I Won't Let You Close Enough to Hurt Me

Chapter 15

     When the Hylands arrived at the dance studio, Paige raced in so that she could change. Brooke walked in casually with her mom, because she had already changed and done her hair at home. She had chosen black booty shorts with a long sleeved red and black striped crop top. This way, no one could see the bruises on her arms. That was not a story she wanted to tell Abby or her teammates.

     The only girls that were in the dancers den when Brooke walked in were Maddie, Chloe, and Mackenzie. The second they spotted her, they jumped on her and asked all about her night with Nick. She told them that they just watched a movie, but they knew that there was more to the story.

     "Well how did you guys end the night," Chloe asked. Then, Maddie and Mackenzie started winking at her. Brooke knew that Paige had already told them the story, so she broke down.

     "Me and Nick kissed," she admittied. "But it was barely a kiss. It was really short because our moms walked in on us."

     All of the girls started to giggle. Brooke's face started turning red just thinking about how embarrassing that moment was. Luckily, Paige walked out of the bathroom a few seconds later, and the new topic of conversation was Paige's first date.

     Since Brooke already knew all about Paige's date, she decided to go into studio A and start streching. About 10 minutes later, Abby and the rest of her team joined her. "Alright guys, let's do a quick stretch. We have a lot to work on today," Abby informed them.

     After all the stretching was done, they started the group dance rehearsal. It actually went by pretty quickly, because everyone was hitting all the moves perfectly. At first, only a couple of the girls had "special parts". But after awhile, Abby had decided to give everyone one. This made all the girls work extra hard, and love the dance even more. All of the moms even thought that this dance was a winner.

     When the group was done rehearsing, Abby sent all the girls except Brooke out, and called Brandon and Nick in. Immidiately after entering, Nick came up to Brooke and pulled her into a hug. She smiled and then turned to look at Abby, refusing to even glance in Brandon's general direction.

     "Listen up. This dance did not go well at all yesterday, so I better see improvement today. Did you all practice last night?" Abby asked.

     All three kids nodded, even though none of them had practiced. "Good. Then this should go perfectly. Brooke and Brandon, you're up first," Abby said as she motioned to the middle of the floor.

     The music started, and Brooke was extremely tense. Every lift looked awkward, and they had no chemistry at all. All of the parts where Brooke and Brandon danced seperately were beautiful, but if their partner work was sloppy, they would never win.

     When the song ended, Abby looked disgusted. "We have been working on this for three days now, and that's the best you've got? I hope you both realize that we only have one rehearsal left before we go to the competition. If you dance on stage like you did here, the number won't even place in the top ten," Abby scolded. "Nick, you're up. Hopefully you two do well together."

     Brooke and Nick exchanged a smile as they got ready to start their dance. The music started blaring through the speakers, and they looked flawless. They both did perfectly on the seperate choreography, but they also excelled at the partner work. Brooke felt so safe in Nick's arms, and was able to look at him passionately. They knew that they were performing beautifully.

     They stopped dancing and Abby was speechless. "I don't even know what to say. That was better than I had even imagined it could be. I am so proud of you two," Abby said while hugging both of them. "Now, I won't make my final decision until after tomorrow's rehearsal. So keep practicing."

     As they were walking out of studio A, Brandon pulled Brooke aside. “Listen, I’m not trying to hurt you. I’m just giving you a warning. You and Nick are really close friends, what if this relationship doesn’t work out? You two could end up like we did,” Brandon said as he turned around and exited the studio. Brooke felt nauseous. For once, Brandon was right. She couldn’t lose Nick. She couldn’t go through the pain of another break-up.

     Brooke tried to shake Brandon’s words from her head. Nick was nothing like Brandon was. He was sweet, kind, and caring. Nick would never hurt her.

    After talking to Brandon, Brooke started packing up her dance bag and decided to check her phone. She had a text from Claudia asking if she could hang out after dance. She threw her phone in her dance bag and ran up to where her mom was sitting to make sure it was okay.

     "Hey mom," Brooke said as she took a seat between her mom and Melissa. "Abby dismissed me for the night, can I hang out with Claudia? I finished all my homework before dance."    

     Kelly hesitated. "Honey, I think you should just take it easy for the night. You've had such a long day."

     "But mom, I never get to see my friends because of dance. Now the one time I have an oppertunity, you're saying no. This is so unfair," Brooke insisted.

     "Please Brooke. I know you're upset, but you  need rest," Kelly said, and Brooke responded by storming out of the room. When she reached the bottom of the staircase, Nick was standing there smiling at her.

     "Hey," Brooke smiled, feeling instantly better. "I think you're going to get the duet."

     "I hope so," Nick said. "I love dancing with you."

     "Me too. I am so much more comfortable dancing with you than Brandon," Brooke paused. Nick put his hands around her waist and started pulling her towards him.

     A million thoughts began to race through Brooke's mind. "What if someone sees us? What should I do with my hands? Do I even like Nick?" Brooke thought about what her mom had told her the night before. She shouldn't be kissing Nick if she wasn't sure she liked him. Even Brandon's words crept into her mind. Right before his lips touched hers, she turned her head.

     Nick's lips met Brooke's cheek, and he was surprised. He shot he a confused look and took his hands off of her hips.

     "What's wrong?" he asked.

     "I... I'm just not sure if I like you... like that," Brooke stuttered.

     Nick looked heart-broken. She knew that she shouldn't have kissed him last night; it wasn't fair to tease him like that. But she couldn't change the past, and Nick had to know how she felt.

     "Oh, alright," Nick said quietly. "I'll see you tomorrow."

     As a single tear rolled down her face, Brooke ran to the car. She couldn't believe how badly she had hurt Nick.