Bridgette - Chapter Eight: Close Your Eyes - Part Two

I've provided the song that I had in mind when I was writing this chapter (and it's also named for the song). If you'd like, you can hit play now and listen to it while Bridge and Carson dance. Please let me know if you have trouble with the song playing. Enjoy!

Also, there is some colorful language near the end.

 

 

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Charlie and I walked onto the floor together and he walked over to Kate. Carson walked over to me and held out his hand to me. This was definitely something I hadn’t planned on. I cautiously put my hand in his and he gave my hand a squeeze. “It will be fine Bridge. It will be over soon and then we can go back to making fun of others dancing.” He whispered to me.

 

 

As we walked further onto the floor the music started. Charlie and Kate chose one end of the floor while we walked to the other end. Carson put his hand around my waist and held his hand out for me to grab. I put one hand on his shoulder and then the other in his hand. Before I knew it, we were dancing. Surprisingly, it wasn’t as awkward as I thought it would be.  I looked around the room and noticed people watching us. I started to feel nervous. Carson must have noticed that I had tensed up because he tried to calm my nerves. “Don’t worry about anyone else. If it makes you nervous knowing others are watching you, look somewhere else.” He whispered to me.

 

 

“Where am I supposed to look?”

“Well, you could look at me. I mean look at me; I’m smokin’!” It was all I could do to not bust out laughing. Leave it to Carson to make a crazy comment like that to try to get me to calm down.

 

 

“What about me? Am I chopped liver?” I asked him jokingly.

 

 

 

“You are definitely not chopped liver, Bridge.” I looked up at him and he had a serious look on his face. I blushed and turned away.

 

 

“I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable.” He apologized.

“It’s okay. I’m just not used to getting compliments like that and it makes me feel uncomfortable when someone does.”

“Really? I find it hard to believe that in all the years of high school not one person has told you how great you are.” I blushed again. “Dang it. I think I’ll just shut up now. I just keep embarrassing you.”

“It’s okay Carson. But maybe for now we could stop talking and just dance.”

As we continued to dance I started thinking about how Carson was able to make me blush. I usually wasn’t the blushing type and the fact that Carson was now making me blush, had me confused. If he had said any of that at the beginning of the school year I would have laughed it off and thought nothing of it. For some reason, now it was making me blush. 

 

 

I started thinking about all that had happened throughout the year and I felt so grateful that Carson and I were able to be there together and still friends. Even with all of the lies and threats that Waverly had made, Carson and I were still friends. In the last several weeks, it seemed that we were even closer than before which I didn’t think was possible. After we had talked in my room we were both cautious about our friendship but we soon all pulled together as friends.  It had surprisingly made us closer.

“Are you okay Bridge?” Carson pulled me out of my thoughts.

 

 

“Mmmhmm. I was just thinking about how just four weeks ago things were completely different. We were all going in different directions; you and I were, well, I think it’s safe to say we had a strained friendship; I wasn’t even thinking about going to prom; and I’m sure you figured you’d be slow dancing with Waverly and not me.” He grimaced a little when I said her name and I felt sorry immediately for saying it.

 

 

“I’m sorry Carson. I shouldn’t have brought her up.  What I was really trying to say is I hope you don’t mind too much having to slow dance with me instead.”

“Believe me Bridge, I would much rather slow dance with you.” Once again, I could feel the blood rushing to my cheeks. But I really didn’t mind it; I was more curious about the fact that I was even blushing.

 

 

“Thanks for coming with me. I’m glad you and the others convinced me to come.”

 

 

“Even though it meant slow dancing with me?” He joked.

 

 

“It hasn’t been too bad.” I admitted. He smiled down at me and I looked away.

We continued to dance and I caught a glimpse of Charlie and Kate at the other end of the dance floor. As I had watched them date through the school year it became more and more clear to me that they were what some would refer to as soul mates. It wouldn’t surprise me in the next couple of years if they got married. They seemed perfect for each other. I started remembering what Kate had told me earlier in the year about how she and Charlie had thrown caution to the wind and started dating. At the beginning of the year, I wouldn’t have considered doing that with Carson, but I wasn’t so sure now.  My feelings for Carson were a confusing mess.

 

 

I noticed that Carson and I were slowing moving closer and closer while we were dancing. For a moment I worried since I remembered that we were dancing in front of most of our classmates and that made me nervous. Then I heard a little voice in my head. Who cares what others think. It’s what you think that matters. I had to admit that my only hang up with us dancing closer was with everyone watching us. I held my breath and moved even closer to Carson. “Bridge, are you okay?” All I could do was nod my head.

 

 

We continued to dance like that through the rest of the song, neither one of us talking. At one point I closed my eyes and just let my feelings take over. I still wasn’t quite sure what I was feeling but I knew enough to know that things were different between Carson and me.  As the song ended, Carson and I pulled away from each other and looked into each other’s eyes. We stood there for several seconds like that before we realized that everyone was clapping and cheering. I bashfully looked down at the floor while Carson took me by the hand to towards our table. When we got to the table he turned around to look at me and had a concerned expression.

“Bridge, are you feeling okay? You look a little red?”

 

 

“I’m all of a sudden really hot. Maybe if I stepped out of the gym and got some air I’d feel better.”

 

 

 

“Come on.” He grabbed my hand again and we walked out of the gym. He was about to say something to me when I heard “The Voice.”

“How clever the both of you are. Acting like you didn’t have feelings for each other when it’s now obvious that you do. You’ve gone on and on about how I’ve deceived people and yet, it seems to me, that you’re the ones who have deceived everyone. Here everyone has been feeling bad for you two. Maybe instead, people should be feeling bad for me.”

 

 

I had heard enough. All the months of pent up anger came to the surface. Before I knew it, I was in her face.

“I’m done letting you have control over any of our happiness! You can try and try again, Waverly, to tear any of us apart but it won’t work anymore! I should actually thank you. Don’t look so shocked; you tried to destroy our friendship, but instead you pulled us closer together. So congratulations Waverly, you succeeded in doing the complete opposite of what you planned!”

 

 

“You think you’re so clever don’t you? Well you can have him.” She pointed at Carson. “He’s not worth my time and I have higher standards than that.”

“You bitch! You have it backwards, you’re not worth his time and you are so low on the dating scale that you would need a fifty foot pole to even come close to reaching where he is on the dating scale!”

 

 

 

Before I knew what happened Waverly slapped me in the face and stormed off. I stood there in shock for a moment at the fact that she had slapped me. Carson turned me towards him and looked down at me.

 

 

 

 

 

“Bridge, why did you provoke her like that? Are you okay?”

 

 

 

“Because she deserves it Carson. After what she put all of us through, I don’t care how many times I have to, I will tell her what a horrible person she is and how she doesn’t even come close to deserving you.” The last part came out of my mouth before I could stop myself. I got an all too familiar panic feeling and started pulling away from Carson.

 

 

“Bridge. . .wait; don’t pull away.”

“I’m sorry Carson. I can’t. . .” I turned around and ran out of the school.

 

 

 



Bridgette - Chapter Eight: Close Your Eyes - Part One

The next day we were all standing in front of the lockers a more reunited group. It was nice to finally have Waverly not in our group. The only way I could describe it was that while Waverly had been with us it was like we were all in darkness; now things were starting to become brighter. Our relationships were still a little strained but we were all starting to heal.

I was standing there looking around at everyone when it dawned on me; we were standing exactly in the same spots we had on the first day of school. “What’cha thinking about Bridge?” Carson asked me.

 

“I was just thinking how we are all standing in the same spots we were on the first day of school. Almost like it’s a brand new start.” I looked over at Carson and he was smiling at me. I was definitely thankful for a new start.

 

“Oh Carson! There you are baby!” And right on cue there was Waverly. But this time, instead of Carson being excited to see her he stepped past all of us and let her have it.
 

“Don’t even think about it Waverly! You’ve pulled the wool over most of our eyes long enough!  If you know what’s good for you you’ll keep on walking.” We all turned and stood behind Carson, glaring at her.

 

“It’s because of what she’s told you isn’t it?! She’s lying you know! She just wants you to not like me so she can have you all for herself!”

 

“Wow, Waverly. You really are that demented that you believe that, aren’t you? It’s over Waverly, you lost. Go try to deceive someone else.” Carson dismissed her. He turned around and looked at all of us and we all gathered around him as if showing Waverly that we were protecting him from her. She huffed and walked off.

The rest of the day we all tried to keep tabs on each other. I saw Waverly at one point try to approach Carson and I steered him away from her. I have no idea what happened in the classes they had with each other but Carson said he had been fine. One thing was for sure, the school was all abuzz about Waverly and how she had treated all of us for most of the school year. It seemed like no one wanted to socialize with her; not even the guy she was trying to two time with while she was dating Carson.

At the end of school, we all walked out to our cars together and stood around talking for a while. Eventually the conversation turned towards prom. Charlie, Kate, Trent and Julie were renting a limo to go to the prom and were trying to finalize their plans.

All of a sudden Kate looked over at Carson and I. “Hey guys, we’re leaving Carson and Bridge out of the conversation. Maybe we should talk about something else.”

 

“That’s okay. I don’t mind hearing about what you all are planning to do.” I reassured them.

“What are you plans for prom?” Charlie asked me.

“I don’t have any. I hadn’t really planned on going so it isn’t that big of a deal to me.”

“Are you serious Bridge?! You have to go to prom! You can just come with us.” Julie offered.

 

“Really, that’s okay. I’m perfectly happy not going. Plus I wouldn’t want you all to worry about whether or not I was having a good time.”

“What if we went together?” I heard Carson ask.

 

I looked over at him and was speechless. I hadn’t really thought about going with Carson before since I figured he would be going with Waverly. “Unless that would be too weird. . .” I was about to answer him when Kate suggested that the rest of them give us some space to talk it over.

Once they moved away I looked at Carson. “I don’t guess it would be weird. Up until yesterday I thought you’d be going with Waverly. Would it be too weird for you?”

 

“Nah. We might as well go together that way we can people watch together and make fun of some of the dancing.”

 

“You’re terrible! Okay, let’s go together.  Let’s not stress too much over it though. Okay?”

 

“Sounds good to me. Maybe the rest of the gang will let us ride in the limo with them.” He had a gigantic grin on his face.

 

I started laughing. I had missed laughing with Carson and the thought of all those months not being able to laugh with him made me sad.

“Hey, what are you thinking about?” He asked me.

“I’m just thinking about how much I’ve missed laughing with you.” He put his hand on my back and agreed.

“I’ve missed it too.” The gang had come up to us and Kate was eager to ask us. “So, are you guys going together?”

 

“Yeah, we agreed to go together, but only if we can hitch a ride in your limo.” I told them.

Charlie laughed “I think we can arrange that.”

 

The next several weeks passed by quickly with planning for prom, graduation, and college. Kate, Julie and I all went shopping for our dresses together. I somehow let Kate and Julie talk me into getting a dress that I normally wouldn’t get. They kept going on about how pretty I looked in it and I did think I looked decent in it so I got it.

The night of the prom arrived and we had all agreed that the guys would meet us girls at the house. Even Charlie was going to be surprised by what Kate was wearing since he had gone to pick up Carson and Trent.  Mom was of course going crazy with the camera. She took a million pictures of us girls in the house and outside while we waited for the guys.

 

Finally the guys pulled up and we all giggled with excitement. Charlie was the first to come into the family room, followed by Trent, then Carson. My breath was literally taken away when I saw Carson. I had always thought he was good looking but even I had to admit that he was handsome in his tux. He came walking up to me and had a smile on his face.

“You look gorgeous Bridge.” He whispered to me.

 

“You look pretty handsome yourself.” I admitted to him.

 

“Okay all of you, picture time!” Mom commanded all of us.

We girls moaned but thankfully we got a break while she took pictures of the guys while we sat at the dining room table waiting for them to be done with their pictures. 

 

When Mom was done taking their pictures she announced that it was time to take pictures with each couple. First Mom took pictures of Charlie and Kate.

Then she took pictures of Julie and Trent.

 

Carson and I were last to get our pictures made together.

 

We all thought that would be it for pictures but we were informed by Mom that we then had to take some pictures as a group. We agreed to do them if she hurried up since we were anxious to get to the prom.

 

After Mom took her billionth picture she reminded Charlie and me about the rules for the night. We were allowed to not come home but we had to be at someone’s house by the town curfew and we had to call Mom and Dad to tell them where we were, unless we ended up at our house, then we just told them.  Everyone in our group had the same arrangement with their parents.

Once Mom beat the rules into us, we all headed outside to get into the limo that we had rented. I don’t know if it was really worth renting a limo to take us from our house to the school since it wasn’t all that far; but it was definitely fun!

 

We arrived at the school and walked into the gym that had been decorated for the prom. By the time we arrived the music was already playing and people were already dancing. We all decided to put our purses down and save seats at tables and then we made our way onto the dance floor. We had just stepped onto the dance floor when the DJ started playing a new song.  We all started dancing and singing along.

 

We spent most of the time dancing and having a great time. When slow songs came on, Carson and I would sit down and watch other people dance. We may have made fun of some of the people dancing.

We were all out on the dance floor dancing again when we noticed that someone was walking up to the stage. After the song was over I noticed that the person was Trent. I couldn’t believe I had missed him leaving the group to go up there.

“Everyone, I have the pleasure of announcing the prom king and queen. You all know who they are and I have the pleasure of knowing both of them pretty well.”

 

We all started looking around at each other. I figured it was going to be Kate and Charlie. That made the most sense to Carson, Julie and I.

 

“For prom king you have chosen. . .Charlie Hobble!!!!” We all cheered for Charlie as he went on the stage to accept his crown.  He grabbed the microphone from Trent and made some silly speech which made everyone laugh. Trent grabbed the microphone back and kidded with Charlie about stealing his limelight.

 

“And for prom queen you all have chosen. . .Bridgette Hobble!!!!”

I stood there stunned! How was it possible that my brother and I could be voted prom king and queen? I felt Carson push me towards the stage and I climbed the stairs in a blur.

Trent placed the crown on my head and handed me the microphone. I stood there for a minute in shock and looked over at Charlie. I said the first thing that came to my mind.

 

“Thank you, but I hope you all aren’t expecting me to dance with him!” I joked. “That would be a little strange to slow dance with my brother.” Everyone laughed and Trent grabbed the microphone from me.

“We’ve already thought of that. For the prom king and queen dance, we’ll have you all dance with your dates.” I thought that was fine until I remembered who my “date” was. I was going to have to slow dance with Carson.