“You clean up well,” I said, referring to my amazingly hot friend/crush, Krieg standing in front of me. He had a blue, green and black plaid, button up shirt that fit his body perfectly, and for once, he didn’t have jeans with holes in them. His caramel brown hair wasn’t as shaggy as usual and it had a noticeable shine to it. His friend Jackson came up to him and nearly knocked him to the ground.
“Dude, you ready for dancing?” he asked. Jackson did a pelvic thrust movement and laughed obnoxiously.
“Yeah dude, okay,” he said rolling his eyes. He pulled Jackson into a head-lock and gave him a noogie.
Jackson ran off to catch up with another massive crowd. “Catch you in there dude!” He called.
“You, Danni, look stunning,” he said turning to me. “Ready?” He put out his arm and linked it with mine. I felt myself blushing, but luckily, the parking lot was dark enough that no one could see me doing so.
“Thanks, by the way.”
“For..?” he asked.
“The compliment,” I smiled to myself.
“Anytime Danielle,” he said.
That was the first time in a while that he used my full name.

We arrived in the gym a few minutes later. There were kids dancing and many of them had formed numerous ‘grind lines’. I chuckled to myself; the music was deafening, but sounded like so much fun.
“You ready to join the animals out there?” I yelled to him over the music.
“What?” he shouted leaning his head down closer to my face.
As I realized how close his face was, my heart sped up, and I warded off waves of nervousness. “Let’s go to the dance floor.”
“Okay,” he smiled. He held out his hand and I took it. His hands were clammy. Was that a bad sign? I questioned to myself.
As we approached the dance floor, the song ‘How Low Can You Go’ came on and we started dancing.
As we danced, I realized this was the first dance I’d gone to with him since 6th grade.
He took my hands and spun me around and during the night we laughed a lot. We continued to dance crazily through several songs, and a bunch of our other friends gladly joined in from time to time. Before I knew it I was in a grind line. I was at the end of it and I was grinding my friend Hannah. We were all going crazy when suddenly, I felt someone come up and grind me from being behind and at first I didn’t care who it was but suddenly I got a familiar scent and I looked around to see where he was. I turned and realized he was behind me. I blushed and I could barely breathe. His hands gripped my hips and moved with mine. It felt amazing, time had stopped and I had never been this close to him.
Suddenly he was gone and some other chick was grinding on him. He clearly did not like this and I had to save him. I walked over and grabbed his arm and pulled him closer to me and we started dancing again. All of the sudden that chick pulled him back again and gave me a b***** look.
I pulled him back, yet again and this time he slipped and knocked a whole group of people down that were dancing, getting a lot of callous looks from them.
Your pathetic, the girl mouthed to me.
Apparently, he had seen her do that. “No she’s not, I came here with her, and I would rather dance with her.” He shouted over the crowd. He turned to me and smirked. He took my hand and started dancing with me again.
“Thank you!” I shouted to him.
“No problem,” he shouted back.
He spun me around this time and pulled me close to him again. Afraid to look him directly in the eyes, I stared at his hair.
Suddenly a slow song came on.
It was as if we read each other’s minds, we both moved closer to each other and I wrapped my arms around his neck as his arms went around my waist.
I was still afraid to look him in the eyes.
“Why are you afraid to look me in the eyes, Danni?” he asked quietly.
“I’m not,” I told him.
He put his hand under my chin lifting it up softly. “You are.”
I looked for a response in his eyes but couldn’t find one.
“You know,” he said smiling, “I love you.”
My heart took his words in and melted. I smiled. He held me tight and our faces were inches from each other’s. I could feel his hot breath as the music played. “I love you too.”
As if impulse struck us both, we embraced in a tender kiss that would be remembered forever. I was finally able to admit to myself and him, that it wasn’t just a crush, I was in love. He pulled away, and looked me in the eyes. I reached up and touched his cheek, and it felt warm as if he had blushed. I smiled at him. And we danced the night away. This time, it was as more than friends.