the next step au's

six feet under pt. 3 (james)

james palms were sweaty.

he wiped them on his black pants, trying not to look too nervous.

two days after he saw riley in his uncles warehouse he, and most of the original a-troupe got their invitations to emily's wedding.

james did not know who her fiancé, soon to be husband was, but west, who met him already on some random occasion, said that he was cool, and everyone would grow to like him after only speaking to him after a few short minutes.

after contemplating not to come, using some casual explaination as to why he couldn't come, his mother, and his friends managed to talk james into attending the event. he and everyone else thought that maybe this time he would end up bringing up the courage to speak to riley more. maybe possibly something good would come out of it, and he would stop thinking that the only way for her to be happy was if she was apart from him.

his mom, all his friends, his sisters, basically everyone told him that this thing he made up in his mind, about her only being happy when he was not in her life, was bullshit.

uncle enzo managed to tailor him a nice suit, rather similar to the one he wore to his aunts wedding a few years ago, except that it was bigger, and the fabric was a deeper black, his tie also a little more slim. needless to say he looked great.

now here he was. a little too early. well, not really al that early, but no one from his friends was here yet, the only familiar people were riley, emily, their little brother, and their parents. the last mentioned even approached james, tellig him how happy they were to see him here, and that they missed him over the course of the last months.

rileys younger brother even came up to james, and spoke longer to him. he was now a junior in high school, and it only now hit james how long he new riley, and her family. when he first met little matty, he was just starting with elementary school. that was about eight years ago, when he himself just transferred to the next step, after moving to this part of town.

back then james was still full of rage over his father leaving them, he hated almost everyone, didn't even want to dance at the new studio at all. his mom made him go to at least one rehearsal, and he immediately found himself fond of the people there.

eldon was the first one to approach him, in b-troupe, showed off his dance skills, and then showed him around, proceeding to introduce him to everyone as if he new him his whole life aleady, despite of only meeting him minutes ago.

back then james found himself finding a liking to one of the girls, more than the others. she didn't immediately try to get his attention, and more rather kept scolding him for doing too risky moves.

he found out her name was riley and from that moment on tried his hardest to impress her, and make her laugh, and even though she kept a straight face around him, he could tell that she secretly did think he was funny, as he saw her crack a few laughs whenever she let her guard down or thought he wasn't looking.

"is matty botherin' you?" he heard a voice behind him, and quickly turned around to be met with the most beautiful version of riley he ever got to see.

of course he thought she was beautiful to him no matter what, but this was some next level stuff.

the purple velvet dress she was wearing hugged all of her curves, and ended just above her knees, her black heels matched the detailling on it, and her hair and make up were done in some get up that james thought it would take someone surely hours to complete.

it was only when matty spoke up, seconds, countless of them, after riley approached them, making james realize that he was staring at her.

"i ain't bothering anyone." the sixteen year old remarked before he looked back at james, noticing his startled face expression, matty smirked to himself, then at his older sister, giving her a knowing look, before he left the two of them alone.

"you look-" both of them started out at the same time, causing them to laugh about the incident shyly.

james rubbed the back of his head, his eyes fixated on his ex-girlfriends face. "you look beautiful. extremely beautiful." he commented quickly, before his sudden burst of adrenaline was gone, and the self-confidence with it.

"thank you." riley replied, looking down at herself, and james could swear he saw her turn slightly red. "you look handsome yourself, by the way." she added quickly, looking back up at him.

"yeah, i let uncle enzo take control and-" james spoke, all of a sudden being interrupted by stephanie, who came out of one of the backrooms of the bride, visibly annoyed.

"riley, would you come and handle emily, i need a drink, this girl is driving me nuts today." she spoke as she approached riley and james, but then took a sharp turn right and navigated towards the bar.

"i'll see you later, okay?" she spoke to james, earning only a nod and a soft smile from him, as she walked towards the backroom stephanie just came out of, and with that she was gone, and james was left back alone.

lucky for him, his friends showed up not so long after that. the ceremony carried on nicely, james was happy that emily found someone who seemed to care for her just as much as she seemed to care for him, and also seemed like he could handle her and all her moods.

after the ceremony was over, dinner was to be served, and after they all ate, the band started playing. most couples proceeded to go and dance.

james, west, eldon and hunter, were seated at the same table, giselle and chloe with them, along with miss kate and phoebe, who travelled all the way from australia for the wedding. she kept on talking about some program she was apart of for the majority of the time. though miss kate said that this was mainly the case because she had a little too much to drink and tend to blab loads when she was tipsy.

no one minded though, they were all intoxicated, except james of course, first of because he wasn't going to destroy all the progress he made in the last couple of months, and secondly because he told west and eldon he would drive them home if they needed him to.

more and more couples proceeded to go on on the floor and dance with one another.

"come on dude, go and ask her to dance." west whispered to james, motioning to riley, who was standing with stephanie at the side and watched emily and her newly wed spouse dance.

something inside of him seemed to be pumped with adrenaline, because without hesitation james got up from his seat and made his way towards riley, who looked wide eyed at him as he proceeded to ask, "would you- would you like to dance?"

she nodded a few moments later, muttering a quiet yes and got a hold of his hand, then pulled him along with her on to the dance floor.

for a moment they just stood there, face to face, only a few inches, max two, in between them, before riley placed one of her hands on his shoulder, the other one held onto one of his ones, and his other free hand landed on her hip.

needless to say they got quite some looks. most of them from members of the studio who exactly knew what had happened between them. even emily tore her eyes away from her husband to eye her sister and her ex-boyfriend who were slow dancing only a few feet away from her. a small smile appeared on the blondes features, before she looked back at her husband.

james kept looking down at riley, who stared at his chest. he felt his heart racing, up to the point that he feared it might burst out of his chest any moment.

"riley, i-" he started off, before his words got cut off by rileys lips on his own ones.

james eyes widened for a moment before he closed them, reciprocating the kiss.

seconds later she pulled away again, a small smile on her face.

"i know." she whispered, before she pulled him closer to herself, her head rested on his shoulder, just like it sometimes does when they would have danced together in the past.

her eyes closed and she took in a deep breath of relief.

james hand moved a little more upwards on her back, holding her close to himself, his other hand that was holding onto her hand, gripped a tad bit tighter on it and a smile appeared on his face.

finally.