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“Forget it. Today we're going to have fun. Aaron, come on, come dance with me”
Call shifted in his place, shifting his focus from Jasper's food to Celia's hair clip. He wondered if the possibility of calling him had ever crossed Tamara's mind, but knowing the condition of his leg, the most he could do was to step on her foot and be a little embarrassed. Either way, Tamara would choose Aaron first. It was okay, he had already accepted. He didn't even care anymore.
Celia threw him a hopeful look as Aaron reached for another snack, looking like he ate it quickly with the intention of responding when he was finished. Call didn't even have time to play dumb.
“Actually…” Aaron chewed the last remnants of the chicken snack .
“Call, are you coming?” Aaron finally said when he finished, but he shoved another cheese snack into his mouth afterwards. Call blinked, astonished. He looked at Tamara, who had turned her neck in surprise, and then at Aaron, again, who was giving him a calm smile. Call was sure he just wasn't showing his teeth because his mouth was full. He coughed and choked for half a second. He never considered the possibility. It would be equally shameful. Dancing with both Tamara, Célia, and Aaron. The difference with the situation with Jasper is that he would have to be threatened into such an action, and he would step on his toes on purpose.
“I-I don't…” he began to shake his head slowly. His brain froze a little, and so did his senses, but before he could give a full answer, Aaron wrapped his hand around his forearm and began to pull him. Call held on to the ground as much as he could with his limited balance and cast another glance at Tamara, who had crossed her arms and picked up another snack.
“Come on, just once. It'll be fun.”
“Aaron, look at me. I'm going to trip over you and make the ceremony turn into a circus audience.” and I already feel like a clown for the simple reason that they are celebrating my death here, he thought, but held his tongue.
Aaron shook it off, as if dismissing the thought, and chuckled.
“No problem. If you're going to be embarrassed, I'll do it with you. It's our party, let's have fun.”
Call bit the inside of his cheek as Aaron squeezed his forearm, clearly intending to encourage him. Played gray eyes on top of Tamara. He didn't want to steal the fun from the two friends.
To his surprise, she smiled, taking Call's plate in her hands, and giving them both an excited look.
"Go ahead, guys. But the next song is mine". And grabbed the chicken skewer that was on the plate, drawing a long-suffering sigh from Jasper, who was eyeing the food.
Callum then gave a crooked smile and followed Aaron, without making a point of looking at Celia again, who was probably madly angry with Call if she had understood that he wouldn't have accepted her request. It was strange to think that, but he thought she didn't have the firmness that his friends gave him, and even though she was perhaps the only girl who might be into him, he didn't feel guilty for thinking that way.
They positioned themselves in the crowd. Call was scared — obviously. He was already regretting having accepted, and he didn't have any faith, especially since his leg had been like that for practically his entire life, he bet everything he had on trying skateboarding.
On top of that, Aaron learned in just a few months of vacation what Call I had learned in much longer time. Skill would be as uneven as possible on the dance floor.
He remained undecided, staring at Aaron's feet, and looking up at his cream suit, until he reached his green orbs. Aaron's eyes conveyed something funny — sure, an amused look hovered over his face, ready to fall, either to the floor or to laughter, but beyond that, there was something that made a warm feeling twist in Call's stomach. He wondered if at some point in life, that sparkling smile achieved everyone like that, and if that was why he was so popular. Was it a simple factor that made him seem so likable?
Still a little shy, he looked to the surroundings in search of strange looks. He only found Jasper - strangely - dancing with Celia, with his nose in the air. He had probably waited for her to be alone. God knew how ridiculous those moves seemed, but Call couldn't tell if it was just because, well, it was Jasper.
Aaron raised his eyebrows. He placed one hand on Call's shoulder, and held the other away from his body. Call tried to follow his friend's slow steps, with the frown of someone who knew it wouldn't work, but much more relaxed in the "embarrassment" aspect.
After a stumble, Aaron laughed, and Call laughed too. He switched his hand from his friend's waist to his shoulder, because besides giving him balance, it probably made more sense if you factored in the fact that Aaron was taller.
They spun around in the commotion for a few minutes, grimacing at each other as they continued the slow pace, laughing, until Call stepped on their foot. Aaron pursed his lips trying to hold back his laughter once again. In a large step back, while the moment was too hilarious to worry about the outside, Call bumped hard into a person.
Before probably doing a body domino, Aaron wrapped his entire arm around Call's body, pulling him away with an "Ouch" expression. Call craned his neck toward the man. He looked no older than forty, with black hair covering his forehead. Call recognized him from the mental list Not-a-fan-of-mine, and from the way Aaron was still staring at him, and then the disdainful frown the man held, he knew it too.
He pulled Call by the arm, heading back where they came from before the man could complain. Laughing, a little clumsy, sneaking, running through the crowd.
After arriving in a random hallway, they stopped, panting, hot in their own suits. They laughed at the situation, as they had done before. Because on that day, Callum was a normal fourteen-year-old boy, with an amazing best friend, who wasn't born destined to kill whoever possessed his soul, and it would be that way until they graduated. Because there he smiled as if he were back on vacation, with robots, movies, ice cream, and Aaron, where he was very happy.
"Uhm... Tamara... She's asking you to the next dance, aren't she?" he asked, passing through a large, beautiful metal door. He was thankful that something had interrupted the dance, because his leg had started to hurt.
Aaron put his arm around the boy’s shoulder and followed towards the corridors.
"She can wait a little bit".