Someday

I looked at my phone, unsure if I wanted to send the text. Do you wanna go to Sadies with me? I hit the Send button and climbed into bed for an afternoon nap.
Three weeks later and I still hadn’t received an answer from Aaron. His smiles had become a lot more frequent and he seemed to be around more often.
I plopped down on the couch on Caroline’s left and grabbed a handful of popcorn and settled in for a movie night with the girls in Abby’s basement. My phone vibrated in my pocket , telling me I had a text. Probably Aaron asking for the Stats assignment. I thought to myself as I tried to extract it from my pocket. I flipped it open and saw that it was from Aaron. Yep. Definitely Stats. I opened the text and read through it a couple times, completely confused, until meaning struck me. My face broke into a smile as I stopped blinking. Yes, I will go with you. I finally closed my phone and ducked my head into my knees after pulling them up and propping my feet against the edge of the couch.
“What is it, Mariah?” Annabeth asked, eyeing me suspiciously.
“Nothin. My mom just said something funny.” I lied, not so convincingly.
“Yeah right.” She got up from the floor and tried to take my phone away from me.
“Fine. Aaron said yes.”
“To what?” I looked at my knees, contemplating lying and saying something about Stats or Trig, but instead deciding to just look at her blankly until she figured it out for herself. “Wait, the dance?” I nodded, my smile coming back. “See, I told you he’d say yes.”
“So you did.”
(A Week Later ~Night of the dance)
“You guys go ahead and walk over. I’m meeting Aaron on the way there.” I said, putting the finishing touches on Cathe’s makeup.
“You sure?” Caroline asked from my bed, still running her fingers through Annabeth’s straightened hair, trying to calm the frizzies.
“Yeah. He said he wanted to walk together.” I said handing Cathe my small mirror and going to look at how Caroline had done Ivy’s makeup. “You guys go ahead, I just need to finish my makeup.” The five of them, Caroline, Ivy, Cathe, Millie, and Annabeth, left my room after my giving them final approval. I heard them tramp down the stairs as I finished my makeup and used a small amount of Biosilk on my hair to finish calming it. I grabbed my phone as Aaron’s ringtone blasted from it.
Ready/ it said. I peeked out my window and saw him standing on the sidewalk in front of his house. I shoved my phone in the pocket of my khaki shorts and slid a pair of flip flops onto my feet. I hit my light switch before heading down the stairs and out the front door. I crossed the street, my bare arms getting chilled in the cool February Wisconsin air. I stopped beside Aaron and smiled.
“Ready?” He asked, smiling.
“Yeah.” I said as I fell into step beside him, acutely aware of him walking next to me, as we began the two block walk to the school gym. We crossed the street and turned the corner, leaving nothing but silence between us. Not awkward silence. Just silence.
“Hey guys.” Millie said, coming out of Ivy’s house across the street, with everyone else behind her. I looked at Aaron and rolled my eyes. He just shrugged and sighed. Our nice, peaceful walk had just gained another six people being as Abby had joined their group at Ivy’s. We walked to the dance, handed the chaperone our tickets and headed into the gym. I walked into the school hallway and put my shoes in my locker, smoothing out my grey and silver pinstripe tunic shirt and making sure the ties on my khaki capris were still tied. I walked back to the gym and looked around for Aaron, seeing him standing in a corner with Zander, Aaron’s pale face flashing in and out with the strobe light.
“So you gonna get him to dance with you?” Byrd, a not so much friend as obnoxious acquaintance, asked with a smug look on his face.
“I plan on it. Think what you will, Byrd-brain, if Aaron said yes to me, he cares. He’s not the kind of guy to say yes for pity or just to make me happy.”
“Well, good luck with that.” He smirked and walked away. I balled my fists at my side and tried to calm down. I hadn’t been at the dance ten minutes and Byrd had already pissed me off. I had already accepted that Aaron was very not touchy-feely. I knew it might be hard to get him to dance with me.
“Hey, Mariah. Wanna go ask them to dance?” Millie asked, looking toward Aaron and Zander, as the first slow song of the night started. I nodded and we walked over to them, me taking deep breaths and trying to relax my hands.
“Hey Aaron, wanna dance?” I asked, half expecting him to say yes, or at least, seriously hoping he’d say yes. I looked at him and watched him shaking his head.
“Just one?” I was surprised by the pleading in my voice, noting in my head that Millie and Zander were headed toward the main floor.
“No.” He didn’t sound mean in his rebuke, just a little remorseful maybe.
“Fine. Whatever. I just thought… Nevermind.” I started walking away, not willing to show him the pain he had just caused.
“I’m sorry.” He whispered behind me. I just shook my head, my hair falling across my back and swaying with me. I was still determined to not let him ruin my night. I sat down on the bleachers and started talking to Annabeth.
“Is he gonna dance with you?” She asked, the ‘he’ implied.
“I doubt it.” I said, my head falling into my hands.
“I’ll talk to him if you want.”
“No. It’s okay. I shouldn’t have expected it anyway.”
“Yes you should. He said he’d go with you, you should get at least one dance.” I rolled my eyes at her, even if I did very thoroughly agree with her. I knew Aaron wasn’t a touchy feely emotional kind of guy, and I had accepted it. I hadn’t expected him to say yes in the first place. “If nothing else you deserve it. He did say yes.”
“Maybe he shouldn’t have.” Annie balked at me and rolled her eyes, then stood up as the song ended and Milllie came over.
“He won’t dance with you, will he?” Millie asked.
“It doesn’t matter.” I lied, trying to sound convincing.
“Yes it does,” Millie said, heading toward Aaron with Annie. I shook my head and hoped it would pass. Abby grabbed my hand and pulled me onto the dance floor. I forgot about Aaron as much as possible for the next half hour at least, until the next slow song started. I looked around for Aaron, seeing him coming over from the food tables with Annabeth and Millie, both still talking to him, no doubt about me. I walked over toward them, Aaron stopping when he saw me.
“Hey.” I whispered. Annie and Mille stopped beside me. I looked at Aaron with a questioning look on my face, knowing he’d understand the look. He shook his head and tucked his chin into his chest a little.
“Oh, jeez, Aaron, just dance with her.” Annie said.
“You wanna dance?” Someone whispered behind me. I turned around and saw Zander standing next to Millie. Millie looked at me and turned to go with Zander. I turned and shot Annie a pointed look to go away and leave me to talk to Aaron alone. She shook her head, even more stubborn than her brother.
“No, Annie. Sorry, Mariah.” Saying ‘no’ to Annie he sounded final, but when he said ‘sorry’ to me, it was softer, with a hint of sorrow in his voice. He knew he had hurt me, and that seemed to hurt him too. I walked away, not bothering to try to reason with him, at least, not with Annabeth there. I sat down on the bleachers, to be pulled up by Caroline to dance with her.
“You know, we don’t like seeing you sad. You need to cheer up. What’s wrong?” Caroline asked, slowly swaying with me, her smile trying to get me to tell her things.
“Just… Aaron won’t dance with me, and I had hoped he would. I mean, he did say yes, so if he said yes he probably cares. He isn’t the kind of guy to say yes to make a girl happy. Is he?” I blurted out quickly in one breath.
“No. He isn’t. So yeah, he cares.”
“Ya know, it’s killing him to see you hurt.” Millie butted in, breaking off her small talk with Zander for a brief second as we passed them, her hearing part of the conversation, or at least guessing what we were talking about.
“I don’t know. It just… It would make sense for him to dance with me. At least once, right?” I asked, turning my attention back to Caroline.
“You deserve at least that much.”
“Can I blame the month of February? You know how much I hate this month. Especially tomorrow. The whole month just goes against me, everything that makes me happy, hurts me. Everything that hurts me, scars me. Everything that scars me, I never forget.”
“No, I don’t think you can blame the month.”
“Whatever. It doesn’t matter. Aaron like the rest of my month will end badly. And if I can accept that now, while he still refuses to dance with me, I’ll be okay later. But if he does eventually dance with me, he will make me incredibly happy, then hurt me.”
“You don’t know he’ll hurt you.” Caroline said, trying to argue a point that really only had one side.
“Caroline, I’m more of a hopeless romantic than you are, and I don’t think it will work. Yeah, part of me wants to see it happen, and to see it last if it does. And I’d be ecstatic if it happened and lasted, but I also know what it’s like to get hurt, and so if I can at all avoid pain, I will. Which is why I think I may have been smarter to not have asked him in the first place.”
“No. You needed to ask him.” I took my hands off Caroline’s shoulders as the song ended, getting pulled away almost immediately by Cathe to the food table to get a drink.
The rest of the dance passed in something of a painful blur, each slow song tempting me to look at Aaron with the same question splayed across my face, and the same small shake of the head in return. The DJ called out the last song for freshmen and sophomores, and I climbed the bleachers at the request of Annie and Millie. Millie and Zander got up and went down to the floor for their last dance of the night. Jon ushered Chris down the bleachers after a very pointed look from both Aaron and I. I climbed the last step up to sit next to Aaron, the only other person still sitting there besides the two of us was Annabeth.
“Hey, Annie, you want to dance?” Jon asked, climbing the bleachers. Annie looked at me and I told her plainly through my face that I wanted to talk to Aaron alone for a minute. Annie stood up and followed Jon down the bleachers. I watched as Aaron reached for his phone. I shot him a questioning glance and he pointed at Annie and Jon, now dancing together at the edge of the crowd.
“No. You aren’t taking pictures of your sister dancing with Jon. I won’t let you.” I told him. He stowed his phone back in his pocket and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “I have a question.” I said, the thing I’d been thinking most of the night needed to be answered. Aaron looked sideways at me. “But first, I’m sorry about Millie and Annie. I told them to stop bothering you. Really I did. They just don’t listen very well.”
“Annabeth never did.” He sighed and looked at me again. “But that’s ok. I just kind of tuned them out after a while. What was your question?”
“Well,” I started, taking a deep breath, “if I asked you again if you wanted to be here with me, would you still say yes?” I closed my eyes, hoping he wouldn’t see the doubt that was lurking there. I opened my eyes as he began to talk.
“Yes. I would still say yes. Even though I know that I’m hurting you and I’ve done nothing but hurt you all night, I’m glad I’m here. And I’m glad it’s with you.” I looked at him carefully, not hint of a lie flashing across his face.
“Then why won’t you dance with me? All I wanted was one dance. That would have been enough.”
“I’m not ready for it. I thought I was, which is why I said yes, but I’m not ready.” I nodded gently as the DJ came over the loud speaker saying good night to the underclassmen. I got up and walked down the bleachers to find Cady and Stacia, two of my senior friends who were still there. I danced around with them for most of the next half hour, occasionally looking up toward the bleachers to make sure Aaron was still there.
The DJ announced that this would be the last song, sending the two upper classes off with one last slow song, just after midnight. I recognized the song almost immediately as ‘Collide’ by Howie Day. I walked up the bleachers, standing two rows in front of Aaron and just holding my hands out to him. He looked up at my face and I know what he saw. One last desperate plea for a dance, one last plead with him to make the whole night better. I was about to turn around and go down and just get ready to leave when Aaron smiled and nodded, standing slowly. My face broke into a smile, all of the pain from the night disappearing in that one second. I bounded down the bleachers, standing patiently at the bottom for him. He stood in front of me and I put my arms lightly around his neck, clasping my fingers gently. He set his hands on my hips, a little awkwardly, but it didn’t matter. He was dancing with me.
The song ended and I leaned into Aaron to give him a hug.
“Happy Valentine’s day.” I whispered gently.
“Sorry it took so long.” He whispered.
“It’s ok. I promise. It was worth the wait.” I whispered back, happy that I actually got him to not only dance with me, but also to give me a hug. I let go of him and let my left hand trail down his right arm, landing gently in his hand for a split second before I let go and went to get my flip flops from my locker. I walked into the hall and gathered my shoes from my locker, slipping them onto my fingers, not wanting to wear them. I walked out of the gym and headed for home, catching just a glimpse of Aaron as he rounded the corner onto our street. I walked home, feeling as if I was walking on air. I climbed the stairs to my room and looked out my window, seeing as the light in his room came on. My phone vibrated in my pocket and I pulled it out as I shut my curtains to get ready for bed.
I’m sorry you had to wait so long. I read the text quickly and replied.
It’s worth the wait if it was right or made you happy. Did it? I sent back, amazed at my ability to come up with a profound statement at 12:30 in the morning.
Yeah. It was right and it did make me happy. I read the text as I climbed in bed, ready for a nice nap.
Good. Well, happy valentine’s day. Night night. I texted as I started falling asleep.
Night. :) I read and smiled as I closed my phone, turning the volume on so it would wake me up in the morning for church.