Tempting /A Jordan Knight fanfic ✔️

43

Chapter 43: Magic

It took me over an hour to get to the performing arts center between traffic, packing everything I would need for the competition, and trying not to cry through it all.

I pulled up to the building a half hour later than I told Gabe I would, cramming my car in next to a dumpster towards the back since there was no other parking left.

My legs pushed as fast as they could, running up to the front of the building, my eyes searching out and eventually landing on a cross-armed Gabe.

"You're late."

"I know. I'm-I'm so sorry," I huffed, squeezing my eyes together as a wave of dizziness hit.

"It's okay." The weight of his hand rested on the small of my back as I hunched over, trying to catch my breath. "I already checked us in and got your badge for you. We're slated to go on last in the line up."

"Aw, shit." I craned my head up, squinting through the glare of the sun. "Last?"

His sun-cast silhouette nodded. "Yeah. You know as well as I do that's either the best or the worst thing. Depends on the judges."

He was right.

Going last of the day either meant the judges were too exhausted from watching dance routines all day long to keep their eyes open during yours, or that yours was the freshest in their minds when they went into the deliberation room.

It really was a total toss up which way it went.

"So, you planning on telling me why you're so late this morning?" The suggestive air in Gabe's voice relieved a fraction of the guilt sitting in my stomach to know he wasn't mad at me for being late.

"I got a late start and then got stuck in traffic is all."

"Oh, and what possibly could have been keeping you busy all morning to make you late?"

Knowing the answer Gabe was fishing for was nothing like the one he was expecting, I tried to veer the conversation as far as I could.

"Can we go inside? I didn't have time to do my makeup so I need to find a bathroom to get ready in."

"Uh, I don't think so. You didn't come home last night, and I think I deserve to know every dirty detail of why not."

My shoulders sunk as I sighed and refused to meet his eye.

"Can we please not do this right now?"

A beat of silence slipped between us, and my stomach twisted around the dying air.

"Oh no. What happened?"

What happened....

What happened was the best night of my twenty-four years had been stained with fighting words and tearful last comments. What happened was that after everything Jordan and I had been through, the last memory we ever made together in our distorted love story was ruined.

We were ruined.

"I really don't want to talk about it." Blinking my stare up to Gabe, his expression fell as I allowed him to see the tears holding still in my eyes. "Please?"

In a quick nod, he agreed, and we parted ways so I could go in search of a bathroom to get ready in. We had only a few hours until our time slot, and I needed every minute of it to relax and distract myself. All I could focus on for the next few hours was dance.

Not Jordan. Not my heartbreak. Not what I wished I would have said in place of what I did. Just the music and how my body moved with it.

After I finished getting ready and applying heaps of stage makeup, I found Gabe, and we stretched in one of the ballrooms designated for dancer's prep.