Author's Note: I really enjoyed writing this chapter so I hope you like it as much as I do. I get Brittana feels from the song used for their duet so I wanted them to dance to it so badly. I particularly like the scene in the dressing room ;) haha. Enjoy! ~ KennyEchelon

Left My Heart on the Dancefloor Chapter 10

I met Britt backstage and she literally jumped on me, squeezing her legs around my waist tightly. I blushed furiously and started to buckle under the sudden weight. It wasn't that she was heavy, she wasn't, but I was totally not prepared for her to have just pounced on me like that.

She let go, panting heavily due to the amount of energy she'd exerted over the last half an hour. I handed her the bottle of water I'd brought for her and she downed it as if she hadn't seen a drink for days. "C'mon Sanny! We need to get ready for our duet now!"

Oh, that…

It'd been weighing on my mind practically all the time when I wasn't thinking about Brittany or our other dance. I was more nervous for this than I was for the Lima Heights cheerleader tryouts and that was saying something. I didn't want to look bad next to Britt and I definitely didn't want to let her down.

If I messed up, I'd bring her down with me and risk her chances of getting an aggregate prize. She had a few solos in other sections after the duets but she had them in the bag for sure. I wasn't worried about that because she'd already performed them in previous years and had scored highly so she was going to win despite whatever the other schools threw at her.

I was the only thing that was going to get in her way and it scared the shit out of me.

What if I ruined things and she didn't want to be my best friend anymore? What if she got mad at me for screwing things up? The thought of her mad at me was too painful to even think about. I'd seen her mad before, but it was always directed at someone else. She would occasionally bitch about someone at school who'd annoyed her and I would cheer her up, but that angriness directed at me? It was not something I wanted to consider.

I didn't show what I was thinking but Britt squeezed my pinky anyway and then dragged me to the dressing room while holding my hand. We changed into our matching costumes, deep pink halter-neck leotards which tied at the back in a criss-cross pattern with a matching cerise skirt which came to just below our knees. I could've sworn that I caught Brittany looking at me as I got into my tan fishnets but I convinced myself otherwise and continued getting ready.

It was difficult to tie up the back straps without assistance so Britt turned around and I helped her. She could tie it up around her neck because her arms were long and flexible. I couldn't reach mine though, so Britt faced me and lifted the straps up past my boobs. I felt my heart struggling to escape my chest when she moved closer, putting her arms around my neck to tie them. She was close enough to feel my strong heartbeat but too close for me to see the blush on her face. The pressure of her arms on my chest and shoulders was painfully obvious. My face heated up as she moved closer, her forehead against mine and our lips so close.

I wanted to kiss her. I wanted to kiss her so bad.

Torn between pressing my lips against hers and pulling away, I stayed completely frozen where I was. I figured if she wanted to kiss me too she'd make a move. She finished tying my leotard and moved back away, appearing flustered. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were over-bright. "Let me put your make-up on for you" I offered, trying to awkwardly change the subject. I applied a fresh coat of light brown eyeshadow and eyeliner then smoothed cherry red lipstick onto the same lips I wanted to feel so much.

We finished getting ready and walked up to the stage together. I had no idea what the hell had happened in the dressing room but I was trying not to think about it too much. I had to focus on this dance. My mind couldn't help wandering back to how close her lips had been though.

I was practically wetting myself with nerves as we walked onstage but I mentally reminded myself that I was the one who needed to be confident at that point. Despite what had just happened, I needed to do this for her. In fact, what went on in the changing room made me need to more. I had feelings for her, strong feelings that I couldn't deny. I'd wanted to kiss her more than I'd ever wanted to kiss any guy in my life.

We took our positions center-stage in classical pose. Our dance started with our palms meeting and moving upwards with our eye-line. The song we were dancing to was 'Drops of Jupiter' by Train and although I probably wouldn't have listened to it myself, it was surprisingly beautiful. A small voice in the back of my head mentioned that the lyrics described Britt perfectly. I tried not to listen to it.

I realized our dance teacher probably did that deliberately. Did she know? She'd seen me smile after Britt loads of times. Had she guessed?

I re-focused on my steps, determined to look as good as I could so I wouldn't seem like a beached whale next to Brittany. Why did I agree to dance with her? Oh yeah, because she asked me to and I couldn't say no to her. I cursed myself for being so whipped.

We danced, our bodies moving around each other. Britt looked phenomenal, her long blonde hair trailing behind her as we leaped and turned. She developpéd to the side slowly; her leg reaching higher than ninety degrees. I heard an intake of breath from some members of the audience and I couldn't help but smirk. She was flexible, alright.

We executed arabesque lines on demi-pointe one after the other followed by Britt lifting me in a circular motion around her. I relaxed, and let my head bury itself into the crook of her neck. Our legs flew up into high kicks and Britt fell into a controlled lay-out and I copied, before landing on the floor and rolling to face the other side of the stage before standing. The dance was about to finish so we leap-turned, our arms circling our heads to the center and ran to face each other diagonally.

We placed our left hands on each other's opposite shoulder, our heads resting on the other shoulder. Our other hands were gripping our right foot and we lifted them as high as we could until they were fully stretched.

Applause erupted and I breathed a massive sigh of relief. I'd done it. I'd managed not to make an ass of myself. But I wasn't entirely safe yet.

A short while later the results were called. I was almost vibrating with anxiety and Brittany put her hand on my shoulder to try and calm me down. When that didn't work, she took my hand and squeezed tightly. The feel of her skin against mine made my heart rate spike within less than a second. My breathing grew shallow and fast. I was desperate for more oxygen. After about a minute I managed to calm my pulse but straight after, the adjudicator stood up to call the results.

3rd place… not us. My stomach clenched hard.

2nd place… not us. Oh god, what if I messed up?

1st place…

"and first place goes to… Pierce and Lopez from Lima Academy!"

"I chose you because I loved how well you moved together. You seemed to fit perfectly and although there was a slight imbalance with flexibility and technique, you played to each dancer's strengths so well it was practically unnoticeable. The chemistry between the two of you as dancers was amazing. You must be really close to make that believable."

Britt put her chin on my shoulder and I look at her warmly, my eyes melting. Huge grins were plastered all over our faces. "We won, Britt-Britt!" I whispered excitedly into her ear and it seemed to fully sink in. She jumped up and down squealing and hugged me hard.

Brittany, in front of the entire audience, planted a kiss on my cheek and I stood frozen, not knowing to react. My cheeks flushed pink and after I snapped out of it, I hugged her back as if I hadn't been in her presence for weeks. I was so happy, so happy in fact, that nothing else mattered.

They handed us our medals and I gripped mine like I was scared to let go. This was the best moment of my life.