Dancing to Your Rhythm

Chapter One; Friendship

In the midst of joys and hardships, our friendship was about to end.

The night was at its darkest. That euphoric — almost drowsy, yet exhilarating feeling filled the dance studio. It was just me and him. We were rehearsing the choreography we had learned just a week ago. I

 licked the top of my lip, feeling his body softly brushing over mine. We moved to the song in a slow-paced manner, our bodies matching to the beat. We had been lost in the feeling, his eyes gazing at mine from time to time. We panted and breathed heavily, exhausted but still having enough energy to keep going.

 As we both danced harmoniously — his hands on my waist, moving his palms right just around my hips. The atmosphere had gotten airy. Once the song ended, his body moved away from mine. I felt an itch behind my neck, that feeling of 'Deja Vu hitting me. How did it end up like this?


 The birds chirped in harmony and the sun shone brightly. School had just finished and Tao was walking with his best friend. School had just finished and they were on their way to Tao's house. They talked to each other, conversing about their day and silly memes they found on Pinterest. Once they had finally arrived, they rang the doorbell and Tao's mom answered.

 "Hi there Mrs Yuqio." Zane greeted.

 "Hello to you too, Zane." Mrs Yuqio said with a smile.

 The two entered the house, leaving their shoes on the shoe rack.
 "So, how was school today?" Mrs Yuqio questioned.

 "Nothing much," Tao answered. "Oh, right! I met an exchange student. What was her name again?"

 "Ashley." Zane sighed.

 "Right! Ashley Williams. She's a total science nerd." He chuckled.

 "Well, off you go. I just got groceries so if you want snacks, just look for them in the pantry." She smiled, walking her way to the couch. "If you need me, just ask your dad. I'm gonna be busy watching Crazy Rich Asians."

 Tao giggled and dragged Zane over to his room. They hunged out around his room, going through their socials. Tao started random fights on Reddit while Zane silently looked on Pinterest for 'cute cat pictures'. They decided to watch youtube and scrolled blankly at youtube recommendations. After a good while, they found a video that piqued their interest. It was a video of people dancing to a trendy pop song that they seemed to be familiar with.

 Tao shook his head. "Okay, How in holy merlin's name did they even do that?!"

 "Why are you asking me?" He said sarcastically. "But they are really good at dancing." He muttered.

 "Oh! Remember the time we took dance classes together~?" He laughed. "You kept falling and- BAHAHA-"

 "Oh, shut up. You wouldn't even do the warm-ups and always blamed me when your entire body went sore."

 Tao kept laughing, Zane eventually joining him. Tao then started tearing up, hitting his arm on the soft sheets. "OH, MY MERLIN-" He said gasping for air, before continuing to laugh.

 "DON'T KILL YOURSELF, YOU DUMBASS-" He said laughing at the shorter male.

 "Okay, okay I'll stop-" He giggled. He then suddenly began thinking, "Wait, Isn't the dance club looking for new recruits?" He asked.

 "Yeah, there was a flyer for it on the school bulletin board." He answered. "Why, do you wanna try auditioning?" He teased.

 "I mean, it sounds fun? And I've been wanting to get back to dancing for a while now"

 "You realize that we'd have to prepare a choreography that we can dance to in a singular week?" He asked.

 "Can't we just look for one on the internet and just copy it? I mean as long as we get to show them our dancing skills, we should be able to do it."

 "You actually wanna do this?-"

 "Of course, I do~ I wasn't called the Dancing Cactus at our dance classes for nothing"

 Zane wanted to say, 'You know, they gave you that name because all you did was stand like a cactus.' But he didn't wanna attack Tao's ego, at least not today.Dancing also seemed like a good way for him to get more productive, so he ended up agreeing.


 For the past week, they had been practising dancing at Tao's place. He luckily had an available room that had mirrors plastered on the walls. Tao was surprisingly really good for being called the Dancing Cactus. Zane felt like they actually had a chance.

 Once the night had gone away and the sun started to rise. Tao got up, waking up from his alarm. He moved up from the bed sheepishly, rubbing his hand right at his eyes. He started to fix the beddings, placing his plush toy in between the pillows. He moved lazily to the bathroom and took a quick shower. He washed his face and brushed his teeth. Once finished, he grabbed his towel and dried up. He opened the blinds, letting the light travel through the room. He took his phone, drying his hair with the towel he had in hand. He moved to his dresser and sat down on the chair. He was getting ready for school. He applied on his facial creams and whatnot, playing tunes to fill in the morning silence with him slightly humming to the melody.

 Once he finished prepping his face, he dressed in his uniform, struggling with the tie. 

 He talked to himself as he got ready, giving words of affirmations to strengthen his confidence. 

He met up with Zane at the entrance, starting up a conversation to ask about his night. They headed to their first class; Language Arts. Tao grinned, he had excelled at the subject and was happy that he didn't have to suffer early in the morning.

 After the class had finished, they headed to the top of the school to eat lunch. They had found a quaint, quiet spot at the school. The cafeteria was always crowded and the outside area would always be filled with jocks and athletes playing sports or whatever games they seemed to enjoy. But there, it was peaceful. They could actually talk to each other comfortably, not worrying about people prying at their conversations or feeling the pressure of always being 'respectable ' and 'well-mannered'

 Tao was one of the popular second-years and Zane was one of the smartest students in the school. He'd also been attractive enough that girls and some boys would always come to him, bringing gifts like chocolates and whatnot, hoping to get his number.

This seemed to be the only place they could actually run away from their daily nuisance at school and just enjoy being teenagers.   

After all of their classes had finished, they met with each other, heading to the dance club. They went through several halls with different doors leading to the other clubs. Once they saw the door with the sign 'Dance Club' they knocked and opened the door. They were met with 5 people inside the studio, one at a desk — checking papers and other audition forms.
They headed right to the desk.

The person greets them with a smile."Oh, hello there. Are you here to audition for the dance club?" The girl asked.

 Zane responded with a "Yep."

 "Just fill in these forms and I'll get you settled for the audition." The girl said giving them two pieces of paper.

 Zane headed over to what seemed to be the 'Waiting' or 'Sitting' area, with Tao following right behind him.
 As they settled and filled out the form, they muttered audible noises. Tao seemed to be confused about some parts of the form. Zane noticed and helped him out.
 After a good while of Zane helping Tao with the forms, they handed over the papers to the girl and exchanged an awkward smile with each other.

 They waited for some time until it was actually time for the audition.

 "You guys ready?" The other person at the studio asked.