A few days had passed after I brought Lucy to Outer City, and she had gotten acquainted with all of my friends. She wasn't necessarily outgoing, but she wasn't completely cold towards us either. I had already figured it wouldn't be easy to gain her trust considering everything she had been going through. The day before, I asked her if she wanted to hang out, and she responded with, "don't get our relationship confused. Right now, we are just acquaintances who share the same goal. We both want to take Zero down. I appreciate you saying you would heal my mother with the power of the Trident of Destruction, and the Cursed Sword. But, we aren't friends."
"That's because you haven't let me in yet," I replied.
"Look," she started. "Throughout my life, I've been taken advantage of by people who were supposedly my 'friends,' and I don't want that to happen again. I'll help you out as much as I can as a partner, but not as a friend."
"Zero is one of those people, I'm guessing?"
"Yes. He's the worst one. He said if I didn't do all sorts of things, he wouldn't heal my mother anymore. I was basically his slave."
"It sounds like you were the only one given this type of treatment out of all the people working for him."
"I was."
"Why?"
"I-I...think it was because he found me...a-attractive..." Lucy said, showing clear signs of discomfort as the words escaped from her mouth. It took me a second to fully register what she was trying to convey, but when I did, I was so taken aback by what she was trying to say.
"So, when you say...he had you do all sorts of things...does that include...s-"
"Yes..." she said. I wasn't even able to finish my sentence, but from her answer, I had a feeling she most likely knew what I wasn't able to say. This made me despise Zero even more than I already did.
"I-I'm so sorry-"
"I don't need your pity, alright?" She snapped. "We're simply working together towards a common goal. We're not friends." Without wasting time, she swiftly exited the conversation. I wanted to say, "Lucy wait" so badly. However, I knew it would be better to just let her walk away. If I was her, I'd have trust issues as well.
Now, the gang and I were heading back to New Roseland City in the ship Phoebe stole from Dark Phoenix. According to Phoebe, there was a super fun festival occurring there that day that we had to go to. I didn't doubt her claims though. The last time we were there, it seemed like a pretty fun, and vibrant place. Well, it did until Dark Phoenix invaded it.
Other than wanting to enjoy ourselves, there was also a serious reason we were going. After I completely explained my situation about End, the Cursed Sword, and how I had to acquire all ten Cursed Stones to everyone, Phoebe had asked some Outers to look out for any rumors about a stone that looked like the two in my sword.
She got told that there was supposedly two necklaces with stones that looked similar to the ones in my sword that are being given out as prizes to a couple for winning a dancing competition at the festival. For that reason, we decided to go there, have two of us enter the competition, and win so we can obtain what could potentially be Cursed Stones.
We tried to get Lucy to tag along as well, but she refused to go. Once she heard we were going to try to enter a dancing competition at a festival in an attempt to get stones that could potentially be Cursed Stones, she walked away. I couldn't really blame her. It wasn't like we actually knew they were Cursed Stones or not. For all we knew, it could've just been a big waste of time. Also, we really only needed two people to go.
I loved everything about this trip. The fact that we could have fun, and maybe make some progress with my goal was great. The only thing I didn't love at all was the fact that Bowie was tagging along as well. When I first met him, he didn't seem like someone I would hate. He seemed like a pretty chill, normal guy. And he was. However, this chill, normal guy had a pretty obvious romantic thing with Phoebe. I asked her if they were dating, and she said no. I could just tell from the way they spoke to each other that there was definitely something going on though. If they weren't together yet, they were definitely going to be soon. Which is why I hated him.
We finally made our return to New Roseland City, and were immediately plunged into the liveliness of the city as we got off the ship. You could just feel the pure excitement exuding from everybody in the city from which I was guessing from the anticipation of what the festival would be like. The festival that was about to officially take place in about twenty minutes. As we started walking alongside the many others who were heading to where the festival would be taking place, we started discussing who should be entering the competition.
"I would say Hailee and I should enter," Alex started. "But, I'm atrocious at dancing, so I don't think that would be a good idea. Hailee's not the greatest dancer either."
"Hey!" she said. "H-He's not wrong though. Since we're trying to win, I don't think us entering would be the best idea."
"Why don't you and I enter, Phoebe?" Bowie asked. If this was a cartoon, my face would have been red, and there would've been smoke coming out of my ears. I was so annoyed and infuriated by him. I was supposed to be the one to ask her that, but he beat me to it!
"You're just as bad at dancing as them, Bowie," Phoebe replied. I was happy for a few seconds thinking she was shutting him down. Then, my happiness went away as quickly as it came once I heard what she said after.
"If you weren't so bad at dancing, I definitely would. We need to win though."
"Yeah, I know. I just liked the idea of dancing with you."
"I-I don't hate that idea either," Phoebe muttered. It was the first time I had seen her nervous. The usual badass leader that could take out a whole army by herself if she wanted to was now shifting around nervously as they were talking. I hated it so much. At this point, I was basically growling as I watched. My anger in this moment made me realize something. The only way I was going to stop Bowie in his tracks, and take the lead in the battle for Phoebe's love that he knew nothing of, was by dancing with her in this competition, and winning.
I wasn't the greatest dancer, but I wasn't terrible either. Lucky for me, I had a mother who was pretty good at ballroom dancing for some reason, and taught me a couple tips in case I ever got into a situation like that. I thought her teachings would never come in handy. I thought they would only maybe come in handy if I went to prom with a girl, which I had completely ruled out as a possibility. Now, here I was ready to put those teachings to the test in a dancing competition that was being held in a dimension where dragons aren't just things you hear about in fairytales.
"Phoebe," I started, as I walked up to her confidently. Truth be told, I was anxious, and shaking inside. But, I did my best to not let that show on the outside as I spoke to her. "Dance with me."
Her reaction hurt me a little, but I can't say I was surprised. She went into a laughing spree immediately after I asked.
"No offense Ezra, but I doubt that you can dance."
"Offense very much taken," I responded.
"Ezra, you of all people should know how important it is that we win this."
"Duh!" I said. "The reason we're doing this is so I can get the stones. Which is why you should dance with me." It took her a long time to give me her answer, as I expected. After a lot of head scratching, chin rubbing, and foot tapping, she finally responded.
"Fine, but if you step on my toes at all, you're dead."
"Roger that," I grinned. "I can't die anyway."
With that settled, we continued our walk towards the festival that was about to start with a pretty solid plan in mind.
...
The festival had finally kicked into full gear. To be completely honest, it was actually way more fun than I expected. There were all kinds of activities to do, delicious food everywhere, cool stuff you could purchase, or win from playing games. It was pretty awesome. Just when I thought it couldn't get more awesome, the moment the gang and I had been waiting for came.
"Attention everyone!" Some guy with a weird, funky looking, futuristic megaphone of some sort yelled. "The dancing competition for couples is about to begin!"
Instantly, all the pairs started heading for the spot the guy who yelled was at. It took a bit of time before the competition officially started. When it did, Phoebe and I were the first pair that had to go. The two of us heard the waltz music they were blasting for us to dance to, and instinctively started moving. It was honestly so weird, but despite both of our doubts, we were actually dancing pretty well together. I did step on her toes a tiny bit in the beginning, and got angry glares from her because of it, but we eventually found our footing. It was almost like we were in sync. As I held her hands, stared into her eyes, and matched my movements with hers, it felt like we were in our world.
"I thought you weren't good at dancing," Phoebe said, with a face that had a mixture of shocked, and amused.
"I'm not. I think it's just because I'm dancing with you."
"So, you're saying because I'm good at dancing, you're dancing well too?" She asked. "That doesn't make sense to me."
"Of course it doesn't make sense because that's not what I meant. I meant that we make a good team."
"That can't be it. I think you just got lucky."
As we neared the end of our dancing routine that we completely created on the spot naturally off pure instincts, I decided that I wanted to end it off by dipping her body. With that in mind, I extended my right arm, spun her a little, and then pulled her back in. Once she was in my arms, I dipped her body down in a quick, but gentle way. The music stopped, and everybody started cheering loudly. Phoebe and I were both panting, and sweating.
"See, I told you we make a good team," I said, still in the same position holding her. I was hoping that by the way I said it, she would understand that I was implying that we make a good team in other ways than just dancing.
"Y-You just got l-lucky," she stuttered. I wasn't sure if my eyes were deceiving me, but it looked like she was blushing for a second.
I pulled her back up into my arms, and without even noticing, started staring at her intently. We didn't say anything for a while. We just stood there staring each other, and panting. It felt like we were about to kiss. Just when I was about to take a risk, and lean in to touch her soft, red, plump lips with mine, Hailee and Alex came running to us, and we separated ourselves from each other.
"You guys were amazing!" Hailee exclaimed. "I figured Phoebe would be good, but I didn't think you could dance at all, Ezra!"
"Harsh," I said. "But, thank you."
"Yeah, you guys make a great team," Bowie interjected, with a subtle hint of sadness in his voice. I picked up on it, and got so happy. I knew exactly why he was sad, and it brought me so much joy.
He started walking away quickly, and had a depressed demeanor. I could tell everybody else, including Phoebe, noticed this.
"Bowie wait!" Phoebe yelled, trying to catch up to him. They got out of earshot, and I couldn't hear their conversation. I could tell they were talking about something important though as I looked at them.
The rest of us watched the rest of the competition play out. All of the pairs did well, but we were confident that we would get the prizes in the end. After about fifteen more minutes of watching people dance together, it became time for the winners to be announced.
"You all have done wonderful jobs as pairs in this dancing competition," the announcer said. "But as you guys know, there can only be one winner."
"Please be us please be us please be us," I prayed.
"I thought you said you don't believe in God," Alex said.
"Shut up," I snapped. It's not that I didn't believe in a divine being of some sort. I just couldn't believe there could be such an all-loving forgiving entity that exists that would give me a life filled with nothing but unfortunate events. There was literally an evil spirit living inside me that could kill me at any second.
"The winners of the dancing competition are...the boy standing over there and his dancing partner!"
At first, I was a little confused that he didn't say our names. Then, I realized we were the only pair that didn't say our names. I opened my eyes, and saw that the announcer was pointing right at me. I was confident that we would win, but I still couldn't believe we actually did.
"Please tell us your name sir," the announcer said. "It'd be great to know the name of such a wonderful dancer."
"Well, my name is Ezra. My partner, who's not here right now, her name is Phoebe."
"Wait," the announcer gasped. "D-Does her last name happen to be Moonlight?"
"Yup." He gasped again, and everybody around us joined him as they reacted in the same way.
"Why didn't you guys tell us your names? We would've given you the prizes already. We didn't know what she looked like because she usually is wearing a mask, but we would've given it to you guys already if we knew. There isn't anything we wouldn't do for the leader of the group that protected us from Dark Phoenix."
"Yeah, we knew that. That's why we didn't tell you. We wanted to win fair and square." Technically, I wasn't lying. However, if it came down to it, I would've just used my cursed ki to sprint, and swipe the prizes from the winners. Sure, we wanted to have fun, and dance. But, we also had a very important mission. Nothing could get in the way of that.
"How noble."
"I know right?" I said. "Now, can I get my prize?"
"Of course," the announcer replied. He walked back to retrieve some horizontal box. He came back with it in hand, and then opened it in front of us. Inside the box were two beautiful necklaces with shiny, white stones as pendants.
As I was about to open my mouth to thank the announcer for the prizes, I was interrupted by Phoebe. She came sprinting towards us, and started talking excitedly. Another side of her I had never seen before up until this point.
"Guys guys!!" she squealed, while jumping up and down.
"What what?" I replied. "Why are you so giddy?"
"Because Bowie just asked me out!!"
"R-R-Really?" I responded, doing everything in my power to resist the urge to throw up.
"Yeah! Apparently, seeing us dance so well together made him jealous, which encouraged him to confess his feelings for me. I can't believe he liked me too this whole time!!"
"So you guys are dating now?" Alex asked.
"Yup! Isn't that awesome?!!" she squealed again.
"T-That's great," I said, smiling weakly. Lucky for me, I don't think she noticed how weak, and fake my smile was. "I-I'm happy for you guys."
But, I wasn't. I should've been used to heartbreak at this point. Hailee and Alex getting together had already shown me there was no hope for me. I shouldn't have cared at all. Which is why I was so confused on why I was so hurt.
AN: heyy!! if ur reading this right now, i can't tell you how much i LOVE u. thank u so so much for just clicking on my profile. means the absolute world to me :))
if u have been checking my page a lot, u might have noticed i stopped updating my books for a while. that wasn't on purpose i just got really busy. i'm not taking a hiatus or anything. i plan on updating everything as much as possible, but i can't promise it will be consistent. sometimes it might take me months to release a new chapter. other times it may take days. just stay tuned <3
also, i plan on updating "You're My Alcohol" as well soon, so keep an eye out for that. anyways, i love u, and i hope ur doing well. tysm again <33