Goals Off Court | SatoSere

Chapter 20 - Temptation

She cleared her throat, harsh, stifling the feeling of several emotions bubbling in her chest. It didn't work very well. The crushing, bitter gust of regret lodged so comfortably between her lungs didn't go anywhere, and the best she could do was stare ahead again with a short nod of greeting, too anxious to look him in the eye.

He got up closer to her, staring right at her face. "What was that?"

"What are you talking about?" Her voice echoing in the now silent room, she pressed her lips together, hard.

"That," he gestured wildly, pointing to the dance floor. "Whatever you were doing just now."

Her brow furrowed, and she placed her hands on her hip. Her laugh was concealed and uncharacteristically artful. "Dancing?"

"I'm not an idiot," he grunts, budging closer when he nonchalantly asks, "I mean that type and whatnot. The name of it."

Serena cleared her throat. She ran her fingers through her hair, through her scalp. Priming herself. "It was just a random dance for fun. I had excess energy and I wanted to get rid of it."

She shrugged, failing miserably to look and sound casual. God, can you at least try to not look like something's been bothering you and that very something is in the same room as you—breathing the same air as you, Serena?

A change in subject would do it. Enough with giving her more than she was due, but of course it didn't go as she wanted. "Why don't you teach me things like that?"

"You want to learn solo dancing?" She asked, raising an eyebrow; she was quite curious even if things were going south.

"What?" A pause. Why was she not understanding this? "No. Never that."

She hummed positively, still consciously fighting off the drive to grin. "Use your words, Ash."

"You know..." Another pause. Harsher. He bit his lip and uncertainty flickered across his features before he added, "What May and Drew did."

She opened her mouth and then shut it, tilting her head. "You mean... the tango?"

"Yeah—" Ash's adam's apple plummeted with his own version of a dry swallow, and he faintly rubbed the back of his neck—a nervous tell Serena was simply too used to. She found it cute. It took him a moment to look back at her. "—That."

"I've already told you it's harder than the waltz to learn, but it's more grounded. Still, with how you use your feet, it might be better for you." She bit the insides of her cheeks, pretending to consider what he said. Truthfully, Serena was more caught up with another realization she hadn't allowed to surface until he brought it up. "But based on what Professor Oak wanted for you, I went with the waltz."

"Just forget about what he wants and teach me more things that you can." He ran his fingers along the length of his own hair, frowning, and scoffed. "We have two of these things left and if you wanna teach me the tango, then you should do it."

That did nothing to dim the grin splitting her face in half. "Well, you technically asked me to teach you the tango, but it if that's what you really want, I can."

"Doesn't matter. Lets get this lesson going."

Serena didn't seem to mind it. An eyebrow quirked up, she stepped forward and stood close to him, taking his hand in her own. "Place your hand around my upper back." She took his hand and guided it there as she rested her own on top of his, pulling her body and face much closer. Her nose was almost touching his and she squeezed his hand, holding their arms out.

"Right. So... this is the position." She swallowed, her blue eyes looking towards his brown ones, but they betrayed her by having her glance down, looking at his lips. She seemed flustered, her lip trembling as she searched for the words to explain the dance to him. "You can be a bit more weighted with your feet in this dance and I'll be getting close to you as well."