Out of the Flames

Chapter 7. Dance Lessons

"Here you go, they should fit." He said handing them to me. I sat down on the bench beside him and quickly tied up the shoes surprised at how well the they fit.

As we left the room I noticed a black, corkscrew metal staircase that spiralled up to a door about two storeys up. It was elegant in a harsh manor that made me do a double take. "Where does that go?" I asked without thinking.

"My room." He said simply before we walked out of the large closet and back into the studio. "So can we start with the first dance we were working on then go on to the other two. I would love to be ready for the competition theses dances are for." Edi said.

"The competition is in two weeks and we're are doing five dances." I replied waiting for the realization to kick in. That he would never be ready in two weeks.

"That just means that you could come over every other day and help me?" He asked with a hopeful smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. His eyes widened a bit into the perfect begging puppy look and it took more effort than I would care to admit to not let out an awe.

I counted to three before agreeing to make me seem more hesitant. "Fine, but you will owe me." I gave him my best evil smirk and for one second I was winning the sudden battle for dominance.

"Ok, but sexual favours are not an option." He said with a perfectly straight face as he figuratively pushed me off our throne of power.

I sputtered at his remark and stared at him like he had grown a second head. "Wh-what? Since when were...that wasn't even implied!"

"Just putting it out there." Edi shrugged his shoulder still managing to keep his charade of nonchalance.

I shook my head him in disbelief. "Here I had you pegged as a clean-cut, people-pleasing, proper and slightly naïve boy, and then you come out and say something like that."

"That is a pretty good description of me, but sadly you are a bad influence on me and apparently I am turning into a rebel." He winked at me.

"I refuse to believe that I am solely responsible for your corruption. Because first of all, you have to be rebel turn someone else into a rebel, and I am so not a rebel. Second, it takes way more exposer to a bad influence to have an effect, and this is only the third time I've seen you." I argued.

"It has only been three times?" Edi asked.

"Yup, but when you're dancing, it always feels like way more."

"Dancing is like a speechless connection to the heart." He slipped his hand into mine before raising it above my head and twirling me in a circle. We goofed off a bit just dancing to silent music and I found myself constantly getting caught up in his bright eyes. From a few yards away they looked brown and bright as could be, but up close I could see hints of caramel highlighting his eyes.

After a few minutes my heart was racing and my head was spinning. "We need to practice our real dances." I pulled away. "Stretch for five then be prepared to work cause I gonna go all nazi on you until you can do at least two of the dances by the end of today. I'll have to come by a couple more times in the next week if you don't mind." I walked away to go set up the music and suddenly remembered that I needed to text Karen. "Edi, where's your cell? I need to tell my people that I won't be home or a while." Edi jumped up from his splits and hurried to my side.

"My cell phone is in my room. You can come up if you want." He called over his shoulder as he skipped toward the stairs. I dashed after him and hurried up the corkscrew staircase. He opened the door at the top of the stairs and I had to blink at the sight of his room. It was beautiful and well designed yet still looked like a boy's room. Three walls were a light grey with one a soft yellow. His room was the perfect home magazine room with three main colors and two accents. Everything wood was made of red stained cherry, everything else was grey or yellow. His bed had grey sheets with a yellow comforter on top. The stack of brown boxes in the corner of his room was the only sign that he had been living here for less than a week. Other than those boxes, the typical teenage boy clutter around the room and the messy bed were the only things suggested this wasn't actually a room straight out of a magazine.