“I’m so glad they let you come, Steven!” He grinned that wonderful grin, melting her heart.
“Me too! I didn’t think they would, since I didn’t have a school or whatever, but after the gems came up and talked to them, they were totally fine with it.” She grinned, looking to the dance floor nervously. “What’s wrong?”
“I wanna go out there and dance, but… I’m scared I’ll make a fool of myself,” she told him quietly, and his hand wrapped around hers, tugging her to the floor. Connie could only blink as she was dragged out, stumbling slightly in her dress, before it caught up with her. “St-Steven, wait! Are you sure th-that this is a good idea?”
Catching her squeaky voice, he turned and grinned that wonderful, perfect grin, and she felt as if she could trust him with anything. The worst that could happen was being made fun of, and that already happened quite a bit as it was. She didn’t have any friends besides him, so why not trust him? “Come on, it’ll be fun.”
“Alright,” she told him warily, and he swirled her around, leading her in a dance that he knew the moves to expertly, and it was rather easy to catch on to. A giggle escaped her, that turned into a full blown laugh that he joined into as they swung around in pretty much a mess. He slipped in his new dance shoes, and she was quick to catch him, laughing with him and not noticing the glow that enveloped them.
Stevonnie blinked, their eyes taking a moment to adjust to the light after the bright flash. All around them, people were staring, and slowly the fusion stood, feeling themselves shaking. It was hard to breathe, and their lungs seemed impossibly small with all the eyes on them, and even the music stopped as everyone stared. Why were they staring? Did they really have to…?
Laughter rang in their ears in the silent gymnasium, though they couldn’t tell if it was at them or not, nor who was laughing or why. Was it at them? Hands grabbed onto their head, trying hard to force air into their lungs and find out if it really was, but nothing seemed to want to work right. It all seemed like it was falling apart around them, and it was all their fault. Their legs carried them, away from the kids, who parted if only not to be trampled, and they couldn’t focus on anything but getting away from it all.
“Are you… I mean… Are we okay? Were they laughing at me– us? Did we do something to make them laugh? They weren’t, but at what then, and why was everyone staring? Did they have to stare like that? Because we’re us,” they mumbled, their head spinning before realising they were barefoot again, but couldn’t find it in themselves to care about that at the moment. They were more worried about being able to breathe, the walls closing in on them as they ran. The bathroom would be a safe place, but which one? Their hands tugged at their hair as they stopped, shaking and closing their eyes tightly. “I wish you were… We weren’t… I’m so alone… I can’t… We’re…”
They fell to their knees, shaking and gripping handfuls of their hair. A whimper slipped free before their forehead pressed to their knees, trying to focus on something, anything, besides the fact that this was all their fault, and they should have known better, but they didn’t think it’d be this bad. Tears slipped free, before they finally, finally, broke apart, shattered into nothing.
“Connie!” Steven’s voice broke into her ears, and she shook, curling in on herself, trying to force the thoughts away. Why was everything blurry? Where were her glasses, her shoes? A warm hand came to rest on her back, and she tried to draw away from it, before it pulled her into a tight hug that anchored her to reality. “Connie, shhhh, it’s okay. I’m here now. I’ve got you.”
Why do I like this.