when you least expect it | sean lew

[ nine ]

***

"Kai, you need to understand that every word you say is just a pound against my head." Julian groans, shoving his face into his pillow. "I'm having the worst hangover of my life."

It was nearly 12:30pm and Kailani was trying to get Julian to take her to the studio. So far, she hasn't had much luck considering he couldn't even listen to her without groaning in pain.

She smirks. "Hey, that's not my problem." she laughs. "Can you just drop me off at the studio real quick? I.. I wanna work on that combo Will and Janelle taught us. I never really got it down." she lies, not wanting Julian to be asking questions about her spending time with Sean.

He looks up from his pillow and then quickly pulls himself over the edge of the bed on top of his trashcan, throwing up all the alcoholic contents still in his stomach.

She sighs, rushing to his side and gently rubbing his back as he continued to throw up. "I'll take that as a no.." she mutters. She grabs his phone and leaves the room to get Julian a glass of water.

As she approached the kitchen, she unlocked the phone and scrolled to Sean's name in his favorites list. She hit call and patiently waited as the line rang.

"Jules?" she hears his voice suddenly.

"Uh.. hey, Sean, it's me." she says.

"Kailani?"

She bites her lip, caught off guard by the way he says her name. "Yeah.. listen, I can't come today.." she says slowly.

"Oh...why?" he asks, trying to mask the obvious disappointment in his voice.

"Julian's really hungover and sick so he can't drive me." she says as she put the phone between her ear and shoulder to fill a glass of water.

"I'll pick you up." he says quickly.

She raises her eyebrow to the fast response, despite him not being able to see her. "Um.. alright, if that's okay with you."

"Yeah, it's no problem!" he chirps. "It's.. uh.. kinda on the way there anyways." he pauses. "I'll be there in like 15 minutes."

"Okay.. see you then." she says and hits the end button. She deleted the call history from Julian's call log and then headed back towards Julian's room.

Should I be weirded out by Sean's actions...?

She walks back into Julian's room and hands him the glass of water. His face is pale and covered in sweat. "Um.. I got someone to pick me up. Do you think you'll be okay if I leave?"

He doesn't reply and just falls back onto his pillow after drinking some of the water, weakly waving his hand as a signal that he'll be fine.

She giggles and walks back to her room to change into her dance clothes.

****

Sure enough, Sean arrives 15 minutes after the call and honks his horn.

Shit, why am I so nervous..? Oh that's right.. because of Josh's stupid bet.

A lot was at stake for Sean. He couldn't expect to keep his superstar status if he gave up his spotlight and his classes to Josh freakin' Beauchamp. Not only was that time an opportunity to show off his talent but it was also a safe space for him. He found comfort in knowing he was the best.. because the attention was what kept him going. He knew from the very beginning that he wanted to be different as a dancer.. and he wanted to make a name for himself. Now that he did, he knew how great it was to receive praise for that, especially after countless hours of practice and hard work. It ended up being worth every moment of frustration that Sean experienced when he was working so hard on being the best. It was the ultimate validation of all his hard work. He constantly pushed himself to be better as a dancer and was always willing step out of his own comfort zone, which was another reason why he knew he was so great. That was the Sean everyone saw. But deep down, the ability to get out every emotion he ever felt and leave it on the dance floor was something that Sean valued the most...even over the fame and attention. Nothing mattered to Sean whenever he danced. It was just him and the music.