The Book of Firsts: Kendall and James- First Dance
The seventh grade dance was a big deal. No- a huge deal. Especially for James who already had a date with the cutest girl, Kathryn Sommers. She had long dirty blond hair and green eyes that could kill a person when they look sad. They'd been dating for a couple days and the dance was the way to make it official.
Kendall, however, had no such luck. It wasn't that there weren't plenty of nice girls to date- which he found hilarious that they, as seventh graders, considered it dating- the only problem was that he was too busy helping his mom out. Ever since the big walk out of sixth grade, he had to become the man of the house, helping with Katie, who was only seven. That was enough work combined with school, so going out with anyone just seemed trivial.
The blond was staying for the dance though. Why couldn't he have fun without a date? He would just dance a little, eat a little, and maybe shoot some hoops in the other side of the gym that they freed up for just that purpose. Carlos and Logan weren't going, saying they had to finish their World Cultures project. That left James and Kathryn, someone he wasn't too fond of. So what if he would basically be alone at the dance with those odds? He would have fun.
The gym was crowded and smelled like sweat from earlier that day. Streamers and balloons hung lamely around the gym and the most popular songs thundered through the place. The other kids in the room jumped and laughed while Kendall sat lonely on the bleachers, regretting his decision to come.
James was jumping up and down, dancing with Kathryn when he finally noticed Kendall. He looked so sad, his blond locks dangling in front of his eyes while he looked at the floor. He felt so bad, knowing that Kendall hated Kathryn (he thought she was too confident and controlling). The brunette put a finger up and sauntered over to his best friend.
"Hey kid," he said, sitting beside him. Kendall looked up, something like annoyance in his eyes. James put his arm around him and gave him a shake. "You should get out and dance."
"This was stupid idea," Kendall said, standing up and walking towards the door. James looked apologetically over at Kathryn before following the other boy out the door to the hallways where gaggles of kids were crowded. Kendall finally stopped by the corner that had the vending machine for water. James stopped as well.
"What's wrong?" he asked, thoroughly confused. Kendall shook his head and looked down at his feet again.
"I'm…bored here. And I still hate Kathryn," he looked back up and into James' eyes.
"She's hot though! And she can be nice," James tried to explain, but knew he was failing. Kendall could always outwit him and definitely had him this time. He groaned and put a hand on his friend's shoulder, "I'm sorry, okay?"
"It's fine," Kendall shrugged his hand off, "It was stupid of me to think I could come and have fun alone."
James looked back at the doors to the gym. He could either choose his best friend or a girl he only knew for a couple weeks. He shrugged and smiled. "Let's just go outside and wait for your mom to come, alright?"
His friend nodded and they headed outside. It was nice and sunny, the beginning of spring. Their seventh grade year was almost over and their last year of middle school was approaching very fast. Kendall noted this as they walked outside.
They sat on the sidewalk by the parent pick-up/drop-off. They talked about the hot girls in their grade among other things. They both hated the same teachers, like always, and thought that Carlos and Logan were lucky that they had a class together.
It had been about 20 minutes when James stood and sighed. "We should dance since this is a dance," he stated. Kendall stood up and looked at him weirdly.
"Together?" he asked, suspicious. James nodded.
"What's wrong with it? I mean, that way we both get a dance."
Kendall's insides felt funny. He wanted to dance with James, but what his father had told him stuck in his brain even more. He remembered when he and James kissed and just how wrong it was. Dancing with another boy was almost worse. He shook his head.
"No. We can't do that. We're both boys, I mean," he said, his voice filled with Kendall confidence. James didn't see the big deal that his friend had with guys doing stuff with other guys. But he just shrugged and sat back down.
"Dances are boring," James stated after a sufficiently awkward silence. Kendall laughed and put his arm around his friend like James had done earlier to him.
"Totally. Let's never go to one again," he said, holding out his pinky. James linked his with Kendall and they squeezed them, the pact made. They didn't release each other's fingers, letting them fall in between them. They'd done that before and Kendall wasn't uncomfortable with it, surprisingly.
It didn't take long for Ms. Knight to get there and they detached their pinkies, almost sprinting towards her mini-van. James smiled back at Kendall as he got into the front seat, being the guest and all.
"How was the dance?" Ms. Knight asked, looking in the mirror at her son. The best friend's smiled at each other once again.
"Fun," Kendall simply said. His mom smiled, happy with the answer, and they drove away from the school, James and Kendall both with permanent smiles on their faces.