Ezra still had his hands in his pockets. He kept them there as he tilted from side to side, offbeat, like the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz.
“You’re too stiff.” Jake moved his shoulders and arms in a wave-like motion and stepped from side to side. “Move like this.”
Ezra took his hands from his pockets and attempted to imitate Jake. He… wasn’t very good.
“Still too stiff,” Jake said. “Loosen up.” He moved his shoulders around. “Like this.”
Ezra attempted the shoulder shimmy, but he was still moving like the Tin Man, so Jake went over to him and put his hands on Ezra’s shoulders to guide him. “Like this. Just move to the beat.”
Standing this close to Ezra made Jake notice that Ezra had green eyes. Sparkling green eyes. Well, sparkling green eye when his hair fell over his face. But Ezra’s eyes sort of went with the Sally Jessy glasses. Red and green. Kind of like Ezra’s face was Christmas. And his dimpled smile would be the lights. And Jake noticed that Ezra’s shoulders weren’t as bony as he was expecting. He wondered if Ezra lifted weights.
“Am I doing it right?” Ezra asked.
Jake blinked. He took his hands from Ezra’s shoulders and a step back. “Uh, yeah. That’s better.”
And Ezra was dancing better now, swaying and bobbing to the beat of the song. Jake smiled. Ezra wasn’t half bad now that he had the hang of it.
The song ended and “Whatta Man” by Salt-N-Pepa started playing. Jake felt his face redden. He forgot this song was on this CD. And he definitely hadn’t jammed out to it all summer on his Walkman at the country club last year. And hedefinitely, definitelyhadn’t memorized the rap verses or anything. And heabsolutely did notsometimes sing them in the shower.
“Uh, I think I burned this CD for my sister last year,” Jake fibbed. “I guess she left it here when my fam came to visit.”
Ezra nodded, only looking slightly suspicious. He was still dancing, though. “Yeah. This isn’t really my kind of music, but it’s the kind people dance to, I guess.”
“What kind of music is your music?” Jake was genuinely curious.
“Besides choral music? I like heavy metal. I saw Pantera last year when they came to Warrenton.”
“No shit.” Jake grinned. He flipped through his CD case and pulled outCowboys from Hell.
“Yup,” Ezra said. “That’s a great album.”
“Sure is. They were up this way last year? Damn. I had no idea.”
“The only reason I even knew was because I overheard somebody talking about it in one of my classes.”
“Did they play ‘I’m Broken’?”
“Hell yeah. Dimebag Darrell was on fire. It was amazing.”
“Awesome. Hey, did you see Metallica when they were up this way?”
“No.” Ezra looked surprised. “When were they here?”
“Last year. Incredible.”
Ezra grinned. “I’m sure they were. Definitely would love to see them.”
Jake hadn’t noticed that they were dancing and talking at the same time. He wasn’t sure if that was weird, but he stopped dancing anyway, and then Ezra did too.
Jake stopped the CD and took it out of the player. “Looks like you’ve got the whole dancing thing down.”
“Cool. Thanks.” Ezra stuck his hands in his pockets again.
There was silence between them as Jake put the CD back in the case. Technically, they were done for the day. Ezra helped him and he helped Ezra. That was the deal. But Jake kind of didn’t want Ezra to go just yet.
“Hey, are you hungry?” Jake asked.
Ezra shrugged. “A little bit. Why?”
