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.