Alone.

My heart was beating hard against my chest, my nerves going crazy. My stomach started turning, making me sick. But I couldn’t figure out why my body was acting like this. Why I was so worried. It was just Dylan. The boy I saw every day in the halls. The boy who broke my heart. The boy that I should hate. We were in here alone.

“Hey Mattie,” he laughs, walking towards me. I don’t say anything to him. I just take a couple steps towards the door. “Leaving? So soon?”

“Yeah,” I mumble, reaching for the door handle. “I’m going to find my friends.”

Dylan jumps for my hand, tugging me back away from the door. "I need to talk to you."

I sigh, knowing that I should leave. I should go out and find Kile and Eric. Stick with them for the night.
But it was Dylan. I hated myself for it, but I knew I’d do anything for him. No matter how much I hated him for breaking me in the past.

“What do you want?” I ask.

Dylan smiles, taking a step closer to me.

“I want...” he whispers, coming closer and closer, "...to apologize."

Dylan reaches out, touching my hair. He smiles at me.

“F-for what?” I kicked myself for stumbling over my words.

He stops smiling, and stops playing with my hair altogether. He stares at the white kitchen tiles on the floor. He clears his throat before speaking. "For everything. I'm sorry."

"It's alright." Even though it wasn't. But I didn't tell him that because I was happy he was at least apologizes to me. "I am too...for punching you."

He smiles at that. "You have a mean punch. Definitely didn't learn that from me that's for sure."

We both laugh together. Even though it was awkward as fuck, I still loved the familiarity of it.

"Um," he says rubbing the back of his neck. "Friends?"

"Sure." I manage to say. "Friends."

"Bye Dylan," I say as I leave the kitchen.



“Dance with me!” somebody shouts over the raging music, grabbing my hips harshly and pulling me against their body. I immediately start moving my hips back and forth, in sync with the beat of the music and the boy pressed against me. I didn’t really care who it was. I didn’t care who any of these people were. I just danced.

I laughed mostly, as I moved from person to person, dancing and talking and laughing. It was like every other party I went to. I just let loose and did what I wanted. I didn’t care. I was there to have fun. And fun is what I had.

“Having fun?” I hear somebody behind me. I turn away from the person I had been dancing with and giggle when I come face to face with a grinning Eric.

“Yes,” I shout loudly over the music. “You’re party is amazing!”

Eric holds up his hands and smirks. “They always are.”

I chuckle, looking around the giant room full of teenagers. I saw people from my classes, people I’d seen around the hallways. But other than Eric, I didn’t see anybody else who I was actually friends with.

“So where is everybody?” I ask him.

“Michelle's outside, I think. I saw her there smoking a little while ago. Kile is in the basement with some chick, and Dani’s in the kitchen getting more beer.”

I laugh. “That’s Dani for you.”

He smirks and nods, looking out through the crowd of people. His face lights up just as I hear Dani's voice.

“I brought more beer,” she giggles, her worlds slurred. I turned to see her wobbling her way over to us, two beer cans in hand. When she reaches us she hands a can to Eric, who smiles, taking it from her.

“Thanks,” he mumbles. “Are you-” Eric gets cut off mid-sentence to Dani, clinging tightly to his body and kissing him like they were the only ones in the room. I stand there awkwardly, trying not to stare at the two, but I was so surprised. I hadn’t known they liked each other… much less were… together.

“Shall we go upstairs then?” Dani giggles, running her hands down Eric's chest before grabbing his hand. I give Eric a look of total disbelief, but he just smiles and shrugs it off, walking with her through the crowd, towards the stairs.

“Well, I can honestly say I didn’t see that coming,” I mumble to myself, shaking my head. I sigh, turning around to walk to the front door to look for anyone else I could talk to when I smack face first into someone’s chest.

“Sorry-” I start, but when I look up and realize who it was, I backed away.

Dylan was looking down at me “Hey Mattie...again."

"Hey" I mumble. I didn't know what else to say. Even though we were friends, it was still awkward being around him. It reminded me of the things I did to him, the things he did to me, the good times, and the pain that I felt.

"May I have this dance?" He asks me.

I look around me "To a fast song?"

He laughs, and oh how I missed his laugh. "Yes" He says after a moment.

"O-okay."

I bring my arms around his neck, as he wraps his around my waist and we slowly dance together. To the loud techno music, in the midst of many crazy people dancing, screaming, and drinking. None of that was there when I danced with Dylan. None of it.