A/N Hey everyone... this was by far my worst chapter until I sent it to my magnificent beta Tay Bee. She is amazing and made this chapter so much better. Thanks again to everyone who reviewed.
Megan
One Month Later.
EPOV
It had been a few weeks since all the drama with Bella. Things were finally calmed down and we were really focusing on the dance recital that was in a few weeks. Everyone had been going to rehearsals once or twice a week to learn the choreography. Bella and I were ahead of the game. We already had two of our dances learned. We hadn't touched the piece to "If It Kills Me."
I think it scared us both. We had learned the basic moves to the dance, but we had never done it together. I was so nervous about every move. I had to touch her so many times, and I didn't think that my body could handle the electric shocks much longer.
And that kiss scared the hell out of me.
BPOV
Alice and Rose stared at me as I dazed off into the day. Today was dance rehearsal, which wasn't really that special, except for the fact that today, we would be pairing our final dance. I tried to gain the courage to force myself downstairs to head to practice.
"Bella!" Rose broke me out of my thoughts.
"Sorry. What?" I asked.
"You need to get changed. We have to leave in like twenty minutes," Rose chuckled at me.
"Here take this," Alice smiled throwing a practice outfit at me.
"Give me one minute to get changed," I smiled. I walked into the bathroom and balked at what Alice had given me to wear. It wasn't uncommon for dancers to wear only spandex shorts, it helped prevent varicose veins from dancing. However, it was uncommon for me to wear spandex shorts, especially because my legs would literally be wrapped around Edward's body today. They were black and had a blue band around the top. I threw on the black tank top and cut off sweatshirt she gave me and laughed. Alice knew how to throw and outfit together. I grabbed the sparkly blue and white Nike Airs that I used for the hip hop dance and the dance paws I used for the other two dances. I imagined that we would practice the other dances once or twice today. I slipped on the tennis shoes and held my abused paws as I emerged from the bathroom.
The girls both wolf whistled when I walked out of the bathroom.
"You guys are immature," I chuckled bending over to retie a shoe.
"Nice sneakers!" Alice squealed.
"You guys too," I smiled. Rose had purple and blue sparkly sneakers and Alice's were sparkly blue and green with white.
"Are you guys excited?" Alice squealed.
"Yeah!" we both answered.
"Hey. After practice today you two have to go shopping for dresses for the masquerade! You've put it off way to long. I need to pick mine up anyway. Oh! And maybe you could help me do a little planning?" Alice asked.
"Sure," I answered.
"Cool," Rose smiled.
Alice was having a masquerade party this weekend. The crazy pixie had been sending us texts alerts every day, reminding us how many days remained until her party. We were down to the final four days and Rose and I hadn't found dresses yet. Of course, Alice had bought hers the day she decided on the party, and she had been back to the store to reserve several choices for us.
An alarm went off on Alice's phone and a smile spread across her face.
"Time to go!" Alice squealed running out the front door to wait for the guys in the car.
"Alice! Wait! You'll freeze!" I yelled after her. She spun in her tracks and grabbed a sweater and yoga pants off the bed. She smiled wickedly at me and ran off to the car. Rose and I laughed as we threw on out college sweaters and yoga pants. The last few days had been weirdly freezing, and I wasn't about to get a cold that would last the rest of my summer. Rose tugged on my sleeve and we both headed to my truck.
I hopped in the driver's seat and Jasper softly grabbed my shoulder from the seat behind me.
"How you doing today Bella?" Jasper asked from behind me. He was like my therapist and was helping me through so much.
"I'm good Jasper. Thanks for worrying about me," I smiled.
"Not a problem Bells, your like my little sister," he chuckled. "What is taking them so long?" Jasper asked. Emmett and Edward were standing right in front of the car talking. Jasper reached over my shoulder and laid on the horn. Both of the boys jumped in surprise as the girls and I broke out in laughter.
Edward rolled his beautiful eyes and Emmett made a beeline around the car to kill Jasper. Edward grabbed him to stop his advances.
"Are you ready now?" Jasper asked.
"Yes," Emmett sighed. Edward sat next to me and Emmett jumped in the back with Rose.
"Are you excited?" Edward asked me.
"Yeah, really excited!" I squealed.
"Have you been practicing?" Edward asked.
"Some but it is kind of complicated," I smiled.
"Yeah, but we can do it," he sighed thinking deeply. The rest of the drive was quiet and then when we got to the studio we all went our separate ways.
"Hello guys," Jane smiled.
"Hey Jane," we answered.
"Okay, so all we have left to do it the love piece, right?" she asked.
"Yes ma'am," I smiled proudly.
"That's terrific. That's the hardest one, I wonder why we're doing it last?" she asked but probably could've guessed.
"Umm." I stuttered. The truth was that I was so afraid of this dance. I had such a crush on Edward and this dance was going to be hard to pull off.
"Well, you see, Jane. Edward and I haven't practiced it together yet because of, um... well..." I blushed, thinking about the dance I was about to try with the guy I'm pretty sure I loved.
Edward held in laughter when he finally decided to speak up. "There are just so many lifts, we wanted to practice with a spotter." Little jerk. He had such a good excuse, and he just let me fumble around for words like and idiot.
"That's fine, I wanted to help you guys with a few things in that one anyway. I guess that you can just take off your sweaters and shoes and go and stretch really quick."
Edward went over into the corner to dispose of his stuff. Under his sweatshirt he only had a wife beater on and then a pair of basketball shorts.
I do have to say that he is making me look forward to this kiss more and more each day.
When I took of my sweats, I heard him groan and I laughed. "I know I'm not wearing tights, but they are slippery with lifts. I promise I shaved and moisturized today." I explained.
"Wha?" Edward asked, but just snapped his mouth shut. "Right. Okay." He sat down and started to stretch a little. I slid down to the ground next to him and started with some basic stretched. After I was a little warm I tried to get the splits. I was so frustrated I didn't have them back yet.
Edward laughed. "You can't do the splits? I though all you girls could."
"Shut up!" I giggled back. "It can take quite a few months for your hips to reset after-" but I cut myself off. I still hadn't told anyone about that. I was getting closer to slipping every day.
"After what? What happened to your hips?"
"Oh, uh, I fell down in Phoenix one day. I landed on my side and my hips got all unsettled. They haven't settled back in just yet, but the doctors said it should only take a few months."
"Oh," Edward responded, satisfied with my answer. Jane walked up to us to interrupt our banter.
"Okay, I want you guys to start at the beginning." Jane said. She handed us our one prop, a necklace that had a huge heart on it. It represented Edward's heart. At the end of the dance, I wore it around my neck.
Edward walked up to me and ran his face up my back. I arched away from him and began my moves. So began practice.
We started with the easy parts and then we moved on the more difficult moves.
We weren't supposed to drop the necklace once, which was hard to master. We planned lots of little ways we could pick it back up if one of us dropped it.
The hard part for me is the ponche. I stand on one leg and do a split vertically off the ground. Edward grabs onto the leg that has all my weight and picks me up and tosses me to the ground behind him.
That was the part that took the longest for us to master in the beginning.
At one point, after Edward throws me, he crawls up behind my and I have to pretend to hit him. I can't see where he is, and I accidentally hit him for real about ninety percent of the time,
We took a quick break and then moved on to the hardest part. Edward and I stand back to back. He bends down and I stick a leg from behind me over his shoulder. He stands up and I end up with both legs on both of his shoulders. Its a very close position for us. After he spins me around, I have to flip over the front of him and land on my feet. The rest of the dance went magnificently, and then we got to the very end.
"Okay, guys. They chemistry is looking so great in between you both. Now, this kiss at the end has to look real, because if it doesn't, you'll lose everything you just danced for."
I blushed and looked to the floor. "Okay, from the top!" Jane yelled and started the music. Edward and I moved quickly across the flow, flying and swirling with the music. The end came and Edward's eyes met mine as we leaned in for the kiss.
I gasped when his lips hit mine and pushed myself even more into the kiss. I felt him smile and soon I was smiling too, our lips still touching. His lips pushed back to mine and the kiss returned.
Jane's laughter broke us apart. "Guys, the music ended two minutes ago. You don't have to kiss anymore. Good work. You need to practice those lifts some, but I think you'll do great at recital. You probably don't need to practice that kiss anymore. I think you've got it down." Jane said, lauging.
I blushed and smiled involuntarily as I walked over to put my sweats back on.
Edward groaned and I laughed when I heard him say, "What if I want to practice?"
The whole way home, my eyes were locked on the road and Edward's eyes were locked on me. No one else seemed to notice how awkward it was, because they were too busy talking to their significant other about their pieces.
I refused to look at Edward directly. I knew I would blush and smile and that would give me away. I watched him out of the corner of my eye.
He sighed and yanked out his cell phone before typing frantically into it.
EPOV
The trip home was extremely awkward. I really liked Bella but I was extremely worried that she didn't like me back. She wouldn't even look at me now! What if she did like me? I'm the guy- I'm supposed to make the first move. What if that is all she is waiting for? I sighed angrily and sent out and IM on my phone.
PlayerAlert: I seriously need help!!!!!
BrotherBear: Dude, chill.
OverprotectiveFool: What's wrong?
PlayerAlert: I am in love with my best friend!
BlondeRose 3: *squeal*
Shopping=Life: *squeal*
BrotherBear: Well that's not appropriate to be talking about with ladies present.
PlayerAlert: Huh?
BrotherBear: I understand that you like Jazz but that isn't something that we should talk about with girls present.
PlayerAlert: Em, your pushing it.
BlondeRose 3: Em, stop being an ass hole he likes Bella.
"Who likes me?" Bella asked. Shit, Rose said that aloud.
"Umm… Mike Newton," Alice said spur of the moment thinking.
"Ewwww…" she scrunched her nose up returning to her driving.
PlayerAlert: That was a close one. Nice thinking Alice.
Shopping=Life: Thanks.
BrotherBear: So you like my baby sister.
PlayerAlert:*gulp* Yeah.
BrotherBear: What do you plan on doing about it?
PlayerAlert: I wanted to know if I was allowed to ask her to the masquerade party?
BrotherBear: Of course. But if…
OverprotectiveFool: You hurt her…
Shopping=Life: I will…
BlondeRose 3: Kill you.
PlayerAlert: I get it. Thanks guys.
I knew what I had to do, so I signed out of IM and sent a quick text message.
Bella,
We need to talk about something.
Edward
My heart jumped when she grabbed the vibrating phone out of her sweater pocket. She flipped it open at the stoplight and looked to me with confusion clear across her face. I just smiled weakly at her. The light turned green and she shrugged and started driving again.
When we got back to the house, every one jumped out and ran up to the door. When Bella saw I was staying in the car, and turned to face me.
"Am I in trouble?" She asked with a smile on her lips.
"No!" I laughed. "Okay, well, I'm not very good at this, but I wanted to aske you something. Would you be my date to the masquerade party?" I asked kind of quietly.
"Sorry what?" she asked shocked.
"Will you be my date to the dance?" I asked again.
"I'd love to," she smiled brightly.
I smiled back at her as she got out of the car and ran into the house to find Alice and Rose.
"I'd love you, too." I smiled sheepishly. I knew she didn't hear me, but it still felt good to say it out loud.
A/N Yay! So waht do you think? You like it? PLease review! I will update when I get at least seven reviews and enough time.
Megan
P.S. My Happy Ending? will be updated soon but life has been crazy so I haven't had time to do so yet.
