Dwindle [Motough]

{Chapter 7}

Beth's POV

The walk back to my house was dead silent, not a word was spoken.

We arrived at the door. I checked my purse and my pockets, but no key. Finally, I figured that I probably left it in my room or something and so I rang the doorbell. The door swung open and there he was standing.

Derek's POV

I open the door. There at the doorway stood Bethany and Jeremy.

"Hey," I said. "Hay is for horses, Derek," she replied. She let out a giggle and then she reached out and gave me a hug. "But, hey, to you, too," she added. "Sooo, I'm going to get going, thanks for the hangout, Beth." Jeremy said.

We disconnected our hug and Beth embraced Jeremy in a hug for a few seconds before separating. Bethany held his hands in hers. "Thanks for coming here from London to visit me. I truly appreciate it", Bethany said and released her simply flawless smile. Jeremy let out a small smile as well. "You're welcome, I'll see you soon, bye" he said.

Then, their hands parted and Jeremy walked away. I shut the door and I pinned her between the door and myself.

"So, how did it go?" I asked her. Then, I placed kisses on her bare neck. She bit her bottom lip in the most sexy way possible. "It went well", she barely got out as a moan escaped her lips. "Okay," I replied before I pressed my lips to hers.

***

"-and one, two and three, and four, and five, six, seven, eight," I said as I led my dance partner, Jen, through the moves. This week, we were doing the jive. "Okay, nice job, let's take a break, back at five, okay?" she nodded, grabbed her water bottle and walked to the door. Bethany stood at the doorway as Jen opened the the door. Bethany entered the studio as Jen exited.

"Great timing, Beth. Oh, and by the way, how are blank and Mark doing?", I said. "Great, their foxtrot is so amazing!" She replied.

I walked over to the staircase on the side of the studio and dug through my duffel bag and pulled out my water bottle. Then, I drank some water.

The music surrounded the room as I had forgot to pause the song. Bethany sat in one of the chairs on the side of the room, scrolling her thumb horizontally across the screen, presumably checking her Instagram feed.

The song ended and it turned to the next song on the CD. I recognized the song immediately and I looked up to look at Beth at the same time that Beth looked up to look at me. We both knew the song because it was the song, say you love me; the song we danced to when we were once contestants on the show.

I stood up and walked to Bethany. I held out my hand,"do you still remember the dance?" She placed her hand on my outstretched hand. "Yes, I do." she replied.

She stood up and together we gracefully moved across the studio. The moves were fluid and, in my opinion, better than when we did it on the show, and I didn't even know that was possible!

We neared the end and instead of doing a move in which Bethany held onto me while I dragged her a few feet, I did a simple, yet graceful dip.

Then, I heard clapping. I brought Bethany back into a standing position and then, I looked to up to see Jen standing beside the music player, leaning against the wall, clapping for us.

She pressed the pause button on the player and walked over to us. She enveloped us in a group hug. "That. Was. Incredible!", Jen said.

"She's right", I turned to face Beth,"you are such a gifted dancer, and trust me when I say that because I have danced with many girls over the years. You make me feel so happy and free, It's like when I am dancing with you, there's no place I'd rather be."

She released a smile and blushed a little, "Thanks, and I feel the same way when-", Beth began but was interrupted by the ringtone of her phone.

She walked over to the seat she was sitting in that now had her small bag and phone placed on top of. She picked up her phone, off the chair and answered the it.

She spoke to the person on the other side of the line.

"Yes, this is she."

"Yes, lung cancer."

The colour drained out of her face and she just barely replied, whispering the one word reply.

"Okay"

She moved the phone away from her ear and pressed the hang up button on her phone.

She sat down on the seat and toke deep breaths in. She began to cough erratically into her inner right elbow for a few seconds.

Once she stopped, she placed her knees up so that they were aligned with her shoulders and so her heels were balancing on the edge of the seat. She buried her head between her knees and began to cry, although her face was being muffled by her body, so we could really only make out her wailing.

I looked over at Jen, she shrugged implying that, no, she also didn't know.

We walked towards her. She sobbed into her knees. Her hair cascaded down in front of her knees.

She began to regain control and her crying slowly stopped. She raised her head out of her knees and flipped her hair back and tucked the loose ends behind her ear.

"Before you ask, yes, I'm fine, I'm just in a bit of pain", she explained.

"But what about the phone call?", Jen asked before I had the chance to.

"Oh well..." Bethany let out a sniffle and rubbed her nose onto her sleeve. "...They called and told me that they're not sure and that they are still theorizing about it and the information is not completely proven correct, but I have a life expectancy of a maximum of one year", Bethany explained to us before releasing another sniffle.

The room went dead silent.

I toke a few steps towards Bethany and then I wrapped my arms around her, embracing her in a hug. "It'll be okay," I whispered. "We'll be okay". It toke every ounce of strength I had not to break down into tears.