Steady As We Go (Ross Lynch Fanfic)

01. Here We Go

When I got my acceptance letter from USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance, I told my dad there was no way I wasn't going. I couldn't afford to go to SUNY, or Juilliard and I had to decline their offers. Yet USC was more in our price range. Sure I had to work two jobs during the summer, and most likely two jobs while I was living in California. Yet I had to do what I had to do if I was going to move to the other side of the country. I was leaving the beautiful shore of Provincetown, Massachusetts behind. I was leaving my five year old sister behind, my dad who supported me through all my years, and a stepmom who would drop anything for me to follow a dream that my dad set upon me when my mom died after a c-section complication.

My first semester was horrible. I was homesick and only left my dorm room to go to classes, or to the studio to work on a new piece. My dad begged me to make friends, or at least do something other than classes and go to the studio. So I picked up a job at an interior design boutique and took up their social media position and really stepped up when my manager got pregnant. I was working more, and studying behind the register. I was learning dance phrases on cue cards while I dug through booklets of swatches of wallpaper. Yet I was keeping myself busy, I was making money to support myself, and I even met a boy named Kyle during Christmas break. And he was the best and worst thing for me.

"Bri keeps asking when sissy is coming to visit." My stepmom Sarah says on the other line of the phone. I let out a sigh sliding on a pair of converse and yank on a hoodie and zip it halfway over my naked torso.

"I've been teaching at a camp all summer, and then Jenny had her baby!" I explain as I grab my nike bag off of the end of Kyle's and my bed. "I'm about to walk to the studio. I'll text you? Give dad and Brielle my love."

"Love you." Sarah says before I hang up and walk down the hallway and see Kyle cooking lunch for the two of us.

"Where are you going?" He asks, "You just got back from the boutique."

"The showcase is in a couple of weeks, and I have to finish the ballet piece." I explain, "I'll be home for dinner though."

He turns away from the stove to look at me and his eyes narrow down at my outfit. "You're going out like that?"

I look down at my sweatshirt, sports bra (that is pretty much covered), cropped leggings and sneakers. "Yeah. I normally wear this to the studio."

"Yeah, but other guys are going to see you. What if one tries to pick you up. It's going to be because you were asking-" I cut him off with grabbing my water bottle off of the counter and trudge towards the door of the small apartment.

I slam the door behind me as I walk down the stairs and out the front door leading towards downtown Los Angeles. When my dad informed me that my loan didn't go through for my second semester I told him I would figure something out. I wasn't one to ask for money, or really for help. Yet Kyle had won me over with his charm, his baby blue eyes, and the way he talked about what he wanted in life.

Once I was moved in with him and under his "possession" I lost all of who I was. I felt the weight of his words, and his touches weighing me down with each walk out of the apartment, or leap across the studio floor. His words were inscribed on my skin of what happened that night at the club, or what almost could have happened. He reminded me how untalented I was, and how much I wasn't worth. But if I said a word I would be homeless. I would be packing up my things and hitchhiking back to the East Coast because I couldn't afford a plane ticket. So, seven months later I'm hanging by a thread and haven't seen my family in over a year.

I feel my phone vibrate and see a text from Jenny that reads, "A couple want to look at a different back splash examples. Could you stop by their house?" with the address connected.