Hail Mary, Forgive Me (Kellic, boyxboy)

Chapter 16

After a few days away, it was a little strange waking up to Vic moving around my room again. Although, this time, he was quite shy, staying away from the bed and being careful not to make eye contact.
"Morning Kellin. I wanted to maybe teach you another dance today. It's a group one, that takes eight people. If it's okay with you, that is. I've phoned Juliet and a few friends of mine and asked them if they'd come over. None of them know it either, but they will all be at the ball so they are going to be learning it anyway." I rolled onto my back to actually look at him, ignoring the fact that the duvet had left my chest bare and was tangled around my legs.
"Sure, I'll get dressed then." For the first time since I'd woken up, he actually looked at me.
"You're okay with this?" I nodded, and he seemed to relax a little. "Breakfast will be on the table in ten." He left, and I spotted the clothes draped over the chair of the dresser.

After breakfast, we made our way into the ballroom and waited for the others to arrive. Vic sat and played about with his phone, playing excepts of music, while I stared aimlessly out of the French doors that led out into on of the courtyards surrounding the house. Thankfully, we weren't kept waiting a huge length of time before Juliet arrived, followed into the dining room by five others. There were three men and three woman, including Juliet, all of whom were wearing similar clothes suitable for exercise.
"First things first, I guess I should introduce you all to Kellin." I waved and smiled politely. Kellin, you already know Juliet. This is her husband, Andy. These are some friends I've made at college, Joe, Helena, Emily and Tom." As he said each name, someone would wave at me. It would probably take me all day to remember their names, but it didn't matter a huge amount. "Right, now that we've done that, I have a video of some people actually doing this dance, which we can watch, and then dive straight in."

When we'd watched the video, Vic got us all to actually begin learning the steps. It wasn't hugely difficult, but everyone coming from Vesani would know this and be able to do it in their sleep, and Vic was determined that we'd be able to fit right in with them. It wasn't long before we got the hang of it, and were able to do the whole dance through.

"Well done, you guys have done really well this morning. There is another one that I could teach you after lunch if you'd like?"
"Sure, I'm happy to stick around if everyone else is up for it." The guys that I remembered to be Juliet's husband said, evoking a collection of nodding.
"Fantastic. Let's eat lunch and chill out for a bit first."

Lunch was a huge buffet, of sandwiches, pasties, crisps, pork pies, corned beef slices and fruits. We picked at it for about an hour, eating pretty much all of it, save some corned beef slices that some of Vic's friends refused to touch. I chatted to some of his friends, finally starting to remember their names. After eating, we went back to the ball room, and began learning the second dance. Where the first dance didn't require me to do any more than hold Vic's hand from time to time, this one was much more intimate, and I had to hold Vic in my arms the same way you would when waltzing. Vic was doing his best to not look directly at me, and we were holding each other as far away and with as little contact as possible. When we stopped for Vic to explain the next part, Juliet looked at me with narrowed eyes.

"Right, from the beginning!" Vic called, holding his arms out to me. Once again, the start of the music came around and we began weaving in and out of the other pairs. Then, after the first four bars, we were able to stand apart for a short time, whilst each pair paraded up and down between the rest of us. Then it was our turn, and just as we passed between Juliet and Andy, Juliet stepped slightly inwards, pushing me up against Vic, who's eyes instantly widened as my cheeks heated up. Because of the sudden impact, I was clinging onto him to keep upright. As soon as I'd regained my balance, I let go of him enough to allow the distance we'd been keeping, pulling myself away without interrupting the dance itself.

For the rest of the afternoon, I felt more uncomfortable than I had before. The atmosphere was still so tense between me and Vic, and I was embarrassed by the way he had needed to hold me up for a moment. Juliet continued forcing us closer together, and soon, the others caught on, forcing us to be right up against each other every time we had to do the stupid parade steps. 

Eventually, we reached the end of the afternoon, and had learned the entire dance. I felt relief wash over me, knowing that I wouldn't have to find myself pressed that close to Vic again for a while. The others all left, Juliet promising me that we would do some painting the next day, since Vic, Jaime, Tony and Mike would all be at collage all day preparing for their finals. Once they were gone, I went back up to my room, changing into some swim shorts and going out into the garden to chill out in the hot tub for an hour before dinner. 

After a short while, I was joined by Jaime. 
"So how did the lesson go today? After last nights dinner, my guess is that most of it was uncomfortable." 
"It was a bit. Vic won't look directly at me. I think the others noticed, they forced us as close as they could." He sat and laughed for a moment, shaking his head. 
"Why am I not surprised? Maybe it would help the situation with Vic if you started a conversation with him?" I played with the thought, before nodding. 
"You are probably right. I don't really know what I'd say, but it can't be that hard to think of something." 
"The Ball? Since it's caused two arguments, it might actually be good to talk it out, calmly, so that you can find out what the plans are." 
"I guess. Should I go now?" Jaime nodded, motioning for me to go. "Okay, I'm going. See you later." 
"See you Kellin." 

Once I'd dressed, I went off to find Vic. It took a while, searching the whole house from top to bottom. Eventually, I found him in the gym, somewhere I should have probably checked sooner. He was working tirelessly, running on the treadmill. 
"Hey Vic!" He turned his head, looking surprised to see me stood next to him. I watched him take his earphones out and slow down as the machine came to a stop. 
"Kellin? To what do I owe the pleasure?" 
"I was wondering how much planning you have done for the ball, and if there was anything I could help with?" Vic's face literally burst into a huge grin, and he jumped down off the treadmill, grabbing my hand and pulling me along behind him. 
"Come on, there is so much to show you, and loads left to do." 

I found myself in a room that I hadn't been into before, it was kind of like his office, but much bigger and with notice boards the whole way around the wall, each covered with pictures, mind maps and sketches. 
"So is there anything you were particularly interested in? We've got music sorted, I found a group of musicians who are happy to play for us, though Juliet said that you can sing really well I kind of wondered if you might like to do something? It's totally up to you, of course." He seemed quite nervous again, after his burst of excitement. 
"Maybe. I could help with decorating and stuff." Vic nodded, walking over to where I saw a series of computer sketches, each depicting the ballroom from a different point of view. 
"I have been looking for someone to come and do it professionally, because there is a lot of things that will take a huge amount of experience. You can oversee it though, if you wanted to." Looking at the designs, I could see why he would want someone who knew what they were doing to do the actual decorating. I thought I would be able to oversee it just fine though, so I nodded. He flashed another smile up at me, and for a moment, the tension that had been present all day seemed to vanish. It came back quickly though, as he busied himself with showing me what I would need and carefully explaining parts of the plans. 

We continued looking at the plans until Tony came into the room, telling us that it was time for dinner. As we ate, Jaime, Tony and Mike kept the conversation going, full of jokes that kept all of us in fits of laughter. I felt better going to bed that night, and drifted off to sleep easily.