Never Gonna Stop

Chapter Four

“Ready?”

The guys stood at the shoreline, their toes in the cold wet sand, ready to jump into the water for one quick, freezing second. “Let’s do this!” shouted Mikey, and they charged into the water, hollering like the Spartans in 300. The sun was shining and they were at the beach — but that water? Way colder than they expected. 

They splashed right back out and wrapped themselves in the giant warm towels Layla had known to bring along. “Your Jersey winters didn’t quite prepare you for that, did it?” Layla was laughing with her daughter, Melody, having captured the insanity on her phone camera. Despite having logged a lot of hours on the road all together in the tour bus, when the question of what to do on their day off had come up, Beach Day was the unanimous pick. Layla had driven them out to the legendary Venice Beach, and with a ride spent beatboxing and teaching Melody their newest songs, it had been a flash.

The plan was to chill out for bit, grab some lunch, and then rent bicycles and ride along the boardwalk, seeing the street performers do their thing while soaking up the sunshine. 

All dried off, Madison pulled his tee back on. “Hey, I spotted some basketball courts just over there. Who wants to join a pickup game with me?” Jason looked over, considering it, but four-year-old Melody had other plans for Jay. She took her little sandcastle-building shovel and put it in his hand. Too adorable to say no to, he thought.

Jason smiled at her, settling down in the sand. “I’m gonna hang here and build some castles.”

Madison looked to Mikey. “And I know where you’re off to — Muscle Beach, the spot where Arh-nold, the governator, once worked out.”

“You know me too well, bro!” Mikey slung his shirt over his shoulder — it wasn’t that cold — and headed for Muscle Beach. He could see it just at the boardwalk. “Back in a bit!”

Mikey adjusted the weights and lay down to do a few reps on the bench press. He loved working out here, in the open air and sun, with bodybuilders so cut that it motivated him even more. And he always did his best thinking when he was at the gym. Today, though, all he could think about was about the week he’d just had: all the tour stops, the meet-and-greets, joking around on the tour bus, the thing breaking down on the way to Twitter HQ. And as if all that wasn’t enough, they’d passed some major milestones, with their first on-air live performance of their song and the release of the “Please Don’t Go Girl” video, which had been so fun to shoot. It’s just like Layla says, Mikey thought. Brick by brick we’re building this.

His set completed, Mikey got up to grab some water and decide what to work on next: there was some weird old-school stuff here that would be fun to try out. As he looked around the gym, he spotted a girl just off the boardwalk, having a water break of her own clearly in the midst of some kind of workout. She was about his age, it looked like, with long dark hair pulled back in a ponytail. After fiddling with her iPhone and adjusting her headphones, she started dancing.

A girl after my own heart, Mikey thought as he walked a little closer to get a better look at her moves. She seemed stuck on one sequence, and as she repeated the movements, Mikey couldn’t believe it: he knew them step by step. She was doing the PDGG choreo! And besides the one little bit that was tripping her up, she was good. There’s no way Mikey was staying put. He had to go over there.

She was so lost in practice that he had no trouble approaching without her noticing he was anyone other than a random guy on the boardwalk. Watching her dance, Mikey waited until the chorus was about to start up and then he just started in: singing and dancing as if he was on stage in front of millions of people and the words were just for her. “Please don’t go girl…”

Her jaw dropped and she froze. Mikey extended his hand. “Hey, I’m Mikey. You’re a great dancer.” He smiled. “And you have great taste in music.”

“I’m Rosa. I… I can’t believe… You’re really standing in front of me right now.”

“I’d like to dance with you too, if you’d like.”

“Um, yes. I’d like.” She pulled her headphones out of her phone so the music would play from the speakers, as Mikey moved next to her. “Oh my god, I’m so nervous,” she said, shaking her arms at her sides. The music kicked in, and he just started freestyling with her, wanting her to be comfortable and into it. Once they were dancing, he saw that Rosa had great instincts: she was a true dancer. And then they were moving in sync, smiling at each other, and Mikey singing his heart out.

A guy riding his bike stopped to watch them, and in seconds a small crowd had gathered — a crowd that soon including Layla, Melody, and Jason. Mikey beckoned to Jay to join them, just as Madison walked up. The guys didn’t need to be asked twice. Just like that, they were all dancing together, and the crowd kept getting bigger.

Mikey made sure to be right next to Rosa for the last “baby” as the song came to an end. She wrapped her arms around him in the biggest hug — but then abruptly pulled away, blushing again.

“I just hugged you and you don’t have a shirt on and your abs and my friends are never going to believe me.” It always amazed Mikey how quickly girls could talk.

“Pics or it didn’t happen, right?” He grabbed her phone and handed it to Layla, who was used to the drill by now. The guys posed around Rosa, and Mikey wrapped his arm around her and gave her a peck on the cheek as Layla snapped the photo.

Layla passed Rosa back her phone, telling her, “You’re an amazing dancer. If we ever need backup dancers on a tour, I’m going to look you up.” Rosa’s jaw hit the floor again. “But I’ve got to take the boys off to lunch now.”

Rosa said her goodbyes to Jason and Madison, saving Mikey for last. He hugged her, and this time she gave him a peck on the cheek. A lock of her hair had fallen from her ponytail, and he brushed it off her face. He looked in her big brown eyes as she looked up into his.

“Thanks for the dance, Rosa.”

***

In next week’s chapter, we’ll follow To Be One as they…

A — Head to their label to work on their album

B — Hit the red carpet at a Hollywood event

Vote in the comments, & thanks for reading!