𝑯𝑨𝑵𝑮𝑰𝑵𝑮 𝑯𝑨𝑻𝑺 ♥︎ 𝑶𝒓𝒍𝒂 𝑻𝒂𝒚𝒍𝒐𝒓 (The Next Step)

𝑺𝑬𝑹𝑰𝑬𝑺 𝑻𝑾𝑶 ♥︎ 9

Sitting in Culture Shock at that moment, flipping through a magazine that she wasn't paying attention to, even though she should be in duet practice, Orla was feeling a bit put out.

"Hey, Orla."

Orla looked up to see Eldon, a juice in hand, coming to sit opposite her.

"Hey," she replied in as happy a tone as she could manage.

"How was your weekend?"

"Okay," Orla replied.

In actual fact, her weekend had been terrible. She had cried most of it, telling her family about the breakup and having to listen to Noah talk about how he was gonna kill James. But obviously she wasn't telling one of James' best friends this.

"That's good," Eldon nodded. "Um, listen... I heard about you and James, and... I'm sorry."

"Me too," Orla nodded slowly, flipping another magazine page. "But it's okay. It's not your fault."

"I feel bad for her," Eldon said. "To see the person you love with someone else, it's not fun."

"He's not exactly, um... that happy about it either, you know," Eldon said.

"Really? He hasn't moved on already?" Orla asked sarcastically.

Eldon looked at her. "You know, I know I'm not the best at reading people, but he really loved you. Loves you, actually. I can still see it."

"Yeah, well, what he did countered that," Orla said, ignoring the way her heart fluttered when Eldon said James loved her.

Eldon shook his head. "Well, if Orla and James aren't together, and can't make it, I don't know who can."

"Yeah, we're not exactly the ideal couple," Orla ran her tongue along her lip.

"Well, not anymore," Eldon said.

Orla frowned at him. It was just the way he said it-

"Well, then, who is?"

Eldon shrugged. "Well, I guess, James and Beth now, since they went to the compe- oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no-"

Anger burst through Orla like fireworks.

"He went to the competition?!" She exclaimed.

"Wow, you go from happy to furious very quickly," Eldon commented.

"How was I supposed to know that Orla didn't know about the competition?"

"I can't believe that after everything, James went and did his stupid duet with Beth," Orla rolled her eyes.

"I can't do this anymore," Orla said to him, standing up and storming away from the table.

♥︎♥︎♥︎

Later, Orla, Emily, Eldon, Hunter, James and Michelle were all in the studio.

"Hey, guys, guess what?" Miss Kate said. "Come on, come closer!"

Everyone gathered in, Emily with a protective arm round Orla.

"I just wanted to let you know that James and Beth placed second in the duet competition this weekend," Kate smiled.

Everyone but James, Orla and Emily clapped.

"I can't even look at James right now," Orla raged. "How could he betray me again?"