It's Always You- Bryles

12. Jealousy

"What are you doing here?" I growled at him under my breath. I thought Briar had said that he was over her.

"Relax, dude," He raised his hands in the air. "I'm not who you have to worry about."

"What do you mean?" I looked down at Briar, who wasn't meeting my eyes. She looked pretty shell-shocked. 

"It's nothing, Myles," she shook her head, staring at the floor.

"What happened, B?" I asked her gently.

"Some girl... she saw me dancing with you and lashed out at me... apparently you know her?"

"Know who..." I followed Briar's gaze to see a tall, blonde haired woman with dark eyes and red lips that were naturally set into a pout. Those eyes set off alarm bells in my head... Leah.

I grabbed Briar's hand, sending a warning look to Trevor. He understood and stood with Samuel, keeping Leah in check. With Bri in tow, I lead us to a room behind the club that was much more private than where we were before.

"What did she do to you..." I whispered to Briar, my hands cupping her cheeks without me realising.

"I'm fine... she was just angry," she sighed. "Jealous."

I could tell that she was holding something back from me.

"Tell me the truth," I insisted.

"She called me a slut and stuff... and said that I don't deserve you," Briar looked up at me. My blood was boiling inside me. "And she's right."

"That's not true, you know that's not true," I quickly argued. "You're incredible... if anything, I don't deserve you."

"Who is she?" Briar narrowed her eyebrows.

"She's just a girl I saw once at a party. Nothing happened between us, but she's convinced it did. She tried to hook up with me once, I freaked and ran. I would have thought that she moved on by now," I shook my head. "Apparently not."

Briar remained silent.

"Why did you leave earlier?" I asked her softly. "I'm sorry if I took things too far- "

"-It's not you're fault, Myles. I was just overwhelmed. We were practically glued to each other, and you're still just a friend? I know I said I would wait for you to be ready, but how long?" Her eyes pierced my soul. "How long, Mylo?"

I resisted the urge to kiss her. Don't make things even worse, Myles.

"I'm sorry," was the only thing I could manage to say, before I left the room, not bearing to stand there any longer. I drove home before most of the cast, having had enough for the night. They understood.

Briar was the only thought on my mind while I carried out my morning routine. Something as simple as doing the laundry couldn't be done without my mind drawing back to her. Among my pile of clothes was her fleece that she had left at my house the time she had come to pack before we left home for Christmas. I smiled back at the memory of us sitting, carefree, on my couch watching TV.

My first memories of Briar came flooding back to me. They weren't great, which is what put a smile to my face. We were pretty much enemies before friends.

-flashback-

Walking into this new studio was scary. I was only 13, and everyone here seemed much older and more talented than I was. My old studio was more of a junior troupe, but in CDC there are only 5 people my age, only 2 of them were guys. I had tried to make friends with one of them, but that didn't go so well after I accidentally called his dad- who just so happened to be the owner of the studio- 'terrifying'.