One Step Closer

Chapter 4

Layla had never been the type of person to demand attention from the opposite sex. If a guy liked her, he liked her, if he didn't he didn't, it didn't bother her. She knew she was attractive on the outside but in her three past relationships, none of them had really taken time to get to know the person on the inside. But unbeknownst to her, someone was becoming very interested in her and not just the outside part. Oblio was watching her from a distance as she danced with a random guy. He'd found himself unable to take his eyes off her since the moment she walked up to him and called him a jerk.

"Hey Bodie, who's that?" he asked as Bodie brushed past him.

"Oh that's Layla, she's cool. She runs a dance school in the city." he revealed. "Why?"

"No reason I just, wanted to know who she was that's all." Oblio replied.

"Right." Bodie laughed, tapping him on the shoulder.

"It's not like that at all." Oblio assured him again. Bodie sighed, laughing as he walked away.

With Bodie gone Oblio returned his attention to Layla. However she soon noticed the way he was looking at her and smiled. He immediately looked away but knew the damage had already been done. He silently grabbed a drink before walking off outside with the aim of avoiding her.

Half way through the night, Joanna found herself actually enjoying this party. When she told her sister to bring her along, it was only so she could see a certain someone. She never expected she'd actually be enjoying herself. It was of course no surprise to her to see her sister was having a good time no, a really good time.

"Hey Jo, you having fun?" asked Layla as Joanna walked over to her.

"Surprisingly yes." she said.

"So are you going to tell me why you so desperately wanted to come to this party?" Layla asked.

"Not yet no." Joanna replied. "I see you're having fun though. How long have you known Emilia and Bodie?"

"About a month, like I said they come over to teach a couple of classes for me at my school, free of charge of course." she revealed. She was thankful the two were so kind about it as well, considering Layla's money issues.

"What do you know about the other crews?" Joanna asked.

"Not much, but they're all good friends." she answered, yet again wondering why her sister wanted to know so much about the City's local dance crews.

"Yo Glitch!" called Mo, dragging the teenager out of his daze. "What's the matter with you?" he asked.

"What? Nothing." Glitch replied, taking a sip of his drink.

"Don't what nothing me, you've had that spaced out look on your face all night." Mo said. "What's up with you?"

"Her." Glitch sighed, knowing Mo wouldn't let it go.

Mo looked in the direction he had pointed and couldn't believe what he was seeing. He recognised that girl from that night Glitch had dragged her onto their stage.

"Oh hell no, what is she doing here?" he wondered.

"Turns out she's here with her sister." Glitch replied. "I never expected to see her again." he said in defence.

"It doesn't matter, you know she's taken so don't bother trying to go after her. I don't need you hung up over some girl, not with the Jam competition coming up." Mo replied, stepping in front of his protégé, blocking Joanna from his view.

"Whatever." Glitch said, pushing past Mo.

Joanna was sitting down when she heard the song begin. The previous one faded out as the new song began and Joanna got the aching feeling to dance. The song was her style. But of course she didn't want to dance alone, so when she saw Glitch over by the food table she smiled. Walking over to him she grabbed his hand, surprising him.

"Whoa, where you taking me?" he asked, as she pulled him along.

"Dance with me." she simply said and she didn't need to ask him twice.

The two entered a small clearing in the middle of the lounge. He needed no instruction when she began to dance to the song 'Ready or not' by Bridgit Mendler.

The two started to dance and naturally they attracted a lot of attention from the surrounding people. Some starting to film it on their phones but mostly, the crowd was enjoying it. Glitch and Joanna didn't take much notice since they were too concentrated on their dancing.

It took Layla a while to realise her sister was object of the crowd's attention. She pushed her way to the front and her eyes widened at what she saw. Her sister was dancing, dancing quite incredibly and she was doing it with Glitch, a member of the Hi-def crew. Surprised was not the right word to describe Layla at that moment. She was too engrossed in their performance.

"Wait I recognise that girl. Isn't that the girl Glitch danced with that night downtown?" asked Angel.

Layla overheard this and listened on.

"It looks like her, what's she doing here?" Miss Aubrey wondered.

"Excuse me, what are you guys talking about?" Layla asked. "That girls my sister."

"What, really, I can't believe I didn't recognise her." Bodie said. "Your sister was at our gig last week downtown. Glitch pulled her in to dance with him and she ended up surprising us all. Is she really your sister?" he asked for confirmation.

"Yeah, that's Joanna." Layla said, utterly stunned. She finally understood the reason why Joanna was so eager to come here. "I don't believe it." she said to herself.

Meanwhile, Joanna was just enjoying the dance. She found it incredibly easy to dance around Glitch. He made her feel comfortable when she was around him. For the first time in a long time every negative emotion she'd had left her body. She wasn't worried about winning a battle, she was just dancing and she felt incredible.

When they finished and the music stopped, they finished, palm to palm, their faces inches away from each other. The sound of the crowds applause was drowned out as Joanna lent in closer towards him. He leant forward too but Joanna pulled away before things got too far, giving him a cheeky smile through her panting.

"Wow." she said, smiling and laughing. "That was good."

"You were amazing. You can really dance Joanna." Glitch replied, recovering from the exercise. "We should-" but he was cut off when Mo pulled him away. "Hey what was that for?"

"What do you call that?" Mo asked him.

"I call that a dance." Glitch replied, shrugging his shoulders. "There's no harm in it."

"I told you not to bother with her."

"You don't get to decide that." Glitch replied, a little harshly.

"Stay away from her, for your own good. There's plenty of other girls out there that aren't taken." Mo advised.

"She not just some girl ok. When I asked her to dance with me that night, I never expected she'd be able to dance like that." he explained. "She's special ok."

Mo sighed, exasperated. "Teenagers." was all he said.

Seeing Glitch was busy Joanna went over to the one person she knew would want to talk to her. Layla pushed through the people complementing her sister so she could finally say something.

"Jo that was incredible." Layla said, hugging her sister. "I had no idea you were that good."

"Yeah well, if you'd stuck around you would have." Joanna replied, a little venom in her tone.

Layla parted from her, her expression of disappointment showed.

"Jo, please I'm trying to make an effort here." Layla said. "I know we have some issues to sort out but-"

"It wasn't that impressive in my opinion." spoke a harsh, female voice. "Too dull for my liking."

The room went silent as Layla and Joanna looked to their right. It didn't take them long to spot two, rather extravagant looking people enter. Layla gathered they were related since the two looked identical. Their blonde hair was styled exactly the same and their outfits said it all.

"Excuse me?" Layla said, offended.

"Hey I don't recall inviting you guys." Emilia said, blocking their pathway. "Please leave." she said, pointing towards the door.

"Relax Emilia Jaryn and I just came to check out this girl everybody keeps talking about." said the guy. Layla didn't like the snobby tone in his voice. "Surely you've seen the video online of her dancing at your little hang out."

This was news to Joanna. What video were they talking about?

"It doesn't matter why you're here Kerith. You weren't invited, so please leave." Bodie said, joining the confrontation.

"If you have a problem with my sister you can deal with me." Layla said defensively.

Jaryn scoffed and said "You're beautiful but not that beautiful." and she sounded exactly like her brother. "Same goes for you." she said, taking a look at Joanna behind her.

"What's your problem Glitterati?" said Glitch, immediately coming to Joanna's defence. "Someone with some talent comes along and you feel threatened?"

"Please, take it from me dear you won't last, not in the big city." Kerith said. "Not with that level of dance." she laughed.

Joanna's high came crashing down. Suddenly she didn't feel so good anymore.

"I have an idea," spoke Oblio, coming out of nowhere, surprising everybody. "How about you and you're unimpressed sister high tail it out of here before we have a problem." he said, defensively.

Joanna suddenly felt sick and ran outside, Glitch followed close behind her. Layla wanted to go but seeing the way Glitch reacted, she opted to stay. She however was surprised to see Oblio come to her defence. She'd heard a lot about him but never really seen him before tonight. The word mysterious came to mind.

"Fine, we'll go but tell that girl she's got our attention. We'll be seeing a lot more of her." Kerith said and Layla resisted the urge to insult him. "Sister, let's go." he said gesturing to Jaryn.

There was silence as they left with people trying to avoid their gaze. The moment they were gone things calmed down and returned to normal.

Outside Joanna resisted the urge to throw up. She had no idea what came over her. Those two, whoever they were, certainly hadn't made her feel welcome. She'd felt sick to her stomach when they'd commented on her dancing.

"Hey Joanna are you ok?" asked Glitch, coming up beside her.

"Who were they?" she questioned him.

"The Glitterati." he said. "Not the friendliest crew in town. Just a pair of rich snobs if you ask me." he laughed, trying to cheer her up. "You can't let anything they said bother you, you were great out there tonight." he said, placing his hand in hers.

Joanna found herself instantly at ease, but the feeling in her stomach was replaced with butterflies.

"Thanks Glitch, I mean it." she said.

"No problem." he replied, unable to take his eyes off her.

He knew what Mo said was right, she was taken, there was no opportunity for him with her but he just couldn't tear himself away. That was until Layla came out to see how her sister was doing.

He immediately tore his hand from hers and stepped away.

"I'll see you around." he said.

"For sure this time." she said with a smile. He returned the gesture before disappearing from view.

"Is it me or have the two of you not been able to stay away from each other all night?" Layla asked, not sure how her sister would respond.

"He was just being nice." Joanna replied. "We met last week."

"Yeah I know, everybody else was telling me about that. Is he the reason you wanted to come here tonight?" Layla asked, even though she already guessed she was right.

"Maybe." was all she said. "Hey do you mind if we go home?"

"Uh yeah sure, it's getting pretty late." Layla said. "Come on, you look exhausted."

She felt exhausted too. What a night this had turned out to be.