me about this boy then." I asked, not really wanting to know.
"Well, I don't really know him yet. He only started at my school today." She replied. "He's good looking. He's got dark blond hair, tan, grey eyes. The other girls at school seem pretty jealous that I'm getting all his attention so I guess he must be pretty cute." She finished with a blush. She seemed really shocked that she would be the one to get his attention.
"But the other girls at school would already jealous of you; you're the prettiest girl there." She blushed even deeper for my compliment, but it just made her look even more adorable.
"Thanks Jake, but I think maybe you are a little bit biased in my favour. I think it's just that I was the first girl he met, and he could see I didn't have a date so I was a pretty safe bet." It annoyed me that she had so little confidence in herself.
"Nessie, he probably couldn't believe his luck that on the first day at a new school he meets such a beautiful girl, only to find out that she doesn't already have a date. He'd be a fool to pass up such an opportunity!" She smiled up at me with a look that melted my heart.
"Thanks Jake. I guess he did say that I'm beautiful." She lost herself in thought for a little while so I just enjoyed the feeling of her body against mine. Her arms were now snaked around my waist and she was gently stroking my back. This was pure heaven!
I was pissed off to hear a knock on the door even though I hadn't heard anyone approaching, and turned to find Seth peeking his head around to make sure he wasn't intruding on anything. Before I could growl anything at him, Nessie called to him happily.
"Seth! Come in and help teach me how to dance. Jake here seems to be stuck in the middle ages and won't show me how to dance properly!" Nessie laughed and went to drag him into the shed. He looked worriedly at me to make sure this was ok, but I just sighed and shrugged my shoulders at him. I would have liked him to have been interrupting something worthwhile.
"Cool Nessie, I can help. I'm a lot younger than your Jakey, a lot cooler too" laughed back as I went to sit down and watch them. "What do you want me to teach you?"
"Could you teach me how to grind?" she asked with a straight face, and then abruptly turned bright red at the panic that spread across Seth's face and my laughter. "What? Isn't that how people dance now? They're always grinding on the TV in all the music videos. I see Uncle Emmett and Aunty Rose doing it all the time, but I can't very well ask my own uncle to show me something like that. Seth pleeeeeeease!" She begged.
Seth turned to me and I was just happy to get out of it myself so I just laughed and said "Go on Seth, you're so young and cool, why don't you show her?" He took a deep breath, looked back at Nessie nervously, and then asked me to leave.
"Why does Jake have to go?" Nessie laughed. "Maybe he should stay and pick up some tips himself! Maybe then he could get a girlfriend."
"No way" Seth insisted. "If I am going to do this I am not doing it with him watching. I value my life."
"Don't worry Seth," I reassured him "I have no desire to watch you grinding my… Nessie. I'm going to go and get some food. I'll see you both later." I said and almost ran from the shed. As much as I wanted Nessie to learn this so she could feel more confident at the dance, I really didn't want to see one of my own pack, one of my best friends with his hands all over my girl.
But as I walked away, I heard the music for Sexy Back start up again and almost went back in there.
He'd better keep his damn thoughts to himself the next few days!