A Cute Little Moment: Chapter V: Lexi and Thaddeus's Dancing Moment: Part II :D:D:D

 

Lexi and Thaddeus’s Dancing Moment: Part Two😊

Thaddeus started the engine in his car just as the sun was sinking behind the trees and turned out of Lexi’s street to go back to his own home. As he was driving, the song, “So Close” came on the radio because it was “Throwback Thursday”. Thaddeus grimaced.

“Nope,” he muttered as he instantly changed the radio station, feeling sure that the song would be ruined for the rest of his life. After that, the song, “All Too Well” by Taylor Swift came on. Thaddeus shrugged, having heard the song before a long time ago.

“That’ll do,” he said, turning out of Lexi’s neighborhood. The song did actually, weirdly help soothe the ache of having been so close to Lexi and then losing her. Again.

As Thaddeus had decided he might have a new respect for Taylor Swift, he pulled into his driveway and turned the car off. Thaddeus stepped through his doorway just as he heard the clattering of forks against plates. Only that soon stopped when Thaddeus’s family realized he was home and his aunt came over to the front door.

“Where have you been, honey?” Aunt Emma asked amusedly before she noticed Thaddeus’s facial expression. “Is something wrong? What is it?”

Thaddeus wasn’t sure if he wanted to talk about it yet because the wound was still fresh, but his aunt was already worried about him, so he thought he had better share about the situation. “Well, yes,” Thaddeus said hesitantly. Aunt Emma looked at him sadly.

“What is it, sweetheart?”

“Um, so I dropped off the scarf that Lexi left at school and she invited me in because she was lonely,” Thaddeus began.

“Why was she lonely?” Thaddeus’s aunt wondered. Thaddeus quickly explained that Lexi and Adam had been practicing their footwork for the homecoming dance and he had to go so soon and all about Lexi feeling like she wasn’t important to Adam.

“So, to try and be a good friend and make her feel better, I offered to teach her to dance,” Thaddeus said, his eyes downcast.

“I see. And then what happened?” Aunt Emma questioned.

“Well, we danced. And we almost kissed,” Thaddeus whispered, sounding ashamed of himself. Aunt Emma raised her eyebrows.

“Really?” she said, surprised.

“Yeah,” Thaddeus sighed. “I don’t know what came over me,”

“I understand, sweetie,” Aunt Emma said in a soft, soothing tone, rubbing Thaddeus’s shoulder.

“I knew the minute I made the offer to teach Lexi how to dance that it was a bad idea. I should have listened to that instinct. Anyway, Lexi told me I should go after that.”

“I know it’s hard, Thaddeus. I’ll tell you what: We’ll go eat dinner and we don’t have to tell anyone else about it if you don’t want to. And then tomorrow, you and Lexi can talk it over. How does that sound?”

“You’re treating me like a little boy, again,” Thaddeus said, smiling at his aunt. “Just like when I was twelve,”

“Well, what choice do I have?” Aunt Emma teased, standing up and urging Thaddeus to do the same. After telling someone, Thaddeus did feel a little bit better and he knew that everything would work out the way it would and he would just have to make do with whatever that might be.

The next day, Thaddeus came to school with a headache and dark circles underneath his eyes because he hadn’t slept well the night before. Too much overthinking about what he would say to Lexi. When he entered the gym, he winced at all of the noise as he traveled to the fangirl’s corner where he was sure he would find Lexi. Only, when Thaddeus got there, Lexi was nowhere to be found.

“Hey, Thaddeus,” Breanna greeted, turning around to look at him. “Ooh, you don’t look so good,” she remarked. Thaddeus nodded reluctantly as he massaged his temples.

“Have you seen Lexi? I really need to talk to her,”

Breanna shook her head, her straight, caramel colored hair waving slightly with the movement. “No, she’s home, sick. Her mom told us she has a big headache,” she explained. “Why?”

“Um…” Thaddeus said. “That’s a good question,”

Breanna raised her eyebrows. “Alright, everybody out of here,” she said to the other fangirls, making shoeing motions with her hands. Kaylee, Bridgett, and Gabrielle harrumphed, but reluctantly walked away. When they were gone, Breanna turned back to Thaddeus. “Okay, what happened?” she asked. Thaddeus sighed, not looking forward to sharing the story again.

“What makes you think I’ll tell you?” he said instead. Breanna smirked.

“The fact that I’m your wing-woman and I need to know these things,” she replied. Thaddeus pursed his lips.

“Yeah, still no,” he said. Breanna gave a short huff of exasperation.

 “Too late now. You have already intrigued me, so I’m not going to let this go,”

Thaddeus grumbled at Breanna’s stubbornness and finally relented. “Okay! I’ll tell you. Gosh, you’re as stubborn as an ox.”

“Yeah, I know,” Breanna grinned. “Now, what happened?”

“So, I went to return the scarf she left at school yesterday and then she invited me in,” he began and went through the whole story. Right up to them almost kissing.

“Wait, wait, wait.” Breanna interrupted, sounding excited. “You two almost kissed?!”

“Yep,” Thaddeus said, covering his face with his hand because he was blushing so much. “I’m not proud of it.”

“That’s fair. What happened after that?” Breanna replied.

“Well, nothing, really. She told me that I needed to go after that, which I can’t blame her for. She’s loyal that way,” Thaddeus told Breanna, running a hand through his wavy, brown locks.

“So, you wanted to talk to her about it today?” Breanna clarified as Thaddeus nodded. “Maybe you should visit or call her,” Breanna suggested.

“I guess I should do that. Maybe it’ll help clear the air.” Thaddeus said with finality, deciding he would visit Lexi right after school.

 

Lexi’s perspective:

Lexi had been sitting with her back against her front door, sobbing rather uncontrollably. She didn’t know what time it was or if anyone was home again. Or she didn’t until her parents found her sitting on the floor, completely unhinged.

“Lexi, what’s wrong?” Her mom exclaimed softly, coming down next Lexi on the floor, Lexi’s dad quickly following suit. Lexi took in a big inhale and sniffled loudly. “Hey, take a deep breath, Lexi,” Mrs. Pieper said soothingly.

“Um, I was practicing dancing with Ad- Adam and he had to go because his sister hurt herself and his parents needed him,” Lexi began. “Then Thaddeus came b-by because I l-left my scarf at s-s-school and he offered to t-teach me how to d-dance and I said y-y-yes. Then we waltzed and I-I s-started feeling some-something I’ve nev-never felt before,” Lexi explained before taking a few deep breaths to calm herself.

“What was it?” Lexi’s dad asked softly.

“It ki-kind of felt like I l-l-liked him and we almost kissed!” Lexi wailed as her mom put a hand on her shoulder. “Um, I to-told him that he n-needed to g-go after th-that. But I didn’t w-want h-him to go!”

Lexi’s parents held her in their arms, not saying anything yet.

“I don’t know w-why I d-d-d-did that,” Lexi sobbed quietly as her parents looked at each other.

“It sounds to me that you have feelings for Thaddeus,” Lexi’s dad said gently. Lexi looked up, tears still streaming from her hazel eyes.

“That’s why it’s so scary,” she replied quietly. Lexi’s mom rubbed her shoulder.

“I guess you need to make a choice, then,” she told Lexi as Lexi took in a shaky breath and went into a fresh round of sobs and her parents wrapped their arms around her and said that she could sleep on it.

The next morning, Lexi’s old unicorn alarm clock rang to let her know it was time to get ready for school. As soon as Lexi lifted her head off her pillow, her head throbbed painfully and her stomach gave a gigantic heave, so she layed back down, feeling like she was going to throw up. That was when Lexi realized how dehydrated she was. She had cried herself to sleep the night before, all of her emotions way too overwhelming for her to bare. When Lexi had been in bed for about fifteen minutes longer than she was supposed to be, her mom came in to her room.

“Lexi,” she said in a slightly scolding tone. “It’s time to get up!”

Lexi tried to lift her head again from the softness of the pillow, but the moment she did, her stomach gave another terrifying jolt and she physically gagged. “Lexi, do you feel okay?” Lexi’s mom asked concernedly.

“I have a big headache and every time I try and get up, I feel really sick,” Lexi explained, taking deep breaths to calm the nausea roiling inside her. She also felt exhausted because she had cried all night long and didn’t actually fall asleep until 1:00 AM.

“It sounds like you’re dehydrated. Do you want to stay home from school today?” Lexi’s mom said.

“Yeah, I just feel like I need water and sleep,” Lexi replied. Her mom came over and kissed Lexi on the forehead and said that she would bring up a water bottle, some breakfast, and some pain medicine before she left and after Lexi drank some water, took some medicine, and ate just a bit of her dry toast, she layed back down, and went back to sleep.

Thaddeus’s perspective:

When the last bell of the day had finally rung, Thaddeus instantly stood up and started making a plan to stop by the bakery for some of Lexi’s favorite cookies. He was walking so fast to the front door that he ran smack into someone and that person fell to the floor, groaning. Thaddeus’s eyes widened as he bent down to the person’s level. Only, when he got to the floor to help that person up, Adam was staring contemptuously up at him.

“Sorry,” Thaddeus said, though he wasn’t all sure he meant it as he offered his hand to help Adam up. Adam took Thaddeus’s hand and stood.

“Where are you off to in such hurry?” Adam asked, still sounding grumpy. Thaddeus sighed quietly before answering.

“I’m going to see Lexi. She isn’t feeling very well today and that’s why she’s not here,” he told Adam. Adam shrugged.

“Lexi’s sick? Huh,” he said, not sounding very worried as he walked away from Thaddeus. Thaddeus scoffed.

“Seriously?” he muttered. “You don’t even care that Lexi’s sick? Well, on the other hand, good! You can stay away from her, then.”

Thaddeus was still annoyedly muttering to himself as he got into his car and started down the road to the bakery that was just near the school.

Lexi’s perspective:

Lexi was still up in her bed when her mom got home from school, only she had taken a bath, changed clothes, brushed her teeth, and now was sitting in her bed, reading a book. Just as she had reached the end of the chapter she was reading; she heard the doorbell ring and her mom opening the door. Only what she heard her mother say to the visitor was slightly terrifying.

“Thaddeus!” she heard her mom exclaim. “This is a pleasant surprise! Come on in.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Pieper,” Thaddeus’s gentle voice replied. Lexi could hear the smile in her mother’s voice by now. She loved Thaddeus.

“So, what brings you here? Are you here to see Lexi?”

“Yeah, I brought her some snickerdoodles from Hames’s Bakery,” Thaddeus explained modestly.

“That’s very kind of you! Lexi’s upstairs in her room, if you want to give them to her yourself,” Lexi’s mother offered.

“Yes, that would be nice. It’s just right up the stairs, right?” Thaddeus clarified. Lexi didn’t hear her mom reply, but she did hear Thaddeus climbing the stairs to her room as Lexi started to sit up straighter and brushing her bangs behind her ears. Then she heard a soft knock on the wall outside her bedroom.

“Lexi?” Thaddeus said tentatively, poking his head through the door. Lexi turned to him.

“Hi,” Lexi said, slightly awkwardly. “What are you doing here?”

Thaddeus smiled mildly as he stepped through Lexi’s doorway a couple more steps as Lexi blushed.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Come in,” she said. Thaddeus chuckled as he walked all the way through the door and approached Lexi’s bedside.

“I brought you some cookies from the bakery,” Thaddeus said timidly, handing Lexi a small white bag that contained the fresh snickerdoodles. Lexi smiled.

“Oh, thank you!” she whispered, feeling kind of warm and fuzzy inside.

“Of course,” Thaddeus replied. Thaddeus hesitated, like he wanted to say something, but was procrastinating it. Only Lexi had a feeling that she knew what Thaddeus wanted to talk about. So, she figured that they should get it over with.

“I think I know the other reason why you’re here,” Lexi said quietly, her face flushing rosy pink. Though, that was nothing compared to the color that Thaddeus’s cheeks had turned. It almost looked purple.

“How did you guess?” Thaddeus mumbled, almost sarcastically, but not quite.

“Never mind that,” Lexi replied, wringing her hands until she lost feeling in her fingers. Thaddeus’s heart started to pound painfully in his chest as he suddenly remembered what he had wanted to say for months.

“Well,” Thaddeus began. “First, I wanted to apologize for last night. I never meant for that to go as far as it did and I’m- I’m really sorry.”

“It’s okay. It was part my fault, too,” Lexi whispered.

“But, listen,” Thaddeus continued. “I think you know that I have feelings for you and I don’t want to just assume, but I think you feel the same way. I would never want to push you to feel anything that you don’t feel and I know that you’re with Adam, but I just want to know how you feel.”

Lexi’s eyes widened. Of all the things she thought Thaddeus might say during this visit, this was not one of them. The only barrier between Lexi answering Thaddeus’s very valid question, was she didn’t quite know what to say. She wasn’t entirely sure how she felt, either. She thought she still had feelings for Adam, but she hadn’t even thought about him the whole time Thaddeus had had his hand on her waist and using his other hand to hold her own in a way that Adam had never had the brain to. In fact, he never had the brain to do anything for her. He never made time for her, never opened any door for her, and hadn’t shown her anything that resembled affection in months. Now that she thought about it, Adam was kind of a tool! She intended to tell Thaddeus that she feels the same way about him and that she would like to explore their feelings together and that she would gladly kick Adam to the curb, when the memory started slipping away. No, Lexi wanted to tell Thaddeus something, but what? What had she wanted to tell him? Why had she wanted to tell him something? Why was he even here? Maybe Thaddeus had just wanted to say hello to her. Yes, that must have been it. Maybe she wanted to thank him for thinking of her. Of course, that’s what Lexi wanted. To thank Thaddeus. What a great friend he was, after all. That’s all he was. A good friend. 

“Oh, thanks for thinking of me. I was getting kind of lonely,” Lexi said, sounding perfectly contented. Thaddeus grinned at her.

“Of course, fangirl. Well, I have to go. My family will be waiting for me,”

“Okay, then. Goodbye!” Lexi said as Thaddeus gave her one last smile and left her room, leaving their memory of the night before behind him.