Beware of Bad Boy

Chapter 28

"I find beauty in unusual things, like hanging your head out the window or sitting on a fire escape."

-Scarlett Johansson

GIANNA

When I woke up the next morning my mouth felt dry. I must've been dehydrated from drinking so much alcohol last night. Slowly opening my eyes, I stared at the ceiling. Not too bad, I didn't think I was going to throw up or anything. Wondering if I'd missed ballet, I turned my head to find out the time.

"You missed class," I heard Caleb say.

Rolling my head the other way, I found Caleb propped up on one elbow, staring down at me. Had he been watching me sleep?

Pushing the thought aside, I groaned. "My instructor is going to be so mad."

Caleb shrugged one shoulder. "What can she do to you? Take away your favorite tutu?"

I laughed, placing one hand over my eyes. "We don't wear tutus in class, only in performances and only sometimes then. Besides, you've never experienced the wrath of a little old Russian lady. She could even whip you into shape, Caleb."

Caleb was silent, so I removed my hand from over my eyes to look up at him. He had a thoughtful look on his gorgeous face. "How do you feel?"

"I haven't sat up yet, but I don't feel nauseous. I'm very dehydrated though."

He pushed me back down as I try to sit up and hopped out of bed. "Wait here. I'll get you some water."

"Thanks," I sighed, glad not to get up yet. While he was gone, I thought back on last night. The last thing I remembered was leaving the club.

After that, nada.

Caleb returned and handed me a glass of water. I sat up and guzzled it down. Caleb stood a couple feet away from the bed with a weird look on his face. I unashamedly checked him out in his boxer briefs. My guy was hot.

"I'll make some breakfast." He exited the room so fast I began to wonder if I'd done something embarrassing last night. He would tell me if I did, right? I couldn't see him missing an opportunity to tease me.

I was only a little dizzy when I stood up. Grabbing my duffel bag, I went into the bathroom to shower. A shower and brushing my teeth were definitely in order.

Thirty minutes later I walked into the kitchen where Caleb was already sitting at the table eating. He motioned for me to sit down in front of where he'd already served me. He still wasn't acting like himself and avoided my eyes.

"So anyways," I began. "What did we do after the club?"

He met my gaze looking suspiciously relieved. "You don't remember?"

"I remember up until we left the club and after that, nothing. Why? Did something happen?" Now I was beginning to think I'd done something crazy like streak through downtown naked.

"No, nothing happened," he assured me with a blank face. "We came back here, had a snack and you went to sleep."

"Oh, from what I remember, I had a good time. We'll have to do that again. Next time we could invite some friends."

Caleb finished eating and went to take a shower. I ate my food then cleaned up the mess in the kitchen. While waiting for him, I flipped through the channels. He appeared back to normal when he sat down on the cushion next to me and pulled me onto his lap. "I'm glad you had fun last night. I had fun watching you have fun."

"I didn't do anything stupid?"

"Nothing stupid," he reassured me.

I studied his face for a few more moments. Something had been up with him earlier. "I'm glad you had fun too."

"What time do you have to be at Cece's house?" he asked, rubbing circles on my back with his thumb.

"Not for two more hours." His touch was soothing and I burrowed my head into his neck.

"Do you want to go for a walk?"

I lift my head to look at him. "Sure."

Getting a pair of sneakers out of my bag in his room, I slipped them on. The weather was perfect outside. We leisurely strolled around the trendy downtown neighborhood for about an hour. He was sort of giving me a tour since all I'd seen of his neighborhood so far was the short walk between the parking garage and the apartment building. Caleb greeted a few people he knew, mostly girls. He told me he and his mom had lived here since the divorce.

When it was time to head over to Jared and Cece's house, we picked up my bag at the apartment. Caleb eyed my bag. "You could just leave it here."

"Well," I said drolly, "I'll need pajamas to change into tonight and clothes to wear tomorrow."

"You'll be wearing those pajamas here tonight and changing into those clothes here tomorrow morning," he insisted.

I was holding my duffel bag over one shoulder and I noticed he didn't offer to carry like he usually did. "Since when do you tell me what to do?"

"You're my girlfriend. My place is wherever you are and vice versa." He crossed his arms over his chest as if he weren't going to budge on the issue. "And I really don't want to have a sleepover at Jared's house. I don't think he'd appreciate me sharing a bed with you and Cece."

I laughed. "You're right, he wouldn't. Fine, we'll come back here, but I still need to take my bag because it has my outfit for tonight." Why not give in? It wasn't as if I wanted to be apart from him.

He narrowed his eyes at the bag. "Alright, I guess you'll need to take your bag."

"Jeez, thanks for permission, master," I joked sarcastically. Caleb was just too funny when he got possessive. I couldn't believe what he'd said about his place being wherever I was. It was funny how he could be sweet and bossy at the same time.

He turned around after opening the apartment door. "What are you smiling about?"

I wiped the smirk off my face. "Nothing."

"Uh-huh, sure. Let's go, princess." He motions for me to lead the way and locked the door behind us. He grabbed my bag out of my hand while I hit the elevator button to go down.

The whole crew was at the house. Cece came up to give me a hug. "Where were you this morning? You missed ballet!"

I looked at her guiltily. "I had a bit of a hangover."

"What? You got drunk without me last night? How much did you drink? You never do that! Where was the party?" Cece didn't know how to limit her questions to one at a time.

"Yes, I got pretty drunk off about five drinks, but not at a party, at a club." I answered all of her questions in one go.

"At a club? With who? Didn't you say you weren't going to do that ever again after you-know-what happened? Are you okay?" Cece's questions were beginning to give me a headache.

"Don't worry, I was with Caleb."

"Oh, okay." She settled down and I guessed that was a good enough answer for her.

Jared walked into the garage and immediately spotted Caleb sitting on the couch up against the wall. Caleb smirked at him and Jared got a sour look on his face. "God, what's he doing here again?"

"He is my boyfriend and likes to watch us practice. You guys bring your little girlfriends all the time so why can't I bring my boyfriend?"

"Whatever, just tell him to stay out of my way." What a big baby he was.

We practiced for the next few hours and Caleb actually fell asleep. Either that or he was pretending to sleep to avoid talking to a girl one of the guys brought. At least I liked to think so.

After we were done practicing, a group of us went to the Ramirez family's restaurant. I loved their parents. They were always eager to feed people and I was one of their favorite people to feed. It worked out well all the way around. Afterwards, we went back to their house to change.

Cece rode with me and Caleb to the club we were dancing at tonight. Club owners paid dancers like us to show up and add some excitement to their atmosphere. Thank god for those dancing competition reality shows on television. They helped crews like us find gigs by adding to our popularity.

We did the routine we worked all afternoon on. Taye got the idea a couple weeks back for the routine while he was watching Braveheart. We all had one side of our face painted blue and were each wearing at least one piece of plaid clothing.