Dancing with the Player | Book #1

Family Dinner

I walked out of dance feeling sore. Ms Saunders went extra hard today with this new contemporary dance. It was very technical and difficult to learn. I waved bye to Elana and Stephanie as I walked to my car with Zen by my side. Him and Emma were going out on another date tonight while I had no plans. Zen asked me to drive him to Emma's place so they can hang out before they go out.

I unlocked my car and get in the driver's seat while Zen sat beside me. I started up the car and drove to Emma's apartment. I turned on the radio to hear Panic! At the Disco playing.

"I feel like we haven't talked in forever," Zen said.

"Because we haven't," I replied back as I turn right.

"You're so moody these days. What crawled up your ass and died?" He questioned.

I rolled my eyes at him,"Nothing crawled up my ass and died."

"Is this about James?"

I slowed down and stopped since we're at a red light. I glanced over at Zen who's looking at me, waiting for me to answer his question. Besides dance class I haven't seen James in a while. We haven't been talking to each other and it's pretty awkward when we had to dance in partners. We would avoid eye contact and try not to let our bodies touch each other. Not only did Ms Saunders thought something was off between us, but everyone else in the room did.

I pressed the gas as the light turned green,"It's not about James at all."

He gasped,"You're so lying!"

I rolled my eyes once again and turned up the volume to some song I didn't know to silence Zen, which worked. Throughout the rest of the ride Zen and I listened the music and talked about old high school memories. In no time we arrived at Emma's house.

"Thanks for the ride," he smiled.

"No problem. Tell Emma I said hey," I told him.

He nodded his head and closed my car door then went into Emma's apartment building. I backed out of the parking space and left the area. As I drove back to my apartment my phone began to ring. I stopped at a red light and connected my phone to my car then answered.

"Stella!" My mom yelled in excitement.

"Mom," I answered.

"I know this is last minute but your dad and I were thinking that we should have a family dinner tonight. Your cousins, the Rodgers surprised us and have been questioning were you are. They really want to see how you've grown and how you're doing."

I mentally groaned. I haven't seen my cousins in 4 years. The Rodgers consisted of Diane, Riley, and Vivian. I didn't know much about what happened to their father, but all I knew was that he left them 7 years ago. To this day I still didn't know why. I don't even think my parents knew what happened with Luke. I heard rumours that he left because he was cheating on Diane and she found out. Another rumour I heard was he left because he never wanted children. But I wasn't one to believe in rumours.

Diane is the mother of Riley and Vivian. If I had to describe her in one word it would be perfectionist because she always tried to be perfect. It's scary yet crazy on how she tried to make everything in her life perfect, but I knew deep down she was never satisfied. The one thing I noticed was that Diane passed on her perfectionist character trait onto her kids.