Romance on the Dance Floor - Ch. 15

It was some labour to get in and out of the house without getting noticed by Tanya. But this time I was prepared. If she sees me I'm just going to say that I was working on the assignment with Sean. I don't know if she really bought that whole assignment story because she did look like she had a suspicion. Anyway the best thing I thought to do was just avoid her before it gets out of hand.

"Hey Layla" I heard the minute I stepped into the club. Tanya decided to come after all.
"Hey Tanya, how are you doing?" I asked.
"Good. Have you seen Sean?"
"No, sorry" I answered. We always went separately to the Clipse.
And then suddenly Sean appeared, with a beautiful girl of course, not even granting Tanya a glimpse. It has been a while since I've seen him with a girl. I thought he might have been over this phase but it seems like old habits die hard.
"He has a girlfriend" Tanya said with sadness in her eyes. I didn't respond as I just didn't want to get in the middle of this.

"Guess I see you around" I said and went my way to the dance floor to join my crew. I felt a little guilty leaving her alone there, she looked a bit lost. She clearly didn’t have a lot of friends.
But what was I suppose to do, I had no choice. I just met her yesterday and trouble already started. She'll be fine, it's not like she's a little girl that needs to be guided. Besides I'm not a babysitter.
I kept on saying those words in my head to ease the guilt I felt.
Later that night after dancing and battling I kept on feeling guilty about leaving Tanya alone. I saw her walking all alone so I decided to go and join her. I walked towards her but before I arrived I saw her walking towards Sean. They started talking, and judging by there body language they were obviously arguing. Sean left her standing there and went back to the girl he came with.
When I went to look for Tanya she was nowhere to be found.
On my way out of the ladies room I saw Tanya sitting on a couch all alone. She was crying.

"Hey, what's wrong?" I asked while taking a seat next to her. She looked at me with her big green eyes that looked sad and hurt. "It's nothing. I'm just being silly... I shouldn't have come here" she said while looking at her handkerchief.
"Don't let him get to you, Tanya. He's not worth it" I tried to console her.
"Now that's the thing, he is worth it. All this is my fault and he has every right to tread me this way." she answered
"Look, wipe your tears away and let's have some fun. Music is the best therapy" I grabbed her arm and dragged her with me to the dance floor.
"uh, I can't dance" Tanya said
"What? You have been dating one of the best dancers for 2 years and he never thought you?"
"How do you know we've been dating for 2 years" Tanya asked. Shit if I could just keep my mouth shut.
"Uh... you told me of course...Look just follow me and let it flow" I answered trying to change the subject. And that's what she did.

We danced all night, and she was right, dancing was not one of her best assets. I did little silly moves so that she'd feel comfortable to dance the way she wants and knows how to dance. We had a lot of fun, and laughed like little kids.
"I really appreciate what you've done for me, again. I really had a great time" Tanya said while giving me a hug.
"I had a great time too." I replied
"I'll call you sometime. Maybe we can go to the mall or something." Tanya said
"I'd love that"
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I was looking myself in the mirror while I was waiting for Sean in his dance studio for our first rehearsal. I was analyzing my outfit wondering if the top that I was wearing that covered only my chest was appropriate. I didn't want him to think that I was trying to seduce him. Am I trying to seduce him? I started to think hard about that question. I blinked that thought away. I’ve been wearing this all day long, also when I was with my crew so what's the big deal.
Then my eyes went to my hair that I had in a knot.
Hmm maybe I should let my hair down for once. Guys dig that and besides I always saw Tanya with her hair down.
Then it hit me. I was comparing myself to Tanya. I was definitely trying to seduce him. I was so not myself and really didn’t wont to be that kind of girl. So I decided to go change.
"Hey, sorry I'm late". Too late, Sean was already there.
"It's okay" I answered, feeling a bit silly about my thoughts
"Now, guess what... We don't get to choose the music after all. My mum just gave me this CD" Sean said while walking towards the stereo and putting the CD on.

We listened to the track that had hip-hop beats with at some point tango twist.
"Okay, let’s not loose any time" Sean said. "How do you want to begin?"
"Well I thought we could begin with walking on a catwalk, giving the impression that we are just modeling and then we start dancing." I suggested.
And that’s how it has been the first hour. We exchanged ideas and put a couple of moves together. All that without touching each other. Not once. It made me wonder if he forgot about the ‘story’, about what we had to express. I mean the moves were good, but there wasn’t any passion or love, like George had requested. Should I remind him about that or should I just make the first move?
I hesitated. And the more I hesitated the more I got…nervous. What was wrong with me? I was acting like a little girl who’s having her first dance with a boy she had a crush on. I was used to dancing with guys and now I’m acting all shy, I hated that.

At a certain point Sean took me off guard by grabbing me by my hand and pulling me close to him. Our faces where only a few inches from each other and I felt my heartbeat going faster.
"We shouldn't forget about the story." He said with a soft while he looked me in the eyes. I couldn't say a word.
"Clammy hands... are you nervous?" he said. Oh no, he felt that. I just hoped he wouldn't feel my heartbeat too.
"Me nervous? I don't get nervous" I said with my head held high. Trying to hide how I was really feeling.
"Really? I don't see you act this way when you're dancing with other guys in clubs"
"So, are we going to do this or what?" I said, trying to show that I was self confident and ready to dance.

"Can you dance the tango?" he asked
"Can you lead or do you want me to take the lead?" he smiled at my answer and without answering it he pulled me closer to him and led me to the music.
He was good at it. He knew just how to move with the music and he looked more sexy then ever. But for some reason I wasn’t comfortable dancing the tango with him and unfortunately it showed.
We stopped dancing.
"You should loosen up a bit, you’re too uptight" Sean said.
"I’m not uptight, I’m just tired. I just came from a 5 hours training with my crew, you know".
"You could’ve just told Ty that you had stuff to do and that you needed to stop earlier. But knowing Ty he likes to have his girls under his control"
"I’m no one’s girl" I replied, annoyed by his remark.

"Don’t worry you’re not the only one his playing you know. He does that to all the girls". He said with a vicious smile on his face.
"You know you’re criticizing Ty but you’re just like him"
He looked at me with frowned eyebrows.
"I’m just like him?" he said furiously.
"Yes you are. You think you can treat every girl the way you want to and some how you get away with it"
"Is this about what happened last night with Tanya?"
"It’s about everyday and about every girl"

"Look, Layla…" he came closer and looked me straight in the eye. Eyes that could kill "I don’t have to justify myself, but I’ve never EVER disrespected anyone. And whatever is going on between me and Tanya is none of your damn business, you got that" his eyes where expressing anger and the most unexpected happened: I lost my words. I couldn’t say a thing. With my head held high I just froze in front of him, overwhelmed by his surprising reaction.
Maybe I did cross the line by comparing him with Ty. Sean was nothing like him. And practically blamed him for making Tanya unhappy while he was the victim in this entire story.
"You know let’s just call it a day" he said and left the dance studio.

The following days we barely said a word to each other. We kept it strictly professional. We progressed in our dance moves because we had no choice but other then that, we avoided each other as much as we could. Even the way we danced was different. The moves were great but we just didn’t seem to express the passion and love that George had asked for. How was I able to dance close to him when I knew he hated me right now? We couldn’t even look each other in the eye.
No moments, not even a glimpse or a smile. Nothing.

Well actually there was this one time. We were practicing and I had high heals on because I needed to get used to dancing in them.
We came to the part where he had to spin me around but with my heals on I stumbled over my feet and fell on the ground taking him down with me. And there we were lying on the ground on top of each other.
"Are you okay?" he asked me. His first kind words in a long time. We looked each other in the eye and his gaze kept me captured. The warmth of his body sent shivers down my spine and because of his chest pressing against mine I felt his heartbeat that went from slow to faster and faster which made mine beat faster too.
"Yeah I’m… okay" I said with a little voice.
He lowered his gaze to my lips but quickly turned away.
Suddenly he got up took my hand and helped me up.
"Let’s try it again" he said totally ignoring the fact we had a moment.

**************
In the meantime I kept on hanging out with Tanya from time to time. We had great times together. We went to the movies, to the mall,… did things girlfriends do and it felt good.
We talked about everything. She told me what really happened between her and Sean. The way she had been tricked by Ty and the relationship she had with Sean.

"A few months before Sean’s dad died, he was already very sick and the doctors had told that he didn’t have much time to live, Sean started to change. He just wasn’t himself anymore. He shut everybody out, didn’t come out of the house only to go to the hospital and didn’t talk to anyone.
I tried everything to conceal him, because I knew how close he was with his father and I knew how difficult it was for him to see his father suffer like that, but he just shut me out completely. And I really thought that I was his best friend, the one he will turn to when he feels bad."
"So what happened …?" I asked carefully

"I was hurt and confused and couldn’t understand why he shut me out like that. So one day Ty called me to say that he wanted to meet me because he had something important to say. I went to his house, not knowing what to expect, and we got to talking and he said that Sean was planning to break up with me. I off course believed him because Sean gave all the indications. And you know, I was so hurt and I was crying and…well Ty was there to comfort me and one thing lead to another.
Off course it turned out later that he lied and I was stupid enough to fall for it." She paused and then continued
"I really don’t want to justify my actions because what I did was wrong. I shouldn’t have slept with his best friend whether he was planning to break up with me or not. But I was vulnerable and stupid, and…" she sighed and I saw tears falling from her eyes. I wrapped my arm around her shoulder trying to comfort her.
"It can happen to anyone" I said

"That’s not true. It wouldn’t happen to someone with a strong character and who isn’t so naïve like I am"
"Don’t say that"
"It’s true Layla. But I’ve learned my lesson you know. I just hope that one day he’ll be able to forgive me because I really miss him Layla, I really do" she started crying again.
"Now his with that bimbo." She said, referring to the girl Sean was with the other night at the Clipse.
"She’s not his girlfriend" I said hoping it would make her feel better.
She looked at me confused.
"He’s just enjoying some female company, if you know what I mean"
"Oh, I’m relieved" she said.

"Did you ever tell him what truly happened" I asked
"I tried, but he wouldn’t listen"
I didn’t know what to say. She was clearly still head of heals in love with him and I wondered if Sean, despite everything, still had feelings for her. Maybe if he knew what really happened he would want her back?
I felt jealous by that thought and then guilty for feeling jealous.
Here she was crying her tears out for the love of her life and I was worried he might take her back. This was too confusing.
So after I had that conversation with her I tried to avoid every topic that had to do with Sean, I didn’t want to get in the middle of it all.
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Upon request of Amen (thanks for the nice comment, Amen) I will write Sean’s POV on the following chapters. I hope you’ll like it.

Please share with me your thoughts, your ideas, your critics, comments everything that pops up in your head when reading this chapter! I would really appreciate it.