A Charming Story

Chapter 16 - Rider: Putting the pieces together

She is beautiful. She makes me laugh more than anyone else. Despite all that I've put her through, she still cares about me. This is why I love her. But does she feel the same way? She didn't show up to my party, and I ended up kissing one of her friends. It seems to me that spells out uninterested.

"Do you want to eat at that diner on main street?" I asked her. Something inside of me felt awkward, like I had done something wrong. In a way, I felt like I betrayed her. That's the insanity talking in me, though. I didn't cheat on her, and she probably already knows considering she was friends with the girl.

But I don't want to like the other girl. The girl who's name I don't even know. I love Brynn. How can I possibly still have feelings for her after that kiss though? It was like a gazillion fireworks went off at once.

"Sure! How was the party last night? I'm sorry I couldn't make it."

I didn't ask why she couldn't come. It most likely had to do with her step mom or work. Everytime I went into the grocery store lately I saw Brynn working.

"It was great!" I tried to sound enthusiastic. "Lots of people and a really great band!" I nudge her shoulder playfully. She allows a small smile to come to her lips. We walk to my car to go to the diner.

All of these car rides with her are adding up to make me like her more. The way she sings along to the radio, but stops the moment I look over at her. She tucks her feet under her legs in the passenger seat and stares out the window a lot. It's quite possible that I'm weird for observing these things about her, but I think it'd be crazy for me not to. All of her little quirks are what make her so special.

I pull into the Main Street Diner parking lot and watch her uncross her legs. She practically jumps out of my car, and I follow after her. It seems she's missed this place, and maybe she hasn't been here in a long time.

"Order anything." I tell her as we sit at a booth. It's nice to sit in a restaurant that doesn't have an overwhelming amount of snobby rich people in it. The last time we actually sat down to eat something was our fake date that ended at Burger King. Since then we've only been eating at local coffee shops and ice cream stores. It's the perfect time of year for either coffee or ice cream, so we've been going to both recently.

Today is different. I want to ask her if she has feelings for me. How can I possibly ask that when I couldn't answer my own question?

"So other than the party, what have you been up to this weekend?" She asks as the waitress walks up to our table. Brynn asks for lemonade, while I stick with a Coke.

"I've been practicing the dance moves for our concert. It's kinda hard to work on our duet without you, though." I take the biggest chance and gather all of my courage to wink at her.

As Brynn blushes, our waitress comes back with our drinks. Thank the Lord for sending people in at the right times. That could've been awkward. It was a chance I was willing to take, though.

Gosh I sound pathetic! Just a simple wink and I'm afraid of scaring her off. Once we place our order, I decide not to make her blush or put either of us under awkward circumstances.

"Are you excited for your first dance concert?" She asks, swirling her straw around in her drink.

"I am. But I might mess up quite a bit." I laugh.

She shrugs, "It's your first concert. If you mess up, it's not like you're in the front. Except with our dance. If you mess that up, prepare to die."

I throw my hands up to defend myself, "Take it easy, Inigo Montoya. Maybe we should just rehearse at my house before the concert." I comment, and wait patiently and she turns the thought over in her head.

"You know Tuesday is the concert. So that leaves today and tomorrow. I have to work tomorrow." She starts to lower her head.

"Today it is, then," I quickly check the time on my Rolex watch and smile, "It's only one o'clock. You'll have time to change and be back at my place." I'm practically begging her. She slowly starts to smile.

"Oh, fine! We'll eat, you take me back to the church to get my car, I'll get changed and be over at your place." The waitress is starting to walk over to us so I simply nod, but on the inside I'm freaking out.

***

It takes a little less than an hour before we leave the restaurant. I take her back to the church to get her car and ride back to my place to wait for her. She's only 15 minutes from my house and she arrives in no time.

My dad is the first one to the door though. Of all the people to answer the door, my prejudice father is the first to greet Brynn.

"Dad, let her in," I try to say in a light tone, but I think we all know I was trying my best not to let my anger show. If he said anything offensive or degrading to her, I was going to be furious.

Brynn was okay. She didn't look like he had said anything wrong, and I hoped that she wasn't hiding anything like that from me. If my dad was to voice his thoughts about her, I half expected her to be in tears. She was either very strong, didn't care about his opinions, heard it before, or he didn't actually say anything.

"I thought we could practice in my sister's dance studio." I tell her as we start to head down the stairs towards the basement. This was where I had kissed the mystery girl the other day. Right next to our game room was Mauri's ballet studio.

I opened the door for Brynn and walked in behind her. She was wearing black leggings and an oversized t-shirt.

We immediately began to work on stretching first. It was a crucial part of any routine. She was ten times as flexible as me, though.

Once we began to work on our spotlight dance, she started to tighten up. Usually when we would dance together, she was loose and light as a feather. It's like everything in her mind was affecting her dancing. If there were that many things circling in her head, something was wrong.

"Are you okay?" I asked her once she asked for a water break.

She froze in her tracks when I placed my hand on her arm. It was a simple gesture, really. I didn't mean anything behind it, I was just trying to comfort her. But it seems I did the opposite.

"Great practice, really. We're going to be great. I just -- I got to go. I'll see you at school tomorrow." At that, she runs out the door, up the steps, and out of my house.

That's when I put the pieces together.

Sorry this update is kinda late. I hope you enjoyed this chapter! If you did, make sure you vote and comment!

Thanks for reading!
Always, Sunny