Nochelle - Our Stories

S L O W D A N C E S

~Season 6~

"It's been a very long week,"

Emily looked around at everyone in the Juice Bar—they nodded in agreement—before continuing on with her speech, "You've all done such hard work, you deserve this... party. I am very proud of all of you." The upper corner of the Emily's mouth twitched as she blinked twice, sleep still stuck in the corners of her eyes. Emily headed back to the office to lock up as Noah mouthed a 'wow' across the table to Richelle.

'I know!' she mouthed back incredulous. Noah smiled and rubbed his hands over his eyes.

"My god, that was the worst week ever." he said stifling a yawn, "On the plus side everyone's so tired they're not even themselves, I could almost believe I'm getting shakes with normal people," Richelle frowned and Noah continued, "Like, think about it, we're all too tired to be annoying: Ozzy's too tired to talk about his video games, you're not being all stubborn..."

"I'm not stubborn! If anyone's stubborn it's you, Dance Captain!"

"Okay, I take it back, you're definitely still stubborn."

"And you're definitely still obnoxious." Richelle said, getting up to switch tables.

"Richie," Noah grabbed her hand as she walked away, Richelle stopped short, her breath hitching, "can we not do this tonight?"

"Do what?" she asked shortly, avoiding his eyes.

"You know what, let's just have a good time for once." Richelle ventured a glance at Noah and was met with a surprising amount of sincerity in his eyes.

"Okay," she muttered, her voice a pitch higher than usual. She also noticed he still had her hand and pulled it away quickly.

"Okay," Noah agreed, he smiled at her as she sat down again, she returned the smile tentatively.

"So what's new in the life of Richelle?" Noah asked.

She shrugged, "Same as you, dance has been so busy I haven't really had time for anything else."

"No chance to let your hair down?"

"No, not really."

"Well let's make tonight your chance," Noah said as the shakes arrived at their table, "To letting your hair down!" He said, raising his cup to her's.

She smiled, and suddenly struck with an idea she set her glass down, and deftly undid the bun in her hair. Her blonde, silky looking hair fell over her shoulders as she ran her fingers through it, she picked up her glass again and clinked her's and Noah's together, "To letting my hair down!"

Noah was staring at her openmouthed, "What?" She asked, suddenly worried, "Does my hair look really messy?" She started to get up, presumably to find a mirror when Noah found his voice again.

"No, it's," he cleared his throat, "It looks, really... you look really pretty."

"Oh," she responded, pleased but taken aback, "Thank you."

"No problemo." Noah replied, cringing, he was now in the midst of silently loathing himself.

They sat in silence for slightly too long when Richelle said, "I should probably go..." just exactly at the same time as Noah asked, "Would you like to dance?"

"Oh," they replied in unison, processing each other's words.

Noah was the first to speak, "Yeah, you're right, it's been a long week, everybody's tired."

"I'd love to dance." Richelle cut him off.

Noah looked up at her and there was silence for a beat before he stood up and offered her his hand, "Shall we?"

He pulled her out of Shakes and Ladders and up to Studio B. Barely anyone used the studio anymore, mainly due to its capacity of costumes and fabrics, but for them, it was kind of perfect. Noah's phone connected to the speakers and they easily fell into a pattern of swaying in time to the music, too exhausted for anything else.

"Richelle, you're as stiff as a board." Noah muttered into her ear.

"Sorry." she whispered, shivering as she felt his breath tickle her neck.

"Don't be sorry, just relax."

"You're really close to me." she muttered, trying valiantly to keep her voice from wavering.

"We've been dancing this close together since we were ten." Noah chuckled.

Richelle took a deep breath, slowly she let herself relax, it had a long, hard, stressful week. She let the tension ease out of her body as she sunk into Noah's arms. She'd never noticed how strong he felt before, not even during their duets. It was something about the simplicity of the dancing that brought it out, she felt safe.

Noah looked down at Richelle, not quite able to believe this was happening. He'd suggested she relax but he didn't think she actually would, he didn't even think it was in her vocabulary. But now Richelle's head was practically lying on his chest and if anything he was determined to not mess this up. He steeled his nerve.

"Richie?" He asked tentatively.

"Hmm?"

"I wanted to tell you something," He felt his heart rate speed up, and really, really hoped she didn't notice.

"What's that?"

"I, um—I think I..."

"No, what's that noise?" Richelle asked, interrupting him, "I think that's my phone, do you mind?"

"No, go ahead." Noah said, silently cursing every deity he could think of.

He let her go and she rifled through her bag to grab her phone, "Shit," she muttered as she saw the caller ID, "It's Elliott, we were going to go out for dinner tonight, I totally forgot, I have to take this." She said apologetically.

Noah just clenched his jaw and nodded, disappointment coursing through him bitterly.

"I know, I know, I'm sorry," Richelle was saying, "No I was just getting shakes with the team. Yeah, of course Noah is here, Okay, I'll be right there, I love you."

"Hey," Richelle turned to Noah as she shrugged her jacket on, "Sorry about that, I really have to go, what were you gonna tell me?"

"Just that you're a terrible slow dancer." He grinned.

Richelle rolled her eyes, "I'll see you Monday, Erlick."

"Yeah, I'll see you." Noah said watching Richelle's retreating figure, standing alone in amongst a sea of costumes.

~~~
Phaha forgot how sad the ending was when I went back over this lol. Also this would've been better in a prom setting looking back but I cba to change it all