Hanging by a Moment

9

Chapter 9

It was too damn early to be doing anything, much less going anywhere. It was Sunday which meant no traffic, but that also meant that a lot of the 'early-risers' a.k.a old people would be out walking their pets. I took a quick shower, careful not to make too much noise. Usually my aunt went to church on Sundays but since Theresa, my mother, has been here she's missed a few services.

Giving Maya a quick kiss on the forehead, I closed the door quietly behind me. I took the stairs two at a time, as I rushed to the dance studio once again. I was always late and everyone including me hated it. No matter how early I woke up I was guaranteed to be late. I didn't bother eating breakfast, instead I grabbed some fruit and a bottled water for later. My phone dinged with a text from 'unknown,' it was clearly Rebel but I was too petty to save her number. She was already at the studio, and had been waiting for 'forever'. I rolled my eyes at her exaggeration, I was only 10 mins late. I parked and raced into the studio coming face-to-face with my best enemy.

"Thank you for finally gracing us with your presence," she said, obviously annoyed.

"The pleasure is all mine." I smiled back. Nolan was here too, why? Beats me.

"Why are you here?" I directed the question at Nolan, but of course Rebel answered for him.

"He's just dropping me off," she smirked. "I spent the night and his place and I had left my car here on Friday.

"Okay, can he leave?" I remarked feigning disinterest.

"I was just about to leave." He said, shooting me a guilty glance.

He made a move to exit, but the little mermaid stopped him and kissed him on the lips. I paid no attention to their make-out session and instead chose to begin stretching. Look at you Laiyah, not giving a damn about your ex canoodling in front of you. But I do give a damn! I thought to myself. Yes child, but we're going to pretend that you don't.

Not long after, Rebel and I were arguing over style choices. It was already 8:45 am and we had accomplished nothing.

"Look, we're 18. This is our last dance as seniors in this company. Do you realize what that means? This may be our last chance for our families and friends to see us on stage. This is a company showcase and there will be a lot of other numbers, we don't wanna be just another number." I argued.

Sighing, Rebel nodded actual agreeing with me for once. It seems like taking Debate as an elective had finally payed off.

"Okay fine, but if we're going to do lyrical. We have to make sure that it flows, and since this is a duet we have to make it look like we can actually stand each other."

"I'm willing to put my feelings towards you aside. I want this dance to be memorable." I looked at her expecting an agreement.

"Fine. No drama just dancing." She pasted a smile on her face and we moved on to music choices.

Surprisingly, picking a song went really well. Soon enough we began choreographing the dance. We hadn't gotten very far, but we had at least 16 counts completed. Deciding that we had done enough for today, we both went our separate ways.

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My next door neighbors usually tended to their lawn around this time, so I wasn't surprised to see them outside. As I stepped out of the car, I waved to them and said a quick 'good morning.' Unlike most days Mrs. Sheller stopped me, and called me over. I wasn't sure why but I obediently made my way to their front lawn.

"Laiyah, sweetheart. How have you been?"

"I've been great Mrs. Sheller you?

"All is well, I called you over here because I wanted to introduce you to my grandchildren. She called inside and a little girl stepped out. This is my granddaughter Callie, she said as she introduced me to the little girl, I had seen the other day. Callie smiled up at me, she had big brown eyes and a big adorable smile.

"Hi," I said. 'Have you met my sister Maya?"

"Yeah," she giggled. "she's really nice." I smiled at her she was so cute.

I was busy making small talk with Callie, when were interrupted by a deep voice.

"Grandma, did you call?" I turned my head to the voice, almost breaking my neck in the process.

Stepping out into the sun was a glorious model of a man. He was taller than me, most likely over 6 feet. His hair was cut short and close to his head, and he had a neat, trimmed beard that surrounded full pink lips. And his body, oh! his body. He was currently shirtless and was blessing me with a free view of his sculpted arms and muscled torso.

He slowly made his over to us, his dark chocolate skin glowing in the sun. He was looking me right in the eyes as he walked over. I adverted my gaze, how rude is it of me to be staring at his chest when he was staring at my eyes?

As he stopped right in front of me, I could see every beautiful part of him and that's when I noticed his tattoo. This guy was the guy from the gym, it was my mystery guy!

He stretched his hand out to me and I shook it. His hand was large and warm and-

He cleared his throat, apparently trying to gain my attention. How embarrassing.

"Hi, my name is Cameron." His voice was smooth like silk. He smiled at me and if possible he got sexier. This had to be illegal, some of us are struggling with only a couple decent features and he's over hear looking like he was photo-shopped.

"LI'm Laiyah." I tripped over the introduction. Nice job genius, haven't you been speaking English your whole life?

"Nice to meet you Laiyah." He smirked, could he hear my thoughts? I didn't take me long to figure out that he was the owner of the strange car in the Steller's driveway.

"Nice to meet you too." I smiled awkwardly. Thankfully our little meet and greet was over, I desperately tried not to trip over myself as I walked back to my house. I could feel eyes staring into the back of my head as basically trotted into my house.

I made my way into the kitchen, grabbed a glass and filled it will cold water. I leaned on the granite top island as I gulped down the refreshing water in seconds. I hadn't noticed anyone in the kitchen when I walked in, so my aunt's voiced scared me when she spoke.

"I see you've meet the neighbors grandson." She smirked, not missing a beat as she diced the potatoes.

Do I even need to say that I was red in the face like a tomato? I doubt it.