You Can't Win Me Back

III

2.5 Months Before

I let the beat of the music take me away. We've been practicing for a bit now, getting to know each other's dance styles.

I hated to admit it, but we both sort of fit. It was almost like my last partner, but still, something was different.

The music ended, and Christian helped me up from the final pose.

"Let's take a break." He breathed out.

We sat against a wall of the rehearsal room and ate some food.

"So tell me something." He started.

"Tell you what?" I asked.

"I don't know anything. I want to get to know you." He explained.

I thought about it for a bit. What can I tell him?

"I almost quit dancing once." I mumbled.

He looked genuinely taken back by this, like me thinking about quitting never would happen.

"Nathaniel and I had a huge fight when I was 13. We just couldn't seem to agree on anything, and we kept lying to each other. We were so pissed at each other that we argued during a dress rehearsal as we were dancing. He and I didn't notice I was getting a little too close to the edge of the stage.

"So I fell and broke my arm. I was so mad at him that I didn't talk to him once until he came to visit me one day. He gave me ice cream and flowers and told me he was really sorry.

"When I told him I wanted to quit, he started yelling at me. We argued for a few hours, and it was so loud that my parents stayed upstairs, probably too afraid to come down.

"But in the end, we made up, and he helped me go back to dancing. We were much closer after that. We stopped arguing and started fixing things instead. We saw how strong our bond got, and I guess, the judges saw it too."

I smiled thinking about him. I miss him. We were never really romantic, other than one mishap. I missed him as a friend, almost brother.

"Wow. I never knew." He looked genuinely interested in what I had to say, like he wanted to know every detail.

"What about you? Have you ever thought of quitting?" I asked.

He sighed. "I think about quitting all the time. I never have been really sure one time or another though. It's just the doubt in the back of my mind, but I never was truly serious about it."

"That's how Nathaniel was at first. Once we started high school, he knew this was what he wanted to do without doubt. I don't know how he did it." I mumbled.

"I don't either." Christian said under his breath.

I looked down to the whipped cream I had in my plate and got an idea. I picked some up and smeared it on his cheek.

I laughed.

He quickly grabbed some from my plate and smeared it on my nose.

"You just called for war, Christian." I warned.

"I know."

I quickly grabbed the can and sprayed it all over him.

We chased each other all around the rehearsal studio, getting whipped cream everywhere.

We were both laughing and having fun. I could tell his eyes held a twinkle, like they were alive after being so stoic for so long.

He was just different. His whole demeanor appeared lighter, and his face was full of light. I wanted him to always be this way.

He quickly caught me and wrapped his arms around my waist. He snatched the Can out of my hand and sprayed it all over my head.

"Christian!" I squealed. He just laughed. He took a finger and scooped up some whipped cream from my face and tried it. "Tasty."

I did the same to him to mock. I got a brilliant idea.

I scooped up some whipped cream from my head and smashed it on his face.

He stared at me completely shocked.

"Oh, you're definitely getting it now." He lowly told me.

I started to run, but he caught me. We started smacking each other with whipped cream. We were laughing so hard that we slipped on our mess and fell to the floor.

We started at each other and then bursted out laughing. Once the laughter had died down, we were breathing heavily in an uncomfortable silence.

"We probably should clean this up and go back to practicing." He suggested.

"Yeah, good idea." I mumbled.