Dance with Me [h.s] (Completed)

Chapter 78

I wake up Monday morning with a headache from drinking too much wine with Carmen. I ended up telling her all I knew about Adrian and that she needed to keep her guard up around him. She had no idea and apologized for being rude to me that night at Alba. She also said she was going to tell Niall about how she ended up in the hospital and I was glad that there was one fewer person to keep secrets from.

When I leave my bedroom and go into the kitchen I nearly jump out of my skin when I find Zayn sitting on my couch.

"Holy fuck! You scared the shit out of me!" I say clutching my chest.

"Sorry. I used your spare key you gave me. You weren't answering your phone," he says.

I think about my phone, still sitting in the bottom of my bag, untouched from when I got home yesterday. It's probably dead.

"Get dressed. You have practice," he says, standing up and leaning on his crutches.

"Practice for what?! I don't have a partner, remember?" I say gesturing to his broken foot, as I walk into the kitchen to make breakfast.

"Yeah, that's why I'm here. I called around. Found a few guys who were willing to try to partner with you. But we gotta hustle to Rosa's studio because they're meeting us there in thirty minutes."

"Zayn, that's insane. Five dances in nine days. They'll never be able to learn it in time," I say, putting two slices of bread in the toaster.

"No, the insane thing would be to give up when you're so close," he says firmly. "Now get your stuff because it took some convincing to even get these guys to come."

Fifteen minutes later, we're in Zayn's car driving to Rosa's studio in Brooklyn. He's lucky he broke his left leg and not his right so he can still drive. When we get inside the three dancers are already waiting. I show them one of our New York routines, to see which one picks up choreography the fastest. We go through each section dancing individually and then when they think they have a good handle on it, I pair up with them one at a time to determine our compatibility and chemistry as partners. It's a long day and by then end of it I'm exhausted. I see Zayn pay each one of them cash and tell them that we'll let them know which dancer is picked.

I sit down in a chair next to Zayn and gulp down my water.

"You know this is impossible, right?" I tell him. "It's just not realistic to think that any one of them could learn the dances in this short of a time frame."

"That's because you don't see you like I do. If there was anyone that could teach someone quickly and effectively, it's you. You make everyone better, CiCi. All three of those men left here better dancers. They should have been paying me at the end for the incredible chance to learn from you. Whoever you choose is going to rise to your level. I know because you lifted me up there with you my whole life."

I smile at him, leaning my head on his shoulder.

"That's a nice sentiment, but even if I could teach them the steps before Worlds, it wouldn't be good enough to win, just enough to not drop out."

The door of the studio opens and in comes the last person that I thought I would see here.

"Hey, a little birdie told me that you're looking for a dance partner," Adrian says as he walks up.

"No," I say at the same time that Zayn says, "Yes."

Adrian smirks at the two of us.

"What? You were just 'in the neighborhood'?" I ask him sarcastically.

"Yeah, actually. I live in Brooklyn, remember?"

I scoff and look down at my feet, not wanting to look at him anymore.