Her Sister's Boyfriend

31

Riley's POV:

"Thalia," I say over and over again, trying to get her to look in my direction as she continuously looked down to the floor and at her foot where her ankle had clearly been dislocated. It would have looked sickening if you haven't witnessed a similar injury like this one before, but I have so it isn't too terrible. She looks up at me and shakes her head. "It's okay, you'll be fine-"

"I've let the team down," she says.

"No, you haven't. James got the five-point advantage. We can still do this," Eldon reminds her, placing his hand over the top of her shoulder whilst she sat in a rather uncomfortable position on the ground with everyone huddling around her. 

I could only just hear Chuck's commentary through the speakers but it was quite faded out, either due to the curtains being an obstruction or because so many thoughts were running through my mind. A few paramedics walk over with a stretcher bed and Thalia takes a sharp breath in as she sits up with her back straight to her upmost ability. I step back as several members of the team help pick Thalia up and place her on the bed, trying their best not to harm her and as they wheel her out of the way of the stage, Eldon following after her whilst Michelle, Giselle, West, Noah and Max take to the stage for us as Kate goes over to the paramedics and the rest of us are too busy worrying about what will happen. 

I stand by the wing with James, holding his hand as we listened to the results. "The Next Step scores a total of 92 points, but by way of their five-point advantage, it takes them to 97 points of which case, it is a tie!" I exchange looks with Kate who was stood behind me and had supposedly heard. She looks at me for a moment before focusing on Thalia once again and bombarding her with thousands of questions. The guys on stage nod their heads sufficiently before rushing over to the left wing, joining the rest of us.

"I can't dance. Eldon and I can't do the duet, my ankle is way too bad for me to dance," Thalia explains, pushing herself up on the bed the slightest. I bite my lip, my hand still linked with James's.

"Noah and I have a duet?" Cierra points out. "I mean, we haven't rehearsed it in a while-"

"Is it good enough for being anywhere near close to an Internationals level?" Kate retorts sternly with her arms crossed.

"No... I honestly don't think so," she mumbles in response.

"Does anyone else have an amazing duet for the tie-breaker?" Kate questions, looking around. I keep my teeth chewing down hard on my bottom lip, trying to stop it from quivering. I can dance. James and I can do the duet but then I'd be risking making things with the team so much worse than it already is.

"Max and I have one? We can practically come up with something amazing on the spot, honestly, even if we freestyled, there's a chance we'd be able to win," West suffices. 

"But you're not just competing against anyone, you're competing against Sweden. It needs to be better than perfect, it needs to be extraordinary!" Kate snaps, all the while Thalia moaning in excruciating pain.

I look at James and then pull him by the arm whilst the team continue rambling on about who has the best duet already choreographed. "Um, where do you think you're going?" Emily asks as we pass her.

"It's none of your business. As you said, we're no longer sisters anymore so move it," I say back, not daring to look her in the eyes and instead dragging James along as we budge past her, leaving her stood there confusedly. At least I wanted to put in the effort to sort things out between us but she declined it so that's her loss, not mine.

As soon as James and I get far away from everyone else, I hold both of his hands in mine. "James, we have to do our duet," I tell him.

"I know," he says. He places one hand over my cheek and looks into my eyes. "You sure you want to tell everyone though?" 

I bite my lip but nod nonetheless. "Yeah. It's the only way we can win this-"

"Stop thinking about the team, Ri. I'm talking to you right now. Are you sure you want everyone knowing?" he asks me once again.

"Yes, James. I'm okay with them knowing. I just really want to do this duet with you, so can we?" I ask sheepishly. He smiles and nods, kissing my lips rather lightly but allowing them to linger for a short moment. He mumbles the words 'of course we can' against them and I smile,  holding his head in my hands before looking past him to where everyone was still having a heated discussion.

"Costumes?" he says at the same time as me. We both chuckle and then hurry over to a rail which carried all of our costumes on it including the ones for the small group to the ones for the blind-fold dance. I find the ones Eldon and Thalia were supposed to wear and then I check the sizes which weren't too bad. I'm quite smaller than her but she's only one size above me and I'm pretty sure Eldon and James were the same size in clothes as well. So I take the dress and the shirt off of the hangers before handing it to him and then we both hurry into the same costume closet, not really caring about being in the same room together.

However, we don't use it as an opportunity to have a heated make-out session, and instead we quickly strip out of our clothes and put the costumes on. He stares at me for a couple of seconds considering I was only standing in my underwear but I hit his chest, causing him to stop and all he does is smirk. Once I've got the white dress on, he pulls up the zip of it and places a light kiss on my forehead, forcing us to hug for a little while before I rush out and over to a mirror where I use the curler which was already plugged into a socket to curl my hair and style it the exact way I was planning to when James and I were originally intending on performing the duet.

I smile when he approaches me and view his reflection in the mirror as he places his hands on my shoulders just as I finish curling the front part of my hair and he hovers his lips against my neck, tickling my skin. 

"You look beautiful," he whispers into my ear and then starts trailing kisses along my neck and shoulder. I turn around to face him to which he abruptly removes his lips from my skin. "What? You do," he tells me. I smile and then kiss him softly. "I'm in love with you, Ri, and it feels amazing." 

I pull away to stare into his deep brown eyes which I've found I've slowly been lured into, looking at him in a way I never have done before. All this time it was almost as if everything we had had just been some sort of crush and affair which I had a feeling wasn't going to last. With all of the sneaking around, secretive texting and phone calls, the make-outs in the back of his car and sleeping together numerous times, at the same time, making sure no one was around to see us. The blackmailing and having to force people to be quiet. It was like we were just two teens, frolicking around and misbehaving, not really having any experience in what true love is. Not understanding all of the complicated feelings transporting through our consciences. I was so confused, so perplexed and so devastated, knowing he was dating my sister and thinking that we would never get to be with each other, that I would never get to have a proper relationship with him where we could have deep talks as we lay beside each other and fell asleep in the other person's arms. A relationship which wasn't just based on sex like I thought it was.

But it isn't that way anymore. I know that what we have is real. We went to the extremes of making love over and over again despite him dating Emily. I wrecked my relationship with her for him. I did it all because of him. At first, I thought I was going paranoid and that I was being foolish, falling for a guy who is way above my league in terms of popularity and age. But it's not like that at all. It's different. And it's perfect. And he's right... It does feel amazing, being in love that is. I've never looked at a guy the way I'm looking at him now. It's as if everything is finally being put together and that this will work out. We will work out. Somehow, someway, we will get the relationship we've desired for months now.

I continue to look at him as he stares at me helplessly and I smile. "I love you too, babe," I tell him softly. He grins at the nickname I had called him to which I playfully roll my eyes before standing up and embosoming him in a tight embrace.