Scandalous Love

11. | James

"So how come you were late to the ballroom dance in the first place?" I tease Riley as I took a bite of a chocolate cupcake, getting the crumbs all over my lips again which makes her laugh.

She shakes her head, sighing and swiping the two loose strands of her hair behind her ears while she took a bite from a baguette she had cut into quarters. "It was nothing important. Just my sister being her usual controlling herself," she mutters, sparking my curiosity as I stare at her, wanting to find out more.

 I barely knew a thing about her family other than the fact that her mother must have not been around considering the whole 'parents getting engaged' scenario I had witnessed when I snuck in here the first time around. 

I didn't know if maybe she was in the same boat as I was, where her Mum had gone elsewhere and just wasn't present in her life anymore or if maybe she had passed away and truly wasn't here any longer. 

Whichever one it was, both would hurt just as much, but it would be something she and I could bond over I suppose. 

"Anything in particular?" I ask her, delving for more information. 

She looks at me, her eyes wandering over me like she was trying to read my body language the same way I was attempting to read hers. I wasn't sure if she would be an open book over this sort of thing or if she was more closed off. 

I couldn't blame her if she was. Living on this side of town seems like a lot. It's as if they dump a tonne of expectations on you and all they seem to do is pile up. 

"Just about how I need to be more ladylike," she mumbles, taking yet another bite, but this time it was much smaller as she recalls those words. 

She hesitates and looks over the food in front of her before sighing, placing the slice of baguette back down onto the plate, then she swipes her hands against the other to signal she was done. "It's no big deal," she tries to shake it off but even though I don't say it, deep down I knew it was a much bigger deal than she would accept. 

It wasn't fair that they were putting so much on her shoulders. She was a teenager, just like I was. We should be set the same expectations - nothing more, nothing less. 

"What about you?" she asks. 

She sits herself down on the blanket properly and hugs her knees into her chest, rocking herself back and forth in a fetus position while I continue to stare at her blankly, not knowing what she was talking about. 

"How are you finding Cotillion?" she asks, making jazz hands as she exaggerates the word like it was something amazing. I guess that is what they do here to be fair. Exaggerate the entire thing in the hopes we'd all enjoy it a little better. "Is it like the movies?" she asks directly at me, making me roll my eyes while she chuckles. 

"Exactly like the movies," I tell her, grabbing a strawberry before reaching forwards to pop it between her lips, making her smile as she bites on it before taking it out of my hand to finish it.

Something had clearly been said between her and her sister which had put her off of eating food but I wasn't going to sit back and let it happen if I could help it. 

"Except I don't remember being such a clutz and stepping on girls shoes to be such a big role in it," I say to her, making her scoff as she rolls her eyes at me. 

"You didn't," she gasps. "James, you can't be stepping on Maya's shoes like that!" she exclaims despite the giggle that leaves her mouth - a giggle so soft and sweet but equally as contagious that it makes me laugh just as much in response. 

"Okay, right," she states, dropping the strawberry leaves down into a bowl before standing herself up, smoothing her dress over. She gestures for me to stand up too, which I hesitantly do so, clambering up onto my feet to stand opposite her on the grass. "We've got some work to do," she says with a smile, linking her hand together with mine before walking us freely over to a spot on the hard concrete. 

It was a lot easier being able to follow her everywhere when I was dressed like this. There was no suspicions, no complications. Everything seemed perfect, like I'd been here the entire time.

"What do you do with your hands?" she asks, keeping her arms down by her sides while she looked me up and down, her voice stern and eyes turned into a hardened gaze, trying her best to teach me with as much seriousness as possible. 

I put my hands out in front of me, reimagining the first class we had this morning and what Michaela and Miguel had demonstrated to us. 

"Waist and palm," I tell her, making her smile with a nod. 

She takes a step closer to me for me to place my hand over the edge of her hip while our other set of hands place together. "Linked or intertwined?" she questions, making me look into her eyes, trying to sieve the answer out of her pupils but it didn't take me long before the bells started ringing in my head. 

"Linked," I say, to which she nods again.

"And me?" she inquires. What do I do with my spare hand?" 

"Back," I respond firmly, to which she moves her hand to worm around me so it was placed on the small of my back, then both of us look down towards our feet where the tips of our toes were pressed against each other's. 

The longer we stood beside each other like this, the more my hand starts wandering around her waist, stroking her curves subtly. 

She looks up at me with a smile then she nods her head to direct me. "Now when I go back, you go forwards. Back and forth, okay?" 

I nod my head, letting her know I was listening as she continues to instruct me. 

"Then when I go left, we go together. When I go right, we go together. When I stop, you lift me up. When I turn inwards, you spin me. When I turn outwards, your arm wraps around me." 

I nod my head again, holding onto her every word. Whether she would believe it or not, I learnt better this way. At dance back home, this was how we learnt. Simple key-words. No fancy stuff.

"Let's go through it," she states, making me nod my head in agreement, before she goes over every dance move with confidence while I followed through it, joining in on going through the instructions with her. 

"Waist and palm, linked hands, spare hand back, backwards, forwards, 5, 6, 7, 8. Left, left, 3 and 4, right, step, right, step. 1 and 2, stop and lift. Inwards turn, stop and spin. Out and arms, 7, 8."

We stop as I spin her back in towards me so that her chest crashes straight up against mine with a slight abruptness and both of us breathe out as we look directly into each other's eyes. Everything seems to come to a halt as my hand remained on her waist, hers on my back with our other pair of hands linked but the longer we stare at each other, the more I felt like leaning in.

Then I remember I had to hold myself back, knowing there was a limit here. I couldn't overstep her boundaries. 

"How was that?" I whisper lowly, my lips close enough to hers for us to have shared the smallest of kisses right there and then. 

"Perfect," she whispers back, still looking at me without letting out a single blink until we're disrupted by the sound of her phone going off with an alarm, alerting us that we were due back inside for the second half of the day. 

When we step away from each other, I heave a heavy sigh. 

We had to focus and get back on track...