Romance on the Dance Floor - Ch. 13

I threw a glance at my alarm clock next to my bed. 4:37 and wide awake. I sighed. I miss the good night sleep I used to have. Something that I didn’t get in a long time.
My throat was dry so I decided to go downstairs to drink a glass of water hoping that a walk could help me relax a bit.
I stared at the calendar on the fridge while finishing my glass of water. I sighed. Only 2 weeks to go. In 2 weeks I will be on my own again. Kate wouldn’t be there to support me anymore and Sean will be totally out of my life. Maybe it was for the best.
Whether I wanted it or not, in 2 weeks real life was officially going to start and I just needed to get used to this freighting thought.

My thoughts were interrupted by a noise coming from outside. I froze, trying to hear what the noise was. Footsteps were coming near to the back door and I saw the shadow of a man behind the door.

My heart started to beat faster. Who could it be at this hour? A burglar? or maybe… Dan? The thought of it made my heart race. I quickly started looking for something to hit him with.
Without any hesitation I opened a closet and took a pan. I then stood in position next to the door waiting for the man to come in.
I saw the door handle turn. The fear inside of me grew as the man slowly opened the door.
A man dressed in black appeared and I gathered all my power and courage and tried to hit him as hard as I could but the man dunked making me miss the hit.
"Are you crazy?!" the man said, the voice was very familiar.
"Sean?" I asked.
He turned on the light and put off the cap of his sweater.
"You scared me" I whispered hoping not to wake Kate.
"And you didn’t?" Sean replied with his hand on his heart.
"Sorry, I thought you were a burglar or something." I put the pan back in the closet relieved it was Sean.
"You know, you should be careful with this stuff. What if it was burglar, an armed one, you could get yourself hurt…or even killed." He said with frowned eyebrows. He looked mad.
"Okay, Mum" I said in jest.
"I’m serious Layla. You need to stop pretend like you can take on the whole world."
"Well aren’t we in a good mood." I said
It was quiet for a while.
"What are you doing up at this hour?" I asked
"I went for a run" he answered
"Wow, you’re courageous" I replied while looking at the clock. He smiled at my remark.
"I just couldn’t sleep, so instead of tossing and turning on my bed I decided to go for a run."
He said.
"Not bad, I’ll try that next time" I answered.
Sean went to the fridge to take something to drink.
"So how come you can’t sleep?" he asked while grabbing a glass.

I didn’t know what to answer. I couldn’t tell him that I couldn’t keep my mind of him and that I felt terrible about what happened yesterday.
"My mother called me yesterday" I answered. I didn’t lie. It was one of things that kept me awake.
He looked shocked and looked at me in the eye. As if he wanted to know what was going on in my head.
"So? What did she say?" he replied, while leaning against the fridge directing his full attention on me.
"Apparently she’s in rehab and wants me to visit her."
"And? Are you?" he asked curious
"I don’t know" I answered. "I don’t think I’m ready to face her yet"
"If you want I can go with you. You know… for moral support" he said
"I don’t think that’s a good idea"
"Going there together?" he asked
"Look Sean, we need to stop pretend like we can be friends, because we can’t" I just wanted it to get it out of my system.
"Is this about yesterday?" he asked
"It’s about everyday. We either argue or we kiss, that’s not what friends do. And whatever happened yesterday is totally my fault, I admit. I shouldn’t have come to your room and I shouldn’t have said those things". Talking about it felt liberating.
"So you don’t mean what you said?" he asked.
I hated when he asked questions like that, as if he wanted to hear something from me.
"I do mean them" I replied
"So why do you regret saying something you meant?"
I didn’t know what to answer.

It was quiet for a while. I wanted to choose my words carefully as I didn’t want him to know that I had feelings for him.
"I don’t want you to think that I want more. I just don’t want to be one of those girls you hang out with. I’m not like that and it’s totally against my principles." I finally said.
He sighed.
"Look Layla, I’m not going to deny that I’m attracted to you.." hearing him say that made me shiver yet it proved that to him it was just pure physical.
"And I’m sorry if I made you feel like an easy girl. I know you’re not…"
"You don’t need to apologise. I’m the one who came to your room." I interrupted him.
"Let’s just forget about what happened." He said
"You’re right. Yesterday is history and it’ll never happen again." I continued. Saying that out loud saddened me. It made me realize how much I will miss being in his arms. But it was just the smartest thing to do. I had to forget about him.

So days went by and like expected we avoided each other. And for once I had the feeling it came from both sides.

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One day I went to the store to buy some personal things. I was standing in line at the cash desk, waiting for my turn. There was this beautiful girl with long curly light brown hear standing in line in front of me.
"Don’t you have anything smaller?" the shop assistant said arrogantly to the pretty girl.
"No, I’m sorry I just have this." She said politely while showing him a 50 dollar bill.
I took a glimpse at the counter seeing that she only wanted to buy a little bottle of water.
"Next!" the shop assistant shouted.
The girl sighed and left.
I put my things on the counter
"You can ad this bottle with it" I said while grabbing the bottle of water that the girl had left on the counter.

I ran outside to look for her and saw her open the door of her car.
"Hey!" I shouted for her to hear. She looked around.
"Here" I said while walking towards her. Her big green eyes looked surprised at me.
"Oh it’s okay, there’s another store not far from here."
"C’mon I insist" I pointed the bottle to her.
"Okay, thanks" she replied with a smile. She had a beautiful smile. A smile that will make every person like her.
"It’s rare to find so nice people lately" she continued.
"It’s no trouble really" I smiled at her. She looked nice, polite, well spoken. Not the average girl I would say.
"Well have a nice evening" I said while walking away.
"Hey, do you need a ride?" she asked.
Although I really didn’t feel like walking or taking the bus I couldn’t take her offer as I was afraid my secret will come out. You never know that this girl knew Sean and where he lived. Since Sean hung out with like almost every girl in this town, the chance that they knew each other was big.
"Thanks, but that won’t be necessary I live just a few blocks away."
"Okay" she answered.
"Thanks again for the water" she said while taking a seat in her car. I waved at her and walked away.
I heard her trying to start the engine but without success.
I turned around and walked towards her again.
"Is everything okay?" I asked.
"I feel so silly" she answered.
"What’s wrong?"
"I totally lost eye of the fuel indicator. That’s so typical me" she looked disappointed as if it wasn’t the first time she got this.
"Do you know if there’s a gas station nearby?" she asked
"I don’t think so, I’m sorry. Maybe you can call someone to bring some fuel?" I answered.

She took her phone and dialled a number. She stood there for a few seconds.
"Hi dad, it’s me… My car broke down. Can you give me a call as soon as you get this message?" and then she hung up. I looked at her realizing that she kind of looked familiar to me.
"He’s probably in a meeting" she sighed.
"So what are you going to do?" I asked
"I think I have no choice but to wait" she answered.
"It’s not safe to wait here all by yourself, I’ll wait with you"
"Oh no, I can’t let you do that" she said
"I’m not leaving you here alone" I said while taking a seat next to her in the car.

So while waiting for her dad to call her back we started talking. We talked about everything, school, boys, clothes, … every little detail came up.
I found out that we had a lot in common, but that we were 2 totally different persons.
She was more like a shy, modest, polite girl, a bit naïve, but in a good way. I was nothing like that. Even physically, we were different from each other. Maybe being so opposite from each other was the reason why we connected.

After waiting for more then an hour, her dad came with fuel. The way they treated each other made it very clear that they have a good relationship. It confirmed my first impression of her: the perfect American girl, yet another thing different from me.
"Dad, this is…" she paused trying to remember my name
"I think we didn’t even exchange names, did we?" she continued while looking at me.
"Layla, my name is Layla" her dad nodded kindly to me.
"She stayed with me the whole time, dad" she said
"Thanks for taking care of my daughter" he said while grabbing his daughter close to him.
"No problem" I replied.
"We should hang out sometimes" the girl said.
"Yeah, sure. Just give me a call whenever you want to hang out." I said and gave her my number. She then gave me hers.
"Oh yeah and my name is Tanya by the way" she said
I froze. I imagined her picture again realizing why she looked familiar to me.

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