We were soon dancing with Rachel, Ray, and Clare. I had lost sight of Clay and that hurt. I really thought he'd be hanging out with us. I thought that was the point of us all coming as a group. Maybe I had waited too long. Maybe we had played friends to the point that that's all he thought that I was. Mixed signals be damned. So I danced and tried to put my misery over him out of my mind.
After a few more fast songs, a slow one started. Daniel pulled Rachel into his arms and they started swaying together. I couldn't help but smile at the happy expression on her face. She met my eyes and I gave her a thumbs up. She grinned and closed her eyes as she laid her cheek against Daniel's shoulder.
Left standing there all by myself, again, I made my way back to our table. “Oh no you don't.” Clay said from behind me, putting his arm around my waist. I looked over my shoulder and there he stood, glistening with sweat from dancing. He smirked and turned me around.
“What, no one else would dance with you? Where's Dana?” I made a show of looking around the room. I couldn't help the blatant jealousy that came through in my words. Clayton put his arms around me and walked backwards until we were in the middle of the throng of dancers. “Don't be like that, Mags. There's no one I want to dance with but you.” He whispered into my ear. “Liar.” I whispered back as I pressed my cheek into his shoulder and wrapped my arms around his shoulders.
Clay didn't say anything as we moved to the music. It was delicious the way his body pressed against mine. I felt completely alive. The music seemed to float over us and it felt like we were the only people in the room. I felt Clay's fingers in my hair, stroking gently and I sighed in contentment.
This is what it was supposed to be about. Tonight was about he and I. Together. “Maggie.” He murmured into my hair and I pulled back and looked at him. He stared down at me as he slowly caressed my face. He had this way of turning me to mush. Did he have any idea what he did to me? We looked at each other for an endless moment. I was frozen in place.
We had stopped dancing and simply held each other as the song came to an end. And just when I thought our moment had come, when we wouldn't hold back anymore, it was over. “Clay. I want the next dance. Come on.” Dana was suddenly there, tugging on his arm. Clay didn't take his eyes from mine, a question there. Did he want me to stop him? What did he expect from me?
But that vicious emotion called jealousy made me mean. “Please, don't let me keep you.” I said acidly, moving out of Clay's arms. I could have sworn I saw hurt flash in his eyes. But he dropped his hands from my waist and let Dana lead him away. Away from me and whatever was there between us just a second before.
I couldn't help myself, I stomped off the dance floor and threw myself into the metal chair at our table. Rachel was sitting there by herself looking as unhappy as I felt. “Where's Daniel?” I asked her. Rachel jerked her thumb in the direction of the punch table where Daniel was involved in a very heated discussion with Kylie.
Great, we had both been ditched. So much for a fantastic evening. “Where's Clay?” She asked me in return. I jerked my thumb in the direction of the dance floor where Dana had wrapped herself around him. I couldn't help but take sadistic pleasure in the fact that he didn't seem to be enjoying himself.
Rachel sighed heavily. “What is with these stupid boys?” She asked. I leaned on the table, propping my chin in my hands. “They're boys, Rach. They're idiots.” We sat there moping for a few more minutes when Rachel jumped to her feet.
“Enough of this crap. We are not going to cry over them. We are here to have fun and damn it, that's exactly what we're going to do.” She pulled me to my feet and I laughed as we stumbled toward the dance floor.
Rachel tapped a boy's shoulder. He turned around and looked at her in surprise. He was cute in a dorky kind of way, but he looked pleased with her attention. She pointed at him and his friend beside him. “You two are dancing with us now.” She took the boy's hand and pulled him toward her. The other boy looked unsure of what to do. I gave him a smile and that was all the encouragement he needed.
Soon he had pulled me into an overly close embrace as we danced rather awkwardly to the techno music. My partner tried too hard to play it cool and kept trying to grind against me. I attempted to give us some space but he kept pulling me back toward him.
Luckily the song ended not long afterward and Rachel and I soon found ourselves dancing with two different guys. Thirty minutes later we had changed partners five times and were really enjoying ourselves again. And I didn't think about Clay and it was obvious Rachel wasn't thinking about Daniel.
A slow song came on again and the boy I was dancing with, Luke Tyler, who was on the football team, asked if I wanted to dance that one with him as well. I agreed and we started to move to the music. I didn't relax into him the way I had with Clay. But he was respectful and didn't move his hands anywhere he shouldn't.
We were half way through the song when someone interrupted us. “I'm cutting in.” I looked up and saw Clay standing there looking very, very pissed. Luke frowned. “Dude, we're dancing here.” Luke swung us away from Clay, who followed. What the hell?
“I said, I'm cutting in.” Clay's neck and face were turning an alarming shade of red. Luke stood up straight and was clearly getting annoyed with Clay's aggressive attitude. “And I told you that we're dancing, so back the fuck off.” Clay yanked Luke's arm off of my waist and shoved him backwards.