| A microphone crackled, and a rich male voice came over the PS system that was set up in the ball room. "Hello!" A man in a black tux with a pencil thin mustache stood in front of all the guests. "Welcome to the Third Annual Matrin's Charity Ball!" "Damn." AJ whispered. "He'd got a microphone, he doesn't need to scream." Tara Anna nodded. "How's everyone doing?" He was speaking so loudly, his voice blasted through the speakers, and practically blew out everyone's ear drums. "We're going to get things started now, so we'll turn on some tunes, and you can all start grooving!" Nick snorted back a laugh. "And also, don't be alarmed if someone snaps your picture. We've got a few photographers around." He turned off the microphone, and everyone heaved a sigh of releif. A few minutes later, and slow song with a lot of harmony that sounded like it was recorded in the 50s came on. "Wow, this music rocks!" Christy said sarcastically. "Yeah, anyone wanna groove?" Hannah rolled her eyes. Leighanne made a face at them. "It's not that bad." She said, intertwinging her fingers with Brian's. "Sort of sexy. Don't you think, Bear?" She nestled her head in his neck, and whispered something that she giggled about, and he went red about. Aimee watched them curiously for a minute, then she looked over to Nick. "Let's dance." She said, grabbing his hand, and pulling him out on to the dance floor, where three or four other couples were uncomfortably dancing to the music. Nick put his hands gently in the small of Aimee's back, and she wrapped her arms around his neck. "Are they always like that?" She asked, leaning away from him, partly because she didn't want Brian to see them as if they were a couple, but mostly because she felt more and more weird around him every second. "Who?" Nick asked. He tried to pull Aimee a little closer, then glanced at Brian, who was watching out of the corner of his eye, and pulled away again. "Brian and Leighanne." Aimee but her lip. "He's acting, sort of, like he doesn't. . . I don't want to say that he doesn't he love her, but. . ." Nick took a deep breath. "They're not as close as the two of you were." He said carefully. "He didn't like her at first. You know, when he. . ." Aimee nodded, showing that she knew what he meant, and he didn't need to explain. She knew he was talking about the night when Brian and Leighanne broke her and Brian up. "But now, well, she's one of those people that grows on you." Aimee nodded. They danced the rest of the song in silence. "Aw, look at those two." Howie said, looking at Nick and Aimee. "You wanna dance?" He and Hannah walked onto the floor. AJ took Tara Anna's hand as another song- U Remind Me, by Usher, came on. "Come on. Let's show 'em how it's done." She looked up at him, her dark brown eyes smiling. "I'm not very good." She said, eyeing his outstretched hand. "I haven't danced very much." He grabbed her hand, and pulled her up. "Well, I don't waltz a lot. We can teach each other." Tara Anna seriously doubted that AJ wasn't a good dancer- from her experiance, he wasn't not a good anything. But she was tired of resisting him. In fact, she was tired of resisting everyone. And most of all, she was sick and tired of being scared of everyone, and letting what happened with Micheal ruin her life. She grinned up at AJ, and wrapped her arms around his neck. "You look amazing tonight." She said, swallowing all the doubt that was built up inside her. AJ looked down at her for a minute, surprised. "Wow. Well, thanks." He smiled, and put his arms around her. "You do, too. You blow every girl here out of the water." Kevin watched Tara Anna and AJ dancing together. "They look nice together." He mumbled. Christy smiled, and took Kevin's hand. "I wish you'd stop worrying about her." She said. "She's a big girl now, Kevin. She can take care of herself." "Yeah, I guess. But, she's had a hard life." He sighed. "I just don't want him to hurt her." "Do you think he will?" Kevin turned to look at her. She was so pretty. Her long red hair was swept off her face in such a becoming way, and her face was so bright and excited. "No. I guess not." It was hard for him to stay worried when he was around Christy. She was one of those people who made it so very hard for you to have any problems when you looked at them- she was just so pretty and care free looking. "Come on, let's dance." |