High School Honey

by Bill Bowler

Chapter 8: The Big Dance

Flea and Floater drove from the deli to the high school and parked in the lot. The dance was being held in the cafeteria, a glass-walled wing of the main building, on a grassy bluff overlooking the parking lot. Flea and Floater sat in the car with the top down. They heard the band playing and saw the balloons and streamers, and the dance floor crowded with people gyrating to the beat beneath the colored lights.

Floater was sprawled out in the front seat. Flea was sitting up on the back of the rear seat. He held up a half-quart can of Big Cat.

“Ready?”

Floater tried to get the jump. Without waiting for the start signal, he opened his mouth wide, threw his head back, and started pouring beer down his throat. Flea calmly followed suit and drained his can in the space of five seconds, while Floater choked and sputtered on the foamy liquid.

“No fair! No fair! That doesn’t count,” gasped Floater.

They tossed the empty cans onto the floor of the convertible. Floater got out of the car, walked over to a bush, opened his fly and started to pee. A car pulled into the lot and he was in the spotlights.

“Hey!” Floater shouted over his shoulder. “How ’bout a little privacy here!”

He zipped up his fly, walked back to the car, and flopped into the front seat. “These chicks. These fuggin chicks!” He shook his head. “That’s it. I’m goin’ for it!” He stood up unsteadily on the front seat of the car and shook his fist up at the dancers behind the glass wall of the cafeteria. “Open up, baby! I’m knockin’ at the door! Open up, and let me in!!”

Flea was laughing hysterically in the back seat.

“What’s so funny there, my man?” Floater asked him. “I gotta get laid and you think it’s funny?”

Flea sprang into the front seat and grabbed Floater in a head-lock. They wrestled for a minute, then Flea released Floater, and they fell back, laughing, to finish the beers.

Floater looked up at the cafeteria and saw two girls walking up to the door. One was short with curly red hair and nice boobs. The other was a tall blond with beautiful long shapely legs and an incredible ass. Honey and Shirley. They entered the dance and Floater lost sight of them.

“Let’s go,” he said to Flea. The two boys climbed over the convertible doors and stumbled up the grassy slope to the cafeteria. Mr. Bloman and Officer Baer watched as Flea and Floater paid at the door.

Floater dropped his change on the floor and Mr. Bloman’s eyes narrowed with suspicion. “Say, you boys haven’t been drinking, have you?”

“Hell no!” said Floater.

“I smell beer,” said Mr. Bloman. “Come over here, young man.”

Flea stepped between them. “Leave him alone, Bloman.”

Officer Baer intervened. “Just a minute here.”

Shirley, in her new orange blouse, and Honey, in a black leather miniskirt and her brand-new spike heels, were dancing with each other at the edge of the crowd near the entrance. Two boring boys walked up and asked them to dance, but Shirley shook her head no, and Honey rolled her eyes in disbelief.

Shirley noticed Jack and Bloman talking to Flea and Floater at the door. She took Honey by the hand, and as they approached, they heard Jack yelling, “One more crack out of you and...”

“Gentlemen, gentlemen,” said Floater, “and I use the term loosely. No need to get excited. I’m sure we can work this out amicably such that all parties are satisfied.”

Mr. Bloman snorted. The color drained from Jack’s face. Shirley tugged at his sleeve.

“Please, Jack.” She looked sweetly up at him. “These are friends of ours.”

Jack hesitated, and held himself in check. “A’right, babe. For your sake.” He turned to the boys. “But I’ll be watching you two tonight, so keep it clean.”

Shirley took Floater by the arm, Honey took Flea, and they walked off to the dance floor. Shirley puckered and blew Jack a kiss. He couldn’t help but smile. Floater glanced back over his shoulder, puckered, and blew another kiss to Jack. The smile faded.

Mr. Bloman scowled. “I don’t like it, Jack. Those delinquents are drunk.”

“Drunk as skunks, Hugo,” agreed Jack.

“Say, Jack,” said Mr. Bloman, “I don’t mean to pry into your personal affairs, so please don’t take this the wrong way. I don’t mean to suggest any impropriety, but there’s nothing between that girl and you, is there?”

“No,” said Jack.

The dance floor was crowded with dancers. Balloons dangled from the ceiling and streamers were draped on the walls. Colored gels had been placed over the lights and red, blue and green beams shone on the dancers. The band was playing on a makeshift stage at the far end of the room. Along the walls, chairs were occupied by less popular girls hoping to be asked to dance. Groups of boys stood apart, talking and laughing near the vending machines.

On stage, the drummer pumped the bass drum pedal before the lead singer joined in:

Wump (pause) bump-Bump (pause) bump-Bump (pause) bump-Bump “Hey!”

Lou-ee Lou-eye
Ohhh Babynow
Me gotta go
Wa-wa-wa-wawawa...

Floater was dancing with Shirley. He spun in circles, hunching over and leaning back, twisting on the balls of his feet as if he were putting out cigarette butts. Shirley danced, serenely oblivious to him and the world.

Flea was dancing with Honey. In her heels, she was taller than he. Her style was relaxed and graceful. She seemed hardly to be moving, just swaying her hips to the beat and looking into the distance with a far-off expression.

The next song was a slow dance, a moldy oldie from the 50’s. Shirley excused herself, and Floater walked off the floor and joined the group of guys by the soda machines, complaining about chicks. On stage, the guitar player switched on his tremolo, strummed a chord, and the band stepped up to the mics and began to sing in beautiful three-part harmony.

To know know kno-ow him
Is to love love lo-ove him...

Flea drew Honey’s body against his. Electricity coursed through his system as the external world dissolved away. He felt her arms encircle his shoulders as she returned his embrace. Flea moved his feet to the beat and swayed his hips from side to side slowly beneath the rainbow beams. He began to rub her back gently, and Honey laid her head on his shoulder. At the entrance to Nirvana, Flea was rudely interrupted.

“May I?”

Floater was tapping Flea on the other shoulder. What are friends for? Flea was annoyed, but let Floater cut in on account of their good friendship. Flea had to go pee anyway, from all the beer.

Floater and Honey continued the slow dance, though Honey was more aloof and formal with Floater, and kept her distance. Towards the end of the song, Floater felt the muscles in Honey’s back tense up. She was looking at something over his shoulder behind him. Floater turned to see to a tall, dark-haired boy not from their high school coming towards them from the edge of the dance floor. Honey stopped dancing as the boy came up to them.

“I’ve been trying to reach you. We have to talk.”

“There’s nothing to talk about.”

“Oh yes there is.”

“Please don’t make a scene.”

The newcomer looked around, hesitated, seemed about to say something, but changed his mind and walked off in disgust.

“Who’s that jerk?” asked Floater.

“His name is Nick.”

“What an idiot.”

Honey’s eyes were tearing up.

“C’mon, forget about it.” Floater gently put his arm around her waist to lead her off the dance floor when he felt himself pushed aside.

The dark-haired boy had returned. He grabbed Honey by the arm.

“Please, Nick! Let go.”

“Listen, baby. We have to talk. Is this guy botherin’ you? You want me to teach him a lesson?”

“Take it easy, bro’,” said Floater. “The lady and I were just dancing.”

“Zat right? Well I don’t think she wants to dance with you anymore, so why don’t you take a hike?”

Nick let go of Honey, and gave Floater a shove that knocked him backwards. The band rocked on and only a few people close by on the crowded dance floor even noticed there was some problem.

Nick took Honey again roughly by the arm. “Let’s get outa here.”

“You’re hurting me, Nick.”

Nick gripped her arm tighter and started to drag her off the dance floor, when someone tapped him on the shoulder, and Nick turned his head. Flea nailed him with a vicious sucker punch that broke Nick’s nose with a sickening crunch and a spurt of red blood. Nick dropped to the floor, unconscious.

“Boys! Boys! What’s the trouble?! What’s going on here?!” Mr. Bloman was running towards them. Officer Baer drew his gun and ran through the crowd to help.

Proceed to Chapter 9...