I do not own Dirty Dancing.

Chapter Twelve

POV Penny

Hungry Eyes

"Head up," I hear Johnny tell Baby while they Mambo across the studio. He lifted one arm from the frame and pushed up her chin, as she had been staring down at her feet. Part of me believed that Baby would've done it in a second or two, but a little voice in the back of my head said that Johnny just wanted another excuse to touch her, weather he was conscious of it or not. Johnny was the most tactile person I knew, especially when it came to Baby. "Lock your frame," Johnny warned, "Lock it! Lock it!"

Johnny stopped, and touched her arm, "Look, spaghetti arms!" He criticized. Johnny stepped back before launching into the latest lecture he was giving Baby, "This is my dance space." Johnny gesture in front of him, and then in front of her, "This is yourdance space. I don't go into your's, you don't go into mine. You've gotta hold the frame," He illustrated. Johnny glanced at me, over by the record player, "Again."

Carefully, I reset the machine to the beginning of the 45 Johnny was using to teach Baby, and hopefully, perform to. It was a Mambo, De Todo Un Poco, or in English, A Little Bit Of Everything.

"Frame," My partner ordered the girl, who went into it on cue. Sensing the imperfections, I stride over and began correcting them, as easily as some people edited papers, or revised paintings or drawings. With precision, I close her fingers over Johnny's, and push my left hand into the center of her shoulder blades, holding my hand on her hip. While Johnny and her dance, I stay right with them, keeping Baby's frame steady until such time when she could hold it herself.

These two were such fools.

Johnny and Baby, each intelligent in their own ways, yet completely blind when it came to their own feelings, and how the other felt about them. Baby probably didn't even understand the depth of what she felt for Johnny, let alone know that he couldn't take his eyes off her, even when they weren't dancing. But at least she was trying. Her confidence had builded, and now she was experimenting. She was doing things she thought he would like, putting on makeup, and wearing scant clothes to practice. Johnny might not have noticed, but I did. Women always noticed.

But then, Baby could show up at two in the morning wearing a burlap sack with bedhead, and he would still think she was the most beautiful woman in the world. At parties Johnny and I performed at, all he could do was watch her. He had hungry eyes for her, eyes that wanted to say and do forbidden things to her. Johnny was still under the delusion that his feelings for her were a crush, and it would seem impossible to him that Baby might reciprocate his feelings. Because why would a girl like her want someone like him?

The count is a mantra in my head, strong and steady, and always going. Even if it hadn't been, I could still hear it in the music, in the rhythm Johnny tapped on his feet from where he sat on the other side of the room. I was rarely able to make it into Baby's lessons, seeing as most of the time I had my own to teach, or Neil wanted me to manage some event. Tonight was a rare exception, when I could come in and show Baby about mirroring.

Slowly, I increased the pressure I was putting on Baby's hand, to send the message that it was time to move. At my behest, she moved her right hand in a slow circle, from top to bottom and back again. When I pressure her left hand, she does the same with it.

My God, these two were stupid.

I'd been hoping that they would at least be able to clear the air about their feelings for each other by now, but no. That would have meant talking about it, and and reaching a decision about what to do. Despite my liking Baby, even considering her one of my better friends, despite my being happy for Johnny that he'd finally found someone to make him happy in ways I never could, any relationship between them was against the rules.

No, now, Johnny was falling more and more in love with her every day she spent with him. I knew Johnny better than anyone, and he was falling head over heels in love with her, even though I had my doubts that he was even aware of it himself. But I knew he looked for her in every room. I knew that it was killing him that there was no chance of a relationship with her.

Masking my thoughts, I pressure both hands, and as we had discussed, Baby repeated the circular motion. When her hands reached the bottom of the circle, she watched me for cues. Slowly, while I danced, I take my hands to my blonde locks, playing sensually with them, and bringing my hands back down, Baby barely a beat behind my actions.

After a few more counts of the basic, I run through the gestures again, and then go into closed position and lead her that way, doing an Underarm Turn. I look over at Johnny as Baby and I danced, and grin. He nodded, and yawned, looking very tired. It had been a long day for us.

I step away from Baby and pick up an old skirt of mine from the table where the phonograph sat. It was great to use for practicing this kind of stuff. Sometimes you learned arms styling better if you had something to hold onto at first. I know that helped me a lot. I handed it to Baby, who swirled the fabric back and forth, like we'd discussed she would do on the Walks. She held the top of the skirt up to her waist, checking size, which should be fine.

She wasn't any help to the situation either. Don't get me wrong, Baby was even better at hiding her feelings than Johnny was. But where Johnny was trying to stop his feelings, I knew that all Baby was really wondering was if it was at all possible he had feelings for her.

And then there was me, the third wheel between them. One part of me wanted to shout at them to just kiss already, the other wanted to scold them for feeling the way they did when nothing could ever happen.

Two of my greatest friends were falling in love with each other, something that would be an impossible relationship.

And I had no clue what to do about it.