Romance on the Dancefloor - Ch. 4

I’ve been on the road for half an hour now. Besides an old lady with a child, who are clearly not heading to the same destination as I was, was the bus empty. After another 30 minutes I finally arrived. I quickly took a glimpse in my little mirror to see if my make up was still in place. Okay approved. I nodded to the bodyguard who was standing between the door and the big line of people that was waiting to get in. "Hey, Layla, good to see you again." He stepped aside from the door to let me in. "Good to see you to" I answered.
I walked down the hallway where I started to hear the techno music louder and louder. It was very crowdie today. I made my way to the other side of the hall. I then took the stairways down, passed the ladies room where I started to hear the hip-hop music. I was almost there. A little to the left then to the right and there it was the little door that lead to my favorite spot in the world. The place where I could be myself, where I could forget everything and everybody. I opened the door and was happy to see my favorite DJ playing tonight. We made eye contact he waved at me and I waved back. The place was big. It was one big basement that not a lot of people knew about. All the best dancers came here because the best DJ's played here. And most importantly, no one from my school or town knew this place.
"This one is for the star of the night. Show us some of your best moves Layla!" I immediately headed to the dance floor. The crowd was, like every night, crazy. They cleared the floor for me and I felt like a star indeed. I danced with some people, battled some people,… It was amazing. The thing that made this place so special was the crowd. Everybody was here for the same reason and we all shared the same passion: Dance. We all danced together, shared the moves together. You’ll have the impression that we practiced everyday before coming here. It’s an indescribable feeling to see the entire dance floor doing one of your moves.

I went to the bar to get something to drink.
"Well, Well" I heard a voice that I knew so well. I froze. This couldn’t be. I turned around and saw Sean standing there with a teasing look on his face. I just stood there with my mouth half open.
"You seem quit surprised" he said with a ‘you’re busted smile" again.
"What are you doing here? And how do you know this place?"
He answered me but the music was so loud that I couldn’t hear him speak. "What?" I yelled. He came closer. Our bodies were very close to each other that it made me smell his perfume again, the same perfume he wore the day of detention. That and the warmth of his body made my stomach flip over. I shouldn’t be having these feelings. He bended a little and spoke in my ear. "I said, you don’t seem happy to see me, afraid that I might tell Ty about this?" he knew Ty would totally be against this. No crew-member was aloud to go to a club alone, or battle alone. It was with the entire crew or not. If he knew about this, it would be the end, because Ty held very much value on loyalty of the crew-members.
"I don’t care" I said. I did care, not only for Ty but also for the fact that he knew this place. This was my spot my get away and now it was ruined. "But I understand why you come here, this place is amazing. I found my new ‘going out’ spot." He said with a teasing tone. He always knew how to make me mad and the worst part is that he enjoyed too. He was still standing very close to me which made me feel uncomfortable, but we were luckily interrupted by Michael "Hey, Layla, I was looking for you"
"Hey Michael!" we greeted each other with a quick hug. It was awkwardly quiet for a while. I guess they waited for me to introduce them to each other. "Michael, this is Sean. Sean, Michael." They nodded to each other. I saw Sean’s eyes move from me to Michael a several times, as if he was trying to figure out what kind of relationship I have with him.
"They are playing our song, c’mon" Michael grabbed my hand and pulled me to the dance floor. They were player ‘My Love’ of Justin Timberlake. And Michael was right, this was our song, because the way we danced to it was perfect. Michael was one of the best dancers I knew and I liked dancing with him. I have to admit I saw this as an opportunity to impress Sean. And make him a little jealous maybe? I don’t know if I succeeded but every time I looked his way I saw him staring at us, which made me want to dance even better and closer to Michael.
I danced all night and I think I never danced as good as I did that night. I took the lead of the entire dance floor.
After freshen myself up in the ladies room I bumped into Sean in the hallway again. I rolled my eyes, trying to give him the impression that I didn’t want him here. "It’s funny, you didn’t give me the impression that you were so bothered by my presence." What did he mean by that? Does he think I wanted to impress him? "Well I tried to make the best of it".
He smiled, once again that smile I knew so well of him. "But I got to admit, I never seen you dance like this before" he said. Did Sean give me a compliment? I couldn’t believe my ears. "Hey Layla" Michael joined us. "I’m heading of now. Do you need a ride?" "No thanks Michael that’s very sweet of you, but I already have a ride". I lied. I lied because I always had the feeling that Michael wanted to be more then just friends and I just didn’t want to come to the point where I had to reject him, so I avoided every ‘alone-time’ with him. He was sweet and cute and all, but I don’t know, I just didn’t see him that way.
"Are you sure?" Michael said. I nodded. "Okay then. I hope to see you next week." He gave me a quick kiss on the cheek and left.

Oh no! I just saw my bus leave. Now I had to wait an hour for another bus to arrive. I should have accepted Michael’s ride, I thought to myself while taking a seat on the bench. Suddenly, a car stopped right in front of me "I thought you had a ride?" I looked up to see Michael in the car. "I can give you a ride if you want". "No thanks" I replied. "Don’t be silly, I’m not going to kill you, you know. Besides it’s late and I just saw the bus leave" I hesitated at first, but for some reason I agreed.
"Why did you tell your friend you had a ride?" he said curious.
"I have my reasons" I said dryly, hoping he’d stop asking.
"Why do you find it so difficult to answer questions? Are you hiding something?"
"Why are you so curious?"
"I’m not" he quickly answered. I raised my eyebrows out of disbelief. I couldn’t tell him the reason. I mean it’s Sean we’re talking about. It was bad enough that I was attracted to him, but start talking about my private life would complicate things even more.
It was quite for a while. I broke the ice. "I’m kind of curious to know how you find out about this place".
"I followed you" he said in jest.
"No seriously"
"Well I came with a friend who’s actually into Techno music. When I went to the men’s room I heard the hip-hop music, I got curious so I went to take a look. It’s an amazing place. I’ve never seen something like this before. You can see the passion" he said.
"Something I lack" I said
"I never said YOUR dance lacked passion. I said your crew lacked it."
"It’s the same thing"
"Not at all" he argued. "You never danced with your crew like you danced today"
"So you think I’m good?" I smiled teasingly.
"You are trying to get compliments out of me, do you?" he did that smile again.
"I don’t need compliments from you, you know. I’m confident enough to know what I’m capable of."
"Confident enough to keep it a secret?" he said sarcastically. I didn’t know what to say. He was right. "You realize that Ty would totally freak if he knew about this". He continued. "He’s not going to here it from me, don’t be afraid"
"I’m not afraid" I replied.
"Yeah right. Ty really has you on a tight leash. He plays you and all of your little friends like puppets." This time he didn’t say this to tease me. He meant it.
"Oh you’re the one to talk." I answered.
"What does that suppose to mean?" His face changed. I definitely hit a nerve this time and he knew what I was talking about.
"I know your history with Ty. If someone is played it would be you."
"Excuse me?" he looked furious.
"You heard me, you’re the last one to judge when it comes to getting played".
"My history with Ty is none of your business". He looked very serious. It's the first time I've seen him so mad. He's usually so calm and self confident. I would lie if I said I didn't find him sexy that way.
"You know what, just drop it" I then said.
We didn't say a word till we arrived at my place. "You can drop me here" I stepped out of the car and thanked him for the ride. I can be cold and harsh sometimes but I still have good manners.

My mum was still awake when I came home. She was lying on the couch with a bottle of vodka in her hands. "Where were you?" she said. Her voice was hoarse and she talked slow. She was drunk again.
"I told you I was going out tonight" I replied dryly.
"You didn't bring the groceries."
"Yes I did"
"Yeah? Where’s the booze I told you to buy?!" her tone went louder
"Mum, I'm not aloud to buy alcohol. I'm under aged, remember"
"Hey! Don't talk to your mother this way!" Oh no it was Dan. He heard everything from throughout the kitchen. He looked drunk too. I ignored his comment, because I knew it was the smartest thing to do.
"You could've used you fake ID. Don't tell me you don't have one" my mother said. Of course I had one, but I was not going to use it to get my mum more drunk then she already was.
"Look mum, you told me to bring the groceries and I did. I'm not going to buy you booze. It's bad enough as it is."
"You can't do anything right can you!" Dan was yelling at me. "I told you we should have dumped her a long time ago". My blood rose. It made me so mad that he treated me this way and that my own mother just stood there. If she didn’t stand up for me, then I should stand up for myself. "I wasn’t talking to you, Dan" I answered. "What did you just say?" he looked furious, he took big steps towards me and without any hesitation punched me in the face. He punched me so hard that it made me fall to the ground. I touched my lips to find blood all over my fingers. "Don’t you ever touch me!!" I yelled. I stood up and tried to punch him back. The thing that hurt me the most was to see my mother still on the couch watching the whole thing and the only thing she said was "C’mon Dan, leave her alone. I’ll punish her later". She’ll punish me later??? Her daughter is getting beaten by a man (who she claims to "love"), for not buying alcohol, and that was her response. This was unbelievable.
Dan grabbed me from behind so that I couldn’t move. He then opened the door and threw me on the streets. "This is where you belong! And don’t try to come in!". He slammed the door. "YOU JERK!!" I yelled while kicking punching the door. It never came to the point that I was kicked out of my own house. The rage and the pain I felt reached its highest point. I never felt this kind of anger before. I turned around to leave, and I froze. Sean was standing there with his mouth half open. Shocked by what he just saw.

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Please keep on commenting… As for the proofreading, unfortunately as I’m living in Belgium it’s not so easy to find an English native speaker. But I will try my best to avoid as many mistakes as I can.