"You can trust me." (The Next Step 8 x Oc) (Discontinued)

Maybe This Time

Heath and I are practicing our duet. 

I never want to be too confident. There's always something we can fix.  But Heath and I are heading in the right direction with this duet. 

Heath: I think Dani is finally starting to trust me. And it's taken our duet to a whole other level. 

"I'm going to be honest, I think that was our best run through yet." Heath said high fiving me. 
"Yeah, totally." I tell him. 

I admit, I was slow to trust Heath when Heath joined our team, but he's actually a pretty great duet partner. 

"Do you want to call it for now?" Heath asks.
"Er, yeah, we could." I tell him. "Or, you know, we could just do it a couple more times and maybe get some boba or something." 
"I would love to." He says. "I actually got to go and meet a friend real quick, though." 
"Oh, OK." I say to him. "Who is this friend?"
"It won't take long." He tells me. "And I'll be back before this afternoon."
"Oh." I say. "Are they a dancer?" 
"Dani, I'm not going to tell you who it is." Heath says.  

I don't care that Heath is hanging out with someone else, but I do care that he's being shady about it. 

"I'll be back soon, though." Heath tells me. 
"OK." I say to him.
"Don't miss me too much." He says and I try not to get flustered. 

It's a bit weird how Heath didn't tell me which friend needs help, or why. I mean, not that I need to know everything, bur I like knowing things. 

"Start a fake rehearsal so they think we're challenging them." Ethan tells Ebby and myself. "Once they hear of the threat, hopefully they'll get their routine ready for Nationals and be amazing. I was thinking we could clean up that trio we did a while back."
"Ooh, I'm down for that!" Ebby replies.
"Word." Ethan says.
"I'm so into this. I'm going to go tell Heath that we can't rehearse our duet later." I tell them. "But we're doing that."
"OK, cool. See you." Ethan says.
"See you." I say walking off. 

I could just text Heath, but this way I might be able to sneak a peek at this mysterious person he's meeting. 

I walk into Heath, Grace and Lucien talking. 
"Isn't that what you want?" Lucien asks him. "To win Nationals? Picture it. On stage, holding that Nationals trophy."

He's talking to Lucien. No wonder he didn't want me to find out. 

Heath looks towards the door and sees me. 

Heath said all this stuff about how we should trust each other. But he lied to me. 

"D-Dani, it's not what you think. Please, just let me explain." He says walking over to me and trying to explain but I just run away. 

Heath: I can't believe this just happened. She's barely trusting me at the best of times. This a disaster. 

I made an emergency meeting with Nick to tell him that I want Heath off this team immediately. 

"When I saw him talking to Grace and Lucien, I knew he was a lying mole. Again." I tell Nick while yelling at Heath. "Who knows how long he's been spilling secrets to Ultra Elite."
"I told you, I was set up!" He yells at me. 
"To be fair, Lucien does tend to pop in and mess with people's heads." Nick says to me. "That's kind of his MO."
"Thank you." Heath says.
"Except Heath was the mole!" I say. "He almost took down Step Inside. Why should we believe him now?" 
"I told Lucien I would never help Ultra Elite, OK. You can ask anybody in Middle C. I said it loud." Heath says. "They all heard me say it."
"So what?" I say. "Nothing says he won't mole again some other way or meet up with them somewhere else."

Heath made it seem like our whole duet depended on me trusting him. Look what he did with that trust. Last time I make that mistake. 

"He was a selfish liar once." I start. "What's different now?" 

Heath: I thought Dani finally trusted me. I thought we had a real connection. (Romance, Chemistry.) But clearly it wasn't as strong as I thought.  

"Thanks for showing me how you really feel about me." Heath says sadly and walks away. 

If I'm wrong about this, it'll definitely cause problems with Heath. But I'm not ready to say sorry. 

Heath: I thought I was past this. What makes this hurt so much is I thought Dani and I were forming this special bond as duet partners. The fact that she thinks I would betray our whole team and our duet proves she doesn't know me at all. I just keep wondering, how could she think I would do something like that? I love being on this team. I started to feel like I could actually do some good here. Help people. But these things keep happening to me. And it got me thinking. What if I'm the problem? What if Dani can't trust me because I am as bad as she thinks I am? 

"I just sent her a text. She'll be here and second." Pete says.
"Hey, what going on?" Kenzie asks walking in. 
"So, the trio over here wants to battle us for our small group spot at Nationals." Pete tells her. 
"I thought you were going to smooth this out." Kenzie says. "It doesn't look so smooth."
"Our group wants the small group spot at Nationals." Ethan says. 
"Because our trio's drama-free." Ebby says while leaning on Ethan and I put my hands on my hips. 

Our trio might be drama free, but with all the stuff going on with Heath, (wait her name tag Not in a good place aw.) I'm pretty upset right now. 

"Yeah, at the beginning we were mad at them, but now bring it on." Xander and Antony say. 
"We brought it together." Pete starts. "We are now ready to battle." 
"Well, Nationals is around the coner and we do need to bring a top level routine. So, why not? Trio, you're up first." Kenzie tells us. "Let's go." 
They nail our routine.  I am distracted.

I feel a little off my game. I can't stop thinking about Heath. (S.I. M.P. So am I though, for 2 of my best friends.) 

"Wow, that was very impressive." Kenzie tells us. "Small group, you have a lot to live up to. You're up next." 
They preform better than us and I feel disappointed. 
"Both groups were amazing, but only one can go to Nationals. I'm going to have to go with..." Kenzie pauses for suspense. "...the original small group." 
"Yes!" They all cheer, we high five them and leave. 

Heath texted me to meet him here. I'm still upset, but Heath means a lot to me, so I'm going to hear him out. 

Heath: I keep trying to maintain peace and trust between Dani and I, but I'm the only one trying. She's not. 

Heath walks over to me as I turn around.
"I have something I want to say." Heath starts.
"You mean, you finally got your story straight on why you met up with Ultra Elite in secret?" I say.
"No." Heath tells me. "We have a great duet and I think we both know that. And I think we're going to do great at Nationals with it. We should keep working on it and try to make it the best we possibly can. But I'm done trying to prove that I'm a good person. Because I've tried and I've tried and I've tried. I wanted this to work. I really did. So, if you believe that I'm the bad guy, fine. But Dani, as much as you think you're the one who's hurting right now, you hurt me a lot worse." 
Heath then walks out.  

If you ask Jude, she would tell you ever since my ex cheated on me I have had trust issues and push those I love and who love me away. I didn't mean to hurt Heath but I find it better for myself to push away the ones I love before I get hurt. That's why I look to far into the little things. I'm starting to think maybe I was wrong. Maybe Heath is telling the truth. That means I messed up our duet. I messed up our friendship. I messed up everything. 

"Hey Heath, are you okay?" Jude asks as she sees him walk out of Studio A.
"Yeah, if you are looking for Dani, she's in there." Heath says going to walk away.
"I'm sorry if she did something to hurt you, she doesn't mean to." Jude tells him.
"What do you mean?" Heath says wiping his tears.
"She pushes away those she loves, and looks to far into the little things. Only once when she did not she got betrayed and she has pushed away everybody whenever she feels she needs to. So I'm sorry and she doesn't mean it." Jude says before walking away.

Heath: So this isn't the first time she has does this. But that doesn't make it better.