A LAST SECOND THE LENGTH OF WHICH CANNOT BE MEASURED

Leo looks at the door of the gym again as he's been doing for the past two or three hours. Nothing has changed, except maybe the fact that the two potted plants that were there at the beginning of the evening have been knocked over by a group of overly excited teenagers. They were quickly taken away by one of the girls from the prom committee, the fallen dirt swept away in record time.

The theme of this years' prom is the '20s, so Leo's been forced to wear a pair of black and white wingtip shoes and a fedora, which now lies abandoned on one of the chairs. His hair made it impossible to wear it anyway. It was good for show, tho. He looked pretty stunning when he looked at himself in the mirror before leaving the house. He was still so excited. Now all that enthusiasm has faded into something milder, a warm feeling buried deep down inside of him, like embers in a fireplace.

“He's not coming, man.” Adam wants to sound comforting, but it's hard not to hear the contempt in his voice, that told you so he's been dying to say since the idea of inviting Blaine as his date to the prom came up.

Leo doesn't answer him and keeps staring at the door. Besides, Adam doesn't need any response from him and he proves that by speaking again. “You didn't dance once tonight,” he says, pouring himself some punch that's been spiked twice by two different people. So much for prom security. Leo saw it all and didn't say anything, of course. He doesn't care if people get drunk and do something stupid. “You like to dance.”

He likes to dance more than Adam does, that's for sure. But he likes a lot of things more than Adam and yet it doesn't mean he wants to do them all the time. “I don't feel like it.”

“Maybe because it's hard to dance alone,” Adam says, casting a pitiful glance towards a sophomore giving all he's got on the dance floor and failing miserably. “Probably you could pull it off better than that, but it'd still be sad. Why don't you go to Mabel over there. She's been looking at you with longing eyes since we arrived. And she asked you to the prom, didn't she?”

Mabel asked him to the prom twice and he refused her both times, making it very clear that he wasn't interested. Even if he felt such a urge to dance, he wouldn't ask her. Besides, Leo won't take dating advice from Adam, who's here with Odette. Odette, for fuck's sake! That girl is so dumb, even as far as the cheerleader stereotype goes, that Leo doesn't even know what the two of them talk about. She's not even cute enough to justify a burst of libido Adam wouldn't have anyway.

And of course the thought of asking Annie to the prom didn't even cross Adam's mind; not even with all the hinting Leo did. Annie could have asked him instead, but she wanted to be wanted for once, so she just hoped the dumbass would get it, but of course he didn't. So now he's here with Darren, who's a decent enough guy, but she doesn't like him, and Adam is glaring at them both as if he wanted to set the poor guy on fire. He manged to make both their proms miserable without doing anything.

So no, Leo won't take dating advice from Adam. Or any advice, really.

“I don't want to dance,” Leo clarifies before Adam can say something else. He hopes he gets this is his cue to leave, but of course he doesn't. Adam's not that good at reading between the lines. You usually have to open the book and slap his face with it.

“Do you want to go home, then?” He asks. “We can call it a night.”

Leo glares at him. “I'm still waiting.”

Adam's still rolling his eyes when Annie comes over. She looks wonderful in her short Charleston dress that shows off her legs and perfect body. She even styled her hair the right way, and now her long red hair is all gathered in curls behind her head and pinned with an hair clip made of pearls. “Everything's alright?” She asks, looking at them. She looks flushed because she's been dancing up to a moment ago, but not particularly entertained.

“He's still waiting,” Adam summarizes, this time without trying to hide his disappointment.

“Oh, Leo,” Annie sighs, and she does it motherly but in a way that Leo doesn't find too annoying. At least he can feel she is really sorry. “That's... “

“A waste of time, if you ask me.”

“Nobody did, Adam,” she says sternly, and Leo feels a little better. It's nice not to feel attacked about this every once in a while. Annie hugs him briefly. “I'm really sorry.”

“Yeah, thank you.”

“Can I at least have the last dance?” Annie tries with a little smile. “I'd like to have at least one decent dance tonight. Darren is cute, but he's got two left feet.”

This actually makes Leo laugh. The band is playing the last song anyway, so if there's a moment to recognize that it's over, this is it. Not even he can delude himself forever. Besides, he would never refuse Annie a dance. In fact, he would never refuse her anything, He's about to grab her hand and drag her on the dance floor for her well deserved dance when he stops, staring at the door.

Blaine takes a few steps inside and then stops to look around the room. The majority of the people has already gone home at this point, but there are still enough people that he needs to search for him. It's Annie who lets go of his hand more than the other way around, but Leo is not aware of that. All he can see is Blaine and the shadow he seems to cast on everything and everybody else.

Blaine is wearing a classical tuxedo, old-fashioned enough to match the prom theme but without looking ridiculous in it like half the teachers did tonight. He looks super fancy in black with his hair combed back and waxed. As usual, Leo feels drawn to him instantly. He moves away from the punch table before Adam can stop him – he can feel him flailing and call him behind him, but he can't be bothered to listen to him anymore – and he walks straight towards Blaine.

“This is the last song,” Leo informs him, his hands searching for Blaine's. He doesn't need to tell him how surprised he is that he came because Blaine can read it on his body already, from the fact that he's so excited to have him here in the open – in a place where nobody knows about them – that he can barely stand still.

“Then let's make the most of it, shall we?” Blaine says with a smile, leading him towards the dance floor as Leo was about to do with Annie just a moment ago. Leo doesn't care if everybody's watching them, it's usually Blaine the one who worries about other people's stare. But tonight he doesn't seem to mind. He's got his charming smile on and he's looking at Leo as if he hadn't seen anything better than him in the whole world, and Leo feels so special.

As Blaine leads him in a slow dance, which he would find too sappy in any other moment but this, Leo realizes that time with Blaine always seems to work differently, shifting and changing to meet their needs.
Minutes feel like hours and last seconds stretch the day. So he doesn't mind waiting, at least not so much.