Dance With Me (Norminah & Camren)

Chapter 12: I'm Latching on to You

A/N: Sorry I took so long, I was having writers block for a while. But thank you for all your Norminah karaoke song suggestions for this chapter. There were tons of great songs and def some of my all-time favorites, but I had to go with a song that lyrically fits into the story. Shoutout to messyot5 (IG) for the suggestion!

Tap that VOTE and leggo!

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**Norminah is gonna do two-person karaoke, which has player 1 & player 2 solo divisions and harmonies. So, for this song Normani's gonna sing the boy's part and Dinah's gonna do the girl's part. 

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Normani's POV

"You gotta sing at least one song before you leave!" Funaki said.

"I told you, Naki, I can't sing," I replied exasperatedly.

It was our last night in California, and Dinah's family was on me about singing a karaoke song, which was something that I'd been refusing to do since the beginning of break. Could I hold a tune? Sure. Years of humming tunes during dance practice and planning sessions had taught me some things. But I didn't want to embarrass myself in front of a family of trained vocalists.

The entire Hansen household sang and harmonized beautifully, but my favorite was Dinah's voice. I had no idea my dance partner was such a talented singer. She'd never showed off her vocal skills at NYU. But my God could she sing. I was pleasantly shocked when I heard her sing for the first time during family karaoke nights, which were a regular occurrence at the Hansen household.

"Come on, Mani! It's just karaoke. It's not like you're auditioning for X-Factor," Regina piped up in her usual sassy tone.

"We won't judge you. Promise," Milika urged.

"Yeah. We never judge our drunk uncles when they're screaming into the mic and we know you're better than that," Dinah's sister, Kamila, said.

"I dunno..." I said hesitantly.

"What if I did it with you?" Dinah asked, suddenly placing her hand on top of my folded hands on my lap. I looked at Dinah in surprise as my hands grazed my crotch area, but it seemed like she hadn't even noticed where our hands were placed.

Ever since I'd realized that I was falling in love with my dance partner, I'd been avoiding looking into her eyes or getting too close to her. Because every time I did, the practical side of me set off alarms of caution. But it was nearly impossible to avoid Dinah when she was constantly with me during the day and slept cuddled with me in the same bed at night. So as the remaining days passed, my practical alarms had gradually become weaker. And now as I gazed directly into Dinah's eyes, the alarms were practically non-existent.

"Come on, Mani. Sing with me," Dinah said in the soft voice that she normally used to convince me to loosen up, while looking deep into my eyes and stroking my hand with her thumb.

"Okay..." I said without realizing what I was agreeing to.

As everyone broke into cheers, Dinah took my hand and led me to the song book. She was busy flipping through the book, exclaiming excitedly at her favorite songs as she saw their names, but my attention was on the way she was still clutching my hand. There was something intimate about the way our fingers were intertwined. It felt...nice. Soothing.

"Frek, there's too many good ones. You pick, ManManz," Dinah said with a gentle nudge, breaking me out of my lovestruck daze.

Willing my blush to go away, I quickly turned my attention to the book. I knew she had a boyfriend. I knew my feelings for her weren't practical. But still, I couldn't help but pick a love song for us to sing. And for the first time in my life, I purposefully turned the practical side of my brain off and immersed myself into the moment.