Characters: Tyler Gage, Nora Clark, (Andrew)
Rating: G
Word-count: 1 024
Disclaimer: I own nothing. This story is based on the characters and situations created and owned by Touchstone Pictures, Summit Entertainment and various producers/choreographers. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Andrew's Back
By Hannah
He'd realised something was wrong the second he stepped back into the rehearsal room. None of the dancers were up and practicing their moves like they normally did whenever he or Nora wasn't showing them something. They were sitting in smaller groups, stretching.
He looked around and spotted Nora standing at the back, talking to someone. His heart stopped.
Andrew.
A no-crutches-and-no-bandage Andrew.
Willing himself to not jump to conclusions, he crossed the room, heading for Nora, deciding not to wait for her to come to him. He could hear Nora telling Andrew "That's great" -- although she didn't sound too happy.
"Hey Tyler."
He nodded once, acknowledging he'd heard Andrew's hello, but he was focusing on Nora's face. "Hey... What, what are you back?" he asked, realising he wasn't going to get an answer out of Nora.
"Yeah, yeah, feeling a lot better."
He quenched the urge to punch the smug look off Andrew's face.
"Thanks for filling in for me, man."
He couldn't believe this! 'Filling in'? After everything he's done, all the time he spent on this, some ballerina-man with sissy shoes was going to waltz back in and kick him out? And why wasn't Nora defending him?!
"Um... Can you give us a sec?"
All she could say was 'can you give us a sec'? No 'he's done a fabulous job, Andrew, maybe we should talk about who's going to be in the showcase'? Just a 'can you give us a sec'.
"Sure."
He ignored the look Nora gave him as Andrew walked away but followed her further back. He could hear Andrew go and sit down with the group in the middle of the floor, with Luce, and they all sounded cheery. Like they were thrilled to have Andrew back. Thrilled to kick him out.
He'd be damned if he spoke first, though, so he waited for Nora to start. He tried not to look at her, because he knew she could pacify him with one look.
"I didn't think he was coming back, he hasn't even been here."
She sounded small, like a little girl, and it immediately tugged at his heart. He cursed himself for letting Nora be his weakness, but he couldn't resist her, he never could. So he could only let out a deep breath through his nose and keep his arms at his sides to not wrap them around her.
"I don't know what to do."
"So he's back." He knew she didn't need him stating the facts, but he couldn't help saying it. "Where does that leave me?"
He needed to make it real for himself, needed to see it in her face that this wasn't just in his head but the truth -- Andrew was really back and he was going to get kicked back into janitor-duty and be forced to leave Nora, because she wouldn't want him as a janitor. He didn't want her to want him as a janitor.
Looking into her face, he realised that she really didn't and it stung. He shook his head, his pride wounded. He turned to leave. "You don't have to say anything."
"Wait!"
No, he shouldn't stop for her, but he did anyway.
"What does that mean?"
He turned towards her again, wanting to scream at her, wanting to make her see Andrew couldn't replace him. What came out of his mouth wasn't screaming, he could never scream at her. "I can't believe I bought into all this bullshit..."
He took a step closer to her, ignoring the shocked look in her eyes.
"You were really gonna turn your back on me?"
She shook her head. "That's not what I'm doing, Tyler. Andrew is a student here, he's a senior..."
That was the point, wasn't it? Andrew went here, could do anything other than this, but without Nora backing him up, he himself had nothing. He'd go back to being a no-good punk who everyone looked down on. With Nora backing him up he'd at least gotten credit for being a good dancer, for being a good person.
"You're just like Brett, you just use people and then you dump 'em!"
He knew it was a low blow, but it hurt to see that she wasn't defending him, that she wasn't trying to make this better, make everything okay.
"What?" She sounded incredulous. "Why are you making it sound like that? It's not even the same situation and you know it!"
"So how is it not?!" he raised his voice at her, drowning her out. She knew it was just like with Brett and Miles! "Have I just been filling in for Andrew?"
He knew the others were watching, that Andrew was watching, but he couldn't care, he was hurt and she needed to know that, how could she not know what this meant to him?
When she didn't shout back at him, when she only deflated, he knew he'd made his point, he'd won. But this was the one time he didn't want to win, the one time he'd needed to be beaten.
"That's not fair."
He couldn't react to her sad voice, not now. It wasn't working on him now but if he stayed it would. He had to leave before she got to him so he turned and started to walk away. "I'm out." He knew deep down he wanted her to protest and make him stop, say something good to make him stay.
"Tyler!"
His name wasn't going to work. He needed to hear something concrete.
"Tyler, wait!"
He still wasn't going to stop.
"Give me a second to figure this out!"
He walked past Andrew sitting with Luce and the others, all of them watching him leave, making no move to stop him. That hurt too, to see that they would turn their back on him at the drop of a hat. He'd thought they were cool with him -- liked him, even -- but apparently he'd been wrong.
It hurt to be wrong and at the same time right.
It hurt and he had a feeling he wasn't going to feel good again for a long time.
Author's Note: Review's make me happy!