Tough Love

Chapter 33

Riley's POV

"How about we do this?" I say to Charlie, doing a bit of choreography I made up for our duet. I loose myself, and dance more than I intended to do. I stop myself and see Charlie smirking.

"Sorry, I kind of take control of things. James always tells me I do." I say nervously. He shrugs and smiles.

"Don't worry about it, your an amazing dancer anyway. And James should realize how lucky he is to have you." He says softly, stepping closer to me.

"He do know that." I say defensively and stepping back. He steps closer again.

"I'm just saying." He says. "If I was dating you, I would cherish every minute of it." He tucks a strand of hair behind my ear and leans in closer until his lips were inches from mine. I quickly jump back and awkwardly cross my arms over my chest.

"Let's just finsh the choreography." I squeak. He nods and we work on the dance. A half later later, the choreography was just about finished.

"Do you need a ride home?" Charlie asks me.

"No thanks, James is waiting for me down at Culture Shock." I replied, eager to get away from him.

"Okay, but I don't mind driving you." He tells me. I shrug and walk out the door and hurry down to Culture Shock. I see James talking with some other dancers, Beth included. He sees me and smiles, motioning for me to come over. I go over and wrap my arms around him, feeling slightly guilty about Charlie almost kissing me.

"Hey, you alright?" He asks.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I reply. He nods and plants a kiss on the top of my head. He says goodbye to everyone and we walk out to the car.

"So, how'd practice go?" He asks.

"Alright." I shrug. He takes his eyes off of the road for a second to look at me.

"Are you sure?" He asks. "Because if Charlie said, or did anything to you, I swear, I will-"

"Calm down, nothing happened." I lie. But nothing did happen. Except Charlie trying to kiss me, and me being a good girl, backed away.

"Just promise that if anything do happen, you'll tell me." He sighs.

"I promise." I agree. I look over at him and say,

"I love you." He looks back over to me and smiles.

"I love you too." By than, we were at my house.

"Thanks." I said. I paused for a minute before I leaned over and pecked his lips. "Bye."

"See you later." He called as I got out of the car and scurried to the front door.

I laid my bag and phone in my room and took a shower. After I got dressed and dried my hair, I checked my phone and saw that I had a few messages.

CHARLIE-Hey Riley

CHARLIE-I'm sorry about today in practice. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable.

I text him back.

RILEY-Hi and it's alright.

CHARLIE-Okay, but I'm still sorry.

We text for a bit longer, until he asks,

CHARLIE-Why did you get back together with James anyway?

RILEY-Because I still had strong feelings for him.

CHARLIE-Why would you though? He kissed another girl!

RILEY-Beth kissed him first.

CHARLIE-Yeah but it's not like he pulled away.

RILEY-Whatever I'm over it now.

I shut my phone off in hopes that he would get the point that I wanted to end this conversation, but my phone quickly beeped again.

CHARLIE-You do realize that him and Beth are doing a duet again and she could try to kiss him any minute right?

I smartly text back,

RILEY-Well you tried to kiss me so that makes me and James even I guess.

He didn't reply after that.