I Don't Wanna Dance

“C’mon. Get up, lazy bones!” Katherine exclaimed, walking into my room and flipping on the lights. I groaned at the sudden bright, and brought the duvet cover over my head; shielding my eyes.

“Why?” I asked. “This is officially the worst birthday... ever. So what’s the point?”

“Um, this goes farther than just today, hun,” Delilah, my other best friend, stated. She yanked the cover away from me. “You’ve been in here, alone, for about a week. So that probably helped with making it ‘the worst birthday, ever’. So we’re staging an intervention. Bet out of bed, now!”

“Once again, I ask, why?” I repeated, looking back and forth between the two of them. “Where do you think we’re going? Do you have something planned?”

“No!” Katherine exclaimed, a little too frantically. I raised my eyebrows, while Delilah gave her a look. “I mean... not really. We just wanted to go out for your birthday. You deserve a little celebration.”

“Hm... no thanks,” I said. “I’m not in too much of a mood to celebrate. But feel free to go without me.”

“Francis, it has been a week,” Delilah stated. “We know how you felt about Nick... and how you still do feel about him, but... really, you can’t let this ruin your life. He’s a guy; there are plenty of other ones out there for you. We know you’re sad about him going out with Dana; and Dana is obviously a back-stabbing-”

“Language,” Katherine warned, before Delilah could finish, clearly knowing what she was about to say. Delilah rolled her eyes, and semi-glared at her.

“Language doesn’t matter right now; in fact, it is necessary that I call her a back-stabbing bitch,” Delilah finished, not listening to Katherine’s advice. She then continued, “She knew how much you liked him, but she still decided to go after him. She pulled a blind one on you... well, actually... all of us. But you staying cooped up in this house, moping about it, is just showing her that she won. You don’t want that, do you?”

“No...” I answered warily, after a moment.

“I’m sorry, what? You didn’t sound so positive on that,” she stated.

“No!” I finally exclaimed, giving her a look. “Happy?”

“Very,” she answered.

“Okay,” Katherine said, jumping back into the conversation. She handed me a bag, which I presumed contained an outfit. “Now... go put that on. You are going out with us and having a good time.”

I quickly grabbed the bag and looked inside.

This was going to be a long night.

>>-------------------------------------------------------------------->>

“Surprise!” The crowd exclaimed, as Katherine, Delilah, and I headed into the club they wanted to go to. In case you hadn’t figured it out, it turns out that this was a surprise party.

“Hey everybody,” I stated, kind of awkwardly, since I wasn’t really expecting it. I looked around at all the familiar faces. “Thanks for coming.”

“You surprised?” Katherine asked me, after I received a few ‘Happy Birthday’ statements. I nodded.

“We had this planned the whole time,” Delilah stated, as if I didn’t know that yet.

“Who would have guessed?” I asked her sarcastically. She rolled her eyes, and then playfully hit me.

I looked around at all the guests and spotted one I wasn’t expecting. Not by a long shot.

“What is he doing here?” I asked Delilah. She looked in the direction that I was, and noticed who I was talking about.

“I don’t know...” she answered, trailing off. She looked at Katherine. “Kat... what is Nick doing here? You didn’t invite him, did you?”

Katherine followed their gazes, and then sighed reluctantly, before answering. “Joe probably told him about it.”

As if he knew we were talking about him, The Joe Jonas appeared in front of me and brought me into a big bear hug. I laughed, while struggling to breathe.

“Happy Birthday Francis!” He exclaimed, still hugging me.

“Thanks, Joe. But could you please let me go? Need to breathe,” I stated, as he finally let go.

“Sorry,” he said.

“Joe, did you tell Nick about the party?” Katherine asked him. He suddenly got this guilty look on his face.

“Um, no...” he trailed off, as if unsure about his answer. Katherine, Delilah, and I all sighed at the same time, knowing this meant that he was the one who told Nick. “I’m sorry, okay? He just asked what I was doing tonight, and I couldn’t exactly lie to him...”

“You so could have, Joe,” Delilah stated, rolling her eyes. “Or you could’ve told him that he wasn’t invited.”

“How would he have understood that? He is my brother, in case you forgot, so I couldn’t just tell him he couldn’t go. And he still doesn’t even know why Francis has been ignoring him this past week!” Joe said. My eyes widened.

“He doesn’t?” I asked quietly. Joe, thinking he upset me, tried to explain.

“Francis, he-”

“No, Joe. Just... forget it, okay? I’m going to go try to enjoy my party, since I didn’t get dressed up for nothing. I’ll just avoid him,” I said.

And with that, I headed toward the dance floor.

>>------------------------------------------------------------>>

We were about an hour into my party, and I had to admit... I was actually having fun. And I had managed to avoid Nick so far, too.

That probably wouldn’t last long, though.

Somehow as I continued to dance with all of my friends, this guy that I didn’t know came up to us, and was trying to get close to me. I gave Delilah a questioning look. She just shrugged.

Suddenly, the guy was right next to me, dancing. A little too close for comfort.

“Hey, could you back up a little?” I shouted to him, since the club was really loud with music. “I don’t know you, so I’d rather you not... dance so close.”

“Oh, c’mon. Where’s your sense of fun?” He asked me. He then got even closer to me, and put his hands on my hips. This guy had a lot of nerve.

“Okay, stop!” I exclaimed, as I tried to pull away. His grip only tightened. “I don’t wanna dance with you!”

Then, out of nowhere, the guy was yanked away from me. I almost went with him in the process, seeing as he still had a tight grip on me. But instead of me falling on top of him on the ground, another pair of arms caught me instead. As I was stood upright, I noticed that it was Nick. He put his hands on my face, getting me to look him in the eyes.

“You okay?” He asked. I slowly nodded my head. He then let go of me, and kneeled down next to the guy, pulling him by the collar to his feet.

“She clearly said back off, and said that she didn’t want to dance with you,” Nick said to him sternly. “So if you don’t leave her alone and get the hell out of here, there will be consequences. Understood?” The guy quickly nodded his head, and as soon as Nick let go of him, he dashed out of there. Nick slowly turned back to me.

“Francis-”

“Why did you do that?” I asked, cutting him off.

“Because he wouldn’t leave you alone,” he answered. “And he looked like he was hurting you. I did that, because I care about you, Francis.”

“Since when?” I asked. “What happened to Dana, huh? I thought you two were going out?”

“Dana?” He questioned, as if he didn’t know who she was. I started to turn away, but he grabbed my arm. “I never went out with Dana. She was trying to get with me, sure. But I never asked her to be my girlfriend or anything.”

“Really?” I asked. “Because she was saying you two were... together.”

“Well, whatever she said, she lied about,” he stated. “I don’t even like her. In fact, I... I like someone else. Someone I haven’t been able to stop thinking about.”

“Who?” I asked.

“You, Francis,” he answered, taking my face in his hands again. “You.”

He then leaned down and placed his lips against mine. It was filled with bliss, and it felt right.

“I like you too,” I stated. “I have liked you... for a long time.” He smiled at that.

“It practically killed me not seeing you this past week,” he said. “And now that I know why... I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright,” I said, smiling. “No other guy has protected me like you just did a while ago. I would be crazy if I didn’t forgive you. So I do.”

He smiled, getting ready to kiss me again, but was interrupted with a chorus of ‘Aw’s...’ sounding. I laughed, just now realizing everyone here had been watching us the whole time. Nick laughed as well.

“You want to dance?” He asked me, just as a new song started to play. One of my favorites, in fact.

“Now if it was that guy asking me again, I wouldn’t want to and would have said no,” I stated. He looked at me expectantly. “But with you... definitely.”

I don't wanna dance,
So don't you ask me, babe,
I don't wanna dance,
You blew your chance,
To rock my night away,
I want some fun,
Boy, you're so not the one,
I don't wanna dance,
So let it go,
You'll never take me home,
Take me home,
Take me home,
I won't dance,
I won't dance,
Bust a move or clap my hands,
Bust a move or clap my hands,
Bust a move or clap my hands,
Take me home,
Take me home.