Left or Right

Chapter 11

James's POV:

We had practice for Internationals at around two o'clock. The entire time, Kate wanted us to work on our small group routines and so split the team up into two. One group was an upbeat, hip-hop, acro based routine and the other was more jazz and contemporary. I'd been put with Max, Giselle, West and Michelle, except Michelle hadn't shown up today, considering the interruption of her parents' divorce. The other group consisted of Stephanie, Eldon, Cierra, Noah and Thalia and their choreo was already down to pat . . . ours, however, was nowhere near close enough to being at an internationals level.

"Okay, this isn't working," Giselle breathes out, breaking her fixed stance in the centre. The boys and I turn around to face her and I scratch the side of my neck in response. She wasn't wrong. "We need a replacement. We need someone to fill in Michelle's spot otherwise we are so not going to get chosen and I don't know about you guys, but I want to be a featured dancer this year," she says. I look at both West and Max who seem to agree and nod their heads.
"We could ask Amanda, except she doesn't do acro," Max murmurs and Giselle nods.
"What do we do then? Because it's clear Michelle just isn't committed right now."
I think about it for a moment before it clicks.
"I think I've got an idea. Hold on, I'll just be two minutes or so," I tell them, and before they can ask any questions, I quickly make my way out of the music room and towards Hidalgo's.

Entering, I find Riley and Amanda sat at a table just like I had expected them to be and I smile as Riley shortly makes eye contact with me.
"Uh, hi?" she asks as soon as I slam my sweaty palms down on their table. Amanda looks at me, clearly concerned, and Riley just stares at me oddly.
"I need you in Studio A," I tell her but all she does is stare at me in disbelief.
"Excuse me?"
"Please, Ri. Michelle's not in today and we really need you to fill in for her."
"James . . . I can't. I'm not even on the team," she says, and this time, Amanda looks at her weirdly too. Usually, Riley would be quick to adjust her schedule for dance. She'd do anything just to be a part of a routine, so her saying this was not what I had expected at all.
"Riley, it's just for today. Please."

She looks around her and her eyes meet Amanda's whose is full of worry, like mine. I stare at Riley with a hopeful glint in my eye which I'm hoping will persuade her but instead, she looks back at me, biting her lip once again. The cute smile that had been toying with her lips only a few moments ago had dissipated and now I had been met with her familiar look of anxiety.
"James, can I please talk to you for a minute?" she asks. I raise an eyebrow. She was beyond confusing me lately. One minute she doesn't want to talk and the next she does. It's just not making sense.
"Yeah, sure," I reply. She smiles falsely at Amanda for a second before standing up and then grabbing a firm hold of my hand, dragging me towards the outside of the building before pulling me around the corner by the stairwells. There, her eyes gaze up the staircase before she looks at me and I nod. I knew what she wanted to do, so I allow her to lead the way up to our secret spot. She only ever brought me here if she wanted to talk about something serious.

Once we get there, she lets go of my hand and sits on the top of the brick wall and I sit down beside her, just like I had done earlier today when talking to her in her bedroom. It seemed we had been having a lot of conversations lately but we never really seemed to get anywhere with them. They only ever led to me discovering that there was much more she was keeping from me. Like the fact she might have a boyfriend she won't tell me about.

"Riley, are you going to talk to me now?" I ask her. She rotates her head around but doesn't react. I knew what that meant. It meant she didn't know how to, so I stand up so that I was in front of her and I reach for her hands before taking hold of them and rubbing her knuckles with my thumbs. "Q 'n' A time?" I ask her. She smiles at me softly, knowing what I was talking about and I chuckle. The last time I had done this with her was before she was on the way to having a panic attack about having to perform our duet at Nationals.
"Same process?" she inquires. "You ask the questions and I answer with only yes, no or maybe?"
"Of course," I tell her, squeezing her hand. "First of all, is there a reason you started freaking out about me asking you to dance?"
"Maybe," she mumbles under her breath. I stare at her for a moment, hoping to guilt-trip her into telling me, but once I sense her palms beginning to sweat, I give it up.

"Did you dance in Montreal?" I ask her this time. 
"Maybe." I stare at her again and nod my head slowly.
"Have you been anxious lately?"
"Yes."
"Have you . . . had any panic attacks lately?"
"Yes," she mumbles. I look at her but she diverts her eyes towards the ground. Clearly, whoever she's been seeing hasn't helped her much with her anxiety.
"Is there a reason you ran away?"
"Yes."
"Are you going to tell me that reason?" She looks up at me and bites her lip, as if she was contemplating that question. I take one step closer as I hovered over the top of her and she shrugs.
"Maybe." Nodding my head, I crouch down a little bit so that we were now directly face-to-face.
"You said you're dating someone?"
"No."
"But there's someone in the picture?"
"Yes."

Now we were getting somewhere.

"Can you tell me his name?" I ask. I needed intel. Just the smallest amount to track him down and talk to him myself. That might be the exact thing stopping Riley from talking to me: my reaction. But I need to know. Because if he's caused this mess and made Ri feel the need to run away . . . that's not okay.
"No," she whispers. "This is the tenth question, James. It's your last one," she tells me and I nod. Moving the tiniest inch closer towards her, I move my hands from her hands to her lap and I look into the precious little pools for eyes she owns. 
"Riles . . ." I say slowly, making her fully aware that this was going to be a serious question. "Are you okay? Because if not, you know I'm always here for you, don't you?"
In response, she shakes her head and shrugs.

"That was two questions, James, not one. You went over the limit so I can't give you an answer," she says, then removing my hands from her lap, she stands up and begins to strut away but it only annoyed me more. She was the one who claimed we needed to talk and now she was walking away, only proving my point about how we never get anywhere whenever we talk. All she ever ends up doing is leaving me more and more curious.

"Riley, wait," I call after her. Hesitating, she stops walking and then turns around to face me, right before she was about to take a step down the staircase. "I can't help you unless you talk to me," I say.
Silently, she begins to walk towards me. Reaching into the pocket of her jacket, she takes out her phone and then grabs my palm, opens up my fist and slams her device into my hand, forcing me to clutch it tightly.
"Yes, you can. All the answers you need are on that phone," she says. She looks into my eyes and then swallows a little bit, clearly apprehensive about doing this. "I'm not allowed to talk to you about this so this is the loophole I found. But after this we can never talk about it again."

With that, she reaches up and presses a quick and gentle kiss to my cheek before falling back onto her feet again as she turns around and walks away, leaving me stood on the roof, holding the device that has all the answers to my questions. 
She better be telling me the truth this time around.