Painting our Life - 6 Colors

***Sorry this is late, my iPod takes forever to load Safari so I can upload, (my wifi is a bust) and I've been really busy with homework at school. Still waiting to settle in.

  I exhale a sigh. How is this night going to work out flawlessly? I drum my fingers against the window of my car. I do NOT want to get out there. It looks terrible. The snow had started pouring when I was on my way, driving to Janet's house. I guess mother nature isn't going to welcome me with a cup of hot coacoa.

   The car door swings open and I hop out. I slam the door close and make a sprint for Janet's porch. I'm very lucky. An upcoming snowstorm on my Valentines dance will for sure make this the greatest and most memorable dance ever. I roll my eyes and ring the doorbell. My right foot taps against the cement porch.

   A silent eternity passes and somebody finally answers. Janet's dad. Description? I would describe him as... probably the king of lions. He stares down at me with dark brown eyes and jabs a finger into my chest. I cough.

   "Have her home by eleven thirty, and remember, no funny business," he grunts. I offer a kind smile before speaking.

   "Sir, your daughter is in good hands."

   "I don't know whether that phrase is supposed to calm my nerves or send you home without a date."

   Janet appears behind her father. "Shoo, shoo." She grins as the t-rex disappears into the living room. "Don't worry about him, he's just very protective of me."

   "Well, you're very lucky to have a father like him." I shiver. I hold in a silent sigh. This will never work out, but I promised to take her to the dance. I'm what, more than twice her age inside? I want to scream and rant about all the problems I've put myself in, all the holes I've dug to completely screw myself early. I exhale a breath and take Janet's hand.

   "You ready to go?"

   Janet responds with a simple nod. I manage a weak smile and pull Janet through the snow to my car. I open the door for her and she climbs in, closing the door behind her. I lightly run to the other side of the car and open the door. Snow sticks itself to the bottom of my shoes. I don't care. My car is already pretty old. It was the first car I ever bought. I never thought I'd ever get one back then.

   Dash and I had picked it out together. We went through catalogues I picked up from work and decided on one we both liked. I smile at the cherished memory. It's one of the few memories I can remember. It seems as if Dash had taken all the memories with her when she left.

   I start up the car engine and pull out of Janet's driveway.

   "So how long have you been driving?" Janet asks.

   Small talk.

   "I'm rather new to driving, only been a few months since I got my liscence. Unfortunately, I can't talk. It distracts me," I lie.

   "Oh... Sorry..."

   I hate small talk. It's boring and unnecessary. Dash and I never had any small talk. We get straight to the point. If we wanted to state something, we stated it with pure honestly. Sometimes our jokes could be taken as forms of insults, but it was good fun. We never took each other that seriously. I mean, there are friends who get offended easily. They make a joke, and the other person gets his or her feelings hurt or pissed off. I don't get it. It was obviously a joke. Dash and I just, well, laughed off every insult we threw at each other.

   The good times. Man, it's only been less than a week since Dash had left me, but it felt like months. I'll probably see Dash at the dance tonight. I don't know what I'll say or what to do. Most likely I'll just ignore her when she sucks face with, bleh, Quince. I actually don't know how we ended like this. My brain is telling me to move on, but my heart is wishing more than ever that Twilight would come and fix things. Fix all this shit that has happened in the past few months of our high school life.

   I pull up into the school's parking lot. It's crowded. I drive about, searching for a nice place to park. It seems everybody else has the same idea as me: park near the school. The only few spots left are ones far from the school. I curse under my breath as I pull my car into one of the three spots left.

   "Hope you're up for a run."

   "In this dress and coat?" Janet sighs. "This isn't the best spot to park, but I guess it's better than nothing."

   I pull out the keys and get out of the car. I make my way to Janet's side of the car and open the door for her. She climbs out and shivers. "Mother nature isn't loving us this year."

   I laugh. "When was the last time Guelph had a normal winter? It's always early or late snow with enough surprise snowstorms to mess up a picnic in the summer."

   "Over exaggeration but sure."

   We slowly walk towards the school. It feels like an eternity, but as I open the school back doors, a gush of warmth welcomes me. I let Janet go in first before following. We walk through the empty halls. Music blasting from the gynasium is barely audible, but it's a sign we're drawing close to the dance. I hang my own and Janet's coats on the hooks in the athletic hall before opening the gym door for her.

   If somebody ever told you that a school dance is fun, then they must be wrong. I begin to have second thoughts the minute I walk in. A school dance, in my opinion, is NOT fun. Now the dance is spread over the three gymnasiums we have at our school, and I think the one Janet and I entered is Gym B, the middle one. But, school dances are basically love traps. You take one wrong step and you're between two kissing lovers. The teachers try to keep it at kissing only, but when you have a teensy staff team trying to control a student population of nearly two thousand, well, it becomes really easy to get away with things. What makes it worse is that I doubt the teachers even care. The students can touch and grope all they want, and the teachers would just be on the side, chilling as if nothing is happening.

   I look around. Dash isn't around. Good. Maybe Janet and I could get a few dances in. I open my mouth.

   "Janet, do you want to-" Janet grins and grabs my hand.

   "I'd love to." She pulls me onto the dancefloor and throws her arms over my shoulders. I hold her waist steadily and we dance around in a slow circular motion.

   We dance through a few songs. Every single song has been calm and gladly welcomes slow dancing. Some kids without dates wander around the gym alone in groups. It's not really a saddening sight nor do I actually care. It's their fault they didn't ask a girl to the dance. I shouldn't feel pity for others who don't even know of my existence. Yet, I feel this connection towards them. I'd be alone, probably on the streets by now or dead if a certain pony hadn't come into my life a decade ago. Rainbow Dash... She dragged me out of my folly and taught me to love living.

   I shake the thought of Dash off. I mean, what the hell was her problem? One second we were like best friends and the next she leaves me for no legitimate reason other than she's gone ga-ga for some pretty boy. Seriously! I have the right to be pissed about it and the right to never want to see her again. I doubt that'll happen because right now she's all I can think about.

   I softly stroke her back. It feels weird but my actions take control of themselves and do things I wouldn't regularily do. I don't know if it's the scenery around us or the music or what, but I feel different when I'm with Janet. It's not love, and I should feel bad about it. She deserves a guy who would give her one hundred percent of all his attention at a time like this, not a guy who's thinking about another girl. But Dash isn't any other girl. She's... special, and I think you already know why.

   Here I am, contemplating my thoughts while I'm at one of the biggest of dances of the year. I'm suppose to be having fun, but I'm not. I want to say something, anything, but my mouth stays shut. Thank god I don't, otherwise my mouth might've ran on and said some embarrassing jibberish.

   I pull away from Janet and offer to go grab her something to drink. As I pull myself up to the refreshments table, I realize two things: there isn't any Pepsi, just Sprite, and that Jakob and Dash were in this room the entire time, watching my every movement and making commentary. Jakob is holding Dash too close for my comfort. I grab a bottle of water for Janet (she asked for something that isn't sweet) and hurry away from the refreshments table.

   Janet is chatting with a few other girls. As I draw closer towards the group I could easily make out their appearances. Jane, Carrie and Wendy. The trio that Dash had hung out with when we first arrived here. Be casual, I tell myself. Be smooth, walk in as if nothing happened between you and Dash. Just hand Janet her water and engage in the conversation.

   "Hey Janet I brought your water of bottle," I say. Janet giggles. The rest of the girls echo her laughter. "What?"

   "Thank about what you just said," Janet takes the bottle from my hand. I laugh.

   "Just not myself lately."

   "Especially after the breakup?" Jane butts in. Carrie and Wendy glare at her. Janet looks away. Jane just broke a chick rule or whatever: never talk about your new boyfriend's ex when he's not over her yet. Or something like that. We aren't dating, at least I don't think so. It's just one date to the dance.

   I shrug. My eyes pierce through Jane like daggers, screaming for her to shut up. She seems to get the point and immediately changes the subject.

   "Janet, your red dress totally matches those nice purple earings." I roll my eyes. Jane, sometimes I wonder about her. If you're trying to change the subject because what you said previously was insensitive then at least do it good. Or comment on something other than what someone is wearing, though I do have to give her points for determining the color of Janet's earings in a dark enviroment like this. Purple could easily be mistaken with black, or dark red, or brown in this lighting. Jane must have a second brain or something that acts like a spidey sense when it comes to fasion. Most girls do, and I'm not being stereotypical. Ok, maybe I am. But it's more of a talent than something bad. I can't make out if that girl sitting in the corner is wearing blue or red in this dark. Maybe I should ask Jane and see if she knows. I shake the thought off and grin to myself. I'd just sound like a creep.

   Janet pulls away from her friends and slip beside me. She smiles warmly as I put my arm around her shoulder. We walk around the gym in silence. It takes a while for her to fond her voice and for me to find mine.

   "You know, they say he's a girl whisperer."

   "Who a what?" I narrow my eyes.

   "They say Quince is a girl whisperer. There isn't a girl he has flirted with and not dated." Janet sighs and rests her head against my shoulder.

   "So basically..."

   "He knows what girls want and like. It's quite simple actually, like bribing a baby with candy."

   "Why're you telling me this? I don't care for Quince, you should probably no that."

   "No. I can see you looking in her direction from time to time. That look in your eyes." Janet exhales another sigh, "I thought you'd wanna know more about the guy you lost her to."

   "How do you know about this?" I raise my brow. I'm quite surprised actually. Is it hypnotism? I don't think so. Hypnotism isn't possible, at least, not possible for the victim to remain fully functional like a human being. Janet doesn't answer me. She must've zoned out. I repeat my question. "How do you know this?"

   "I read an article on it. There's no other explanation for how he-" Her eyes widen. "Look out!"

   I look up from her. I hadn't noticed I was staring into her eyes but it's too late now. Not even the fastest reaction in the world could prevent me from being soaked. Icy cold soda splashes onto my pants. Janet covers her mouth with her hands and let's a gasp escape her throat.

   "Hey everyone, look! Kyle wet himself!" Quince hoots. I close my eyes and count to ten. How could he?! The whole gym erupts into laughter as Sprite drips down my leg. I watch Dash's lips tug into a smirk. But her smirk quickly disappears when she realizes my eyes are on her. She looks away and bends down to scratch her legs. I look down to my pants again, bewildered. I want to get him back so badly.

   "Go to the office." Janet grabs my hand and tugs. "They can lend you a pair for the night." I follow her out of the gym and into the main office. The secretary looks up.

   "Having fun at the dance?" She smiles warmly.

   I smile back. "Some retard spilt soda onto my pants, can I borrow a pair?" The secretary's smile drops.

   "Well, that's unfortunate." She reaches down into the drawer and pulls out a pair of sweat pants. "New pair, bring these back tomorrow after you wash them tonight."

   I nod and take the pants into the washroom to change into them. They're really baggy, but fit excellently. I walk out and toss my wet pair of jeans onto the hook beside my coat in the athletic hall before meeting up with Janet outside of gym we were originally in.

   "It's snowing hard outside, we might have a blackout soon."

   "Sounds like fun." I open the door for Janet and she slips in.

   The first thing I notice is that everyone has stopped dancing. The second thing becomes quite obvious is the cluster of kids near the center of the gym, all gathering around in a circle. What could be that amusing for them all to want to see it? Janet and I move towards the cluster. As I approach the swarm of kids, I start pushing and shoving people out of my way so I can move towards the center and see what all the ruckus is. I'm beginning to wonder where the teacher on supervision is. Obviously if he or she I'd in the room, they would see this huge blob of kids in the center of the gym and come see what the hell is going on. It's apparent they probably ran off to the teacher's lounge to mooch on donuts or some sort.

   I push the final kid out of the way and make some room for Janet beside me. The scene that greets me is perhaps... well... an extremely shitty one that is perhaps the reason why tonight is about to become a living hell for me.

   "Why can't you dance anymore?" Quince pleads. Dash sits on the floor, rubbing her legs.

   "I'm just saying I'm tired alright?! We all get tired. I get tired, you get tired. It's normal!"

   Quince let's out a low growl. Obviously he's used to getting his way. "Get up, we're dancing to three more songs."

   "I can't I already said. My legs are killing me. They're sore and feel like they're ripping from the inside. I need some rest and then I'll-"

   "Bullshit. Why did I even take you here? Goddammit I-"

   The scene slows down for me. I clench my fists. What the hell does this kid think he's saying? I'll beat the living crap out of him! Like seriously, he takes her to the dance, she gets tired and he doesn't let her rest?! I narrow my eyes as everything speeds up once again.

   "-wanted a girl who can dance, not some lazy bitch."

   That's the last straw. I'm going to- everything goes balck. The music stops. The gymnasium fills with gasps and frantic whispers. Shit, this is the worst time for a blackout! I squint my eyes. No use. I can't see a thing. It seems Janet had predicted correct.

   Then a sound catches my attention, and grants the buzzing students all a moment to pause and let the gasp they've been holding in escape. It enrages me. Absolutely disgusts me. Rage fills and pours into my fist. A tear almost drips down my eye.  Not one sound. The sounds. Two sounds, there were two. Two sounds that were completely linked together.

   The sounds? A smack followed by a small yelping cry that escapes Dash's throat ring in the gym's seemingly everlasting darkness.