Her name was Annie, when she came into my High School I instantly had a crush on her. We were in drama together and she always amazed me with her improv. We formed something of an on and off friendship, I was a friend but not a very close one, I don't think she let people close. She looked almost exactly like Winona Ryder. We talked online and in the halls and our friendship grew over the few years we shared in that High School, we became very good friends and it never went beyond that.
One early summer day, one of the girls in the school was having something of a coming-of-age celebration, which included a dance. I had been to a number of dances, some of which had slow dancing but I never had participated. I had always wanted to slow dance, but my self-consciousness, trepidation, and my then constant tendency to take any physical contact as more than it was, kept me from ever asking anyone to dance. I had learned to dread it as the culmination of any loneliness or self-doubt I was feeling at that time. I sat there, looking at all the couples and mumbling to myself all the reasons that I did not have anyone to dance with, and asking the persistent question: Why?
I was looking down at the floor when I saw a hand connected to an arm connected to a person who might as well have been an angel. It failed to register, "She's asking me to dance!? Am I dreaming?" She motioned with her head and said, "Come on." And I got up and walked out on to the dance floor. I took her hand, such a small hand, and she led me there. I reached down and put my arms around her, all 5' 2" of her and she reached up around my neck, I am 6' 5".
And She Stood On My Feet; And We Danced