Dancing in the Rain | ✓

Chapter 26: Almost Lover

Another week passed without any change at all and Eli was beginning to feel more and more lonely. Ever since their kiss in the locker room, Sophia still wouldn't even talk to him. Eli had been hoping that maybe she would repeat it a few times, surprising him with a kiss, even if it still felt wrong, but she didn't do it again. Now she wouldn't even look at him. Not even glance.

Eli didn't even know exactly where she lived so he couldn't visit her, not that it would be a good idea anyway. Finn would come over every other day after school and they would do homework together and play video games afterwards. This made Eli feel a little bit less lonely but despite that the hole in his heart kept growing and growing. Each time he saw Avery the hole would get bigger and bigger, because not only he was with a girl he didn't really want, but he was also hurting her without her even knowing he was doing so.

It was more than obvious that Avery knew that something was different, that something had changed. Maybe she thought it was just due to the pressure they were both under, but Eli had a feeling that she knew it was something much bigger than that. Eli really wanted to do something about it and end this whole masquerade but if he wanted to make things better he had to keep up the façade until the competition so that Avery would have a shot at winning.

As the time went by their dance practices were getting more and more intense, so the rest of the world had to be put aside. Neither Avery nor him cared about doing homework anymore since after spending long and exhausting hours at the dance studio they would both just collapse on their respective beds and hibernate until the next day.

With Sophia out of the picture for now Eli struggled a lot, not being able to deal with constantly being on his own with no one to talk to. He felt trapped and unable to breath freely most of the time which made focusing on polishing their dance moves much more difficult than it needed to be. Eli knew he had to talk to Sophia and explain everything to her one more time, hoping that now the girl would understand him and agree to wait for just a few more days.

On Friday, exactly one week before the competition, Eli roamed the corridors in search of his best friend. It took him a few breaks but he finally spotted her just as she was walking out of the library. Despite her obvious attempts at masking her own misery with smiles Eli could see right through her. He could see that her overexcited attitude was gone, her walk was a little slower and her eyes seemed a little dull. When she spotted Eli walking towards her, she immediately changed direction but the boy quickly caught up to her. "Sophia, wait!" He called after her and to his surprise the girl stopped in her tracks and turned around to face him.

"What do you want, Eli?" She asked, clearly pretending to look bored and annoyed. But her hands were gripping firmly the lug of her satchel giving her emotional state away. She was hurting just as much as Eli was, if not even more.

"I wanted to talk to you." Eli said calmly, trying to keep his emotions at bay. "I wanted to ask you to wait these few more days. It's really not that much." Seeing Sophia's not responding eyes broke Eli's heart and he felt like he was about to start crying. "Please." He begged, almost whispering.

Sophia sighed looking up, above Eli's head. Even though she was clearly trying to pretend like she didn't care both of her hands were clenched into fists, tears were shining in her green eyes and her bottom lip was trembling slightly. "You still don't understand anything." She said softly, as if mostly to herself. Sophia finally met his eyes, looking a bit angry now. "It's not about it. It's about you learning that you can't have everything." Her voice was still soft but it was shaking a bit. "No matter how much you want it, you can't expect me to just wait for you."

"But she will hate me if we lose because of me." Eli said desperately.

Sophia shrugged. "So be it." She said. "If you don't break up with her before the competition you can start looking for a new roommate." And with that she walked away from Eli, her shoes clicking softly against the floor.