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"YOU GOT A RECORD PLAYER?!"
I giggle. "Quiet down, or my brother will have my head."
Neil's staring with wide eyes, jaw dropped. "I cannot believe this. You're so lucky!"
"Jefferey got a new one so he gave me his old one. I don't mind though."
"Do you have any records yet?"
I lower my voice. "I broke into my parent's room and stole a bunch."
"You didn't!" I pull a bin from under my bed and show it to him. He's grinning from ear to ear. "You have A Night at The Opera?!"
I wrinkle my nose. "It's like, a billion years old. I hadn't even heard of it before now."
"You don't know Queen?" I shake my head. He pulls out the record, treating it as if he was holding a baby. "That's it. We're listening to it right now. I can't believe you don't know Queen!"
I shrug, taking the record and setting it up. "I mean, I've heard of them. They're the one-hit-wonders that wrote Bohemian Rhapsody, right?"
Neil scoffs. "They are NOT one-hit-wonders. Go on, put it on. You'll see." I shrug, doing as he says. A fast piano melody begins to float through the room, Neil humming along quietly. We listen for a few seconds before I start talking again.
"So, what's new with you?"
Neil starts chatting about his day, me nodding and occasionally adding comments or laughing. We let the music fade into the background, though I find myself bopping my head back and forth. I even start singing along to the chorus of You're My Best Friend after I've heard it once or twice.
"I can't believe your father said that."
He shrugs. "It's not that big of a deal."
"Really?"
"I'm kinda used to it."
"Oh." I fall silent, trying to think of something to say. The song playing slowly fades out, replaced by a new one. Neil's frown disappears.
"What?"
"I love this one." He stands, swaying back and forth. "Love of my life," he sings, "You've hurt me. You've broken my heart, and now you leave me..."
I chuckle softly, and he stops. "That bad, huh?"
"No, no, it's good. You look like a video game character in idle animation though."
"Well I can't exactly ballroom dance, can I?"
I smile, stand, and extend my hand. "May I have this dance?"
He snorts. "No way. You know how to dance?"
"I can box step, if nothing else." When he looks confused, I take his hand. "Come on. I can teach you." He nods and stands. We walk to the space beside my bed, giggling.
"Okay," I say. "So, normally the guy leads. I'm gonna lead right now because I'm teaching you, okay?" He nods. "So, you put one hand on my shoulder, and the other on my hip. Now all you have to do is follow my lead. First, we're both gonna take one step to the left." We do. "Perfect. Now we step back, so I'm stepping towards you and you're stepping away from me." We stumble a bit but get it after another try. "Now we go right."
He laughs. "Todd, how do you know even how to do this?"
"My grandma used to dance with me all the time when I was little."
"She doesn't anymore?"
“She passed."
"Oh. Sorry."
"It's okay. It was a while ago. Last step, alright? We go forward, so you move towards me."
He steps on my toes. "Sorry!"
I laugh. "You're fine. Besides, you've got it now!" We do the box step a few more times until we're moving smoothly. I start twirling his once or twice, and he even dips me. We're both wheezing from laughter by the time the song ends.
Neil gasps. "Get out your phone! I wanna learn to tango!"
Soon, we're learning dance after dance, switching out the records when one ends. We're sweaty and out of breath and we couldn't care less if we tried.