15. may i have this dance

MAY I HAVE THIS DANCE

✧･ﾟ: * A month passed since everything Nora was trying desperately to forget about happened.

She does a little spin the floor-length mirror in her room, admiring her pink dress from all angles.

D'you think Max will like it?

"Nora, are you ready? We should head out to pick up Dustin!" Steve calls from downstairs. She shakes her head to push her thoughts away and smiles as she walks out of her room.

Steve is standing at the front door as Nora comes down, and he pretends to take pictures. She puts a hand over her face as if to cover it up, "no flash, please." The two laugh and he opens the door for her with a little bow.

"You look great, loser," Steve grins, ruffling her hair a little. Nora immediately brushes her hands through it to fix it.

"Yeah, I know," she takes the compliment and walks out to the car.

Nora takes the passenger seat and Steve drives off to Dustin's in kind of a rush. She turns the volume up to Bon Jovi and Steve doesn't protest which makes his sister grin to herself.

They pull up and wait a minute until Dustin comes out.

Nora almost gasps.

"You didn't," she breathes as Dustin gets into the car.

"I did," Dustin grins.

"He looks great, right?" Steve also grins.

"Right," Nora nods absentmindedly.

Steve and Dustin share their grins and Steve drives off.

The ride is mostly silent, Dustin adjusting his hair in the rearview mirror from the back, Steve lost in humming to now David Bowie, and Nora thinking about Max. She'd accepted she had a crush on her, she just wasn't sure what to do.

On one hand, she could absolutely ruin their friendship and probably never be able to talk to anyone in the party ever again. But on the other hand. . . what if she likes me back? Then, of course, there's a third hand, per usual, Nora says nothing and everything stays exactly how it is, and eventually her crush goes away. Or the crush festers and becomes unbearable until she demolishes their friendship single-handedly. So, four hands. All terrible. Awesome.

"All right," Steve pulls up in front of the gym entrance. "Here we are, guys." Nora's butterflies multiply and she stiffens. "So, remember, once you get in there. . ."

"Pretend like you don't care," Dustin finishes. Nora hates how he didn't say it ironically.

"You don't care."

"I don't care."

"There you go. You're learning, my friend. You're learning." Steve nods as Nora shakes her head. Dustin reaches for the rearview mirror to see his hair properly, and Steve pulls it back. "Hey! C'mon. You look great. Nora, tell him he looks great."

"You look great," Nora states monotonously.

Steve ignores her and turns back to Dustin, "see, you look. . . you look great!" Steve smiles and Nora smiles too - genuinely this time. This seems to boost Dustin's confidence because his smile grows too. "Now. you're gonna go in there. . ."

"Yeah."

"Look like a million bucks."

"Yeah!"

"And you're gonna slay 'em dead."

"Like a lion," Dustin purrs and Nora cringes.

Steve pauses and shakes his head, "yeah, don't do that, okay?"

"Okay."

"Good luck," Steve shakes Dustin's hand.

Nora nods, finally, "Okay. Let's go."

"Right," Dustin nods too and the kids get out of the car.

"Hey, Nora!" Steve calls, and the two pause.

"Yeah?" Nora turns back to her brother.

"No boys!"

"So. . . girls?"

Steve just shakes his head and drives off.

Nora tries to mask her worry with a smile, but a blind person could probably see through it. She rakes a hand through her hair, and Dustin holds out his arm for her. She loops hers around his and they walk in, both suffocating in each others nervousness.

Nora's looks in surprise at the transformed gym. Balloons and streamers decorate all the walls, a wall of streamers covering the bleachers where a few friend groups were sitting. Everyone else was on the "dance floor" where the "DJ" was, along with Nancy who was doing the drinks, and Jonathan on the opposite side doing pictures. The people who aren't "dancing" are at the tables. Mike, Lucas, and Max among them. Dustin and Nora make their way over, grinning.

"Holy shit," Mike speaks as the two approached. Nora smiles at Max quickly, unable to look longer than a few seconds. "What happened to you?"

The gang turn their attention to Dustin's hair, all trying to hold back laughs. "What happened?" Dustin takes a step back. "What do you mean 'what happened?'"

"What?" Mike exclaims.

"Dude," Lucas laughs.

"Your hair," Max stares at it.

"Is there a bird nesting in it?" Lucas goes to touch it, but Dustin leans back, and Nora slaps his hand.

"It looks great!" Nora exclaims to them all.

"There's no bird resting in there, asshole. Okay?" Dustin snaps making the rest of them laugh. "I worked hard."

A slow song suddenly comes on and everyone in the group stands awkwardly. "Max. . ." Lucas starts, and Nora's face drops. "Hey. Um, it's nice right? You want to. . . um, to like. . . y'know? Like, just you and. . . me?"

Nora is going to throw up.

"Are you asking me to dance, stalker?" Max laughs at Lucas' awkwardness.

"No, of course not," Lucas quickly shakes his head. "Unless. . . you want to. . ."

Max laughs again and grabs his hand, "so smooth. C'mon."

Stop being upset. You know she doesn't like you like that. It's just a stupid crush, Nora. It's whatever. You'll never be able to be with her anyways.

The two go to the middle of the floor and Nora looks down so that she wouldn't have to see their smiling faces.

"I'm gonna get some punch," she says quietly before walking over to the bleachers. She doesn't cry, but boy did she want to.

"Hey," Dustin comes next to her, same defeated look on his face. "Don't be sad over her," he throws an arm around her shoulders.

Nora moves closer to him and frowns, "Wow, I suck at keeping secrets."

He lets out a big laugh that made Nora smile a little too.

"I lied, when I said there was electricity between Max and Lucas. I was just jealous, and at the time I wasn't sure what was going on between you and Max, so I went off on Lucas."

"I'm so telling him you were jealous of him," Nora pushes Dustin playfully.

"Don't you dare," he says fake seriously. The two laugh together until Dustin jumps up suddenly. "C'mon!" He sticks his hand out. "You look too pretty to sit behind these streamers all night."

Nora smiles and rolls her eyes at the same time, slowly using Dustin's hand to help her up. "Thanks, Dustin."

"Don't mention it," he drags her out to the floor and puts his hands on her waist as she puts hers around his neck. The two sway slowly to the music, looking at each other, but they're lost in their own thoughts.

The music picks up to an upbeat song and everyone comes onto the floor, jumping up and down.

Nora grins thinking about how the group was all happy again. She's accepted nothing will ever really be "normal," but that doesn't mean she's not going to enjoy every second she has with all her friends.

a/n:

for superawesomegirl132 🙄🤚

don't hate me for not putting the girls together yet, i think they need more ~ romantic tension ~

and i'll start posting season three soon, just need an aesthetically pleasing chapter divider 😁