Love's Beat

Chapter 9

Ember slumped in a bean bag and stuffed a pillow to her face so her groan wouldn't be heard.

Rehearsal had ended badly today. At least from her point of view.

Because of her fight with Jaden the day before, she couldn't concentrate with him around as DJ today. She went off-beat twice and actually forgot parts of the routine. It was only their second rehearsal so everyone was fine with her few mistakes but Ember felt terrible.

Even at school, he walked around with friends who either gave her that snobbish look or actually sneered at her. It rubbed her the wrong way that after all was said and done, he could still watch her dance while being the popular guy and she was the one who felt and was treated like crap. It sucked.

When she tossed the pillow away, she saw that everyone in the room had stopped what they were doing and openly stared at her.

     "I'm just tired from rehearsal. Ignore me," she told them.

Jess shrugged and continued applying her make-up at the vanity. Her blond hair styled in a chic bob was perfect as always and the purple highlights added that spark to the mature look. She was always the mature one among the rest of them. Along with Drew, they doted on them like parents would to children. Jess was the one she would turn to when she needed advice from someone with experience in the roughest times of life.

Shay and Bryce were at the far corner of the room, continuing their argument on God knows what this time.

You would think that Shay's volatile anger and tendency to piss of more people than wise, will make her tower about 6 feet tall. When in actual fact, she barely hit 5' 4". Oh, the irony of it. And then she decides to pick Bryce as her verbal sparring partner who's practically a giant next to her.

Her long red hair was flipping all over the place while she animatedly hammered away with Bryce who looked down at her from his high vantage point. Ember thought she heard the words 'short' and 'midget' strung in together with Shay's name. Oooh, Bryce was in deep trouble.

Ember turned away from the hurricane that would happen of the two lovebirds. She heard a thud and winced. Bryce was going to have to put some ice on that.

Her eyes found Drew who was lounging on the couch, iPad in hand. Amber eyes shaded by dark lashes were trained onto what looked like dance videos. He also had his earphones on, probably to block out Shay and Bryce's bickering. It could get annoying at times but it felt boring as hell if the two of them weren't around.

His copper head of hair had been shaved off on both sides of his head which left a thick strip of hair in the middle that seemed to defy the laws of gravity. Her head tilted, Ember contemplated on how many handfuls of gel he used this morning just to get it to stick up like that. She had an itch to sneak over and touch his hair to see if it was really as hard as it looked.

Just when she got the guts to do just that, Devon ambled into the room and immediately had eyes on her. His brown eyes twinkled mischieviously when he saw her which didn't really do good for her pounding heart.

     "Hey Emmy, there's a kid out there who's asking for you," he told her while flipping out his dark hair from a Nike cap. "And judging by the ride he came in... Girl, who have you been messing with?" He grinned cunningly and slipped through the connecting door that led to the guys' dressing room.

Ember stared. And stared.

Jess entered her line of vision and still she stared.

     She held on to her upper arms and shook her a little. "Emmy, breathe." She dragged out every letter in those two words. Since did when she stop breathing?