king and queen

eight

Alexa's POV

I went about my day with a better feeling than I had yesterday. It's the last day of the week, we've got a football game tonight (last one before homecoming), and I had a feeling that Johnny may be able to make Dallas come to our practice today.

I had a more optimistic mood throughout the day and I did the same thing I did yesterday after school.

I let Delancey go first and while she did so, I went to go change and get ready for the next few hours.

I had put my cheer uniform on, done my makeup, and finished my hair. I looked at the clock. "Oh my, goodness! I'm gonna be late!"

I ran down the hallway, as if Dallas was gonna show up anyway. But I guess I still needed to make use of my time.

I turned the hallway and I noticed the clock read 3:28. I let out a sigh. I was still gonna be on time.

I made one more turn and I saw Dallas and Johnny waiting outside the door for me. I smiled. "Hey! You made it!"

"You're late." Dallas said without budging.

"What? No, I'm not. I made it with one minute to spare."

"Haven't you heard the expression? 15 minutes early is on time."

"Uh... no, I don't believe I have."

"Well, it's an expression. And you didn't do very good at following it."

Johnny stood behind Dallas mouthing "I'm sorry."

I sighed. Delancey and Noah walked out. "Hey, Alexa. I'm gonna go get ready now. What times warm up?"

"Have everyone be there at 4. Maybe mention I'll be a tad late."

"AHEM!" Dallas yelled.

We both looked at him. "Excuse me?" Delancey asked.

"Alexa and I just got done having the conversation that fifteen minutes early is on time. And now here she is being late... again!"

I frowned and Delancey crossed her arms. "You wanna talk about timing? You showed up after everything was already announced." She said.

He grinned. "Yeah, but ya gotta admit my timing was impeccable with how I made my entrance."

He walked in the room. "I'm sorry, Lex. Good luck. I'll tell the girls to be there at 4."

"Make it 4:15. He's right. I don't wanna be late."

She sighed. "Don't let him get to you, hun. He's just being Dallas Winston. We know this. I'll see ya later."

I sighed and I looked up. "Hey, Johnny. Thanks for getting him here on time. I don't know how ya did it. He seems pretty stubborn." I tried to laugh. "I owe ya one."

"No problem. Good luck."

He closed the door behind me and I walked next to Dallas. "Hey, so I started working on it a bit to make it fun and a bit exciting. So do you want to start by me just going through it? We can stop whenever you've had enough but maybe just to learn it? It's not too long."

"Yeah, yeah, that's fine, whatever."

"Okay." I said softly.

I turned on the music and started off. I was maybe five seconds in before I was interrupted.

"STOP!"

I looked at him and stopped the music. "What's up?"

"That was terrible." He said bluntly.

"B-but I barely even started."

"Are you kidding? I've seen enough. What awful trash were you pulling that from? I thought you did dance? Figured you'd be better."

"Well, we can always change it. It's just to start, y'know? We don't have much time."

"God, I can come up with a better routine than that. And I hate dancing."

"If you hate dancing, you can always drop."

"Oh of COURSE you'd want me to drop. Wouldn't want me to mess up your 'perfect routine.'"

"Well, no, but-"

He cut me off. "You suck at this. God, I can't believe you do dance and this is the shit you come up with. You suck."

I felt tears well in my eyes. Was I really a bad dancer?

"Dallas," I started.

"I'm not done yet! Your lame excuse for a dance is not something I would be caught dead doing. Get your shit together. You suck."

"I-"

I couldn't speak. I felt like a loser.

I ran out the door and down the hallway. I couldn't stop my tears from leaving my eyes. I was so embarrassed. So defeated.

I ran into a janitors closet so nobody saw my cry. The lights were off and I sat in the corner crying to myself.

I was a fool for thinking dad would ever want to watch me.

Dallas' POV

I grinned as I saw her start to cry. I kept pushing and pushing.

She snapped.

It was beautiful.

Johnny opened the door and glanced behind him. "Dal, what's going on?"

"I won. I got to her head."

"What? Dallas-"

I cut him off. "Come on. I've got better things to do with my time."

"Dally, she's upset. She was crying."

"I know. Wasn't it great?"

"What did you say to her?"

I told him how it went down and he didn't seem to have words for a minute. "Dallas, you can't do stuff like that. That probably crushed her."

"That was the goal. Get used to it. Life can't be all cupcakes and rainbows. It's better she feels disappointment now."

We heard keys as we walked down the hall. "Shoot." Johnny uttered.

"Here. Get in the closet. We shouldn't be wandering around right now."

I opened the door and shoved us in.

I closed it behind us as we looked for a light. I turned it on once I found it.

We both looked around and we saw Alexa crying in the corner. It startled us both. Johnny let out a shriek, but I kept my composure.

He nudged me and motioned to Alexa.

I rolled my eyes.

She wasn't moving.

I nudged her with my foot to make sure she was alive. She moved slightly and inched farther into the corner.

Johnny glared at me and walked out. He slammed the door behind us.

I sighed.

Great.