On the morning of the Flower Dance, Shane tried, conversely, to keep his mind on the Egg Festival. He didn't consider himself one for interests. Or hobbies. Or even likes. He ran mostly on quiet irritation and fried-egg sandwiches; which perhaps is why eggs, and chickens, were some of the few things Shane could actually admit he enjoyed.

That said, the Flower Dance was not the Egg Festival. What's worse is that the Flower Dance came after the Egg Festival, and now Shane had nothing to look forward to until next spring when it would come around again.

That, or maybe autumn. He liked pumpkin ale.

His thoughts were spiraling again.

Just get through the day, Shane.

Plenty of time to bemoan his life later. Preferably with a cold pint in his hands.

Pulling fretfully at the collar of his starchy dress shirt, Shane tried to walk as slowly as he could through CIndersnap forest. Not an easy task, considering that Jas was using all her power to drag him along by his other hand; small for an eight-year-old, Jas was summoning forth all her spunk to get him moving.

"Stop fussing, Shane," Marnie said from behind him, rushing to catch up after remaining at the ranch a few minutes longer to get ready. Shane noticed that her hair looked a little smoother, her braid crafted with a bit more care than usual; had she applied some blush as well?

"What's with the makeup?" Shane asked offhandedly, which immediately brought a look of awkwardness to his aunt's eyes.

"Well, we've all got to look out best for the Flower Dance!" She replied with false pretense, which might fool anyone less discerning than Shane. Marnie made a show of taking Jas's hand to walk slightly ahead of him.

"Never know who might be watching." He quipped a little callously; his aunt didn't hide her interest in the town's mayor, Lewis, as well as she thought.

Getting a rise out of people made to quiet his own nerves, but perhaps he should have reserved it for another. The look on his aunt's face, all humiliation and hot embarrassment, promptly rebounded back on him and made his stomach tighten into painful knots.

Shane slowed his gait once more as Marnie pulled Jas ahead, the latter skipping in her gaudy festival dress, seemingly oblivious to anything having just transpired. Best to let them go enjoy themselves, far away from the trainwreck that he was.

Sighing in a way that was more of a growl, Shane ran a hand through his dark hair, nails digging just a little too hard against his scalp. Just enough to hurt.

The only thing Shane was good for was fucking things up.

Look at him go.

Despite his best efforts to will the world to progress past him, Shane's plodding footsteps did eventually lead him to the forest clearing. The cheerfully bright decorations and sickly-sweet smell of fresh flowers only served to dampen his already surly mood.

Surly? No, that was his everyday demeanor.

Today was more of a sullen day. Or morose.

The kind of upset that comes from knowing he'd just wounded someone he actually gave a shit about.

Gazing listlessly across the clearing, Shane noticed Marnie and Jas dancing together to the banal, annoyingly pleasant music. They looked happy in that moment. And, rather than consider that he hadn't actually hurt her feelings all that badly, the dark place in his mind told Shane that they'd be just as happy, if not more so, were he not part of their lives at all.

They'd survive just fine without you, that part of his brain whispered disarmingly.

When had he gotten to the buffet?

Shane looked across the spread of foods and drinks, immediately grabbing a cup of the alcoholic punch set aside for the adults and a massive serving of bruschetta. As he was shoveling the snack into his uncomfortably dry mouth, trying very hard to distract himself, Shane noticed someone hovering beside him in the corner of his vision.

Oh wait, the sauce mixed in with the garlic was actually pretty spicy. Normally heat didn't bother Shane, but when you're not expecting it, spicy foods could sneak up on you.

"Ow." Shane intonated to no one as he hastened to swallow and take a huge gulp of his punch.

Was someone giggling at him?

Turning, with a look more quizzical than irritated, Shane saw Sawyer the farmer standing just to his side at the buffet. There wasn't anyone else around and she was very obviously covering her mouth and glancing at him.

"You always laugh at people in pain?" He asked gruffly, gifting her with a decidedly hateful glare.

"Only when it's other people's pain." She replied coolly, in what was probably meant to be a joke but sounded more like the confession of a sadist. Perhaps she realized this, because a hand quickly came to knock against the side of her forehead, "That sounds really weird."

What was up with her? She was being uncharacteristically sociable and talkative. Shane glanced to her other hand and found the evidence he was looking for: a red plastic cup obviously more-than-full of alcohol. Her grip was vicelike.

Shane didn't engage, instead choosing to lift his own cup and continue to drink. If he was really going to have to dance today (Marnie had made it clear that he wasn't getting out of it like he had last year), he'd need to be much, much drunker to get through this experience.

"Sorry. I'm deeply uncomfortable." Sawyer said after a few select moments of silence, quickly downing her entire cup afterwards.

Shane lifted an eyebrow at both her display and her statement. She was always so candid, never bothering to hide behind any kind of pretext. He realized that the townsfolk would probably really like that about her, should she ever give a shit about interacting with them.

"About dancing?" He couldn't stop himself from probing, noticing that she too was wearing the outfits typical of the town singles. He flexed his toes inside his uncomfortably sweaty formal shoes.

"Fuck, about everything. I have no idea what I'm doing." She replied right away, again with that unnerving honesty. Like she had no hang-ups about sharing exactly what was on her mind, "I think Emily is going to make me dance with her today, so I might as well head her off before she gets herself too worked up about it."

Wait, she actually was looking for a partner? And shit, wasn't he supposed to be paired with Emily?

"Take it easy, man." Sawyer waved casually, maybe a little languid in her movements, and departed to meet Emily.

Shane watched her back as she talked with Emily, who seemed more than a little thrilled (not unusual for her) at whatever they were discussing; but at one point her eyes lit up like fireworks and she crushed the farmer in a horrendously genuine hug.

That seemed to be that, then.

As he stood at the edge of the dance floor, Jas and Vincent doing their own practice flower dance to his right, Shane couldn't help but stare at Emily and Sawyer, the former looking completely in her element, and the latter, to her credit, at least trying to maintain a visage of amusement. As he watched on, the space around him felt so empty and sparse; maybe it was the atmosphere or the alcohol, but, in that moment, Shane finally seemed to admit his loneliness.

And what's worse, as he unwaveringly studied the look on Sawyer's face, a combination of reluctance and actual enjoyment, he realized that had she instead asked him to be her partner, he'd have said yes.