Dancing in the Rain | ✓

Chapter 12: Torn

When Eli showed up to their practice on Monday he expected something to change. He kept waiting for some kind of acknowledgment of what they were now but nothing came. Avery was still just Avery, focusing entirely on their dance routine and not leaving much space for a trivial small talk.

Avery never said anything, never winked to him or did anything that would indicate that something had changed. So Eli didn't do anything either, thinking that what he thought had happened between them was just a figment of his imagination or just him reading too much into things that didn't really mean anything.

Eli really wanted to talk about this and make sure that they were on the same page but he was too afraid of Avery shutting herself off again to do so. "Can I come to your next performance?" Eli asked at last hoping to get another opportunity to spend some time with her outside of school.

The girl stopped writing down notes in her notebook to look up at Eli. "This week I'm actually only performing on Wednesday, so since it's a school night we wouldn't be able to do anything together afterwards." She said softly, looking as if she didn't want Eli to come there. Her lips were pressed in a thin line and her eyes were dull. "Other than that I have some waiting to do at the restaurant."

Eli nodded his head. "Maybe next week then." He said hopefully.

"Maybe." The girl said but her voice was flat and she didn't sound convinced.

Eli's heart almost broke but he chose not to show it and instead kept it to himself. "Okay." He said, unable to find any other words to use.

Avery's eyes shifted back to her notebook as she continued writing down details of their choreography so that they wouldn't forget about anything. Her face was emotionless which was worrying Eli a bit. He had a feeling that the girl wasn't exactly comfortable with what had happened which was probably the reason why she didn't want to address it.

Eli felt a bit fooled but he wasn't going to let his feelings control him. He was still capable of making rational decisions and on top of that in the light of the day the emotions he had had a few days before weren't as overwhelming as it would seem.

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Although a week later the feelings he had been trying to suppress weren't going anywhere and Avery was still cold and not very prone to the idea of spending more time together with Eli. The boy started having colorful dreams about her. First he dreamed about seeing her smile again and holding her hands. Then he started dreaming about kissing every inch of her skin. And then the dreams became intense and full of passion to the point that Eli couldn't think about them when he was around other people.

He wanted to make a move so badly but each time he would invite Avery somewhere the girl would turn his offer down by making some stupid excuse that wasn't really fooling either of them.

After the dreams came sleepless nights that Eli spent on thinking about Avery and listening to depressing songs. He knew them all by heart after two nights, and he would sing them while doing the most bizarre things like laundry or making dinner.

"Said I walk beside the still waters and they restore my soul, but I can't walk on the path of the right because I'm wrong." He slowly sang to himself, not even caring that his singing skills still weren't that great.

"What the hell are you singing?" Eli stopped chopping vegetables for the soup and turned around to find Sophia leaning against one of the cupboards with a smirk on her face. "Since when are you so emo? This is depressing as fuck."

Eli shrugged not even attempting to smile back. "I guess I'm just in the mood for depressing songs."

The smirk almost instantly disappeared off of Sophia's face and it was replaced with a worried frown. "You've been a bit off recently but I didn't know it was that bad. What's wrong?"