Teaser Tuesday - CLOCKWISE

Launch day for CLOCKWISE is coming soon and I thought I'd do a little teaser each Tuesday up to the launch week of Sept 26-30. Here's the second one. What do you think?

            “It's Nate,” Lucinda whispered. I know, Nate, Nate, Nate. She nudged me again. I looked to my right. I felt like a girl dying of thirst in the desert, convinced there was a stream of water running toward her. It really looked like Nate was walking our way.

            I glanced behind me. Just a wall. Back to Nate. Yup, he was still walking towards us. My eyes popped wide. My brain was shutting down. I tried to remember my mantra. Hate Nate. Hate Nate.

            He stopped right in front of me. The only thing I could think of was how tall he was. Even with my heels on, he had to look down at me.

            “Would you like to dance?” he said. To me. Nate to Casey. Wants to dance.

            I should have said no. My mind understood this. My spirit understood this. Somehow my mouth got it wrong and I heard myself say, “Okay.”

            The thing was it was a slow dance. He took my hand in his and put his other hand around my waist. I wasn’t breathing. I put my free arm on his shoulder and gulped. Maybe I'd fainted from lack of punch and standing against the wall for too long, and this was just a hallucination. He sure seemed real. He smelled good, spicy. Was I moving my feet?  I was still standing so I must be breathing. My heart beat wildly. I was going to hyperventilate.

            When I dared to look at his face, he smiled. I was so confused! I stole a glimpse at the crowd by the punch table. Nate's friends were laughing.

            Jessica looked really mad, and pulled Craig tighter, if that were possible. I was starting to enjoy this.

            We didn't talk, just swayed to the music. I wondered what life was going to be like for me post-dance. I would be miserable. Purely miserable, since Nate would surely never set eyes on me again. Jessica would make certain of that.

            I decided to just enjoy it for what it was.

            “You look very nice tonight.”

            What? He spoke! He thought I looked nice. I was hyperventilating. I felt faint, dizzy. Was that bad? Nate was so strong, he would hold me up.

            Uh-oh, it was bad. Very, very bad. I wasn’t dizzy because of Nate.

            Oh, no!