All Grown Up | jdb

16

"That's not true." I say defensively.

"If it weren't, you wouldn't be this defensive! Girl, I am not trying to be up in your business, I am just letting you know what the rest of the dancers and I are thinking about this."

"I know, just try to spread the word that it isn't true." I say.

We finish stretching after about 20 minutes, and head to the stage for rehearsal despite not being called down. David, Jasmine, Christina and Mykell are standing in a group chatting while waiting for Nick. David just sort of glares at me from across the circle as I wiggle my way in. Their conversation carries on about different funny fan experiences but I drown them out as I get into a deep thought. I didn't like the way Ely had said everything she heard and about how obvious my feelings were for Justin. I didn't want the dancers to suspect anything, and I certainly didn't want to be treated differently.

"Tay." Jasmine and Mykell say simultaneously, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"What?" I ask.

"We have been trying to get your attention." Mykell says laughing.

"Justin wants you." Jasmine says nodding her head over to the edge of the stage behind me.

I turn around finding Justin at the end of the stage smiling, waiting for me. Great. Just to further prove their points and further disprove mine. I walk down the catwalk towards him and kneel down by his face.

"What" I say, not bothering to pretend nothing is bothering me.

"What's wrong?" He wrinkles his eyebrows together in concern.

"Bad mood." I say shortly.

"Oh." He frowns. "I'm sorry, pretty."

"Stop, don't do that. Not here. We aren't dating Justin." I say harshly. Probably too harshly.

"Taylor.." His mood quickly changing.

"I'm sorry, that was harsh. But really, not here."

"Did somebody say something to you?"

"I don't want to talk about it, I'll tell you about it later." I say.

"Are you okay?" He asks, I know I am ruining his mood which is the last thing I want to do before a show.

"Yes! Don't worry about it, really." I try to lift my spirits to lift his.

"ALRIGHT LET'S GO, TAYLOR YOU FIRST." Nick says coming on the stage.

"I gotta go, don't worry about it though." I stand up.

"I'll try not to." He says but I can tell he is still bothered by it. I wantto kiss his pretty pink lips and tell him it is all okay but I know that would only make things worse.

I walk to center stage and go over my opening act, I decide to go through with opening after such positive feedback. We dance through the entire show, Justin coming back to watch my solo during purpose.

"So what is it?" Justin grabs my wrist as I am walking from off stage and to the makeup room.

"Not here, Jay." I sigh yanking my wrist from his hand.

"Okay, then follow me." He says and we walk back out into the arena, up the stairs, all the way to the furthest seating section.

"Nobody will hear us up here." He says and I laugh looking down.

"Yeah, I guess not."

"Can I kiss you now?" He asks.

"One kiss." I say and before I can finish he slams his lips into mine.

"Justin." I say breathlessly, pulling away after a while of kissing.

"Is it bad?" He asks sadly.

"Well, kinda. It's just the dancers are talking and they suspect that there is something between us and you already know how I feel about that. I am starting to think we should just.." My voice trails off as his face turns soft. "And Justin, David and all the dancers have pictures, if they find one of us kissing..."

"They won't, I got Scooter to pay them not to release any. They already have a story of us at the beach, they can twist it any way they want, but they can't release any that actually prove we are a thing." He says.

"But you think we should stop?" He asks.

I nod my head slowly. "Is that what you really want?"

"Well no but-" I start.

"Why don't we just sneak around?"

"How do you expect to do that?"

"Well, I won't pull you to the side like I did during rehearsal and we can run away from everybody else like we are doing right now, when we want to see each other." He says.

"I guess we can try that." I say not actually having much faith in the idea.

"Okay." He smiles and pulls me close to him. He places a gentle kiss on the top of my head and murmurs, "I love you"

"I love you too."

* * *

"DUCKS DUCKS DUCKS, QUACK QUACK QUACK QUACK ZOOOOOOOOOM" We chant just before I go on stage for my opening act.

"Let's go baby, Lets go!" Justin runs to a camera man, excitedly.

He looks absolutely adorable with his white bandanna and hockey jersey. I just want to go up to him and wrap my arms around him and hug him all day. But, starting now we aren't supposed to be seen talking to each other, so I have to keep my distance.

* * *

Denver, Kansas City, Tulsa, Houston and Dallas, all pass quickly and our sneaking around just wasn't working for me. I was running out of lies to tell the girls when I ran off and came back randomly. It only increased their suspicion.

"Justin, this isn't working." I pull him aside, locking the door to the dressing room after the first Atlanta show.