Her name was Rachel. She had brown hair, and she danced with fire in her eyes.
“Hey come dancing with me tonight,” Taylor said. Taylor was one of my best friends. We had known each other since early elementary school, first or second grade. It had been some time since we'd gone dancing.
“Come on, it will be a blast,” he said.
“I don't know,” I replied. I really didn't feel like going out, let alone going dancing. Lately I hadn't really gone out much to do anything. I had been avoiding social gatherings. For no reason really, I just felt like being aloof.
“Come on. What else are you going to do?” he asked. And that was the problem. I'd been avoiding social gatherings for too long. I didn't have a liable excuse, I couldn't say no.
“I guess so,” I replied.
“Great,” he said. “I'll see you tonight”.
The music was blasting, lights were flashing, and I really didn't feel like dancing. But I was there and I couldn't just abandon Taylor. If I left he would leave too, and that would ruin his night. We had been standing on the outskirts of a mob of people, supposedly dancing. Mostly it was a few girls dancing with a bunch of guys standing around them. It reminded me of Jr. High dances. Taylor looked at me, shrugged his shoulders and waded into the mob. Inside I groaned, but my feet followed Taylor.
Before I go any farther I need to explain how I dance. Typically it starts in my fingers. It is almost like a twitch. A highly contagious twitch. It goes from my fingers into my arms, through my torso, and down through my toes. I call it static. From that moment rarely do my body parts mesh into a fluid motion. My feet will be doing one thing, my arms another. Most people find it intimidating or weird. But they are just jealous. I am a chameleon. I get up in your face and wag my tushy all over the place. In short, I let loose.
At first I had a hard time finding my groove. The music just wasn't working, and I had a hard time letting go. But as the night wore on I started feeling that twitch. Before I knew it I was dancing and having a blast. I guess it was the same for most everyone there, because about he the time I found my groove, other people started to dance too. Nobody was just standing around any more.
I was doing my thing. Weaving in and out of sweaty bodies, busting my moves. Just having a good time. Because of my “eccentric dance style” not many girls can keep up. But she could. I wasn't really paying attention until Taylor shoved me into her. As our eyes met she smiled and busted a move in my face. It was a straight up challenge. I went to work. I'd swerve left, flick right, get low, go high, pull a fireman, then an apple picker, I even threw in the ping-pong player. She stuck with it. Every move I had she had a move to match. Before we could finish our dance off the crowd pushed and shoved and tore us apart.
After that I went back to the usual, dancing as I pleased. But I kept finding myself drawn in her direction. Every time we met, she would bust a move, I would answer. I would bust a move, she would answer. It was a never ending battle. And before a winner was decided the crowd would separate us.
To emphasis the fact that it felt like a Jr. High dance, they played half a dozen slow songs throughout the night. I sat out the first one. By the second one I had already had two dance offs with that girl, and I decided I'd like to dance a slow song with her. But by the time I found her she already had a partner, so I sat that one out too. When the third one came along and she was dancing with some other guy again I decided to take a restroom break. The fourth one was like all the others before it, she was already taken. I decided then that there were a lot of girls that were dancing that needed a partner, so I moved on. I ended up dancing with a girl that was in Graduate school studying manufacturing. I wish I had had windshield wipers on my face, because she showered me in spittle. Learning from my mistake I skipped the slow song.
As the sixth one came on, and the DJ announced that it would be the last song of the night, I knew I had to find that girl. I shoved through the crowd, hoping to find her before some other guy did. I saw her standing to the side, not dancing. Woohoo. I was going to get to dance with her. Just then another guy stepped in front of me and asked her to dance. I dejectedly danced with some other girl.
The lights switched on, the music switched off. Everyone moved towards the exits. As I was exiting I saw her again. Our eyes met and she walked towards me.
“You're a fun dancer,” she said.
“Ya, you're fun too,” I said. “My name is Zac”.
“Nice to meet you, I'm Rachel,” she replied.
“Well have a good night,” I said.
“You too,” she replied. And with that we walked our separate ways.
Thinking back, I wish I had asked for her number. But I didn't. If my life were a movie, I would meet her again. Its not so I probably won't. But I can't help looking for those fire filled eyes.
