You're My Backbone

"Where are you guys?!?" Darry yelled into her cell phone. In the background, I could hear the dance beginning with classmates cheering and music pounding.

I sighed heavily. "I'm still waiting for Josh to show up."

"What? Really? Wow. He's really late."

I shook my head and opened the living room curtains and peer out the window. Unfortunately, there was no sign of Josh or his car. "No shit Darry."

Darry chuckled on the other end. "Don't worry June; I'm sure he'll be there soon. Why don't you call him?"

I shrugged although she could not see. "You're right. I'll call him."

"Okay! Call me back though!"

"Alright." I hung up the phone and quickly dialed Josh's number.

It rang three times before I started tapping my foot on the floor. Finally, someone picked up. A girl. "Hello?" She asked.

"Hi, uh, is Josh there?"

The girl yawned. "Oh yeah. Hold on."

Soon, the male voice of Josh picked up. "Hello?"

"Hi Josh it's me; June."

"Oh hey June! What's going on?"

I bit my lip and rolled my eyes. "Well, I'm sort of waiting for you to pick me up." Annoyance was clear in my voice as angered boiled in my stomach.

"Pick you up? Why?"

The anger and annoyance slipped away. I felt hopeless and beyond pathetic. I swallowed hard before answering. "You asked me to the dance earlier this week." My voice was small and weak.

"Oh yeah-shit." He chuckled and the way he spoke sounded like he really didn't care.

"Well, um, where are you now?"

"I'm-uh-" I heard several voices giggle in the background. Girls. "I'm a friends house. I'm sorry June. I hope you didn't get-"

"Dressed up?" I asked, gulping down and swallowing the horrible feeling circulating throughout my body.

"Um, yeah."

"Well, I am." I snapped and suddenly my angered returned.

I normally wasn't like this around guys besides my brothers. I was standing up for myself, I suppose, but I couldn't help but feel embarrassed for my actions.

After my outburst in front of John, Garrett, and Maddie earlier this week, I couldn't face any of them. Well, actually, I could face John-he had seen many of my outbursts. But then again, he's my brother.

I couldn't look Garrett in the eyes and that was only if I was near him. I had ignored him for most of the weak-not that he was begging for any of my attention. I went to the cafeteria during my study hall and whenever he came over, I stayed secluded in my room.

"How about I take you out to dinner tomorrow night to make up for it?"

This was bad news. How could I trust this guy? I mean, sure, he had been my friend for the past two weeks or so, but I feel like I'm learning something new about him right now.

"I don't think that would be-"

"Aw, come on Jess."

"Jess?" I asked, my eyes widening. "My name is June."

"Yeah, whatever. Thats what I meant."

I rolled my eyes. "Bye Josh." I hung up the phone and collapsed onto the living room couch. I started to cry, ruining the makeup I had put on. I threw my phone across the room, an action I wouldn't normally do.

I was changing dramatically. It was obvious. I wasn't quite sure what was brining it on, but it was happening.

I was lucky enough that my mother wasn't home and neither was Ross or Shane. Ross was sleeping over a friends house while both John and Shane went to the dance.

I sighed and trudged over to my phone. I picked it up and sat down once again. I started to examine the purple, black and silver dress I had bought with Darry just for the occasion. I dialed Darry's number and when she picked up on the second ring, my words fell out of my mouth at a rapid pace.

I wasn't sure how she understood anything that I said, but she did. "You hold on, okay? I can fix this. Get yourself together and look presentable, alright babe?"

As much as I didn't want to go to this dance, I agreed anyway. I rushed upstairs to fix my hair and makeup.

About fifteen minutes later, the doorbell rang. I sighed and opened the front door which exposed two familiar boys standing there in suits.

"Hey!" Halvo and Kennedy shouted at the same time.

"Got all your shit together?" Halvo asked.

"Yep." I walked out with them and locked the front door.

"Since we didn't have any dates, we decided to be your dates!" Kennedy announced.

"Darry called you." I raised my eyebrows at him.

"That too." He offered me a cheesy grin.

I chuckled and hopped into their car. We drove to the school laughing and blasting music. Once we found a parking spot, Kennedy and Halvo rushed out of their doors and rushed to mine. They fought over opening it for a bit, but then Kennedy pushed Halvo out of the way and opened it.

"Not fair!" Halvo whined.

I smiled and thanked Kennedy as I hopped out of the car.

We all walked into the dance as it was in mid-swing. The three of us danced in a circle, laughing and smiling. By now, I had completely forgotten about the whole Josh fiasco. I was enjoying my time with the two boys who happened to be my friends, miraculously.

Suddenly, I caught a familiar figure dancing with a tall red head. I stopped abruptly and gawped. "Oh my god!" I shouted, a smile forming on my lips.

Halvo and Kennedy stopped also and peered over to where I was staring.

John, my brother, was dancing with the biggest smile I've ever seen with that girl he always said hello to and blushed about.

Kennedy chuckled. "Johno finally got the balls to ask her out!"

Halvo laughed loudly and I looked back and forth between the two. "What's her name?" I asked.

"Daisy Miller." Halvo said.

I smiled at my brother. He looked up and caught my eye. His smile faded and he excused himself from dancing.

Shit. I didn't want him to leave his date to see if I was okay.

Instead, I marched over to the two of them, which earned a surprised look from John. The expression soon faded. "Are you okay? Darry told me what happened."

"I'm fine!" I brushed it off, turning to Daisy. "Hi, I'm June, John's sister." I stuck out my hand to shake.

She laughed lightly. "Nice to meet you. I'm Daisy."

All of the sudden, the fast paced music came to an abrupt stop. John took hold of Daisy and led her into dance.

I turned to face the my two ''dates."

"Decision time." Kennedy turned to Halvo.

"What?" I asked, clearly confused.

"We have to decide who's gonna slow dance with you. So, instead of making you decide, we're gonna be nice and have a rock paper scissors fight." Kennedy told me.

I nodded my head. "Be my guest."

The two boys said, "Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!" in unison before exposing their weapons of choice.

Halvo held out scissors which beat Kennedy's paper.

"Don't you know to do scissors first every time?! Are you really that stupid!?" Halvo chuckled.

"Shut up!" Kennedy joked, laughing.

"I'm sorry Kenny. I'll dance with you next."

"That's fine. I'll go get something to eat." And with that, Kennedy departed leaving Halvo and I.

I wrapped my arms around him and he placed his hands on my hips. "You know, Garrett is giving me an evil eye right now. It's pretty scary."

"What?" I asked, shocked and whipped my head around.

"Shhhh! Don't be so obvious!" Halvo commanded.

At that moment, I found Garrett in the crowd dancing with Maddie. Maddie's back was to me and Garrett's eyes were glued to me. I swallowed hard and let out a breath.

"He's probably happy I'm not dancing with Josh." I rolled my eyes and turned back to Halvo.

"Nope. He's not happy if you're dancing with anyone."