Dance Dance

"Galaxy, your friend is here," said my mother, who didn't even wait for me to tell her to come inside my room.

I would've glared at her, if I wasn't already pretty much ready. I was just doing my makeup and deciding if it was too late to cancel. It looked like it was, if Brodie was here already. I sighed before looking at the door, "Tell him I'll be a little while longer."

My mom smiled and nodded. "You know, you don't have to dress up pretty for him. He's seen you in bloody sweat pants before."

"MOM!!!" I shouted, getting up to push her out of the room. I didn't need a reminder of the time I slept over at Brodie's place when I was eleven and my body decided right then and there to kick puberty into hyperdrive. I bled through the sweat pants I was wearing for pjs while I slept on his floor.

Luckily, Brodie didn't freak out too much when we woke up and his mom was really cool about it. It didn't keep him from making jokes about it to this day when he found out what it was, however. I hated him for it, but could never really stay mad at him. He was my best friend since preschool... and I guess maybe something a little more now.

Things get a little weird when you experiment with your best friend's mom's liquor cabinet after everyone went home or out after Brodie's 15th birthday party. You get a little drunk while playing truth or dare and suddenly you're kissing and it feels warm and tingly... then you puke in his mouth because you drank too much tequila. And he holds your hair back when you're crying and puking while confessing that you've like liked him since 8th grade.

I huffed as I plopped down in front of my dresser again. I stared at my reflection. My long, black hair looked messy and bushy and would not calm down. I would've tried to straighten it more but I smelt burning and I didn't want to fuck things up more by burning my fucking hair off. My eyes were my favourite part of myself, if I couldn't count my lips, but now they looked awkward and red and puffy because I stabbed myself in the eye while putting waaaaay too much liquid eyeliner on. My lips looked okay, I guess. You can't really mess up lip gloss and stick, especially if you're super careful to not smudge it or get it in your teeth.

I got up and looked at my outfit. Black leggings with leg skeleton on it underneath a pale peach pink dress that went to just above my knee and a leather jacket that Brodie gave to me. He said that his older cousin Walter had left it at his place years ago and he didn't like it, no one else did. "That's more your style, My Gal Pal." It was frankly way too big on me, but I loved it, even if it was a bit longer than my dress and I needed to roll up the sleeves five billion times. I put on my pair of neon pink platform shoes that weren't nearly as light as my dress, but it'd have to do. I put on a spiked collar necklace with peachy roses and a matching flower crown headband.

I looked stupid. I honestly looked so stupid.

"Hey, what's the fucking hold up?"

I froze.

It was Brodie.

"Don't fucking come in here!"

"Christ, Gal, I've seen you naked dozens of times or with period blood or puke splattered everywhere what's the big fucking deal."

I spun around to try to slam the door shut but Brodie was already in my room. He was staring at me. Oh God, did he think I looked bad too?

"Spit it out, dickass." I said, feeling my eyes burn up from the eyeliner and the need to cry.

"...youlooknice." He mumbled. I wasn't sure if I heard him right.

"What?" I said dumbly.

"I said you looked nice, Jesus." He shouted, looking away from me. If it was anyone else speaking to me like that, I would've drop kicked their ass to the fucking Andromeda galaxy. But I knew that that's just how Brodie talked, he was super crass and not really eloquent at all. Unless he was talking about how big Captain America's dong was and how Wonder Woman was the only woman with a strong enough uterus to carry Superman's baby. I noticed him blushing furiously. I smiled a little. "Well jeez, return the fucking compliment, maybe."

I laughed and gave him the once over. He managed to get his wild brown hair a little calmed down, now there was only half of the usual fly aways and cow licks. He also washed it, and that's how I knew this was a special occasion. He showered for me. His usual attire of a stained hoodie on top of a Marvel t-shirt and ripped jeans weren't here... instead, he was in a pair of new skinny jeans with no holes or rips, a long black button up shirt on top of a clean white tshirt and a suede jacket over everything.

"You clean up nice..." I said, trying to hide how embarrassed and flattered I was that he not only showered but seemed to buy new clothes just for this date. With someone who bleed on his Avengers floor rug and puked on him. Wow. "Really... nice."

He let out a sound that I wasn't really sure if it was a laugh or a grunt. He seemed to make that whenever he wasn't really sure what to say. He looked up, well down I guess since he was a head taller than me now, at me and held out his arm. "Lets go now, Red Velvet."

I punched him in the stomach and he hit the floor like a sack of potatoes.

xxx

"Oh my God, I didn't hit you that hard."

"YOU WERE TRYING TO PUNCH THROUGH ME AS IF I WAS SUPERMAN'S LOAD GOING THROUGH LOIS LANE."

I snorted, rubbing Brodie's stomach as we sat on the stairs in front of the movie theatre. "Poor baby, can't take it after he dishes it out..."

"Christ, I call you a fucking nickname and you try to rip out my guts, Mortal Kombat style."

"Your nickname is referring to that incident from when we were eleven, you fuck."

"Shit, at least it's not Ketchup P."

I cut him off, not wanting to hear the worst nickname in history. "RED VELVET IS JUST AS BAD."

"Whaaat? No it's not. People would think it's some cutesy shit like 'cupcake' or 'cutiepie' and it doesn't have a vulgar slang word for vagina."

I wanted to punch him in the stomach again but he was still dying from the punch I gave him twenty minutes ago. I honestly doubted it was hurting that bad without anyone touching it, he was probably milking it for sympathy. And so I'd pay for the arcade tokens and movie tickets. Unfortunately, it was starting to work.

"I hate you." I said, lifting up his shirt to see if I bruised him badly.

"Woah!!! Holy shit, at least wait until we're at the back of the theatre or something! We didn't even get to first base yet or really start the first date and you're feeling me up. OW!! JESUS, GALAXY."

I rolled my eyes when I pressed against the bright pink almost red area on his stomach. It was a little too hard, but it was mostly as revenge for his second base joke. There was definitely going to be a bruise, no shit. But I touched it lightly again, "How's that?"

"It's still hurting because you fucking poked it but I guess it's fine."

"Well tell me if it genuinely hurts or gets worse even if nothing's touching it. Then you can knock me the fuck out or something as pay back after a doctor sees it."

His eyes lit up. "Is that a promise?"

I rolled my eyes. "Sure. Why not." I got up and dusted the back of my dress off. "Let's go in though. I wanna play DDR before the movie and there's always a stupid fucking line for it on Fridays because of that loser Johnny Steps or whatever he calls himself."

I helped Brodie into his feet, and blushed as our hands touched. We held hands before, mostly as kids, and all that so why did it feel so weird... but good now? Crushes were the worst. He held on tighter to my hand, not wanting to let go. I gripped tighter before heading up the stairs and into the movie theatre.

It was packed. It seemed like most people were here for the movies and snacks rather than the arcade, but that was pretty full too. We bought our movie tickets and Brodie sent me off to go buy tokens for the arcade while he bought us drinks since it'd be over an hour until our movie. I pulled out my phone and set up the e-transfer for the token machine. The games I usually liked used at least four tokens per life so it'd be good to get a lot just for myself. Brodie would want to play too of course, so I'd have to think about him. I sighed, punching in $20 into my phone and stuffed it back into my purse so I could get all the tokens I could with both hands. I wish I had brought a small bag or something to keep them in since the theatre staff never bothered to restock the bags here.

I was still trying to catch all the tokens I could and shove them into my pockets when Brodie came up.

"Jesus, Gal. How much did you buy?"

"Well I know how much you suck at the Batman game so I thought I'd buy you enough tokens for at least one level."

He snorted and put a large drink on top of the machine and held out a hand. I dropped two almost overflowing handfuls into his. He laughed and stuffed it into his pockets, only to pull out a bag from his other pocket and started filling that up with the tokens I gave him.

"Do you have another one?"

"Nope, and that's the price you pay for not being prepared, my dear dear Gal Pal."

"Asshole." I didn't mean it of course.

"Use a pocket inside your purse for now, I guess. I got us a drink, if you didn't want swamp water then tough shit."

"You only got one?"

"Hey, I'll buy us separate ones when the movie actually starts. And whatever else you'd like, Galaxy. I don't have cooties, and if I did? I got them from when you barfed all over me, ya light weight."

I closed my eyes and sighed, trying to hide a smile at the memory. "Fine, what did you mix then?"

He took a moment while he took a long sip from the cup. "Coke, vanilla AND cherry, Sprite, iced tea and that juice that isn't Fruitopia because this company is a bunch of savages."

"Thank god you didn't put gross fountain Powerade in it."

"I'm an asshole, not a sadomasochist."

I smiled. "How's your stomach?"

"Better, but now it suddenly hurts all of a sudden. Oh no, Gal, I'm going to die." He said over dramatically, a hand resting on his face as he slowly sank to the ground. I gave him a light shove, trying not to cackle at his less than half-assed performance. "Let's go on your stupid dancing game, if there isn't a line..."

There was a line, because that Johnny Steps loser was there. And he was throwing a "tournament", yet again. And the theatre staff wouldn't do anything about it. Again. I sighed, and nudged Brodie towards the Batman game he liked, I'd play a few rounds with him while Johnny was being a general bragging asshole.

"Haha, isn't there ANYONE that can defeat the fantastic Johnny Steps in this town?"

I snorted, pushing Brodie a bit harder. I didn't wanna hear more of this. But Brodie stayed put. Why wasn't he moving?

"Hey, why don't you go up there and fuck him up, Gal?"

I glared at Brodie. "Because I'd rather not act out a fucking anime episode? Let's just go play something else."

Suddenly, Brodie threw off his coat and shoved the swamp water into my hands. What was he doing?!

"Hey! Twelve Step!"

"BRODIETHATSFORADDICTS." I hissed, but he didn't hear me. He was already up on the platform. Oh god. What was he doing!!!

"Ah hah! I see that Johnny Steps has a new challenger, that slacker Mall Rat from Eden Garden Mall!"

"Do you always talk like some third rate villain? What the fuck. And why the hell do you know that. Jesus." Said Brodie, only to get cut off by more cheesy dialogue from the much older guy. I think.

"Well, enough delay. If I win, I get all your tokens..."

"I'm not agreeing to that, dick piss."

Johnny looked startled. Was he serious? Did everyone else agree to his bullshit before? Was Brodie the only one to say no?

"Well how about something of equal value... like your date."

I stared. What the fuck.

"How about no? Jesus, just pick the damn song already." Brodie said as he put in six tokens. "Plus, she's worth more than... Galaxy how much did you put in?"

I sighed. "Twenty."

"Christ sakes, lady. Way to flaunt your parents fucking allowance. Anyway, she's worth more than that shit."

I blushed.

Johnny went back to bragging or insulting Brodie for being a coward and for not playing by his rules. Brodie simply picked a song while the other bragged, and laughed once the music started. Johnny scrambled to stop himself and get into the song. It was one I heard in old movies at my grandma's house.

Even if Brodie got the leading start and was on a lower difficulty, it was pretty obvious he didn't know how to play the game. His eyes were constantly flickering from the screen then down to his feet. His feet were always on the grey square then quickly scrambling to get to the right arrows. I knew he was bad at this game, I liked to make fun of him for it. But now everyone else was seeing it... after that big dramatic entrance and making fun of Johnny....

I almost couldn't bear to watch. But looking away and listening to the game and crowd was almost worse. The game loudly announced that Brodie was doing terribly and the crowd was muttering among itself when it wasn't laughing. Sooner rather than later... the song ended. Because Brodie did so bad and kicked him out.

Johnny let out a laugh. "Pathetic!! You talk big but you couldn't even handle beginners mode! Let alone my sweet dulcet moves."

It was my turn to shove my shit into Brodie's arms, nearly breaking the cup in the process. Brodie swore loudly at me, but I didn't give a shit.

"Dulcet is for fucking sound, you fucking ignoramus. Here's a fucking bet for you, if I win, you fuck right the fuck off for the rest of the night and quit this lame tournament shit off for good."

"But what if I."

"You won't." I said, shoving my tokens into the slot and toggling through pages and pages of songs before just hitting random. Before the song was selected, I bumped my difficulty to heavy. I knew Johnny was on expert and I normally played on light... but I didn't want him to claim foul and say no wonder I won... I was on easy.

The song began... and I didn't recognize it. At all.

The chills that you spill up my back
Keep me filled with satisfaction when we're done
Satisfaction of what's to come

It was funky. I think I could handle this. It'd be easier to find the beat here than with the song Brodie picked.

I couldn't ask for another
No, I couldn't ask for another
Your groove, I do deeply dig
No walls, only the bridge, my supper dish
My succotash wish

This song was so weird. I had no idea what the singer was saying or if I was hearing things correctly. What was a succotash...

I looked over at Johnny. It looked like he was doing well. As if he played this before. Shit. I needed to focus on my own stuff, not on what him or anyone else was doing. I took a deep breath and tried to do exactly that. The strumming of the base played on my heart and I could feel the drums echoing in my rib cage. The song really was neat, even the weird lyrics didn't bother me. When was it from?

While I tried to focus on the song, I was hitting a lot more Perfects and Awesomes. It made me feel a little better. Sweat began to roll down my face, which I tried to ignore. I slid off my jacket and dropped it onto the floor next to me, not missing a beat. Or at least I hoped so.

I heard murmurs in the crowd. Was I doing bad? They got louder and louder. I closed my eyes again. I felt my hips swaying and my arms moving. Shit, I was getting too into this song. I'm gonna end up embarrassing myself! In front of Brodie no less!

"Galaxy watch out!" Brodie called out.

I opened my eyes to see Johnny sticking his leg out into my part of the platform, his door slamming into the right arrow when there wasn't any on the screen. My score went down every time he did it, since the game counted this as a miss. He was full on cheating now! What the fuck.

"Do the same shit as him!"

Should I? Wouldn't that be stooping to his level? And how the shit would I even... I shook my head and started playing harder. I'd have to get my score so high that his cheating wouldn't affect me. But I couldn't do that without the multiplier. And I wouldn't get the multiplier if he kept messing me up. Shit.

What do I do...

"Galaxy!!!"

Brodie was still there.

My heart was pounding so much. From the game, from being watched by a crowd like this, from getting seriously pissed at anime villain of the week over here and because of Brodie.

Suddenly, I felt Johnny slam his foot into my leg. Pain shot through my ankle before I slid and hit the platform. I'm sure if I was expecting it, it would've hurt less. My pride hurt more than my foot and my hands. Everything felt so slow. I saw his foot moving towards my hand, panick pulsing through my veins. I pulled my hand out of the way, his foot just nicking my fingernails before I sat up. I heard the game's announcer loudly booing me before the song ending abruptly before melting away into the standard DDR music. I had missed so much that it booted me out, I guessed. Even if it was because of foul play that I lost like that, my pride was for sure going to have a bruise almost as bad as Brodie's stomach.

I got up and brushed the dust off my tights then got off the platform without a word. Pain shot up and down my leg once I put my weight on it. It was probably best to walk out of here with what little dignity I had left. And Brodie too, who probably felt worse than I did. What with him mouthing off, playing the game and losing just because he sucked then having to see me lose. Augh, why did we have to be stupid and do this?!

"Brodie, lets go do something else." I said, reaching for my coat. He looked at me and handed it over before waltzing over to Johnny, who was still boasting about how he was the best. The crowd looked pretty distraught, probably because of watching him just blatantly assault someone because of a stupid game. I reached out for Brodie and missed. What was he going to do?!

"Ahhh, the Mallrat is back again? Didn't you embarrass yourself enough earlier?" Johnny said with a laugh.

Brodie stared hard at him before throwing the swamp water in the older guy's face. "Cool off, champ."

"What's going on here?!" A voice called out, everyone turned towards the theatre employee. It was a senior at me and Brodie's school, Gill who apparently worked here. According to the name tag on his red vest, he was Assistant Manager. Wow. Even with his shaggy brown hair and him being a fucking dweeb that ran the Art Club, outside of school he was weirdly imposing. Probably because he was six foot four at the age of seventeen and had some form of power here. He stepped towards Brodie and the dripping Johnny Steps. This was enough for him, I guessed. He grabbed Brodie by the sleeve and pushed him towards the exit. "We're sorry but, you're gonna have to leave."

"Wait!!! He did it because of me." I shouted, running to Brodie's side. "Don't throw him out, I can g."

Gill shook his head. "I'm sorry but... we can't let rough housing fly."

"But it was the other guy that started it!"

"Yeah! He was kicking her and stuff! He was just trying to defend his girlfriend!"

The three of us blinked in surprise when the crowd started to defend us. I felt my face heat up when I heard girlfriend. Gill let go of Brodie's jacket and shot him an apologetic look. "Sorry about that, but..."

We were kicked out of the theatre regardless of who started it first. We got our tickets refunded though. Johnny was banned from the arcade for six months apparently. The theatre had been sick of his unofficiated "tournaments" but needed a solid reason, I guess.

I held Brodie's hand as we walked out of the theatre and towards the mall. Since it was the holidays, the place was still open for a few more hours. "Hey... I'm really sorry for hitting you, I guess." I said once we hit the first crosswalk and waited for the light to change.

Brodie squoze my hand tighter. "Don't worry about it."

"No... it. It wasn't cool. And..."

Brodie leaned in and kissed me. The lights changed and people walked passed us, but it felt like the world stopped. "I said, don't worry about it."

I blushed and stared at the ground as we started to walk.

"Ketchup p."

I drove my free hand into his side before he could finish what he said.