What If

Chapter 10

I sucked at dancing, especially when there were a shit ton of people watching me. And John Lennon was the last person I wanted to be dancing with. But I sucked it up and went out onto the floor and did it anyway.

We danced together for an Elvis song and a Buddy Holly song. I blushed throughout, extremely self-conscious of my dancing. Not only was John watching me, but I could feel the stares from the other boys sitting at the table. I prayed that my face wasn't noticeably red.

Then my worst fear happened. The band on stage began a slow song. That was my queue to go back and sit down again. Just when I began walking away, my hand suddenly got tugged backwards and I was pulled back in to John.

"Where do you think you're going?" he asked. "We're still dancing." He pulled me up against him so that there was no room between us and wrapped his arms around my back. He looked me right in the eyes and smirked, knowing exactly what he was doing. I started blushing ten times worse than I was before. I had to look away from him, I was way too embarrassed. He started moving me to the music while I concentrated on the floor. "You look beautiful tonight."

More blushing. I looked up at him for a split second, but then went right back to the floor. "Thank you," I said.

"I mean, you always look beautiful, but you're all dressed up tonight and you did your hair and . . . you just look really nice."

All I could say was "Thank you." Again.

He grinned at my shyness. "Listen, I was thinking you and I could-"

"Hey, can I cut in?" Paul tapped on John's shoulder and was smiling innocently.

John was clearly annoyed. Severely annoyed. But he hid it behind a smirk and said "Sure." He broke free from me and unhappily walked back to where the other boys were sitting.

Paul took me in his arms just like John had and together we began dancing. I didn't like either of them to begin with, but if I had to choose, I would much prefer Paul over John. "Thank you," I said to Paul. "You saved me."

Paul smiled and shrugged. "It looked like you needed saving," he said.

"Well, once again, thank you."

We danced for another minute in silence before Paul spoke up again. "I can't wait for you to watch us on stage. I hope you like what you hear."

"I'm sure I will. You boys are very talented," I encouraged.

Paul smiled, happy that I was stroking his ego. "This'll be the first time where there's actually someone we care about in the audience, so we'll be extra careful not to mess up."

I smirked and said "You could never mess up."

He laughed. "You wouldn't believe how much we do."

"Believe me, you're not gonna."