Party on the Polaris

*This is a preview of a chapter of a book I'm writing called Murder on the Polaris, it fit the prompt wonderfully, but if the characters arent familiar I apologize. Little bit of background, the characters are set in a post apocalyptic world where a cruise was offered to a select few citizens. Anyway, Please enjoy!*

Step, two, three… Danica was focused on the way his hips moved in the mirror. His hands were up in the air in dance position. He felt sort of stupid, but it had been forever since he had danced. Here he was, dancing in front of the mirror to practice. Would he have a partner to dance with? Maybe not, maybe he could ask Ellie… That made him nervous. Maybe he wouldn’t. He kept in time spinning aimlessly around the room, unable to really tell if he was doing it right. At least he would be prepared for tonight if he worked up the nerve to ask someone.

What if the dancing was more casual? He stopped dancing changing his tune. He again felt stupid as his hips swayed to the imaginary beat in his head. Oh gosh… He would look like a fool. Maybe he just wouldn’t dance. His tall body felt awkward and lanky. What was the point? He doubted he would even go out on the dance floor. Danica personally hadn’t been to a party since he lost his sister Kiera, and the thought honestly wasn’t that appealing to him.

           It was 7 pm now, everyone during lunch had agreed to meet at the party by then. Once again, he knew he was going to late. He adjusted his forest green button up shirt, tucking it into his black pants. He had also actually brushed his hair; his normally slightly messy grey hair was now in smooth waves. He was mostly content, he looked better then usual.

           He walked to the ballroom shortly entering to a large dark room, the sounds of laughter, music and chatter echoing. He made his way around the edge scanning the dancing crowd. His group of friends were clumped on the edge laughing and talking. Rexton had a glass in his hands and a huge grin on his face. His other tattooed arm was around Ellie, his short, wide shouldered form swaying with her. He noticed Danica as he approached.

“Danica!” He grinned broadly. “Nice to see you!”

“Nice to see you as well Rexton.” Danica gave a half nod.

           He forced a smile, his eyes drawn to Rexton’s hand on Ellie’s waist. He couldn’t ask Ellie now… Stanley had a glass in his dark hands and was leaning on a metal pillar. Jenny smiled vaguely her smile contrasting greatly with her sharp features. She was talking to Everest who had his hair slicked back best he could, even then, little strands of dark hair stood up at odd angles. It wasn’t long before Rexton began dancing with Ellie, and Stanley asked Jenny to dance with him. The dancing was reasonably casual, nothing too stiff luckily. Danica guessed he could dance alone, but after watching Everest try to dance alone for a bit he decided not to.

Danica now rested against one of the pillars watching them. Ellie’s blue dress flashed in and out of the crowd. It was amusing watching them considering they clashed greatly, Rexton’s button up was bright red. The two were very brightly colored, which he guessed matched their personalities. Stanley and Jenny dancing was amusing as well since they didn’t do a lot of dancing together, they just awkwardly laughed and shuffled, her form short next to his huge hulking one.

He took a drink off a tray nearby slowly sipping it examining the rim absentmindedly.

Everest nudged Danica. “Danica… someone’s coming your way.”

Danica glanced up to see a very pretty young lady walking through the crowd toward him. He set his drink down. She was a bronze tan; he could already see the faint freckles on her nose and cheeks as she got closer. She blew a curl of her dark hair out of her face. She finally was standing in front of him.

“You look like somebody, want to dance?” She raised her eyebrows with an inspecting look.

Danica had absolutely no idea how to respond so he tried his best. “Me? Somebody? Well, I guess so. I shall dance with you.”

She gave a satisfied smile. “Lovely, off we go then.”

Danica was soon dancing with her; he was now extremely glad he had practiced…

“Well, best I introduce myself.” she gave a small smile her hips moving casually with the flow of the music. “I’m Beatrice. Beatrice Torres.”

Danica smiled “I’m Danica Alpin.”

“Mm, Danica, that’s unique, I bet there is a story behind that.”

“Well, actually there is, my mom was convinced that when she was going to have us, she was going to have two baby girls, but when me and my twin sister were finally born, I, was a boy. Obviously.” He swayed in time with her. “But she had decided on two girl names, and wasn’t going to change them, so my sister was named Keira, and I was Danica.”

She gave a pleasant smile “That’s nice. I like interesting stories; they say a lot about a person.”

A slower song started.

Danica questioning as they got closer. “May I?”

“I don’t know, can you?”

He was flustered by this response giving her an odd look. “Well, I... I don’t know, I’m just trying to be polite.”

“You can, I’m just messing with you.” She laughed gently.

Her laugh wasn’t like the sound of bells, different from how Keira’s was and Ellie’s. It was nice though, smooth, casual and calming. He liked it. He put his hand on her hip, with the other he took her hand. They began to dance keeping in step, him leading. They passed by Ellie and Rexton.

“Oo! Danica got himself a girl to dance with. Good for you Danica!” Rexton was smiling from ear to ear.

“Oh, Rexton stop.” Ellie swatted him with her hand her blonde hair bobbing. 

Beatrice smiled “Are these your friends Danica?” He could see her already examining them, much like he often did himself.

“Yes, they are some people I know, I met them on this cruise, they’ve proclaimed me their leader too apparently.” Danica looked down at her amusement sparkling in his pale green eyes.

“Oh yes! Damn right! A great leader he is. A great leader of out current group of six. Doing our Private Eye work!” Rexton wrinkled his nose, spinning with Ellie.

“Rexton its detective work, private eye isn’t the right term.” Ellie chimed.

“Oh? That’s interesting.” Beatrice gave Danica a now curious look.

Ellie looked like she wanted to tell Beatrice all about their little group, and probably invite her too, but Rexton was dancing her away.

“Andele, Andele! Around the dance floor we go!” Rexton swung her farther away.

Danica chuckled “I will explain that later. Let us just dance.” 

Beatrice and Danica danced until they were exhausted. It wasn’t long before the last songs for the night were playing. Beatrice was leaning on him her shoes hurting her.

“Ow, my shoes are awful, I rarely ever wear them…” Her heels matched her dress, but did look rather uncomfortable.

“Then take them off for the last song.” He said. “If they’re really hurting you that much.”

“Oh, but my mom always wanted me to wear them for a full night of dancing, she said they would bring me luck. They were hers…”

“Well, I think your pretty lucky without them, I mean, come on, you found me.” He gave her a sly smile feeling more confident than he had been in a while.

She made a sly face back at him and kicked her shoes off. They swayed to the last song of the night. This was the happiest Danica had felt in a while, surrounded by friends. People like him, people that trusted him. He felt for once, maybe… he could overcome his own fears and he could be the leader and voice of reason they needed.