Chapter Twenty-Four

"Dancing is like dreaming with your feet."

CLAYTON

If someone two months ago would have told me I would've been taking the dance so seriously, I would have laughed at them right in the face. It wasn't because I didn't enjoy a good party, because I definitely did on occasion, but this dance was different. It made me feel nervous.

The first year I had moved to Ridgewood, it was pretty close to the fall dance. I barely knew anyone. Zeke and Mateo only gave me glances in classes, and I had no idea how to approach them, yet alone girls to ask to the dance.

For some reason though, out of the blue, I had caught the interest of a senior girl. When word around the school went that she asked me to the dance, Zeke and Mateo swooped in on me. Zeke claimed he had chosen to take me under his wing, but Mateo later told me he just didn't want me taking that girl off the market.

So, being the naive guy I was, I listened to Zeke when he had told me I was better off rejecting her offer and not going to the "lame" dance. Ever.

Fast forward three years, and there I was doing my tie before Lucy's parents dropped her off at my house.

Sighing at the mirror, I tried to tame a curl that was fighting against the load of hairspray my mom sprayed.

"Hey there handsome," my mom knocked on the door, peeking her head in. "Mrs. Walker just let me know they are about to head here. I'm about to leave for work, too. So you should come out here."

I wanted to move and listen to her right away, but for some reason my feet were stuck to the ground.

"You're nervous, huh, baby?" She cooed, coming to my side at once. There was a soft smile gracing her face. "It's okay to admit that."

I could only chuckle out awkwardly. "Nervous? About what?"

She flicked her eyes around. "Okay, if you don't want to say it you don't have to. But she feels the same way. I promise you, bud." She grabbed my hand and gave it a nice, reassuring squeeze. Something I needed way too much.

"Have I ever told you I love you?" This time, my nerves weren't so evident in my laughter.

We walked into the living room in just the knick of time. I could see headlights flash through the blinds.

Lucy's parents decided to drop her off at my house since her dad needed to do some tinkering under the hood of her car apparently. So I was going to drive us to the school, and for what I understood, she was spending the night at J.K.'s house later that evening.

So it wasn't like we were showing up as a couple.

Or maybe it could be like that? I was starting to not give a damn anymore.

"Open doors for her, ask her if she wants something to drink when y'all get there. Try not to step on her toes if you two end up dancing. Also, remember to--"

"Momma," I said slowly, trying to calm her down.

I used to call my parents momma and pappa all the time before we moved here, but I had started to call them mor and far as a way to feel more connected to our culture. It was the formal version, sure, but neither minded.

"You act like I haven't taken a girl out before."

She scoffed. "Not one like this. The others were all skank--"

There was a couple knocks at the door, making my mom shut up. When neither of them moved towards the door, I sighed, and trudged over to let Lucy in.

You want to know what Eleanora Whitman, the senior that asked me three years ago to the dance, wore? She wore a tight, short black dress with a very deep-V; it fit her personality perfectly. It just happened to be a style and personality I wasn't a huge fan of.

Lucy, though. . .

She was wearing a maroon dress that hugged her waist then fell loose over her thighs. It wasn't too short nor long, but I could still see her holding it down further. Her hair was pulled back besides a couple curls around her face, and around her neck glimmered a sparkly necklace.

She looked gorgeous.

"Oh," Lucy suddenly said. "Thanks, Clay. You look pretty nice yourself."

I said that out loud? Abort, abort.

"No problem." I tried to say as calmly as possible.

Meanwhile our parents were watching us with weird smiles. They insisted we take about a thousand photos together until they let us leave. It wasn't as nerve wracking as I had previously thought as I had wrapped my arm around her waist, pulled her close, and said cheese to the camera. If anything, it felt natural.

Before they were done taking pictures, I snuck a small kiss on the cheek in there. I'm pretty sure her eyes turned out wide and big in the picture, but that was okay. Our parents loved it. I did too.

I was hoping the rest of the evening would go just as smoothly.

- - - - - - - - -

I was surprised to see Zeke pull into the parking lot. Last time I checked, these sort of things were lame. Then again, he does have something going on with J.K., so maybe he was finally turning around his douchebag ways.

Trying to not pay too much attention to him, I turned towards Lucy. My fingers reached out to hers, as I guided her around a group of people who decided the best place to talk was right in front of the doors.

"Tonight is going to be a lot of fun." I flashed her a smile. "I can feel it."

"Yeah, me too." She nodded.

As we walked in, I was actually quite impressed by how much they transformed our plain gym. The room glowed a dark blue, our school colors, and had a stage set up with a band playing. Tables were lined up, each one having different types of foods and beverages. We were greeted by the assistant principal, which gestured us to sign our names on the entry list next to our own.

"Did you want me to get you something to drink?" I asked. In the back of my head, I saw mor with a proud smile.

Lucy peeked over at me. "Uh, sure." She fiddled with her thumbs. "I'll take some root beer."

I left Lucy where she was, hurrying to the refreshment table. From the corner of my eye I could see her look around, obviously uncomfortable. If only she knew she was the prettiest girl there that night, she would have had nothing to worry about.

It didn't take me too long to get the drinks. If it wasn't for Mr. Wharton, one of my past teachers, I would have been back to Lucy in a blink of an eye. But of course he wanted to catch up, asked if I thought about playing ball in college -- and do not get me started on how interested he was in what colleges I was thinking about already.

"You know, it is really smart to apply early around this time. You could probably make it into a nice school in the city, if you really tried to." He continued on.

I nodded my head, finally turning around to see if Lucy was still doing okay.

Except that time she wasn't there.

"I'll see you later, Mr. Wharton. . ." He was still going on about something, but I was already walking away.

I knew Lucy was her own person and could venture off with friends, but that was the thing. I was looking at her group of friends across the gym and she was nowhere in sight with them. I could feel something was off.

"Hey, Abby. Have you seen where Lucy is?"

I knew I was the last person she was wanting to talk to here by the roll of her eyes. "Not even together yet and you're this controlling?"

Sighing, I moved on to J.K. "Did you see where she went?"

J.K. brows furrowed deeply. "I was actually wondering where Zeke went too."

Then it clicked.

I saw the way he was looking at her when we had first arrived. Plus there was no way he had come there to the dance not to stir up some kind of trouble; whether it be with J.K., or my relationship with Lucy.

I left the girls and trudged through the gym doors, where low and behold, Lucy and Zeke were.

Neither of them could see me, since they were tucked away between cars.

"Look, I'm sorry for dragging you out here, but I had to be the one to tell you." The closer I walked towards them, the clearer Zeke's words got. "But Clayton has been playing you."

My brows rose. How could he say that? He knew how much I felt for Lucy, and there he was lying to her about them. Grinding my teeth, I clenched my fists tight. Zeke must have been too engrossed in his bullshit lie, that he didn't hear me walking up behind him. Lucy did though, and her watery eyes connected with mine.

"You didn't actually think a guy like him would like a girl like you, right? He thinks he's way out of your league."

It was starting to get to the point where I wanted to bust out laughing. This guy, one I looked up to for a long while, was everything I was afraid he would turn out to be. I gave him and Mateo the benefit of the doubt so many times, and Mateo proved himself to have changed. Zeke though? He just completely severed our friendship by trying to once again ruin my chances at getting the girl.

"Plus he even said that you're sleepwalking creeped him out--"

"Hey!" I pulled him by the shirt backwards, and twisted him around. I didn't need to think about my actions. It came so natural to swing my fist into his smug face as hard as I could.

He went flying backwards, running into the car behind him. Blood was running out of nose, and I think there was even a cut on his bottom lip. I wanted to keep going at him.

Zeke had been testing my patience for years, and seeing him come on to my  girl and talk bullshit to her sent me over the edge. He deserved that punch to the face. I would have done it again if I had not caught Lucy's horrified expression.

"Lying dick." I yelled, shaking my hand out. ". . . Damn it."

Zeke had the nerve to start to laugh. "Really, Clayton? That's the best you got?"

Before my anger took over again, I did the best thing I could do. I walked away. As far as I knew, the dance that night was over for me. I needed to get home and clear my head. So I headed towards my car, with my hand throbbing in pain, and eyes low. J.K. and Lucy's other friends just came outside, probably looking for her, and I could only imagine how much of a monster they must have thought I was.

I was almost to my car when I heard the sound of footsteps behind me. I prepared myself, expecting it to be Zeke, by clenching my fist again. It ended up being the last person I thought would follow after me.

"Lucy?"

She didn't respond to me, and actually ended up storming in front of me. She wrapped around my car to the passenger side, and only then did she narrow in on me. Her green eyes were ablaze with hurt or anger. I couldn't decipher which one.

The car ride home went pretty much the same way.

I tried moving my hand to Lucy's in the car, as a sense of comfort, but she deflected my gesture by moving her hand out of reach.

Not a word was spoken between us. Not like that was some sort of surprise or anything.

To be honest, she didn't need to follow me, but she did. As far as I knew, she had planned to spend the night at J.K.'s house that evening. If she was just going to remain in that state the remaining of the night, what was the point of her coming after me?

"Aren't you supposed to be going to a friend's house tonight?" My voice shattered through the dead silence. I saw her shake a little bit. When I didn't get a response of any kind, I gazed over at her. "I'll drop you off at her house later, okay?" I got a nod that time.

The anger churning inside of me was dying down little by little as we got closer to my house. Instead of being mad, the feeling was replaced with intense disappointment. Not only did I let Lucy down and ruin her night, I let my anger get the best of me and gave Zeke exactly what he wanted. He wanted me to go crazy on him, probably to scare off the really good thing I had going with Lucy.

"I'm sorry," I finally said.

She didn't reply to me again, but that was okay. I had deserved it.

My mom was working that night, and my dad was in the city having a dinner with coworkers. So we had the whole house to ourselves, and I hated that. After all could have stayed mad at me the whole night and refuse to speak to me. If my parents were there, I was sure they would've managed a smile out of her easily.

She popped out of the car as soon as I parked. I watched as her skirt swished with the wind. Breathing out finally, I rubbed my cheeks.

Maybe if I acted like it didn't happen she would come around?

"I know you may hate me after what happened. ." Okay, maybe I couldn't pretend it didn't happen. After all, the evidence was all on my fist. "But I'll make it up to you. I promise."

We went into my house, and Lucy sat her purse on the entry table. She dug through it, and brought out her phone. She had three missed calls, each from J.K.. I didn't think when I punched Zeke about how it could affect Lucy and J.K.'s friendship. Hopefully Jacklyn Kate wasn't pissed off at me or Lucy.

"You know what we can do?" I tried to sound cheery, but it didn't seem to sway Lucy's frown. "We can binge watch all of the Harry Potter movies. How about that babe?"

It was a millisecond, but the corner of Lucy's lips curved upright.

As much as I loved my suit, it wasn't comfortable enough to lay in bed in and binge movies.

Lucy must have been thinking the same way, because the first thing she did was unclasp her necklace and place it on my dresser.

I was busy untying my tie beside her, looking at us through the mirror. Her neck was red from where the necklace was busy rubbing against her skin. She must have saw me staring, because her cheeks soon matched her neck; flushed with color.

"You really did look absolutely stunning tonight." I bit my lower lip, still fixated on her neck. I finally decided to turn towards her instead of the mirror image.

She finally smiled showing a little bit of teeth. Her green eyes flicked over to meet mine momentarily, teasing me with their beauty.

I wasn't sure what came over me, but while turning around I bent down and pressed a soft kiss to her collarbone. When I didn't get much of response from that, I moved up her neck with more. Lucy actually seemed to move her head back to give me more access, but I instantly retracted.

"Sorry. Um." I busied myself by opening my pajama drawer and pulling out some clothes for me to change into. "Did you want something to change into, too?"

Lucy stared wide eyed at me for a minute, but a sudden change in emotion caught me off guard. She nodded her head, letting out a small chuckle.

"Alright, here you go." I handed her an old t-shirt and gym shorts.

There was a twinkle in her eye I couldn't decipher. "Thanks."

Before I had a chance to leave the room and change in the closet, Lucy began to pull her dress over her shoulders, exposing her completely. Well, not exactly completely, but it was enough to make me snap my gaze somewhere else and gulp.

I had caught a glimpse of a purple bra and underwear set. I didn't think it was possible for purple to become even more of a favorite color of mine.

"Comfy," Lucy finally said, breaking the silence.

It took me a few glances to notice she decided to go without the gym shorts, and was just wearing my t-shirt.

"Yeah, I gotta go to the bathroom. I'll - uh, be back in like a minute."

Okay, maybe I took longer than a minute. I just needed time to change, and settle down before getting back out there. As much as I had Jacob in the back of my head telling me to stop whatever was going on, I really, really wanted to go farther with it. But Lucy deserved better than that, so I had to control myself. Plus both of our emotions were running high because of what happened, so neither of us are thinking clearly.

By the time I got back into my room, Lucy made herself comfortable in my bed. Although she was technically on my side of it, I let that slide.

She patted the space next to her, reaching out to hand the remote to me with a smile.

"Harry Potter time!" she squealed.

Her happiness made me over the moon. Anything to get rid of the image of her appearing so hurt at Zeke's lies.

I flicked the light off, then proceeded to get into bed with her. Even though she had plenty of space, I did notice she scooted closer to me once I was settled.

The night didn't turn out like we had planned, that was for sure. To be honest though, it could not have turned out any better. Although I've held this girl close to me for so long now, I don't think I ever felt as close to her as I did then.

We ended up watching two movies fully before we started to get tired. I could tell Lucy was tired by the way her blinking would last a second longer than usual. She would also give me a lot more lazy smiles than normal, which I found adorable.

"Did you want me to take you to J.K.'s soon?" I yawned, stretching my body out a bit.

Lucy turned flat on her stomach, cuddling up onto the pillow. It appeared like she was giving me puppy dog eyes.

"Can't I just stay here for the night? Your bed is really comfy."

It might have been a no brainer for guys like Zeke and Mateo to have girls spend the night at their houses, but I had to think about it. Mostly because I didn't want my parents finding out, and therefore having Lucy's parents find out through them and her getting in trouble.

I was mostly worried about Jacob finding out though. As cool as he was, he was a scary dude at the same time.

"Please, Clay?" She kept going with those eyes. "All we're going to do is sleep, anyways."

If her eyes weren't enough conviction, her cute voice was persuading me as well. Finally, I nodded my head.

I smirked. "Don't you think about trying anything though."

Lucy laughed softly. "Maybe next time you'll get so lucky."

She appeared to be joking, so I forced out a laugh. A part of me was hoping we would have more nights like that one.

We put the third Harry Potter movie on, but I started to drift off.

The last thing I could remember was Lucy murmuring something about being cold. Before I allowed darkness to overtake me, I fought with the covers to wrap my arm around her waist to pull her closer to me. I didn't hear a peep from her after that.

Guys!!! ONLY ONE MORE CHAPTER! I repeat, only one more chapter! I know some of you guys feel like 25 chapters is too short, but I always planned for this book to be a quick, feel good type of read. It's supposed to be satisfying, and not so complex like some books are. I hope that's alright with you all. :)

Okay guys, I have some exciting news! If you want to enter a contest to be placed in an in-the-process book of mine, all you have to do is follow my Instagram @quadameg and comment on my recent photo what you love about Sleepwalker the most! You'll be a fairly important character, so this is really cool!! Any questions leave them in the comments below.

QUESTION OF THE CHAPTER: What would you have done if you were in Clayton's shoes? Would you have punched Zeke too? Or take the less violent way out?

I'm hoping to have the last chapter posted in the next week or two! My birthday is this upcoming Wednesday, and I'm so excited because I'm going to be turning 20. I started this book when I was 17. . . Crazy.

Hope everyone is having a good holiday season. xx