Carry Me

Jacoby watched with interest as couples filled the dance floor, holding their significant others close to a song Jacoby didn’t recognize. He felt a pang of loneliness, knowing that he had no one to dance with.

The night hadn’t been too bad so far, he thought. Singing for Matt and Addison, both friends of his for years now, at their wedding was almost like a milestone in his life. He felt like he had accomplished something, knowing that he sang the song that Matt and Addison would remember for the rest of their married lives, which Jacoby assumed would be forever. There was no doubt in his mind that the couple would stick together for a very, very long time.

Jacoby thought about Levia, and how great she had looked all night. Her hair was pulled back and up and curled to perfection, a couple strands hanging down that made her round face look even more adorable. Her almond shaped green eyes stuck out against her thick eyeliner and berry colored eyeshadow. Her lips looked glossy and light pink in color, and Jacoby found himself wondering what it would be like to kiss them, though he knew he shouldn’t be thinking like that.

The scar on her face, which Jacoby actually thought was pretty cool, was still very much present. Knowing that it offended Levia, her family hadn’t said anything to her about it their entire visit, Jacoby had heard. The scars on her arm were also plainly visible, but no one paid any attention. He had noticed her walking funny on her ankle all night, but she didn’t appear to let it bother her. Jacoby really thought she should get that checked out.

Her dress clung to her in all the right places, giving her that ‘coke bottle’ shape that guys seemed to love. Her chest, which Jacoby thought was the perfect size, not too big and not too small, fit just right in her dress, only a slight amount of cleavage actually showing. The band around the middle emphasized her small waist with the bow hanging off the back, gently laying over her backside. Jacoby had always been more of an ‘ass kind of guy’, and that bow only drew attention to parts of Levia Jacoby probably shouldn’t have been looking at.

“Hey, there, good lookin’. I don’t believe we’ve met.”

Jacoby became confused at the strange accent, but it all clicked in his brain when he looked up from his seat at an abandoned table, his eyes locking with none other than Levia’s grandmother.

He smirked, happily playing along with the older woman’s flirting, “I’m Jacoby. What’s your name, gorgeous?”

He stood up and took the woman’s hand, kissing it and grinning at her.

She laughed, “Oh, mein. I bet you do the same thing to my little Levia! And you, hübsch, can call me Adela, or just Nana.”

“Well, Adela,” Jacoby said, letting her name smoothly glide off his tongue, much to the amusement of Nana Wallace, “you caught me. I do the same thing to Levia.”

Nana smiled, noting the way he said Levia’s name. She was also impressed with his skills. No wonder Levia had a difficult time liking him and Zacky.

“Nana! Quit hitting on der geliebte von Levia!”

Jacoby furrowed his brows, not understanding. It sounded like German, but he really couldn’t be sure. All he knew what that Addison was the one who spoke, and it had something to do with Levia.

Addison smiled at Jacoby, “Sorry. Nana’s a bit of a flirt.”

Jacoby chuckled, “It’s fine, really. I’m the same way.”

Nana gave Jacoby a pat on the arm, “I see why she is conflicted.”

Jacoby scratched his head, “Who?”

Addison sighed, “Nana! Stop with the cryptic scheiße! He doesn’t understand!”

Nana Wallace gasped and gave Addison a slap on the arm, “Watch your mouth, kleine hure.”

Jacoby groaned in frustration, “I don’t know what the fuck you’re saying!”

Addison laughed at her grandma, who laughed in return. Jacoby stared at them, extremely confused.

“She’s talking about Levia. And she called me a whore,” Addison said.

Jacoby chuckled, “Oh. And what about Levee?”

“You even gave her a nickname! Oh mein, he’s really got it for her, doesn’t he?” Nana snickered.

Addison giggled, “I know! I keep trying to tell her but she doesn’t listen-”

“I’m right here!” Jacoby said disbelievingly. Did everyone in Levia’s family know about his feeling for her? Who didn’t know, what a better question.

Addison put a hand on his shoulder, looking him straight in the eye, “You should ask her to dance.”

Jacoby backed up a step and held his hands up, “I don’t think so, Addi. I don’t think Zacky would like that.”

“Zacky is a fine man, and Levia’s freund, yes, but I can tell she likes you too, Jacoby.”

Jacoby wanted to laugh at the way Nana said his name in her thick, German accent. It sounded hilarious, but he restrained himself. It would be rude, and he had no doubt that this little foreign woman would kick his ass in a heartbeat if he laughed in her face.

Addison nodded, “Exactly. So that is why you are going over to that table and give her someone to slow dance with!”

“But what about Za-”

“Forget about him for now. Make your move, schätzchen. Go on,” Nana encouraged.

Jacoby rolled his eyes and sighed. Addison clapped her hands together, knowing that she had won over him.

“Don’t worry. At most Zacky will just get jealous. He wouldn’t do anything confrontational unless you did something like try to have sex with Lev on the dance floor. So make a note not to do that, m’kay?” Addison said, pushing Jacoby in the direction of the table Levia was sitting at, nursing her ankle.

Jacoby shook his head, “I cannot believe you really just said that.”

Addison shrugged, “It was just to be safe. Now, go!”

With one final shove and a wave, Addison left to go back to her party and her grandmother. Jacoby sighed and ran a hand through his hair, looking around to make sure Zacky wasn’t in sight before he made his way over to Levia.

She looked up when he got about two feet away and gave him a smile.

“Hey, Coby.”

“Hey, Levee.”

He felt like some kid in high school, asking his crush to dance with him at prom. He wondered if Zacky felt like this every time he came near Levia, like Jacoby did.

He coughed nervously, “So, uh, want to dance with me?”

Levia’s eyes went open a bit, and Jacoby wondered if he had made the wrong decision. Maybe Nana and Addison were just feeding him shit and laughing at him now that he listened and was making an ass of himself in front of the girl he had the hots for--

“I’d love to.”

Now it was Jacoby’s turn for his eyes to shoot open, “Really?”

She giggled and looked down at the ground. Jacoby wondered if she was blushing.

“Yeah.”

He smirked and took her hand, gently pulling her to the dance floor. She obeyed, not putting up any fight to Jacoby pulling her along.

This was a good sign.

Once they got more towards the middle crowd, where Jacoby felt they wouldn’t be seen as easily, he stopped and put his hands expertly on Levia’s waist. She fumbled around for a couple moments before settling on clasping her hands behind his neck. He could see her biting her lip and staring off to the side.

She never was one for eye contact.

“So, I met your Nana.”

Levia turned her head towards him, allowing Jacoby a view of her smooth, curious face.

“Really? How did that go?”

She sounded half worried, half amused. Jacoby let out a small laugh.

“Good. She just put the moves on me, is all.”

Levia rolled her eyes, though a smile was on her face, “Of course. That sounds like Nana.”

“You didn’t tell me you were German,” Jacoby said.

Levia shrugged, her delicate shoulders moving up and down slightly, “You didn’t ask.”

“I didn’t want to be a creeper.”

“You’re not a creeper.”

“I feel like one, staring at you all the time.”

Jacoby clamped his mouth shut, not believing he had really just let that slip. Levia looked at him, slightly surprised and a hint of something else on her features.

“Same here,” she said quietly after a couple seconds.

Jacoby licked over his suddenly dry lips, “What do you mean?”

Her eyes shifted from him to the floor. She looked unsure.

“Come on, Levee, you can tell me.”

She sighed and looked him straight in the eyes. Jacoby was a bit taken aback; she hardly ever looked anyone in the eye, much less him.

“I watch you more than you watch me.”

Jacoby almost laughed at how creepy the sentence really sounded. He didn’t laugh because all he could focus on was Levia’s chest pressing against his and her eyes still on him.

“Somehow I doubt that,” he managed to reply.

She looked at the ground, though she didn’t move her body away from his, making a disagreeing noise.

“You don’t believe me, do you?”

Levia shook her head, still looking at the ground.

Jacoby moved a hand from her waist to under her chin, lifting it up and forcing her to look at him. Once she met his eyes she never looked away. It intrigued Jacoby, to say the least.

He took a deep breath, “You and I both know that I like you, right? And we both know that if Zacky wasn’t your boyfriend, I would be, right?”

Levia gulped loudly, refusing to allow her eyes to leave Jacoby’s. She nodded absentmindedly.

Jacoby sighed and let his hand return to Levia’s waist. He looked as though a huge weight had just be lifted off his shoulders.

“Good. That’s all I wanted to say.”

A few moments passed and Jacoby tensed. Levia wondered what he was thinking.

The music switched to a salsa sounding song. The kind of music that invented dirty dancing.

Oh shit.

Jacoby stuttered, “Uh, we don’t have to dance if you don’t want-”

“It’s fine.”

Jacoby shrugged at Levia’s short response and turned her around so her back was against him. At first, he didn’t move too much, afraid he would scare Levia off. He was surprised, to say the least, when Levia started pushing herself against him.

She stopped and looked over her shoulder, “Sorry-”

“Don’t be,” Jacoby cut her off.

He didn’t know how much more of this he could take before he had a…problem…but he didn’t feel like telling her to stop again. It’d been so long since he’d danced like this.

“You know,” he said, “I could get in a lot of trouble for this.”

In a sense, Jacoby was doing just was Addison told him not to do. He was sexing up Levia, but only with clothes on. Their hands were wandering all over each other, bodies pressed so tight they could feel things they shouldn't be feeling on each other.

Zacky would not be a happy camper about this one.

He could tell Levia was too caught up in the moment, and to be honest, he was too.

“What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”

Jacoby shook his head. That wasn’t something Levia would normally say.

“You sure about this, Levee?”

She slowed down for a moment, and it seemed to sink in what she was really doing.

He felt Levia deflate and act like she would pass out, but she regained herself.

“I am such a terrible person!”

She ran off.

------------------------------------------------------------------

“Oh…shit.”

CJ gaped up at Brian, not believing what she had just overheard and witnessed.

Brian snapped his head around, careful not to let his back bump into Levia’s as it had a number of times during his slow dance, and later ’dirty’ dancing with CJ.

“I didn’t see that. I didn’t see that,” he repeated over and over to himself.

CJ shook her head, her hold on Brian’s shoulders tightening, “What are we gonna do?”

Brian’s eyes shot up to her, “We do nothing! You say nothing! You saw nothing!”

CJ glanced around her, happy to see that no one else had noticed their harsh whispers.

“Surely we have to say something.”

“Phew. It was just feeling up. That‘s all,” Brian turned back around again, shaking his head animatedly at CJ, “and no! We don’t say a word to anyone. Anyone. Got it?”

“Yeah, yeah. I got it. I wish I could’ve seen it,” CJ frowned. She was genuinely interested in her sister’s love affairs.

Brian scoffed, “It wasn’t that exciting.”

“You’ve had better, I assume?”

Brian smirked, “Of course!”

CJ laughed and took a glance around Brian. The slow song had stopped and couples were beginning to leave the dance floor while the DJ switched to a more upbeat song. Levia was long gone, but Jacoby remained, standing dazed near CJ and Brian.

Jacoby snapped out of his trance and his eyes shot wide open when he saw Brian staring at him with the same expression. Brian and CJ were still holding each other as everyone around them started to grind, but neither of them moved.

The three stood, staring at each other like deer in headlights for almost the entire length of the song. Zacky pushed his way through the people, sighing in relief when he saw Brian.

“Shit, man! I finally found someone I recognize!”

All three jumped at the sound of Zacky’s voice over the loud music. Instead of looking at each other, they all looked at him like a deer in headlights.

Zacky took turns looking at each of them, his confusion growing with each person he moved on to.

“Why do you guys all look like you just saw a ghost?”

Jacoby shifted his gaze and looked anywhere but Zacky, “I, uh, really have to go piss.”

Zacky scratched his head as he watched Jacoby sprint off and shove through people to get out of the crowd. He laughed slightly.

“What crawled up his ass?”

Brian had half the mind to make a crack and say, ‘Your girlfriend!’, but he decided now was not the best time for his smart ass comments.

CJ let go of Brian like he was on fire and bolted away from Zacky yelling, “Bye, Zack!”

Zacky shook his head, now even more incredibly confused, “What’s going on, Brian?”

Brian managed to make himself look normal and shrugged, “I have no idea. Maybe the wine is giving them the shits?”

Zacky laughed, “Who knows.”

The two made their way out of the mob of grinders, which included Matt and Addison all over each other, which was no surprise. Besides, they were married now, so it was even more okay.

Zacky plopped himself down at a table, Brian sitting next to him.

“Seen Lev lately?” Zacky asked.

He had managed to find her dancing with Leana and had joined the two for a while. That is, until Jimmy came along and accused Zacky of stealing his two women. Zacky had then lost Levia when Johnny and Laney took her away, saying they needed their ‘Levia grind time’.

She was a popular person, apparently.

Brian shook his head, but Zacky swore he caught a nervous look flash across Brian’s face, if only for a split second.

“I haven’t, actually. Not since me and Jimmy made a Lev-Lev sandwich-”

Zacky smacked Brian upside the head, laughing as he did so, “Stop making awkward dances and moves on my girlfriend!”

Brian was thinking to himself, all this while, what Zacky would do if he knew the moves Jacoby had just put on Zacky’s girlfriend…

“Earth to Syn! What’s wrong?”

Brian shook his head, “Nothing. Nothing is wrong.”

Zacky gave him a disbelieving look, “Uh-huh. Well, I’m going to go find my girlfriend.”

With that, he got up and left the table in search of Levia.

Brian let out a forced laugh.

“Good luck, man.”