The song: Shut Up and Dance by WALK THE MOON ^^^^^ (media box)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
I settled into my seat in Aidan's truck and buckled up. "This is different. Why no motorcycle?"
"It's too cold," Aidan shrugged, starting up the car. "I didn't want you to get sick or whatever."
"How sweet," I smiled and rested my head on the head rest. My smile slipped from my face when I suddenly recalled something. "Hey, is Briella okay being at home without you?"
"She's not home," he said, backing out of my driveway and speeding off down the street. "She's sleeping at a friend's house."
"Okay good," I nodded in relief. I then began studying the dark mark covering his eye. "How's your eye?"
"It's fine."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm positive."
"Really? Because it looks like it hurts."
"It doesn't hurt."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure."
"Why are you lying?"
"Why are you asking all these questions?" Aidan asked, sounding annoyed.
"I'm just concerned," I frowned. "You should probably treat it or something. Did you put ice on it?"
"Demi," he said, giving me a look that was half irritated, half amused. "Just because I don't have a mom doesn't mean you need to fill the void."
"I'm not trying to act like your mom," I said defensively. "I told you, I'm concerned. Am I allowed to be concerned Aidan?"
"There's absolutely no reason to be concerned," he assured me.
"What if I was sporting the black eye?" I raised my eyebrows. "What would you do?"
"I would beat the person up who gave you the black eye," he answered promptly, his eyes glued on the road.
I stared at him and tilted my head. "What if it was a girl?"
"I'd pay a girl to beat her up for me."
His answer was way too quick and thought out for my liking. Even if it was sweet...in an Aidan way.
"Are you indirectly telling me to go confront your dad?" I asked.
I was partially kidding, but mostly I was wondering if he was really dropping hints about me telling off his father.
Aidan glanced at me quickly a flash of anxiety and anger sparking in his brown eyes.
"No," he snarled. "I don't want you within ten miles of him, never mind confronting of him."
My eyes widened, and instinctively leaned away from Aidan. His temper flared up so quickly at times, it was like a constant case of whiplash. It was also kind of scary.
Aidan's angry expression melted instantly when I leaned away from him and in replacement was a look of regret and maybe some sadness.
I was beginning to think that me jokingly diagnosing him as bipolar in my mind wasn't too far off.
"I'm sorry," he said, sounding guilty. He held one of his hands for me to grab. "Sorry, Cupcake. I didn't mean to scare you."
"You didn't scare me," I lied, placing my hand in his which resulted in the usual stomach dropping feeling.
"My dad's a touchy subject," he explained, and I gave him a kind smile.
"I know he is. You don't have to apologize. I understand."
He nodded, tightening his hold on my hand.
"Don't they usually have parties after football games?" he asked, clearly trying to change the subject.
"Yep." I loved the feeling of his hand in my own. It for with his perfectly.
"Why didn't you go?"
"The one everyone's going to is my ex boyfriend's, and I rather not put myself in that situation," I explained.
"Oh, Chase?" Aidan rolled his eyes. "I hate that guy."
"I know you do," I giggled. "So, what shall we do?"
"You ask me to hang out, and you don't have any plans?" His eyebrows shot up.
"It was a spur of the moment offer," I admitted.
"I guessed as much," he smiled.
"Oooh," an excited smile broke out on my face. "How about we go to my dance studio?"
"And what would we do at a dance studio?" He asked, looking skeptical.
"I just wanna show you it," my legs started bouncing in excitement. "You know how you showed me your 'safe haven'? Well, this studio is my safe haven, so it's only fair I show it to you."
"Okay," Aidan nodded in agreement. "Tell me where to go."
I instructed Aidan for about ten minutes, telling him where to make turns and when to keep going straight, before we arrived to the rundown studio.
"You can just park at the curb," I said, unbuckling my seat belt and hopping out as soon as the car stopped.
I rushed up to the front door and waited impatiently for Aidan to walk up.
"You're a slow walker," I said, disapprovingly.
"I wasn't about to sprint to the doors like you," he rolled his eyes. "Which you really shouldn't do by the way. You're in a cast. What if you fall and fuck up your arm even more than it already is?"
"That won't happen," I waved a hand. "I'm very coordinated. I am a dancer after all."
I pushed open the doors and stepped into the dark building. I flip on the lights and smile affectionately at my studio. I hadn't been here for the past few weeks and hadn't realized how much I missed it until that very moment when my heartstrings were being pulled at.
"I don't want to offend you," Aidan started, speaking up after a short moment of silence.
"And yet, somehow I think you will," I snorted, my gaze sweeping around the area.
"But this place," he continued, ignoring me. "Looks a bit run down. When I say a bit, I mean a lot. When I say run down, I mean completely trashed."
"And I'm offended," I made a face. "Obviously it's run down. That's not the point."
"Then explain the point to me," he said, beginning a slow walk around the room.
"It's not about how wrecked it is," I said. "It's about what it did for me. I found this place when I was at possibly the lowest point I've ever been in in my life, and that's saying a lot because I've had a lot of low points," I laughed dryly. "When I found this place I just felt better. I can't really explain it....I don't know what it is about this place that made me feel so safe and like things weren't always going to be crappy. I'm pretty sure this place is my saving grace. I was destined to stumble across it."
"You believe in destiny?" Aidan asked.
"Sure," I shrugged. "Don't you?"
"Not really," he had stopped his pacing and was leaning against the wall. "The whole everything happens to you for a reason sounds like a load of bullshit to me, and even it's not it's completely fucked up. Some greater power decides to hand you, out of all people, a shit load of crap to deal with in your lifetime and then it's passed off as 'Oh, well, it happened for a reason'. That's bullshit."
I frowned at how harsh and how pretty accurate his depiction of destiny was.
"You really are a pessimist," I said after a moment of struggling to come up with a response to that.
"I'm a realist," he said for the second time that night.
"Pessimism and realism seem to border on a very thin line with you," I scoffed.
"I accept situations for what they are," he shrugged.
"More like you see the worst possible light for situations," I made my way over to him. "Destiny doesn't always have to be a bad thing. Sure, a bunch of crap is handed to you, some more than others, but they make you who you are at the end of the day. Plus, sometimes destiny tends to hand you a bunch of good stuff to balance out the bad stuff."
"You're an optimist," Aidan said with a touch of distaste to his tone.
"Is that a bad thing?"
"It's an annoying thing."
I pursed my lips. "It's not as annoying as always seeing the bad in things."
"There's too much bad in this world not to constantly see it," his gaze roamed the studio. "Have you ever thought about cleaning this place up?"
I shrugged. "Yeah, but that would take a lot of work, and I don't wanna say I'm lazy, but-"
"You're lazy," he finished for me.
"Pretty much."
"What was the low point?" He randomly asked.
I scrunched my eyebrows in confusion. "Huh?"
"You said you found this place at your low point," he reminded me. "What was it?"
"Ummm," I hummed. "That's a whole different story for a different time."
Aidan stared at me for a while, and I squirmed under his scrutiny, averting my gaze. I didn't want to go into details of my horrible life. It would just bring me down.
"Dance for me," he abruptly said.
I looked at him with a surprised look. "What?"
"Dance for me," he said slowly. "Show me this ballet thing you do."
"I'm wearing jeans," I protested.
"Are you telling me you can't dance in jeans?"
"Well, I can but its not as goo-"
"That's fine," he took a seat on the floor and leaned his back against the wall, watching me expectantly. "I don't want good. I just want to see."
"Aidan, no," I wrapped my arms around myself. "I don't want to."
"Why not? I showed you my art, so you show me yours."
"You didn't show me," I reminded him. "I found it."
"By snooping," he pointed out. "Which means you have to repay me."
"No, I don't!"
"Don't be a baby."
"I'm wearing boots," I stuck out my feet to show him. "Hardly ballet appropriate."
I chose not to disclose the fact that I could dance better barefoot than I could with slippers on to him. He didn't need to know that.
"Then take them off," Aidan shrugged.
"I'm not prepared," I whined, knowing I probably sounded like a five year old not getting their way.
"You don't have to be perfect," he rolled his eyes. "This isn't an audition for Juilliard. I just want to see something."
"We can't always get what we want," I mimicked his frequently spoken words.
Aidan frowned, looking disappointed. I scrapped my teeth against my bottom lip before sighing in resignation. I certainly didn't want to be the reason for the look of sadness on his face.
"Fine," I growled, plopping down the wooded floor to pull off my boots. "But I'm not happy about it."
Aidan grinned at me, happy again. "Thank you, Cupcake."
"Don't get all sweet with me," I mumbled, taking off my socks and then throwing my shoes at him.
"Ow," he whined, rubbing the spot on his chest where one of the boots him.
"Sorry," I said, standing up not feeling very apologetic.
I did some quick stretches, not being extremely thorough but being thorough enough so that I wouldn't end up hurting myself.
I pulled off my beanie and set it down gently before tying my hair in a messy but tight ponytail. There was no point in me attempting a bun when I knew I wouldn't be able to do one properly, and I had nobody here who could do it for me.
I pulled up the music app on my phone and searched in the bar "Ballet Music". I selected the first of twenty albums and tapped on the first song. I turned the volume all the way up and locked the device before handing the phone to him.
I walked to the center of studio, feeling very nervous because I knew his eyes were on me. I took a deep breath as if to blow out the nerves from my system and scolded myself. I had absolutely no reason to be nervous. I danced in front of people all the time. In fact, I relished in it.
However, something about the fact that I was dancing for Aidan and Aidan alone made me a little insecure, and by a little I mean a lot. I knew he wouldn't judge me...well, I knew he wouldn't judge me harshly.
I shook my head and decided I would just pretend Aidan and his watchful eyes weren't in the room. I centered myself, envisioning I was alone like I always was in my studio and began dancing eloquently to the tempo of the music.
Forgetting Aidan was here was fairly easy when I got into the dance, which was the moment my feet started to move. Relaxation wrapped around me like a favorite blanket as I twirled, leaped, bended, and glided across the wooden floor.
I didn't follow any specific choreography, I just moved my body any which way that felt right. This was my favorite way to dance. I loved how freeing and natural it felt to move to my own desire. There were no rules. No restrictions. It was just me. Me doing whatever I wanted to do.
When my breath started coming out in pants, I slowed down my movements before stopping. I stood still, waiting for my heart to come down from the race it was partaking in, assisting it with measured breaths. I finally blew out my final deep breath and wiped a hand across my sweaty forehead and remembered I wasn't here alone.
I turned to Aidan who was in the exact spot he was before. His gaze didn't leave my own as I walked up to him. There was a strange glint in his eyes I couldn't pinpoint and he looked a little strained.
"You okay?" I asked, sitting down across from him. I pulled my hair out of my ponytail and let it cascade around my face.
"Uh, yeah," he said hoarsely. He quickly cleared his throat, looking embarrassed for reasons I was unaware of. "Yeah, I'm fine."
I nodded and watched him carefully. "What did you think?"
"You wer- um...tha- that was amazing," he mumbled, stumbling over his words.
I frowned, confused as to why he looked so nervous and surprised that he seemed to be struggling for words. Aidan never came off as flustered.
Cold, void of emotion, and sarcastic? Yes. Flustered? No.
Maybe he thought I did bad and was trying to find words that would spare my feelings.
My face dropped at the revelation and I studied the lines on the floor with an interest I didn't have.
"Are you sure?" I asked quietly. "You don't sound sure. You can tell me if I did bad, I don't care. I told you I didn't want to dance in jeans and without the proper shoes. It came off as messy didn't it? I ju-"
"Demi," Aidan cut me off.
I looked up and met his hazel eyes. He was still giving me that strange look, but this time he looked more firm.
"It was amazing," he repeated firmly. "You were amazing. That was...," he shook his head as if in awe. "Beautiful. Beyond beautiful. You're very talented, you know that?"
My cheeks tinted with red. "You think?"
"You know you are," he suddenly smirked at me. "I really enjoyed it, Cupcake."
I giggled in relief. "Thank you."
"I liked how into it you got," Aidan continued. "It was mesmerizing. I was never one to care much for dancing, ballet nonetheless, but I now have a newfound appreciation for it."
"Really?" I said excitedly. "You do?"
"Yeah," he continued smirking.
"What's so funny?"
"Nothing," he shook his head and then gave me a once over. "Why don't you look more tired? You were dancing for almost an hour."
I blinked in shock. "I was?"
"Yep."
I grabbed my phone from him and looked at the time. It was well past nine o'clock. He was right, I had been dancing for a good hour. I frowned.
"Why do I always do that?" I muttered to myself. Shaking my head, I looked up. "Sorry. I didn't mean to make you sit here for an hour. Why didn't you say anything?"
"I told you, I was enjoying you."
I blushed. I didn't know why, but I could've sworn I heard double meaning in his words. Of course, that could have also just been my overactive mind.
"So, what do you want to do now?" I asked, changing the subject as I pulled on my socks, hat and boots.
"How about we go to my 'safe haven', as you call it," he snorted. "It's better than this dump."
I rolled my eyes, standing up. "Oh, yeah. A bunch of trees and a single stump is so superior."
"I'm glad you know it."
Aidan stood up and stretched. I sneakily appreciated the sight of his abs peaking out as his shirt lifted a little bit.
My eyes widened when they dropped lower, and I went from feeling appreciation to shock to straight up embarrassment when I saw the bulge in his, er, lower regions.
I felt my face flame up instantly and tried desperately to pull my eyes away from the sight, but it was honestly a little mesmerizing.
"So...did you want to go or...?"
"Looks good- I mean," my eyes quickly darted to his half amused, half smug face and I knew he had seen me looking. "I mean, sounds good. It sounds good. T-to go to your clearing. Not looks good. No, that was a verbal typo. I mean- um...okay, let's go."
I turned and practically ran for the exit. I speed walked to the car and leaned against the passenger's door before I let out a groan.
How absolutely mortifying. I had gotten caught looking, no gawking, at his boner. Somebody take a gun and kill me now.
Why did he even have a boner anyway? It couldn't have been because of...no. There were plenty of perfectly logical and medical reasons why he had a boner. Maybe guys got erections when they sat still for too long. That was probably it. I would have to google it, but I was positive that was it. It wasn't becaus-
I jumped at the loud click of the car doors unlocking. I looked up to see Aidan opening the driver's door. I mimicked his actions and opened my own door, climbing in. I put my seat belt on after shutting the door.
I was determined not to look at Aidan. My face began to flush beet red again due to the "incident" that was front and center of my mind. The lights that automatically came on when the car doors opened had already dimmed, and the darkness from outside helped conceal I was a blushing mess.
Aidan started up the car and pulled out. "Dem-"
"Let's play some music," I cut him off quickly and turned on the radio. I fiddled with the stations until I settled on a pop station.
Aidan made a face and gave me a look. "Really?"
"I like mainstream music," I shrugged.
I personally didn't understand why people who weren't into mainstream disliked pop music so much. Sure, most of it lacked any real meaning but in my opinion music didn't have to have meaning to be considered good. If it was fun and gave me the urge to breakout in dance it was good to me.
The new Justin Bieber song that had me dancing a little bit in my seat came to an abrupt end, and I pouted. I hated when I turned on the radio and a song I liked was finishing.
"Thank God," Aidan muttered loudly.
I glared at him. "That was a good song."
"Nothing by Justin Bieber is good."
"You're such a hater," I huffed. "It was a very good song. You're just being biase-," I suddenly let out a shriek when the DJ stopped talking, and the next song started playing.
Aidan slammed on the brakes in the middle of the, thankfully, empty road which caused us both to lurch forward in our seats.
"What?" He asked, looking at me incredulously.
"This is my favorite song."
Aidan swore loudly and started driving again. "Don't do that. You could've killed us."
I paid no mind to his dramatics and started dancing like crazy in my seat, wiggling my butt and flipping my hair.
"Oh don't you dare like back just keep your eyes on me I said you're holding back she said shut up and dance with me this women is my destiny she said oh oh ohhhhhh shut up and dance with me."
I sang along to the lyrics in very loudly and very off key.
Sometimes I really wished I was able to sing as well as I was able to dance seeing how I loved to sing.
I heard laughter and looked over to see Aidan glancing over at me in amusement.
"What's so funny?" I asked innocently, continuing my little dance.
"You," he chuckled, shaking his head. "You should see yourself right now."
"I'm sure I look stupid," I allowed, cranking down the window so the wind was blowing my hair.
"Cute works too."
I giggled nervously at his flirtatious comment and turned up the music to the radio.
By the time my song ended we had arrived to the woods. Aidan had driven the car through a trail and parked in the middle of the clearing.
I opened the door and hopped out. I looked up at the sky and sighed in appreciation. I loved being able to see the stars and this place seemed to be the best place to gaze at them.
Aidan walked over to my side after climbing out and took my hand, leading me to the back of the truck. I took a deep breath trying not to pass out.
Every time Aidan put a hand on me, especially when I didn't prepare myself to make contact with his skin, my brain seemed to tell every internal organ to work ten times harder to keep me alive. For example, my heart went into immediate overdrive as soon as his hand twined with my own. I was dreadfully hopeless.
I stopped by the bed of the truck and watched Aidan unlock the back.
"Climb in," he motioned.
I nodded and attempted to lift myself up and into the back. I failed miserably.
The advantage to the whole dancing thing was that my lower body structure was always at an all time high. The disadvantage was that I never worked on my upper body so it was pretty much as useless as a newborn baby's.
I heard Aidan snort behind me at what I could only assume was a comical scene. I stopped trying to lift myself up and turned to glare at him.
"You're an asshole," I complained.
"Don't lie, it's what draws you in," he flashed me a pearly white grin before turning me around by the shoulders.
I squealed in surprised when he took my waist in both of his hands and lifted me into the truck. I scrambled further in and shot him a look.
"A warning would have been nice."
"You're welcome," he rolled his eyes and lifted himself onto the back with way too much ease for my liking.
"Show off," I grumbled.
Aidan laughed, shaking his head and closed off the back of the truck.
I examined my surroundings. The back was pretty much empty besides a lone tire in the left upper corner as well as a thick blue blanket and two pillows.
"Oh yay!" I grabbed the pillows and the blanket and stood up to set them up properly. "Did you plan on coming here?" I asked curiously. "If so, was the comment about me not having any plans for us earlier really necessary? You just like being difficult don't you?"
"I only know how to be difficult," he said, not answering my former question.
I sat back down when I had adjusted the pillows and blanket to my liking and slid under the thick fabric, immediately feeling warm. I laid back on my pillow and looked at Aidan expectantly who had been silently watching me the whole time.
"Come," I commanded, patting the spot next to me. "I don't have cooties you know."
"You sure?" Aidan asked, but sliding under the covers nonetheless.
I stared up at the ink dark sky that was littered with flecks of light. It always amazed me how the sky could hold so many large balls of energy. In all honestly, I didn't like thinking about it too much because then I started wondering just how far the sky stretched, and if it ever came to an end, and if there was an end what was after the end? Did the universe just stop there? Did another universe pick up and continue going on? Did that universe have an end?
The whole thing gave me a very bad headache and ended up putting me in an agitated mood, so instead of worrying about what the universe held, I just admired the stars.
"I love looking at the stars," I said out loud. "They're so pretty, don't you think?"
"Beautiful," he murmured.
I glanced over at him to see his eyes on me and smiled. "Right? I love how the flecks of light shine so brightly down on Earth. It's so cool because they're so far away."
I looked back up at the sky and watched it peacefully. "This is better than any party I could've gone too."
"Parties aren't fun unless you're drunk," Aidan agreed. "Which is why I don't go to much of them."
"You don't like getting drunk?" I looked at him in disbelief. I would assume, just by the way he acts, he was one of those people who enjoyed getting trashed.
"I don't like drinking, period," he said, his eyes set on the sky.
"Why not?"
"Alcoholism," he said quietly. "Has a long history in my family. I won't be jumping on that train anytime soon."
My eyes widened and darted across his emotionless face.
"Wha- what do you mean?" I inquired, my curiosity burning like an out of control forest fire.
Aidan immediately began shaking his head. "No, forget it. Forget I said anything."
"Oh," I tried not to look too disappointed. "Well, okay. If you don't want to talk about it, then that's fine. I understand."
"It's just a long story," he mumbled, glancing quickly at me and then away.
"I have time," I offered him a smile. "I've been told I'm a good listener."
"You are a good listener," Aidan agreed. "I just don't want to burden you with my problems."
"What did I say about the burden thing?" I scolded him. "It's what friends do. You can't just hold things in because you don't want to burden other people. It's not healthy. Everyone needs an outlet, Aidan. Let me be that for you. Let me be your outlet."
Aidan was silent.
"You can trust me," I added in a soft voice.
"Can I?" He asked in a hard voice that had a hint of some unreadable emotions in his voice I couldn't make out.
It made me very sad that Aidan lived a life where he felt he couldn't trust anybody. I wasn't a psychologist by any means, but it was obvious to me that what he had been through with his dad has taught him to lock himself away in this shell. I had only seen him come out of that shell a few times before he locked himself up again.
I was determined to break all the way through the shell.
"Yeah," I nodded. "You can. You can trust me. You know you can."
Wordless minutes ticked by before he finally nodded his head slowly.
"Okay."
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A/N: Cliffhanger! Do y'all think Aidan's gonna open up to Demi? Like really open up to her? Leave your comments in the comment section.
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Thanks for the support and reads loves. It means a lot :)
xxx,
Jess