Dance with Me

I stood there frozen, both physically and emotionally. I was now holding myself trying to become warm, but it wasn’t working. My teeth were still chattering as I stood there freezing. My clothes were still clinging to my body making me wet, cold and uncomfortable.

I was emotionally frozen because I was extremely confused. I didn’t know where I was or how far I had walked from home. I didn’t know if I was going to freeze to death or where I was going to sleep. To make things worse Justin was here. He should be home asleep just like everyone else. He shouldn’t be here standing in front of me in the Starbucks.

“Natalie?” he questioned. His voice was filled with worry and disbelief. I couldn’t blame him though, just a few hours ago I was being my normal stubborn self and now I was standing here drenched and horrible.

I bit my bottom lip to stop my teeth from chattering. I looked down at my muddy wet shoes as I stood there. I held myself tighter begging for warmth. I couldn’t look at him. I was ashamed; I was ashamed to have him see me like this. He was use to seeing the tuff angry side of me and now he was seeing me at the worst time possible.

I heard footsteps on the linoleum tile. I knew that he was walking towards me. I sniffed and closed my eyes. I still couldn’t look at him; it only made me feel worse.

“Natalie what happened to you? You look like you’re freezing to death how long were you out there”

I remained silent as I stood there. I opened my eyes but continued to look at the floor. I couldn’t speak. I was at a loss for words. There wasn’t anything for me to say. I couldn’t tell him what happened, I barely knew the guy. How do I know if I could trust him with something like this? I don’t, and I don’t need to feel any worse than I do now.

Justin carefully grabbed my hood. I didn’t have the energy to fight him, so I let him do whatever he was trying to do.

He carefully took my hood off. He gently used his hand to turn my face to the right. I felt slightly content with his touch. He was being gentle, something that I haven’t felt in a while. I ignored the shiver that ran down my spine at his touch. I shut my eyes knowing exactly what he was looking at now.

“What happened to your face?” he quietly questioned. I could still hear the concern in his voice. I sniffed and shuffled my feet.

“I-I-I have to go” I said slightly above a whisper.

I didn’t have anywhere else to go but I didn’t want to stay here. I didn’t know him, and the longer I stayed the longer he would ask questions. The more questions he asked, the closer he got to finding out what really happened.

“Just tell me what happened”

I shook my head no as I continued to stare at my shoes. As much as I didn’t want to I knew that it was best for me to walk away. If I stayed then it would only make it harder for me to walk away.

I turned around and started to walk away but Justin caught my wrist. “At least let me help you” he begged.

I sighed and looked down at the floor again. “Justin please just let me go. I don’t have the energy to argue with you right now”

“Good” I heard him reply “Then that makes it easier for me to help you. Look Natalie, you’re tired, soaked and probably hungry. I can’t let you go back out there like this. If you won’t tell me what happened then the least you could do is let me help you”

I simply sighed. I didn’t have any energy left in me. I just wanted to lie down, I didn’t want to argue. I nodded my head but continued to look at the floor. I still felt ashamed.

Justin cautiously let go of my wrist. I knew that he was thinking that I might run away or in my case walk away, but I wasn’t. I had no other choice. I didn’t have anywhere to run to. I was alone there wasn’t anywhere for me to go. The only place that I could go would be to Maya’s house and I have no idea how to get there. Not to mention I have no idea where I am so even if I knew how to get to her house, I wouldn’t be able to.

I felt Justin put his hand on the small of my back and lead me towards the door. I didn’t have the energy to shrug away from him and walk to the door myself. As much as I hate to admit it, it was, comforting. Something about his arms being around me comforted me. It made me feel slightly better than I felt, but I ignored the comfort.

I didn’t even have the energy to beat him to the door like I normally would have. I didn’t have the energy to stop him from opening the door for me. I simply let him do whatever he wanted.Well not everything, though I doubt that he wanted to do something like that anyway.

It was still raining as he led me outside. Luckily, we didn’t have to walk anywhere. There was a black escalade sitting in front of the Starbucks. The headlights were on along with the windshield wipers letting me know that someone was in the car.

Justin opened the door for me and I carefully climbed inside. It was still hard to move with my clothes clinging to my body, but I tried to manage. I sat at the other end of the car so that Justin would be able to get in after me without having to walk around. I heard the door close signaling that he had got inside the car too.

I noticed that “big guy” was in the driver’s seat. His brows were furrowed together in confusion as he looked at me through the rear view mirror. His gaze quickly flickered to Justin wanting to know what was going on.

I sighed and stared out of the window as Justin said that he would explain later. Big guy nodded and slowly pulled away from the curb not bothering to ask any more questions. Normally I would have asked where we were going, but I didn’t have the energy.

I leaned back against the window as I watched the rain hit the window. It fell hard and made a small pang as it hit the car. The rain left small droplets on the window. Sometimes the rain would slide down the window as it fell.

I closed my eyes and focused on the warmth from the vents in the car. My damp clothes were still preventing me from becoming as warm as I could. Yes, my teeth had stopped chattering but I was still freezing.

“Here” I heard Justin say from next to me.

I looked over at him. He had taken off his hoodie and was now handing it to me. As warm and comfortable as his hoodie looked I couldn’t take it. My pride didn’t want me to have his dry hoodie.

I shook my head no before turned back around to face the window. Damn this stupid pride of mine.

“Natalie you’re freezing and I can tell. I don’t want you to freeze. I know that you want the hoodie, so please just take it” he spoke.

He did make a good point. I was freezing, and I did want something warm and dry to put on. I inwardly sighed in defeat, this was the second time in a row today that he had convinced me to do something.

I sat up in the seat. I took my hat off and placed it in my lap. I undid my zipper and pulled my hoodie off. Once it was off I let it hit the floor. I didn’t have any reason to put it back on. I took Justin’s hoodie and put it on. I zipped it up and immediately sighed in comfort.

Surprisingly the hoodie was bigger than me, but I didn’t care. I was dry, warm and comfortable. It brought me a strange since of comfort. It wasn’t just allowing me to become warm, but it was also bringing me another form of comfort. It brought me….sanctuary almost. It made me feel safe. It made me forget about my entire problem for just a little while. The feeling didn’t last forever, but it was nice while it lasted.

I put my hands in the pockets and leaned back in the seat. I wasn’t completely comfortable but I was much better than I was at first. I could see Justin smirking out of the corner of my eyes.

“Don’t try to have too much fun with this” I mumbled as I stared out of the window.

“Wouldn’t dream of it” he responded as he turned to look out of his window.

I continued to stare out of my window and watch the rain fall. I had no idea what was going on or what I was doing, but I didn’t mind. For some reason, I was glad that I was in the car right now. I didn’t even mind that I was in the car with Justin, I was just glad to be in the carin his hoodie.

I soon closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.

Who knows what’s going to happen next?