I do not own Dirty Dancing.

Chapter Twenty Seven

POV Baby

Sort Of Loving Him


I wasn't going to make it to Johnny's tonight. It was after midnight, and Lisa still wasn't asleep. Besides, we'd already had sex twice today. I didn't need to monopolize too much of his time. In fact, I was almost asleep, but then Lisa spoke.

"I've decided to go all the way with Robbie," She says. I believe it, but what I don't believe is that she fully understood what that meant. I lift my head.

"Oh, Lisa, no. Not with someone like him," I insist. Robbie was awful. She had no idea what she was getting into. Robbie was going to use her, and she would come out of it with a broken heart.

"Do you think if we came back here for our tenth anniversary, it would be free?" My Sister giggled.

Lisa doesn't understand. If I told her the truth, she would never believe me. I want to ask how she can think that if he couldn't handle Penny, who never wanted anything but his love, and wouldn't help her when she was pregnant with his child, what made her think Robbie would stick around for her. But Lisa would never believe me.

Instead I try to compare it to the relationship she doesn't know I have with Johnny, "It's- it's just wrong this way. It should be with someone..." I struggle as I try to think of a term that describes our relationship and doesn't make anyone look bad. I wasn't sure if I loved him yet. I think I did, but I wasn't sure, and even if I was, Johnny should be the first person to hear those words. "It should be with someone that..." Even partially admitting it to her is hard, "That you sort of love," I decide. Saying it is easier than I thought, I realized.

"Oh, come on," She snorted, not believing my words, "You don't care about me. You wouldn't care if I humped the entire army. As long as they were on the right side of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. What you care about, is that you're not 'Daddy's girl' anymore. He listens when I talk now. And you hate that." Lisa turns away from me, closing the subject.

I don't say anything more to Lisa. Not about Robbie. She wouldn't listen if I did. He was going to break her heart one day. It was just a matter of time. I suppose that her throwing the thing with my Father in my face was her way of revenge. She didn't know why he was mad at me, but she didn't care, after him hardly paying attention to her. Besides, I'd just told her not to sleep with Robbie. She thought I knew nothing about that topic, so she wouldn't listen to me, and to get me to shut up she said that I didn't really care about her, and that I only cared about my status as 'Daddy's girl'.

For once I fell asleep, wishing I could tell Lisa about my relationship with Johnny. Show her that she didn't have to jump on Robbie just because he was showing an interest in her, or had a promising future. I wish I could tell her that she shouldn't sleep with someone who she didn't really care about.

But I can't, because she could never keep it to herself.

So instead I let myself fall asleep in silence.


When the morning came, I took a walk. The situation with Lisa was weighing heavily on my mind. It needed to be stopped, Robbie was going to break her heart one way or another. It would just be worse if she gave herself to him in that way.

As thoughts of preventing... Lisa's having a sex life... ran through my head, I turned the corner on the path. I was concentrating so heavily on Lisa, that I didn't see the person I was about to run into.

We walked right into each other, colliding head on. It wasn't until I noticed the smell of the cologne, one so familiar I would know it in my sleep, that I looked up to see who I'd run into. Thick dark hair, handsome features, and blue-grey eyes. Johnny. The man himself laughed, "Hey," He was wearing his usual clothing, black pants, dress shoes, and his black tank top. Johnny looked handsome, as always. "Are you okay? You don't normally run into people unless something is bothering you,"

I shook my head, "No, I'm fine. It's just... Lisa's being Lisa," I sigh, still unsure of what to do about the situation.

"What did she do now?"

"Well, now she's decided that she's going to sleep with Robbie." Johnny rolled his eyes at that. My Sister was a ditz, plain and simple. Exasperatedly, I continue, "And when I tried to talk her out of it..."

Johnny finished the sentence for me, with, "She bit your head off,"

I sighed, "Exactly. But then, she's not going to listen to me, is she? Because what do I know about it?" Johnny smiled bittersweetly. We both were aware of the fact that I knew a damn sight more about it than Lisa did. I changed the topic. He didn't need to hear about Lisa. "I'm sorry, I couldn't make it last night. She wouldn't fall asleep," I explain. There could be only one she in that scenario, and Johnny knew it as well as I did. That situation was one to think about for another time. But her sleeping with Robbie did need to be stopped. Just not now. Not with Johnny standing before me. I didn't need to think about Lisa's relationship when I had my own to concentrate on.

"That's okay," He says. "It's not your fault. Besides, we already met earlier that day," He said, thinking back to when I'd come over in the rain to play 'Charades'. With a childish thought, it makes me want to giggle.

I see that his eyes dart all over the place. Looking for people, I realized. We can't be seen together, but no one's here. Johnny pulls me closer to him, and pressed his lips to mine. I feel a thrill in my stomach, and kiss him back. The kiss is soft, and light. Like a morning kiss between spouses, familiar, trusting, even routine. When we finally break, he takes my hand and says, "Come on," Dragging me through the woods.

"Where are we going?" I ask him, laughing.

Johnny smirked, "Well, you're my girl, so I figured I'd take you dancing,"

"Good thing you happen to be a Dance Instructor," I laugh.

He looks around, and steals a kiss, "Come on."

I grin all the way to the dance studio, thinking along the way that I could very well be in love with him. I wouldn't mind so much.