Dance With Me (Norminah & Camren)

Chapter 14: Kiss Me

A/N: I fuckin' love it when you guys contribute to my stories and show me things I've never seen before. The video featured in this story legit changed my life lol. I've been obsessed ever since. Special shoutout to her_bad_habits (IG) for recommending this video to me. [heart eyes emoji]

Tap that VOTE and leggo!

Normani's POV

Our new lesbian-lovers routine drew inspiration from the movie She's the Man. Dinah's character, frustrated with dance companies only auditioning for male dancers, dresses up as a man for auditions, represented by her wearing boys clothes and a beanie to hide most of her hair. Dinah's character is then selected as the male lead for the company which my character is the female lead for. While neither character is lesbian, the more our characters dance together, the more they fall in love with each other. During one of our passionate practice sessions, Dinah's beanie falls off, revealing her true identity as a woman. My character is shocked at the reveal, while Dinah's character tries to convince me of her true love. However, my character, who has strong internalized homophobia, is disgusted and ignores genuine feelings of love for Dinah's character, and to prove to herself and the society that she's not a lesbian, she marries a man, leaving Dinah's character—and also her own—heartbroken.

It wasn't easy putting together the entire routine in just a few days, but Dinah and I worked day and night and got Bankhead's approval. However, our new routine was nowhere near as polished as our old routine, and though Bankhead had loved it more than our old one, he'd pointed out things we needed to improve on.

"Kiss me, Mani."

"What!?" I asked in surprise as my heart lurched to a halt. Had the love of my life just asked me to kiss her!?

"You heard Bankie's feedback. He said if our new routine had just a tiny bit more passion it would be the best showcase he's ever witnessed. So, you need to kiss me right before my beanie falls off."

"I am not kissing you!" I said in a defensive panic, "I've never kissed anyone before and I don't want my first kiss to be with you!"

I was lying, of course. I'd been dreaming about kissing my dance partner for months. And no matter how badly I wanted to kiss her, I knew that doing so would complicate my feelings towards her even more.

Dinah rolled her eyes and said, "Oh come on, Mani! This is just for the dance. It's what our characters are doing. Not us. It's not gonna mean anything. It won't count as your first kiss."

My heart sank. To her it wasn't going to mean anything, but to me...it'd mean everything. To me it was going to count.

"You have a boyfriend. At least think about him before suggesting crap like this," I said, turning away from her, trying to conceal my hurt.

"Oh, come on. He won't mind if it's for dance. Besides, he knows I've kissed girls before while dating him, and honestly, he doesn't care. He even thinks it's kinda hot."

"What!?" I asked, whirling around to face her in shock, "You've kissed girls before!?"

"Duh. I've kissed Z and Vicky and Walz before. Just friendly little pecks to show each other how much we love each other when we're drunk, ya feel? Come on, Mani! Even Walz kissed me and she's like anti-homo."

Her admitting to me that she'd kissed girls before wasn't helping my confusion at all. In fact, it was making me want to kiss her even more.

"What're you gonna do when a professional dance company asks you to kiss your partner? Are you gonna say no and risk getting kicked out?" Dinah said, continuing her argument, "Come on, Mani. Let's just try it. And then if you feel like it doesn't fit into the dance, then you can take it out."

Well...she did have a valid point. Besides, I'd been dreaming about kissing my crush for so long and here was a ready-made opportunity to do so without raising suspicion. So, I sighed and said, "Okay..."

The switch to a LGBT-themed routine had us dancing closer than ever before. However, because of my feelings for Dinah, I'd been holding back on getting too passionate with her during the routine. I was scared that if I got too into it, Dinah would be able to tell that I had genuine feelings for her. I may've been head-over-heels for her and subtly showing her my affections, but I knew that if she ever got the hint that I was in love with her, then things would be disastrous for us. And I valued Dinah's friendship way too much to let things get weird between us.

But now things had changed. Now, through this dance, I had the chance to indulge in my fantasies.

And there was no way I was going to hold back.

I let myself go, dancing with Dinah more passionately than I'd ever danced with her before as she led me across the dance floor. And this time, every time our bodies drew close to each other, rather than distancing myself, I relished the tension between our characters. I let myself feel Dinah's every touch. Her fingers on my stomach. Her palms on my lower back. Her arms around my waist. Her hands in my hair and roaming all over my body. The dance ended with us clutching each other, my arms around her neck, hers around my waist. Our bodies were pressed against each other, foreheads touching, hearts hammering, heavy breaths mingling, eyes closed, lips centimeters apart...but not for long.

I leaned in and kissed her.

And it wasn't a gentle peck either. It was an open-mouthed, thirst-quenching, tongue-exploring, passionate kiss.

"Wow..." Dinah said, when we broke apart. She looked just as dazed as I felt, but immediately cleared her throat and joked in her usual manner, "S-sure you haven't kissed anyone before, ManManz?"

"No," I said, my cheeks heating up, "W-was that okay...?"

"Y-yeah, it was fine," Dinah said quickly, backing away from me, "Uhm...so...do you think we should keep it?"

I thought about how the kiss had electrified every inch of my body, leaving me wanting more. And for reasons that were strictly unprofessional, I said, "Yeah. You're right. We should keep it. Bankhead would like it."

"Cool. Just remember to knock my beanie off in the heat of the moment, okay?"

"Oh yeah. Good idea. M-maybe we should go over it again. Y-you know, so I can practice knocking off the beanie during the heat of the moment."

"Oh...uhm...okay..." Dinah said hesitantly. Then, as if trying to dissolve the strange tension between us, she joked loudly in her usual manner, "Just admit you can't get enough of me, ManManz."

She was right, of course. But I rolled my eyes, hiding my true feelings, and said, "You wish."

A/N: I dedicate this chapter to her_bad_habits (IG) for introducing me to Stephanie Lucero's dancing. I will def feature more of Lucero's videos in this fic as well as the Camren spin-off I have planned!