The Dance
by JQ Gonzales

 

One starry night, Joel and his friends attended a dance party to enjoy the start of spring break. He got his ticket from a freshman in high school and he decided to go to the dance. Joel and his friend, Wally picked up Joel's cousin and her friends, then they went straight to the dance.

Six-thirty p.m. They arrived at the parking lot where there were only few vehicles around. They've heard the music banging inside the gym.

"Wow, I think we'll just drilling holes in our seats," he said.

"What do you mean by that?," one of his cousin's friend named Loren asked.

"From a deeper perspective, what I mean is that we won't have a chance to dance 'coz no one will ask us to go to dance," he told her firmly.

Joel and his friends went up to the highest point of the gym, while the girls seated some steps down the viewing stand with their friends. The vicinity was so vast and the structure is waiting for its occupants. The music being played was so thunderous and pounding our chests.

While Joel and his friends were sitting and listening to the beat, he was caught to the view of three lasses going up to the stand not far away from us. They were only about 8 feet away.

In Joel's mind, he told himself to ask one of those girls for a dance. He waited for a while till he earned enough guts to ask them and introduce himself.

He went down to join his female companions to ask one of them or their friends to the dance. He tried and insisted to ask but he didn't convince one of them. This must be their inferiority complex at their highest peak. They are afraid that he dances better than them. That's only his assumption, but perhaps, it might not be that reason. In a girl's mind, she thinks of her lover and looking for him among the crowds. She's afraid to be suspected of fooling around the masculine race.

The hands of Joel's watch began to move, it was going late in the evening and he still don't have a dance partner. Joel's strategy was not working, he asked himself, but how?

He decided to ask one of the girls in their left side. Joel left his pals nearby. He approached the girls in a friendly manner and he related to them his desire to dance.

'Hi, my name is Joel. Would you care for a dance?' he shook the hands of the two lasses as a sign of goodwill.

Joel's eye was directed to the girl sitting next to the other girl. Her name was Ruthy, an Oriental freshman in that campus. Joel's view tilted towards the girl in front of him. Her name was Cherry Anne, also a freshman, but schools in another high school in a nearby town.

They told him that they don't know how to dance. He knew it was all a lie. He respected their decisions. He began to converse with them and they were more relaxed.

`Questions! What should he ask to her? I hope it would not be offensive to her.' he told to himself.

"What school do you go?"

"I go to Bald Mc Wayne High School and I am a freshman. How about you?"

"I am a sophomore in college and I attend at Manchester Community College. I'm taking Associate in Arts in Liberal Arts and afterwards I'll be majoring in business administration at a high ranking university."

After a few moments, their two friends came by and looking for somebody to dance with. Well, Joel and his friend Michael were available at their discretion.

`Yahoo! Thank God my prayers are answered.' he told to himself and they danced along the beat till he sweated like a river flowing briskly.

He never felt the exhaustion at first because he was excited. Joel's agility came to an end when he was all tired. His partner's name was Liezl and he admired her great talent. He just knew that she was dancing with him barefooted when she came by looking for her slip-ons a few moments later in her friends' area.

Well, he went back to Cherry Anne and talked to her. When he talks to her, she tells something to Ruthy. He was very thankful that she was not some girls he knows. He was very grateful to her and he wanted to know her more. Some time in Joel's life, it was so real for him to know that he have the potential to become a friend and a lover.

He had one more dance to one Caucasian who was asked by Joel's Uncle Richie who came here also to enjoy the fun. He enjoyed a lot eventhough he was sweating hard and already exhausted. He went back to Cherry Anne and asked her some facts about her life. She wants to be a doctor someday and she enjoys movies. She also gave me her phone number and mailing address. Unluckily, he forgot to know her last name. He gave her four calling cards for her friends and for her.

Ten thirty p.m. Time for the party to halt. When it was all over they never bid goodbye. He didn't have a chance to talk to her and their distances grew longer till she vanished in the fog of people.

He will never forget the dance, the dance of love where their hearts were mutually in synchronicity with the music of love.

©1991 J.Q. Gonzales