Page 75 of Tell Me I'm Enough

The other Gamma girls she’s with start pulling at her when Promiscuous by Nelly Furtado comes on.

“Simone!” one shouts. “Let’s dance!”

She laughs as another one of the girls stops and turns to the group of us guys. “Girls, don’t forget to grab your Timbaland!”

Each girl starts grabbing a guy and pulling them into the crowd of people.

It’s just me and Simone left, and she looks at me, being shy all of a sudden.

“Respectfully, I don’t dance on other guys,” she tells me, shouting over the music.

I smile and take her hand, leading her over to the group of girls she was just with. “Good thing this song doesn’t need grinding to be fun! How well do you know the lyrics?”

“I could sing it in my sleep,” she yells as we move through the bodies.

I pull her into the middle of the crowd and start giving her my best dance moves. She instantly matches my energy, and I love it.

We go back and forth shouting the lyrics to each other, getting lost in the song, lost in the moment…honestly, I’m just lost in her.

She takes her hand and holds it up to her mouth like a mic.

I start singing Timbaland’s parts.

Her smile is so big as she dances and sings Nelly’s parts back at me.

Our energy is high, and I wink at her. I give her a ‘come here’ motion with my finger as I sing out to her.

Everyone has gathered around to watch us now.

I never mind being the center of attention, but it’s always more fun when you have a friend who’ll join in and look stupid with you, and Simone’s energy is contagious.

When the song ends, she’s breathless and laughing as she places a hand on my shoulder to steady herself.

“Okay, that last shot I took is definitely hitting now.”

I put my hand on her elbow and smile as I try to balance her sway.

“Come on,” I tell her, “let’s go sit down.”

She nods and then follows me to the kitchen, hopping up to sit on the counter. I grab two seltzers and lean my back against the counter, handing her one.

“Don’t tell Tank…but you’re a much better dance partner than him.”

She laughs, taking a sip of her drink before setting it next to her on the counter. “I’m just better to look at than him.”

Somehow, Tank pops up, apparently being next to us this whole time. “Hey! I’m a smoke show!”

Simone pats him on the shoulder. “Yes, you are, Tank,” she tells him in a playfully baby voice, then turns to me and tries to hide, shaking her head and giving me a look like that was a total lie.

“I can see you, Simone!”

She turns back to him, giving him an innocent, confused look. “What? I was trying to get something out of my eye.”

He gives her a bullshit look, and just as he’s about to say something back, Bottoms Up by Trey Songz comes on, and Simone screams.

She grabs her drink and puts it up for us to cheers with her. We both do, then she chugs it and presses it into my hands as she starts dancing, still sitting on the counter, screaming the lyrics. When Nicki’s part is about to come on, she climbs all the way up on the counter to stand up and shout the lyrics with no care in the world.

I can’t help but laugh and hype her up when she doesn’t miss a single word.