I'm Feeling Love Sick But I Don't Mind

Around 11 o'clock, the party was in full motion. Everyone was here, adults were drinking and eating and acting stupid, including Mom. Dad was with his buddies, drinking every so often, and just being a guy. Denise and Kevin Sr. were in the safe area, just talking to people. Nick, Kevin, Macy, Joe and I were just hanging out in the living room talking most of the time. Sometimes if everyone would get a little crazy where we were, we would move somewhere else. Dick Clark's New Year's Eve party thing was on the TV, and Justin Beiber was performing. I really had no interest in his 12 year old girls' voice singing to entertain bubblegum tweens hearts.
During some of the party, I would talk to Macy as much as possible to sometimes distract myself from my nerves of Joe. She would sometimes raise an eyebrow for me to turn my attention back to my boyfriend.

Now, while we were watching Ryan Seacrest introduce Colbie Callait to perform, and it was a while past eleven-forty. Nick, Joe, Macy and I were sitting on the couch in the living room again. Kevin's fiance Danielle showed up, and they were outside dancing now. Joe's arm was around me, and kept thinking and reminding myself over and over again that it was getting closer and closer to midnight. I was about to turn my head to talk to Macy to calm my nerves, but Joe talked to me first.
"Abby, wanna go outside?" He asked.
"Uh, yeah, sure," I said, turning to Macy now. "Wanna come?"
She opened her mouth and raised her eyebrow, but Joe cut her off.
"No, just you and me," He said.
Instantly, my hands got sweaty all over again and I felt blood rush to my face. "Okay." I said, getting up with Joe. He took my hand, and he lead us outside. I turned my head to get one last look at Macy, but she just smiled and nodded for me to go.

Once Joe and I were outside, we went into a quiet corner, away from all of the commotion. He rested his hands on my hips while I wrapped my arms around his neck. We danced in silence for a while as Hopelessly Devoted To You from Grease played. I have no idea why Dad had that playing, but we danced to the whole song quietly. I tried to avoid looking at his eyes, because he was probably noticing something odd about me tonight.
Finally, the song ended and another country song started playing. I recognized it finally that it was Love Story by Taylor Swift. Instantly, hate and anger filled my veins. But then Joe's voice started talking to me.
"Abby, is something wrong with you?" He asked as he stopped dancing.
I forced myself to look into his eyes. "What do you mean?"
"I feel like you've been avoiding me tonight. Ever since I got here you've been sort of...distant," He explained.
"Um, I'm sorry. I'm fine, Joe. Really," I said, forcing a smile and nodding.
"It doesn't seem like it. It's like you're keeping something from me. Are you?"
While I was trying to think of something to say, Dad's voice bellowed into a microphone from the karaoke we have.
"Five more minutes until the New Year, y'all!" He shouted. A bunch of "Woo!"s and "Yeah!"s responded to him.
"Abby?" Joe said, grabbing my attention back to him.
"I'm fine, Joe. Don't worry about it," I told him, dropping my arms from around him.
He sighed, and nodded. "Okay."
We held hands as we went back inside to the living room where Nick and Macy were. At that time, there were less than five minutes left. And everyone was coming in to see the countdown. Ryan Seacrest was talking about something I wasn't listening to, but then I heard Macy's voice.
"Man, Ryan Seacrest is just adorable!" She said, smiling.
I laughed a little at her. "Wow, okay, Mace."
Now, everyone was counting down the seconds of a minute. The numbers were getting lower and lower, and the butterflies were fluttering harder and harder in my stomach, but I forced myself to do what I wanted to. So I stood up from the couch and pulled Joe up to.
30...29...28...27...26...
I was getting even more nervous, and it seemed like my hands were almost shaking, but I held onto Joe's hand tight. I was going to do this.
20...19...18...17...16...
Don't back out, don't back out...
11...10...9...8...7...
I took deep breathes, and turned to look at Joe. But he was watching the TV to see the New York ball of the new year or whatever it was lower. Oh, gosh. This was a fear. So I pulled on his sleeve to get my attention just in time.
3...2...1!
He turned his head to look at me, and I pressed my lips against his. A chorus of "Woo!"s came from everyone around me, but I blocked it all out. I wrapped my arms back around his neck, and he wrapped his around my waist. I drowned into the wonderfulness of the kiss, the world froze around me, and it was just me and him. And it was perfect. My first New Year's kiss, my first kiss with Joe, and so far the new year seemed great.
But suddenly, it ended too soon.
"That's why you were acting distant?" Joe whispered to me.
All I could do was nod.
"And that's what I had to wait so long for?"
Nodded again.
"It was worth it."

Yes, the new year started great.