Chapter 16: Crossroads
Morgan was at Madison's house, sitting in her best friend's room with Lexi and Marissa. The four girl's were getting ready together there and then meeting with their dates at the dance. This year's theme was Under the Sea. None of them were actually dressed for the theme, since no-one actually does that, but the school was going to be decorated from the ground up with starfish and seashells and any other paraphernalia that the party committee could come up with in the middle of Kansas. Morgan was just sitting there, waiting for it to be her turn to get ready. Madison and her younger sister Lauren were doing everyone's hair and makeup, aside from Morgan. She was doing her own makeup since she was perfectly capable. Someone just had to do her hair. Morgan had obscenely long hair and it was somewhat thick, so it was going to be a challenge that Madison seemed very excited to face.
Lexi got natural looking makeup with faint contouring that tickled her fancy. Madison let her do her own eye makeup since that was the one thing that Lexi really loved doing and was very good at it. Her thick red hair had recently been died to a light brown with blonde highlights to start going back to her natural blonde and Madison's sister lauren straightened it to perfection. She was in a white, haltered bodycon dress that all of them thought was perfect for her because she had quite the shapely rear that she didn't often show off. Madison gave Marissa a very contoured look with smokey eyes because the little blonde wanted to look like a movie star tonight. Lauren had helped her get movie star curls. Marissa even had the strapless glittery black dress to match. Madison did her own makeup, a very bronzy contoured look with red carpet quality fake lashes. She always looked fabulous, but today was something special. Her hair was curled too, but only two wrap arounds in the middle of each strand, then once her hair cooled down she ran her hands through it to make relaxed waves.
Morgan had just finished her makeup, just some simple light pink nude eye shadow with somewhat thick cat eyeliner and mascara. She let Lauren contour her face when she was finished with her face makeup. She put on a muted nude/pink lipstick that looked natural against her lips before Lauren started on her hair. Lauren first made her flip her head upside down so she could hairspray some volume into her thick and heavy hair. Then, Lauren curled Morgan's hair with a thick curling iron to give Morgan big curls. When it was all said and done, Morgan had very voluminous, big curls with the right side below her part pinned back, slightly past her ear. As soon as she was ready, she slipped into her homecoming dress and shoes.
She took off her anti possession necklace because it looked bad with the dress, so to hide it, she put the charm on a white leather chord that she bought and soaked in holy water and blessed it with a chant from a book in the bunker. She wrapped the white cord and charm loosely around her ankle to make sure she was still protected. Morgan felt like a princess in her dress. It was a simple dress with ballet pink satin fabric. It was a haltered v-neck with spaghetti straps. The dress was fitted extremely well, skin tight in fact, until it hit the bottom of her ribs. The dress had a princess skirt, even with tulle underneath the satin skirt to make sure it was somewhat poofy. It did have a sort of short hem, so Morgan followed through on her promise to her father and slipped on a pair of spandex to make sure she didn't flash anyone on accident. Her heels were nude, just plain nude high heels that she already had because her mother always wanted her to look a certain way for things, especially when she had to attend bar and bat mitzvahs. There were four in her grade.
The four girls were ready. Morgan even had Jonah's boutineer that matched her dress in a little box from the florist in her hand along with her phone and some emergency cash hidden in her phone case. Morgan's heart was pounding. She had never been to a dance like this and she had never been more nervous about something so domestic. There was only one thing she knew for sure, her level of nervousness and excitement was second only to meeting her father for the very first time.
She must've been visibly shaking because Madison grabbed her arm and whispered, "Don't worry, you're going to have so much fun."
"I hope so," Morgan cracked her knuckles one by one. She was so nervous, like something had to shatter to break the tension. She noticed that there actually was a vase of flowers drifting to the end of the hall table, about to fall off. She willed it back into place and tried to relax and looked around to make sure no one saw it.
They were just about to walk downstairs when they all heard Madison's mom Leslie yell, "The boys are here!"
"Good thing we finished getting ready a little early," Lexi laughed. All the girls let out a bit of nervous laughter aside from Morgan. Kicking the crap out of a punching bag? No problem. Throwing knives at a target? Easy as pie. Kill some demons? Sign her up. But a dance? In a pink dress? Morgan was shaking to her core. The four girls descended the stairs. Morgan was last to descend, to afraid to go even a single second earlier. She was so scared to take her eyes off of the stairs beneath her feet. She wasn't one for walking in high heels, so every step had to be done carefully to make sure she didn't fall down the stairs. But then, she saw him, and she couldn't get down the stairs fast enough. Morgan felt her right heel catch the stairs but she immediately used her telekinesis to keep herself from falling. She didn't want to ruin the moment. Blue eyes met green and the connection brought a strange warmth to the two teenagers. Jonah smirked, Morgan blushed, and the two of them came together at the bottom of the stairs. She was nearly his height in her heels, but she almost preferred how much shorter she was than him when she wasn't wearing her heels.
"You ready to go?" He asked her, offering his hand.
She took it and told him, "No, but we're gonna go anyway." The two of them laughed as he lead her out the door. Since they were all freshman and none of them knew how to drive, the two of them climbed into the back of his dad's car, as Randy and Jonah's step mom drove them to the field where they were all going to take pictures with a few other couples. As soon as they got there, Sam and Dean were there, waiting for them.
"I thought you guys had a job?" She asked them as she walked up to her father and hugged him.
"That can wait," Sam said.
"Yeah, Sammy's right. We wouldn't miss this for the world," her father told her.
"In that case, you guys remember Jonah. Well, this is his dad Randy and his step mom Kandi," Morgan introduced her dad and uncle to Jonah's parents.
"We've met. When these two first came here they were investigating a string of serial murders," Randy told her as he shook both their hands. "It's nice to see the two of you again." Jonah paused for a second.
"Serial killers? You didn't tell me that you're dad and Sam are federal agents?" Jonah questioned.
"Oh yeah," Dean told him. "It's what we got into after we left the marines. But right now we're on sabbatical to make sure Morgan here is acclimating to the Kansas life before we start making trips away to the field office," Dean lied, covering their story considering they have to interact with these townspeople now. It wasn't long before one of the moms called everyone together to start taking pictures of them.
A few hours later…
It was maybe two hours into the dance. Morgan and Jonah were jumping around with the rest of the students, dancing around as the loud music pulsated through the student body. Morgan had been having such a fun night. Not even Lainey could ruin it. The blonde was steering clear of her, and that's all Morgan could ask for. The main thing that really bothered her was the fact that her feet were killing her in her heels. But she pushed through, even faintly using her telekinesis to make herself a little lighter to take the pressure off of her feet without anyone even noticing. She was almost relieved when the music finally slowed down. Jonah put his hands on her waist, and she put her arms on her shoulders, her hands linked behind his head. Die a Happy Man by Thomas Rhett. It was in that moment, Jonah's eyes bearing into hers, his hands on her waist, their undeniable silence and awkwardness that the two of them had been maintaining since she told him that she likes him. The silence was broken when Morgan had realized that Jonah was singing along to the song, that Jonah was singing to her.
When the song ended, Morgan didn't know what to do, but all she knew was that they couldn't stop slow dancing as the song switched to Flightless Bird, American Mouth by Iron and Wine.
It was like the whole world stopped. Her heart was pounding so hard in her chest that she could feel it all over her body. Where Jonah was touching her was igniting a fire in her soul that she never wanted to stop feeling. The last few songs of the dance were a blur. A blur of them holding each other, not knowing what to do aside from wanting to keep doing what they were doing. But then, Madison came up to them, saying that she and Tyler were leaving. The plan was that they were all going to have a bonfire after at Madison's house, and Morgan was going to spend the night. Jonah and Tyler were spending the night too. Not that Morgan's dad knew that, but Madison's mom did and she didn't mind since everyone was going to be sleeping in the same room together and she was going to be right upstairs.
"Ready to go then?" Jonah asked her. Morgan nodded. They went to go find Matthew, Lexi, Joseph, Evelyn, Aiden, and Marissa. Everyone was spending the night to be at the bonfire. Madison's mom showed up in her SUV, kids piling in like nobody's business. Madison and Morgan were sharing the front seat, Jonah, Tyler, Aiden, and Matthew were in the trunk, and then Joseph, Evelyn, Marissa, and Lexi were in the back seat. Leslie, Madison's mother, looked back in her car with eight eyes looking back at her with two more kids in the passenger seat.
"Alright kids, I'm sure half of you aren't wearing a seat belt. So, hold on, and we're stopping by McDonald's on the way home. I have to get food for the twins, and if you guys want something, I'll get it." There was a bit of a whoop! from the teenagers in her car.
They were all sitting around the fire, listening to faint music and roasting marshmallows. Morgan was sitting there, eating her third and final s'more when Jonah, who was sitting next to her, scooted closer to her and put his arm around her. Morgan looked up at him, and he gave her a smile. She gave him one in return and continued on eating her s'more as the others kept roasting marshmallows and talking about the homecoming football game that happened the night before. Aiden and Jonah kept having to defend themselves about their ability as players as the Twins and Tyler were joking around and calling them Pansy players even though they won their game. Morgan had an epiphany.
This must be what it's like to have friends, she thought to herself. She knew they were friends, but she never really had that feeling until this very moment. It was something very new to her, having this feeling.
Morgan jolted awake, having had another nightmare. After whatever Cas did to her with his angel abilities or whatever magic, Morgan no longer woke up screaming or in a sweat. She just had the nightmare like it was any other, but it wasn't as upsetting anymore. But she still couldn't sleep. She realized that Jonah was sleeping next to her with his arms around her. They had gone to sleep separately, but somehow they ended up sharing both of their blankets and snuggling up to one another. She could feel herself hyperventilating from the stress, but she did her best to keep herself quiet as she carefully shifted away from Jonah and climbed up off the floor where they were sleeping. She went to the corner where her bag was and found her shoes. It was her black vans. She slipped them on and tied them before slipping on her sweatshirt. Morgan walked carefully, toe, heel, toe, heel, until she made it to the sliding door out to the deck on the side of the house that overlooks the driveway. She slid the door open just far enough to slide out and close it without waking the others. She quietly walked down the stairs to the driveway and walked to the driveway. She laid down on the pavement and looked up at the stars, just trying to breathe. When she caught her breath, she heard someone coming up behind her.
"What are you doing out here?" Jonah asked her. Morgan sighed.
"Bad dream, needed some fresh air. Why are you up?" She asked.
"I woke up when you got up. I thought you went to the bathroom or something, but then you didn't come back," Jonah explained. "I wanted to see if you were okay."
"Oh, yeah, I'm fine," Morgan told him. "I just get bad dreams and I needed to be away from everyone else. I didn't want to wake anyone. But I guess I didn't succeed." Morgan told him as he sat down next to her. He reached over and held her hand as they looked out over the dark parking pad. Madison's house was the first in a line of houses on a winding hidden drive in the woods.
"It's okay. It's just nice to have some alone time with you," Jonah stated softly, almost leaning in to kiss her, but she froze when she heard the most bizarre thing.
"Morgan?" She looked back and saw Jonah on the deck, looking down on her. She looked over to the Jonah she was sitting next to, and Morgan's heart stopped.