Third Time's a Charm

By the time I knew it, the last two weeks of January passed and February rolled around. Two more weeks passed and then it was half-term.

Since half-term was around Valentine's Day, the party at Will's house was Valentine's Day themed. And as Will and I looked around at all the decorations, I noted all the red and white colors, the hearts and red roses. The roses were, of course, from his mother's garden. Apparently though, it was okay for the roses to be used for a big party that were only going to be used once, while it wasn't okay for Will to give them to me. Of course I didn't voice that thought. I didn't want his mom to hate me any more than she already did.

And because Will wanted me to get acquainted with his parents, he took me to his house almost every weekend. I got closer to his father, yes, but his mother was a different story. She still brushed me off with the cold shoulder and would usually ignore me. And if she did speak to me, it was to criticize something I said or did, or didn't say or do. It had been an all too familiar feeling to how Will treated me when we first met. And that just made being around her a little frustrating to say the least.

So whenever we visited for the weekend, I would usually just spend my time with Will or if he was too busy with entertaining his mother, I would hang out with his father. Today was one of those days where I hung out with his father.

Mr. Harper was in the parlor having a drink when I entered. "What are you drinking?" I asked him as I sat on the sofa across from him.

"Whiskey," he replied. "Would you like a glass?" he offered as he gestured to the whiskey decanter on the far wall. I shook my head.

"No, thank you. I don't think I should be having hard liquor before a big party like tonight. Maybe later," I said with a laugh. Mr. Harper nodded in understanding.

"How are the final touches going?" he asked.

"Good, good. Will and his mother are going over them right now with the DJ and the planner."

"And why aren't you with them right now?" I shrugged at his question. I didn't want to tell him I felt like I was intruding with their mother and son bonding time or whatever this planning together was. Also, that his wife hated me.

"Too stressful," I said instead. And it was partly true. All the stress of planning a party was too much for me, especially for this many people. So to save myself the stress and the panic attacks, I let Will and his mother deal with everything.

"I agree with you on that," he said with a nod as he held up his glass in agreement.

"Is that why you're hiding out here with a drink?" I asked with a smile.

He smiled back at me. "You caught me," he replied with a shrug. "Evelyn's the better one at planning events like these, so I let her do that." I nodded. "So what did you and William do yesterday?" he asked as he took a sip of his drink.

Yesterday was Valentine's Day. The party would have been thrown yesterday, but it was a Thursday and who partied on a Thursday night? So they postponed it a day so the party would land on a Friday. And so, Will and I actually got to spend Valentine's Day together.

"He took me out to a fair and then we had dinner at some really nice restaurant," I explained. I also told him how Will gave me a bouquet of roses - from his mother's garden while she wasn't looking - and the gorgeous dress that I was wearing right now. I left out the little tidbit about the lingerie part of the gift that Will also gave me and what we did later on with said lingerie. I didn't think it was necessary for his father to know about that.

"That sounds really nice," he said.

"What about you? What did you do with your wife?" He sighed as he rubbed his temples with his other hand.

"I had work for most of the day, so I couldn't really spend much time with Evelyn."

"Really? That sucks," I said. And I genuinely felt bad for him. No matter how bad his wife treated me, he loved her and he didn't get to spend Valentine's Day with her.

"I'm making it up to her though," he said with a grin. That piqued my interest.

"Ooh, how?" I asked excitedly. He then proceeded to tell me his plans. First, he took some time off work so he could whisk her away on a romantic getaway. Then he told me of his plans like a spa day he had reserved for her, to spoil her rotten and be treated like a princess. And he told me of all the other romantic things he was doing for her. Everything he was telling me sounded so perfect and sweet that I thought it would definitely make up for not getting to spend Valentine's Day with her. "That's so romantic," I said when he was done explaining it to me.

"It's perfect then," he said with a grin. I smiled at him.

"Were you always this romantic?" I asked him.

"For as long as I could remember," he said with a small laugh.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Yes, of course."

"How did you and your wife meet? And how was dating her like?" I was curious as to how they met and fell in love.

He laughed at my question. "Oh, she hated me when we first met," he said with another laugh. I looked at him in surprise.

"Really?"

"Definitely. She told me before we started dating. She said I was too affectionate and trusting. And that that would be my downfall if I didn't change."

"And did you?"

"Of course not. Evelyn may be right about a lot of things, but she wasn't right about that. Because of my trusting nature, I got where I am today. If I didn't meet certain people and trusted them with important matters, I wouldn't be here today. I wouldn't have a wonderful wife and a great son."

"And this mansion of a house and tons of money," I added in.

He waved that off with his hand. "Who cares about that? I have my family and I have my health. Nothing could be better than that."

I couldn't help but smile at that. "You know," I started. "you're so different from Will."

"He takes after his mother. He especially gets his short temper from her."

"I'm starting to notice that," I said with a small laugh. "What does he get from you then?"

He grinned and I could see Will in that grin. "My good looks," he stated.

I couldn't help, but laugh at that. "Your cockiness; he got that from you too then," I said jokingly.

This time, he laughed. When his laughter died down, he spoke up. "I'm sorry about William's mother," he said in a more serious voice. "He's our only child, so she's very protective of him."

"I understand that. But I love Will. And I would never hurt him."

"I know that, but I don't think Evelyn knows that."

"Is that your trusting nature talking?" I asked with a small smile.

"Yes, but I also have a knack for spotting good-hearted people. And you're a good-hearted person."

I felt my cheeks flush at the compliment. His words made me happy, but embarrassed at the same time. "Anyway," I started as I tried to divert his attention from my blushing cheeks and get back on topic. "how was dating Will's mother? What was it like?"

"It was amazing," he stated. "When she told me she hated me, that just made me try harder to get her. I went after her for months until she finally agreed to one date with me."

"And?"

"Later when we got married, she admitted to me that it was the best date of her life. And she was glad it was with me." I smiled. "And when I was actually dating her, it was one thrill ride after another. She kept me on my toes and she always looked out for me. And if it wasn't for an old friend of mine and my trusting nature, I would have never met her."

"Oh? So this friend of yours introduced you two?" I asked and he nodded. "Who's this friend?" He smiled at me and there was a hint of sadness in it. I figured this was the same friend that he mentioned before when we first got to really talking at the gazebo. Something must have happened to his friend.

"You know, you remind me of him sometimes," he said suddenly. I looked at him in surprise.

"Your friend? The one we were just talking about?" He nodded at me as he stood up and went to refill his glass. I watched him take off the lid of the decanter as he spoke up.

"I don't know what it is about you though that reminds me of him." He glanced back at my confused eyes. "I think it's your eyes," he stated. He looked at them for a few seconds longer. "Yeah, it's your eyes," he said firmly with a nod after he filled his glass and sat back down in front of me. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion.

"My eyes?" I questioned. He nodded again.

"He had those same wondering brown eyes," he said as he held his glass of whiskey at the rim with his fingertips. He sloshed the brown liquid about as he looked up at me.

"What happened to your friend?" I asked finally.

"To be honest," he started. "I don't know. We just lost touch and I haven't heard from him in years."

"Have you tried reaching out and finding him?"

"He kind of left his family, so his family wouldn't tell me what happened to him. It was like he fell off the map."

"I'm sorry," I said apologetically.

He shook his head at me. "It's okay," he replied. Before I could ask any more questions of his friend or even how he courted his wife back in the day, Will walked into the room.

"There you are!" he exclaimed as he held out his arms for me. I stood up from my seat and let myself be hugged by him. "It's almost time for the party to start," he said. I glanced at the time on his watch and he was right. It was almost eight o'clock, around the time that people would start to arrive.

"I was just talking to your father," I replied.

"I can see that," Will said with a laugh. "We should greet people when they get here though."

"Yeah, of course," I said. Before he could guide me out of the parlor, I turned back to his father. "Thanks for the talk, Mr. Harper. It was really nice."

He nodded at me. "Please, call me Richard," he said with a smile. I smiled back at him, glad that he considered us close enough that I could call him by his first name.

"Okay, Richard. Thanks again for the talk. I'll see you around tonight, yeah?" He nodded at me and Will led me out of the parlor and into the foyer. I smiled to myself as I held his hand.



By nine o'clock, there was a fair amount of people already. Chris had come a bit earlier than everyone else to help with a few finishing touches, so him and Hayley were already here. Travis had come from his mom's place in Aylesbury, so he got here not too long ago. Annabella, James, and Sara arrived together not too long after the party started. And since pretty much the whole school was invited, Marissa and Allison - the scholarship student I had met - were here. And though the student body also included Jason, I hadn't seen his face around here. Good thing too, because if I didn't kick his ass for showing his face here, Will would have.

Since Will's house was essentially a mansion, he had a whole ballroom type of room for the DJ and for dancing. His parents did a few rounds around the place, making sure everything was going smoothly.

When I had found out there would be alcohol supplied at this party, I got a bit worried, because everyone was invited. The youngest being around Year Nine at Kingston Academy. And even though the drinking limit was lower here in England, it wasn't that low and I thought we would get in trouble. It turned out though that Will's parents took a lot of precautions with their parties. If they were younger than the legal drinking age, their hands were stamped, so they couldn't get alcohol at the open bar. And they needed written consent from their parents or guardian if they were under the drinking age limit. And if they were of legal drinking age, they got a wristband. I wasn't exactly sure about all of the details, but all I did know was that minors weren't allowed to drink here tonight and they were pretty strict on that.

By ten o'clock, I had a drink or two while I danced with Will. I hadn't really been to clubs with him or at all for that matter, so this was my first time actually dancing with him. And while I was generally awkward - especially with dancing - since I had a few drinks, I loosened up and just danced.

It was a nice feeling being with him, having his arm circled around my waist from behind as we danced to the beat of the loud music around us. Of course I had danced before at school dances back in California, but I had never danced with a boy who I loved and had seen every part of me. I used to gag when I used to see couples dancing all dirty, but as I swayed my hips and practically grated my backside against Will's front side, I knew why they danced like this. It was thrilling and fun. And it made you feel good knowing that you could turn on your dance partner so much by just being near them.

Our dance was cut short however when there was a firm hand on my shoulder that didn't belong to Will. I followed the hand to its owner and found Chris.

"You owe me a dance," he said over the loud music with a grin. I grinned back at him as Will pulled me closer to him.

"Come back later, mate," Will said over my shoulder. "She's busy." I turned in his arms and smacked his shoulder.

"Be nice!" I shouted over the music. He glared at me before I reached up and pulled him down so I could speak into his ear. "There's plenty of me for you later," I said, trying my best to sound seductive despite the loud music. When I pulled back to see his face, it looked like I succeeded, because he had a smirk on his face.

"One dance," Will said to Chris.

"That's all I wanted," he replied. "And I'll keep it clean, unlike you kiddies!" I laughed even as a blush came over my cheeks. Will let go of me, pressing a lingering kiss on my lips.

"I'm getting a drink," he said to me when he pulled away. I nodded as he let go of me. When I turned back to Chris, he had a small smirk on his face as he bowed and held out his hand for me.

"My lady," he said with an exaggerated accent. I laughed as I took his hand. He pulled me closer and we started to dance. And like he said he would, we kept our dancing clean.

"Where's Hayley?" I questioned as he twirled me around.

"She's taking a break from dancing, so she went for a wee bit of fresh air," he replied. I nodded at him as we continued to dance.

We danced for about two songs before it was cut short once again, but this time it was by Hayley. She had come back in from outside and started dancing with Chris. I let him go as I saw Travis at the far end of the ballroom. I walked towards him, noticing Annabella dancing with a small group of girls. When I got to him, he smiled at me.

"Hey," I said over the music.

"Hey," he replied.

"Why aren't you dancing?"

"I'm not very good at this type of dancing," he replied.

"Come on, it's easy."

"Club dancing, I can't do. Ballroom dancing on the other hand..." he trailed off.

"You can ballroom dance?" I asked in surprise and he nodded. "What kind exactly?"

"I can do the waltz, the fox trot, and some other ones. You know, the usual."

"The usual?" I asked with a laugh. "That's pretty fucking cool, you know that?" Travis laughed at that. "Wanna teach me?" I held out my hand and he looked at me in surprise.

"Right now?" he asked and I nodded energetically.

"Sure, why not?"

"This isn't exactly the right music for a waltz."

"So? There's a good beat going on right now. It's fine." I tugged on his arm and with an exaggerated sigh, he followed me.

I led him to the dance floor and he guided my hands to place them on his body. "One hand goes here," he said as he placed my left hand on his shoulder and placed his own hand on my back, just behind my ribcage. "And your other hand goes here." He placed my other hand in his and held it up. "The waltz is really easy actually," he said over the music. "Watch my feet and follow my lead. I'll go slow." I looked down at his feet that were parallel to mine. I tried to mirror his steps as his left foot took a step back and his right foot joined where his other foot was at. A beat later, his left foot took a step to his left and his other foot followed it. At the next beat, his left foot took a step forward while his other foot followed. At another beat, his right foot took a step to his right and his other foot followed. And then finally, his right foot took a step back and his other foot followed. "And that's a box," he said. "That's essentially what a waltz is. Did you get that?" I furrowed my eyebrow in concentration.

"Kind of," I admitted. "I've had a bit to drink, so show me again."

He laughed before he replied. "Okay, let's do another box."

After doing a few more boxes, I started to get the hang of it. Every time he took a step back, I took a step forward and mimicked what his other foot did. When he took a step to his left, I took a step to my right. When he took a step forward, I took a step back. When he took a step to his right, I would step to my left. And then we would finish our box back to the start where he would take a step back and I would step forward. It was actually pretty easy.

"Having fun?" I heard from behind me. I turned around and saw Will standing there with a small grin on his face and a drink in his hand.

"I am!" I exclaimed. "Travis is teaching me how to waltz!"

"Waltz?" he questioned. "With this music?"

"That's what I tried telling her," Travis piped in.

"Well, I think you need a little break," Will said as he handed me the glass in his hand. I let go of Travis and took the drink. I took a sip of the clear liquid with ice cubes and realized it was water. I downed the rest of it, not realizing how thirsty I really was. "Top off?" he asked as I handed the glass back to him. I nodded. He turned to walk away before I called out.

"Wait! I'll come with you. I really do need a break," I said as I wiped a bit of sweat from my forehead with the back of my hand. I turned to Travis. "We'll continue my dancing lesson later," I said with a smile. He smiled back at me with a nod before I gave him a quick hug. When I pulled away, I skipped the few paces over to where Will waited for me.

I grabbed his arm when I reached him and he guided me to the bar on the far wall. I sat down on one of the many stools that lined the bar as Will handed my glass back to the bartender for a water refill.

"How are you liking the party?" he asked me when the bartender refilled my cup with water and placed it in front of me. I took a sip before I replied.

"It's great! I'm having so much fun!" I said with a big grin.

"I'm glad," he replied. He kissed the side of my head as I continued to drink my cold water.

"It's hot," I stated. Without saying a word, he grabbed my hand and tugged me off the stool. I downed the rest of my water before I followed him.

He guided me out of the massive ballroom and down the hallways to the back door. He took me outside to the gazebo. He picked me up by the waist so I could sit down on one of the thick panels of the gazebo. When I was seated comfortably, he stood directly in front of me, his hands still on my waist.

"I got you something," he said suddenly as he took his hands off me.

"Ooh, what is it?" I asked excitedly. He chuckled at my enthusiasm. I watched as he placed his hand inside of his jacket into a secret pocket in the suit jacket. My focus was no longer on the fact of that cool pocket on his jacket, but now on what he pulled out. He had pulled out something wrapped in red gift wrap tissue. I looked at it curiously before he handed it to me. "What is it?" I asked again.

"Open it," was all he said. I unfolded the paper to reveal three thick leather bracelets. I noticed the one on top had intricate flower patterns carved into the leather. I looked up at him in question.

"I would have given this to you yesterday, but the engravings took longer than I expected. I figured this would be a nice change compared to those," he stated as he gestured towards my wristband. "Plus, to be honest, I was getting sick of those wristbands," he finished with chuckle. I smiled at him. "Do you like it?" I nodded vigorously.

"Why even ask?" I questioned. I pulled him down by his jacket lapel and pressed a kiss to his lips. "Thank you. I love them." When I pulled away from him completely, he took one of the bracelets out of my hand. He slipped off my wristband, his fingers lightly tracing my scars, before he strapped the bracelet onto my wrist. It was around the same width of my wristband and it covered my scars perfectly. I thought I looked so much more mature wearing these than my wristbands. "They're beautiful. Thank you," I said again as I looked back up at him. He smiled at me before he captured my lips with his own.

We stayed out there for more than half an hour, just talking and kissing. At one point though, Will glanced at his wristwatch and checked the time.

"Let's go back inside," he said as he pulled away from me.

"What? Why?" I practically whined.

"It's almost midnight. We gotta be there for the Bewitching Dance," he stated simply. I stared at him with a blank expression on my face.

"The what?" I asked.

"The Bewitching Dance. It's the slow dance right at midnight that's practically the trademark of all my parties."

"You have a trademark?"

He rolled his eyes at me. "Just come on. Before we miss it." He helped me off the gazebo and held my hand as he guided me back to where everyone else was at. As we walked, I looked at the leather wristbands. They really were beautiful. After he had placed it on my wrist and had kissed me, I asked him to hold my old wristband for me. And when he asked why I wouldn't just toss it, I told him I would keep it as a reminder. He didn't argue with me on that and knew why I would do that. So he placed my old wristband along with the other two leather wristbands in the secret pocket of his jacket before he kissed me again.

When we entered the ballroom again, we got back just in time to hear the music shift to a slow dance song. He pulled me to the center of the dance floor before he took me in his arms. I was glad to be wearing heels tonight, so I was at least a bit taller and could wrap my hands around his neck more comfortably. He wrapped his arms around my waist as he pulled me closer.

I took a glance around me as we swayed to the music. James and Sara were a couple of feet away from us. When they saw me, I nodded at them in acknowledgement with a smile and they smiled back at me.

Chris and Hayley were a bit farther, but I could still see them perfectly fine. I waved at them when they waved at me first. Erin was off to the left of me with Rachael dancing with her. I grinned at her and she grinned back at me.

About halfway through the Bewitching Dance, I finally caught sight of Travis and Annabella. His skinny arms were wrapped tightly around her waist while her arms were wrapped his neck. His head was buried in her full head of hair with one of her hands on the back of his head. I grinned to myself as I watched them, pulling myself closer to Will.

Our dancing was slow and sweet, and I wouldn't have asked to be anywhere else but here.