This might not be at my usual standard, but I also haven't seriously touched this document in weeks & weeks. The reconnection is a taking a painfully long time to come about, but it is coming.Inspirational words: "Spontaneous" & "dancing", courtesy of Esette.
Anyway, here goes (it's pretty sappy, but then again, which romantically based novel isn't?):
“He was waiting for her after the play was over. When she finally had the time to get herself away from the crowds of friends and family, she walked across the school, into dark night, still fully costumed in her fairy dress and holding the huge bouquet he gave her. ‘Hi,’ she said.”
The timer decides to ring at the point, interrupting the tense silence in the room. Everyone jumps, and Reina glares at Allie’s phone. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Shut that thing off.”
Allie does so before Reina even finishes her sentence and looks impatiently at Emma. “Finish the story.”
Livy nods eagerly.
Anthony hasn’t said a word.
Emma takes a deep breath. “Ok. So she went up to him and said ‘hi.’ And he told her how amazing she was as the fairy witch in the play. She thanked him for the flowers,” she quips briskly, speeding through the basic details, buying herself time enough to settle back into that pre-timer zone. She takes another deep breath, and goes more fully into the story. “He smiled at her, and said he’s glad that she liked them. And then he said, quite randomly and completely out of the blue, ‘Beauty and her prince found true love. Everyone at the end of the play is happy. But you never found your match.’
“She looked at him confusedly, not sure what he meant.
“And then he asked, just as spontaneously as before, ‘Dance with me?’”
Anthony suddenly takes over the story from there. He has been silently mouthing almost every single word that the fictional boy said. Everyone stares at him in surprise, but he ignores the shocked looks and forges ahead. “She looked at him for a long time, then dropped the bouquet on the ground and stepped right into his waiting arms. ‘I’m going to get in so much trouble if I mess up this dress. They’ll make me pay for it,’ she whispered.
“‘I’ll pay for it,’ he said confidently, took her hands, and began waltzing her across the grass. They danced by an imagined rhythm, an imagined song that seemed to float from the wings the lightning bugs around them. A warm, late spring night song created just for them.’ There were so many things he wanted to say then, but he didn’t want to disturb the peace of the moment. Yet if he really had to voice one of his thoughts, he would have told her that he didn’t want her to find her match. He was hoping she would simply realize it.”
Thoughts?
