Chapter 25
I'm laying down on the couch watching tv. I came straight home after the show was over. I have been home a couple hours. I hear a nock on the door. I get up and look through the hole to see who it is. To my surprise its Derek. I open the door and let him in.
" Well this is a surprise, I wasn't expecting you to come over." I say
" Yeah, I just wanted to come over and talk." he says
" Okay."
We walk into the living room and sit down on the couch. I turn the tv off and turn my body to face him. He has my full attention.
" I cooked some supper if your hungry its on the stove."
" I'm fine, thanks though."
" So, what did you want to talk about?" I ask him
" Well I just wanted to make sure we were okay."
" We are fine. Or at least I thought we were?"
" I just wanted to make sure you weren't still mad about earlier."
" I'm not anymore. I was pretty pissed off."
" Yes, I definitely could tell. Mark was pretty pissed too."
" He should have been. You dancing was pretty stupid while your neck is still hurting."
" Your right. Now that I have thought about it I shouldn't have done it. My neck just wasn't hurting at that moment so I thought it would be okay to dance again. I just want to dance with you so bad. I don't want Mark to come in and take my place for a whole week."
" He's not going to take your place. He is just filling in and then you will be back again."
" But what if I don't get better and he has to finish the season with you? That would be awful."
I get up from the couch and walk over to him. I sit down and straddle his waist. I think I take him by surprise because he looks shocked. I wrap my arms around his neck and give him a kiss on the lips.
" Derek, your going to have to have a little bit of faith in your body. We will take this one day at a time. We're in this together and I love you."
He leans in and wraps his arms around my waist. He kisses my forehead, cheeks, nose and then my lips.
" I'm so lucky to have you. I love you too."
I keep my arms around his neck. I lay my head in the crook of his neck, of course the side that's not hurt.
" Am I hurting you?" I ask
" No, I love snuggling with you."
" Good because I do too."
" So I have been thinking about telling people that we are dating." I say
I sit up in his lap so I can look at him while we're talking.
" And?"
" I don't think we should tell anybody."
" Why have you changed your mind all of a sudden?"
" I have been thinking about it for a couple days. When I found out Mark was going to be filling in it kind of just changed everything. I think it would be weird for him if he knew we were dating. I also don't want people thinking it's a put on just because we want to get more votes. I mean I could just imagine what practice would be like this whole week if Mark found out. It would be really awkward."
" I understand where your coming from. We should just wait till after the show is over before we tell anybody. If Mark starts flirting with you I will loose it."
" He's not going to be flirting with me." I say laughing
" He better not."
We lay there together for a few minutes before Derek's starts talking.
" Well I'm fixing to head home. Mark is coming over for a little bit so we can talk about the dance."
" Okay."
I get up from his lap and walk him to the door. I open the door and lean against it to hold it open.
" I will see you tomorrow at practice." Derek says
" Okay what time?"
" 8:00. Your going to have to get used to having a new partner so this week might be more difficult."
" Hopefully not."
I reach up so he doesn't have to bend down and softly give him a hug. I then kiss him on the lips.
" Bye." he says
" Bye."
I decide to take a quick shower and then head to bed. Going to be a long day tomorrow.
I wake up Wednesday morning nervous about practice. I take another shower and get my hair and make up done. I fix me a quick breakfast and then head to practice. On the way to the studio all I can think about is Derek and Mark. I hope this week goes good and Derek gets better so we can get back to dancing with each other. Its going to be weird to walk in the studio and dance with Mark. I arrive at the studio and see Derek and Mark's car in the parking lot. I pull in and park beside Derek. I walk into our practice room and Mark instantly comes running up and engulfs me in a hug.
" Hey Shawny, I have missed you. We are going to have some fun today." he says while swinging me around.
I look over at Derek and he looks like he is about to kill someone. He is staring us down so I smile shyly at him.
" Hey Mark."
When he sits me down I walk over to the steps where Derek is sitting. I put my bags down beside him and then sit down. " Hey Derek."
" Hello." he replies coldly
" How is your neck feeling?" I ask
" Its okay for now."
" Okay."
I get up and go sit in front of the mirror to stretch before we start dancing. Mark is sitting on the steps talking to Derek. Derek still looks like he could kill him. I get done stretching and walk over to them.
" So, are we ready to start?" I ask them
" Yeah, if you are." Mark replies
We walk onto the middle of the floor and Derek stays seated on the steps. Derek starts talking and explaining some of the dance. I can tell he is still pissed and Mark and I dancing together is not helping at all.
" I have missed dancing with you." Mark whispers to me
" Me too. You and Derek dance so different from each other."
Derek gets up from the steps and walks over to us.
" Ya'll are going to have to quit talking and start listening to me. Shawn your not doing the steps right and Mark your not doing it right either."
" Sorry bro."
" Yeah sorry."
" Well stop being sorry and do the steps again." Derek yells
I jump a little bit when he hollers. He walks back over to the steps and sits down. I cant get upset about him being mad I know he is just taking being mad at Mark out on me.
" Okay, now again." Derek says
We do the steps again and Derek is actually pleased with it. He teaches us a little bit more.
" Wonder what has his panties in a bunch?" Marks says
" I don't know." I say giggling
If Mark only new it was him Derek was mad at. Derek is sitting on the steps rubbing his neck while we practice the moves. I can tell his neck is hurting him pretty bad. He explains some more of the steps to us and so far we have almost learned half of the dance.
" Lets take a break." Marks says
" Okay."
We walk over to the steps and sit down beside Derek. He is still rubbing his neck.
" Are you okay? Do you need some ice?" I ask
" No I'm fine."
" Dude, you don't look fine. You look like your in pain. I'm going to go get you some ice." Mark says
Mark gets up and walks out of the room to get a bag of ice.
" Have I done something to piss you off?" I ask him
" No, everything is fine."
" Fine then if you don't want to talk we don't have to." I say
I get up and walk out of the room. I walk up to the rooftop to think a little bit. When I get up there I sit down on the ground and pull out my phone to check my messages. I felt it vibrating a lot in my pocket but with the mood Derek is in I wasn't going to check it. I look at the messages and its none other than Ryan. I have 5 from him. They all say the same thing.
It says " Shawn, I have been telling you for almost a month how much I miss you and still love you. Can you please meet me for lunch or dinner. I really don't care where we meet. I just want to see you."
I decide not to even text him back. I couldn't do that to Derek by going and meeting him and I honestly don't want to see him. I just wish he would go away. I know that's not going to happen but a girl can wish. I walk back down stairs and into our practice room. Mark and Derek are both sitting on the steps talking when I walk in.
" Where did you go?" Mark asks
" I went to the rooftop to think a little bit." I say
I walk over to the steps and set my phone down beside my bag.
" Are you ready to go over those steps again?" Marks asks
" Yeah, if you are."
Mark grabs my hand and I follow him onto the floor. We practice the moves for a good 25 minutes and then take another break. I can hear Mark's stomach growling. We walk over to the steps and Mark sits down beside my phone. It vibrates again and Mark looks over at it. Before I can reach down and grab it Mark grabs it.
" Your talking to that jackass again?" he says
" No, he keeps texting me. I haven't replied."
" Good you shouldn't. You can do so much better than him. He seems pretty obsessed you have 6 messages from him."
I snatch my phone away from him and look over at Derek. He looks even more pissed off than he did earlier.
" Mark please just shut up about it. I haven't talked to him and I'm not planning on it."
" Okay fine. I'll shut up."
" Thank you."
If Mark and I weren't such good friends I would be pissed off that he read who it was from. I read the texts from Ryan and again they all say the same thing. " I can see that you read my message. Please text me back. I have come to every show and this Monday I'm going to talk to you. Please meet me somewhere."
I lay my phone back down on my bag.
" Do ya'll want to go get something to eat?" Mark asks
" Sure." I say
" No I'm fine." Derek says
" Oh come on. Come with us." Mark replies
" Fine."
I grab my phone and follow Mark and Derek out of the studio. We decide to take Derek's car. Mark walks over to the passenger side and opens the door for me. I look up at Derek and he rolls his eyes. I slide into the car and Mark sits in the back. This is probably the most awkward car ride ever. Derek drives all the way to the little café we usually go to. The whole time nobody talks. Thank goodness it isn't that far away. We get there in no time. Mark jumps out of the car and opens my door for me again. I get out and we all walk into the café. We walk up and order our food.
" Good afternoon Miss Johnson and Mr. Hough. Nice to have you back. Do you want the usual?"
" Yes." we both say at the same time
Mark orders his food. The cashier has the food on 3 separate orders.
" I'll pay for yours Shawn. It was my idea to come here. Bro, your on your on." Marks says
" No there is no need to. I'll pay for mine."
Mark hands the cashier the money.
" You didn't have to pay but thank you." I say
" Anytime." Mark says
We walk over to a little booth and of course Mark sits down beside me.
" I'm going to use the bathroom." Mark says
He gets up and leaves and I look over at Derek. I can tell he is pretty pissed off.
" I know your mad."
" Yup, on a scale of 1-100 I'd say I'm about 100000. I have to sit there all day at practice and watch my best friend flirt with you and then I find out from him that your talking to your ex."
" First of all I'm not talking to Ryan. I said earlier that I didn't reply to the message. Second of all Mark is not flirting with me."
" What do you call opening the door for you, paying for your food, and making you laugh with all his little jokes? I sure as hell see that as flirting."
" I don't know but I can tell you one thing. You're my damn boy friend, shouldn't you be doing that for me?"
My phone vibrates on the table.
" Let me guess, that's Ryan again. Isn't it? Don't lie to me."
" Yes it is, do you also want to know what it says? It says " Shawn, I miss you so much. I don't think you understand how much I love you. I want to see you. Please meet me." That's what it says but hell at least one person in this damn world wants to see me!"
I see Mark walking back over to the table. He slides in beside me. I wipe the tear that has fell down my cheek.
" What's wrong with you?"
" Nothing, please just let me out of the booth. I'm not that hungry anymore."
When he gets up and lets me out I run out of the café. I sit down on the bench out side. I put my elbows on my knees and just let my tears fall. That was the first real argument Derek and I have had. It got pretty bad. I hear the door open and look up and its Mark. He walks over and sits down beside me. I lean back and he wraps his arm around my shoulder. I lean my head on his should and continue crying.
" Are you okay? I have never seen you like this before."
" Yeah, I'm fine. I don't want to talk about it. Are we fixing to leave?"
" I don't know. Derek is still eating."
" Are you kidding me?"
" No, I'm serious."
I lean into his shoulder and cry harder. He is just sitting in there eating like nothing has happened and everything is perfectly fine. Well I guess it is for him. He starts dating some girl that's 7 years younger than him. I probably don't even mean that much to him. Mark and I sit there for what feels like forever before Derek comes outside. I have stopped crying by then.
" Ya'll ready to go?"
" Yeah. We have been for a while." Mark says
" Sorry, I wanted to finish eating."
" It's okay."
Mark and I stand up and he grabs my hand and walks me to the car. Derek is following behind us. Mark walks to the passenger side.
" I'm going to sit in the back. You can sit up there with him" I say
" Ohkayy." Mark replies
Derek drives us back to the studio. I look out the window the whole time but I can feel him staring a hole threw my body. He is looking at me threw his rear view mirror. Its driving me crazy. When we get back to the parking lot after he stops I jump out of the car. I walk into our practice room and grab my bag and then walk back out. I meet Derek and Mark in the hallway.
" Where are you going?" Mark asks
" I'm going home. I don't feel like practicing right now."
" Okay, I'll call you later." he says
He walks up to me and gives me a hug. I don't even take the time to glance up at Derek. When he lets go I turn around and run back to my car. When I get to my car I jump in and just let out a big scream. How can my life go from perfect last night to being like shit today. I wish I could hit rewind. It takes me about 20 minutes to get back to my apartment. I drop my bag off in the floor and walk to the sofa. I lay down and fall asleep. I'm just mentally exhausted from crying.
I wake up and check my phone and its 5:00. I have been asleep for 4 hours. I have 9 missed calls from Derek, 5 from Mark, and 8 messages from Ryan. I decide to just ignore all of them. If I call Mark he will want to know why I was crying. I don't want to talk to Derek at the moment and I sure as heck don't want to talk to Ryan. I go and jump in the shower. When I get out I put my clothes on and then I hear a knock on the door. I check and see who it is and its Ryan. I open the door.
" How the hell did you find out where I live?"
" Your pretty popular. It wasn't really that hard. Are you going to let me in?"
" No."
" Please give me 5 minutes. I will leave after that."
" Only 5 and it starts now."
I open the door and go and sit down on the couch. I can hear Ryan walking behind me. He sits down on the couch across form me. It's a good thing he decide to keep his distance.
" So, you have 4 minutes now." I say
" You wont answer my calls or text messages. You don't go out and party much so I had no way of talking to you other than showing up here."
" Yeah that's a pretty good sign I don't want to talk to you if I ignore you."
" I understand that but I want to talk to you. I have been to the show to watch you dance every week and every time I just miss you more and more. I want you back. I love you."
" Ryan, I have told you before that we cant be together. We just aren't good for each other."
" You are great for me. I have never met anyone better for me than you."
" I guess the girl you cheated on me with was better than me. Or you obviously thought so."
" That was a mistake and we didn't even do anything. I have apologized for that so many times."
" That's not exactly what I heard and at this point I'm so glad I didn't have sex with you. I definitely wouldn't have wanted to catch some disease. If you really loved me you would have waited on me till I was ready. But no you had to go find some other girl to have sex with."
" We didn't do anything."
" You cant expect me to believe that you met her at a bar and you were drunk but you just talked. There is more to the story than that. We lived in a small town and word travels fast."
" That was our biggest problem was that you didn't trust me."
" Who would have blamed me? Before that little incident I had heard you had cheated on me before. But I didn't think my Ryan would have done that to me."
" I don't know where you heard any of that shit, but they were all wrong."
" It doesn't even matter anymore. The past is in the past."
" I just want a second chance."
" Ryan, this would be like the 50th chance."
" Just one more."
" I cant do it. I can not put myself through that again. Besides my family you were my world. I couldn't wait to come home to you everyday and see your smiling face. You made me happy and I thought we were going to get married. Hell, I could even picture us having a big family and being so happy. I thought you were my soul mate."
I wipe the tears that are falling down my cheeks. Before Ryan can respond I hear a knock on the door.
" Hold on, I got to get that." I say
I walk to the door and look through the hole. Its Derek. This day just keeps getting better and better. I open the door.
" Derek, what do you want?"
" I want to talk to you. We need to talk this out."
" Right now is not a good time. You should go."
" I'm not leaving. We have to talk about this."
" Please, just come back later but not right now."
" Is he here?"
" Who?"
" Ryan."
Derek comes in and walks into the living room. I run to catch up with him. He looks down at Ryan sitting on the couch.
" So we have a fight and you run back to him? Is that how its going to be?" Derek asks angrily
" No, that's not how it is. He just showed up here and I gave him 5 minutes to talk."
" You were crying because of him when you opened the door? Not because we had a huge fight?"
" And you made us stay an extra 30 minutes at the café so you could finish your damn sandwich? Not to mention I was bawling my eyes out and your just sitting in there eating like it was no big deal."
" I'm sorry but who are you?" Ryan asks
" I'm Derek the boyfriend and your Ryan the ex right?"
" Yes and did you say boyfriend?"
" Yeah I did actually. Boy-Friend. Sound it out there buddy."
" Oh I know who you are. You're the dance partner."
" Yeah and the boyfriend."
" Okay, I get it."
" Yes, please lets remember that while your talking to my girlfriend about getting back together with her."
" She didn't say anything about a boyfriend."
" Oh really."
" We discussed this last night that we were not telling anybody." I say
" Yeah but I at least figured that if your ex showed up you would tell him that you are happily take. You don't have to tell him who its none of his business. He lost that when ya'll broke up."
" I didn't have a chance to tell him any of that because you showed up."
" Well I can leave so ya'll can talk about fixing your problems."
He turns around and walks away. I catch his arm when he is at the door, and I gently turn him around to me.
" Don't go. Ryan and I are done talking. I want to talk to you. Not him." I say through tears
" Its pretty obvious ya'll weren't done talking. I wouldn't want to interrupt you."
" Would you stop being a stubborn ass and listen to me."
Before he can reply I see Ryan walking up behind me.
" Listen dude, if your going to be making her cry maybe you should leave." Ryan says
" I know your not talking to me. I will kick your ass." Derek replies
They walk towards each other and are nose to nose. I quickly walk in between them and push Derek back away from Ryan.
" Please don't do this. I don't want you getting in a fight with him."
I reach up to kiss his cheek and he turns away.
" Okay, then if that's how your going to be I want you to leave. Not only you but both of you. And before you go lets get one thing straight. I love you and only you. I haven't been this hurt before in a long time. I really hope that we can talk about this after you calm down. I don't want to let something this great just go away. And for you Ryan, I'm not getting back together. You had your chance and you messed it up. I have forgiven you but I cant forget about the past. I am happily dating Derek. We have had the perfect relationship up until today. Now you both can leave."
I back away from Derek and Ryan is the first one to leave. Derek looks at me one more time and then leaves. I sink to the floor and just start bawling. I cant believe this has just happened.
Hope you liked this chapter. I almost cried while writing the fighting parts. I had to give it a little bit of drama. Please review! - Mallory