~CHAPTER TEN~

“314?” Ryan asked as he looked down at the flyer he held in his hand. “Is that from something, or is it just a random set of numbers?”

“Murphy says that it’s an area code that comes from where he’s from, but for all I know, and knowing Murphy, it probably means something completely different.”

Murphy, one of the new members of Andrea’s crew had quickly established himself as the jokester in the group, so it wouldn’t surprise Andrea if “314” was actually some kind of message that only a small group of people would get and giggle at. Originally, Andrea didn’t want to consider it a possibility as a name, but she was out-voted. Literally. Every member had come up with a possible name, and voted anonymously on which they thought was the best. 314, as out-of-place as it seemed, ended up winning.

Andrea opened the building door for Ryan, who was still looking over the flyer so intently that he would have run right into the very opaque door, if Andrea hadn’t been paying attention and ran ahead of him.

The flyer was a sort of advertisement for Andrea’s crew that Andrea planed on displaying at the dance studio she worked at, in hopes to get people to come out on Saturday to watch her crew perform. Because they were a very new group, they didn’t have an established fanbase yet, and in this type of dance, having people cheering for you is important.

“Believe me,” Andrea continued. “That name is a lot better than some of the others that were being tossed around.”

“Like what?” Ryan asked, finally looking up from the flyer as they entered the lobby.

Andrea chuckled slightly. “For the sake of their embarrassment, I will not repeat them.”

Ryan scoffed. “I still think you should have continued using ‘Best Crew.’ That would have been awesome.”

Andrea rolled her eyes, but was amused nevertheless.

The two friends walked through the lobby and opened the door leading into the room they were looking for—the auditorium.

Even though it was a Saturday, Andrea had managed to drag Ryan out of his house before noon to accompany her to the performing arts school that she and her crew were performing at in a little over a week. Originally, everyone was going to come, but because it was a Saturday, some had jobs and families that needed to be tended to, and Andrea understood their priorities. So that meant that Ryan was asked to go, even though actually being here wasn’t important to him.

The auditorium, a name that Andrea almost thought was laughable now that she saw it, was stunning. It was about the size of a medium-sized theater and had a balcony. It had to have been more than twice the size of her old high school’s auditorium, which was something that pleased her, but it also made the jealous side of her flare up. She was used to having to perform on a cramped, beaten up old stage that had seen decades of plays, band concerts, dance routines, and, of course, falls. This place would make her school’s band, choir and drama teachers all cry from envy.

“Whoa,” Ryan sighed, doing his absolute best to look everywhere at once. “Please don’t tell me that this is where my taxes are going, because I’m still waiting for the potholes on my street to e filled. I think I might have to write a scathing letter to my representative if this is where my money is going.”

Andrea chuckled, but kept walking towards the stage. She jumped up onto the stage and began walking around, looking for angles, smooth or rough spots, or anywhere else that she might want to avoid while dancing. She didn’t see anything worth being too concerned about; the stage seemed to be perfect. A few days before the actual competition she and the rest of her crew will come out to practice on it, to get used to the surface, as they had only truly been practicing in a dance studio.

While Andrea was doing that, Ryan walked up and down the audience aisles, but finally got bored and joined Andrea on the stage. They sat side by side on the edge of the stage, legs dangling over the side, looking out over the empty seats.

“Are you excited that you’ll be competing again?” Ryan asked after a minute, trying to make conversation.

Andrea nodded. “It’s still weird to think about it,” she sighed.

“Think about what?”

Andrea looked around the auditorium. “I was going to audition here before junior year started. It’s just odd to think about actually attending school here.”

Ryan nodded. He knew what she was talking about. “I’m glad you didn’t, though.”

Andrea shot Ryan a look, and the man quickly realized his mistake. “I mean that I’m glad that you stayed at our high school. You were—and are—good enough to get in here. But my for my entire high school career, I hung out with you. I can’t imagine high school without thinking of you.”

“Aw,” Andrea squealed, shoving Ryan with her shoulder. “Ryan’s getting all mushy on me!”

She teasing, and Ryan knew it, but he still turned a little red with embarrassment. He shoved Andrea back and growled, “Shut up,” which only made Andrea laugh harder at her friend’s discomfort.

No matter how long they had been friends, it was still weird for either of them to express any affection towards each other beyond a platonic level. They both knew and understood that they could only ever be friends, and both were perfectly fine with that. They had tried dating once, since everyone around them back at school had just assumed that they were together because of the amount of time they spent each other, but halfway through the first date, they both realized that being romantic with each other was impossible. Ryan had taken Andrea to a fancy restaurant and even a movie in a richer part of the city to impress her, but between the time they spent making fun of the conversations that they heard coming from the richer people around them and the fact that that when they tried to hold hands, it was so awkward it was laughable, they knew that being best friends was as close as they were ever going to get. People continued to think they were dating, and Ryan and Andrea continued to be only friends.

“Teach me how to dance!” Ryan suddenly tried dramatically, standing back up on the stage and doing a spin.

Chuckling, Andrea got to her feet, groaning a little at the strain it put on her knee. Though it had been almost a month since she had pinched the nerve in her knee and it felt fine most of the time, but there were still some movements that made it protest a little.

“What do you want to learn?” Andrea asked, rubbing her face as she tried to wake up. She almost never wore make up, mostly because she just didn’t care, but also because she was one of those people that couldn’t not touch her face, so she just avoided ruining her make up by not wearing any.

Ryan thought for a second. “Do you remember your routine for the talent show sophomore year?”

“Mhm,” Andrea hummed. She would never forget that routine.

“Teach it to me.”

Andrea raised an eyebrow. “You want me to teach you a dance that took me years to get the steps, at least a year to choreograph, and still haven’t perfected, in…ten minutes?”

Ryan nodded enthusiastically, a wide grin on his face.

“Fine…” Andrea sighed. “But remember, I haven’t danced classical in years.”

“It’ll be fine,” Ryan said. “Just don’t do anything too dangerous. I don’t want to be the reason you get hurt a week before your first competition. Brandon scares me a little.”

Andrea laughed as she got into position. “Well, you start like this…”

-           -           -           -

Twenty minutes later, and Ryan and Andrea were both red in the face.

Ryan was, because he had never realized how difficult the dance actually was, and Andrea was because she was laughing too hard at Ryan.

“No, no, no,” Andrea told Ryan as he fell to the floor mid-move for the nth time. “You have to move your hips like this.” She demonstrated the move again as he got back up to his feet. She had to give it too him; Ryan was a tough, determined little er. He kept going, when other non-dancers would have stopped a long time before.

Ryan tried again. This time, he did a little better, and Andrea was able to catch him before he toppled over.

“Oh, please tell me that the Forever Together couple is finally dating!” a loud voice called out from the other side of the auditorium, startling Ryan and Andrea so much that they jumped away from each other; an automatic response from their days of being teased in high school.

Andrea looked for who had spoken, only to find not one, but a group of people, all men, walking towards the stage.

“,” Andrea cursed under her breath. She recognized all of them, and now realized that the situation she had been trying to avoid may very well had finally caught up with her.

“Seriously,” Jake, the person who had spoken before, said as he and the rest of the group reached the foot of the stage. “You guys should have started dating a long time ago.”

Andrea rolled her eyes. Jake ad said that many times before, starting back when they were in high school, and it had become tiresome. So, instead of answering to Jake, Andrea scanned the faces of the people in the group Jake was with. Most of them she had known since high school, and were all formerly part of her crew.

Except for Jay, who was also there. He didn’t notice Andrea looking at him, too busy looking at Jake questioningly, obviously wondering how Jake knew Andrea. This was another situation Andrea would rather avoid.

“We’re using your time, aren’t we?” Andrea asked Jay, addressing the leader.

Each competing group had a few times to visit the stage before the actual show, something that Andrea wasn’t sure she liked. She was so used to just showing up and dancing, that having the time to see and bond with the stage was weird. But the teams certainly were going to take advantage of it. They all had twenty minutes today, which was why Andrea had come, and she supposed that it was just her rotten luck that her old crew and Jay had the next time slot.

Her question was rhetorical, but she saw a few members nodding anyway.

“We’ll go, then,” Andrea said, trying to seem like she wasn’t eager to remove herself from the environment. She jumped down off of the stage, and she heard Ryan, who had been unusually quiet, follow her. “Good luck next week!” she called over her shoulder as she walked out.

“Are you competing?!” Jake yelled after her.

“Obviously,” Andrea growled in response, but she was far enough away that only Ryan heard her, which earned her a quick laugh from her friend.

The two made it to the lobby, but Ryan suddenly halted, remembering only then that he had left the flyer he had brought in with him on the stage.

At first, Andrea tried to convince Ryan to just leave it, but when Ryan admitted that he hadn’t gotten around to copying it, and that was the only copy, Andrea groaned. She had made it, and though it hadn’t been the best, she had worked for a while making it, having never used a graphics program before, and was proud of it. She wanted to use it, and she didn’t want to have to go through the entire process again.

“Fine,” she sighed, “But you have to be the one to get it.”

“I don’t think so,” Ryan answered, a small smile playing on his lips.

“Why not?” she demanded, annoyed that he was going to fight her on this.

Ryan nodded at something behind Andrea, his smile growing even wider.

Andrea turned around and saw that technically, Ryan was right. He wouldn’t go get the flyer, but not because he was being difficult. It was because Jay Park had brought it to them instead.

“I’m sorry,” Jay said quietly, looking like he was afraid he was interrupting something. “but both of you know Jake?”

“He’s an old friend,” Ryan answered, saving Andrea from finding her own explanation.

Andrea turned back to Ryan with a glare. After all the times Ryan had told her that she might as well let Jay know about the history between her and what is now his dance crew, here he was, keeping the truth from coming out.

Ryan, despite knowing her as well as he did, misinterpreted her glare, thinking that she wanted to be alone with Jay, so he said, “I guess…I’ll just meet you at the car, then, Dre,” and turned to leave.

Andrea wanted to stop him, wanted to call him back, but she realized that doing that would look really bad to Jay.

So instead, she put as genuine a smile as she could muster on her face, and turned back to face Jay. “Sorry about that. But yeah, Jake is a really old friend of ours. We all went to the same high school.”

Jay nodded as he took in the information and reached out to hand the flyer over to Andrea. “And of those years, how long have you and Ryan been together?” Jay asked, quieter than before.

Andrea, who had been trying to think of a quick and painless way to get out of the conversation, was blindsided by the question. “What?! How--?! We’re not dating!” She started to laugh; she just couldn’t help it. She knew so completely that she and Ryan would never be able to date, and it amused her when others didn’t see that.

“You aren’t?” Jay asked, clearly not believing her. “You guys seem so close though.”

“We are,” Andrea answered, letting her guard down a little. She was really comfortable with this topic. She had discussed with so many people so many times before, it didn’t faze her anymore. “But…you know how some guys and girls are able to only ever be friends with the people they’ve known their whole lives?”

Jay nodded.

“We’re like that. I’ve seen him eat dirt. I don’t want to date him, but I’m definitely comfortable around him; more so than I am with most other people.”

Jay looked confused. “Didn’t you guys tell me at the party that you met in high school?”

Andrea nodded. “Beginning of freshman year.”

“But you’ve seen him eat dirt?”

“That was last year,” Andrea said, laughing slightly.

Jay laughed as well, and Andrea couldn’t help the feeling of pride she got when she saw that she had made him laugh. It was, Andrea realized, a really nice laugh.

“I’m sorry, then, for assuming that…” Jay trailed off, knowing that Andrea understood what he was saying.

Andrea waved away his apology. “Don’t be sorry,” she said. “As you could probably tell by what Jake was saying, a lot of people assume that Ryan and I are together.”

Jay shrugged. “Still…”

“It’s really okay,” Andrea said, turning slightly away from Jay, signaling that she was going to leave. “See you at the competition.” She walked towards the door, but just as she reached the door, she turned back around. “Jay!”

Jay, who had turned to go back into the auditorium, turned back around to face her.

“Remember,” Andrea continued, “Bring your A-game.” She smiled at him, pushing the door open with her back as she spoke. She saw Jay smile, then she walked out into the school’s parking lot, headed for Ryan’s car.

“Wait! Dre!” she suddenly heard Jay call, making her stop walking and turn back to face Jay, who had followed her outside.

“Yeah?”

Jay suddenly looked uncomfortable, but he spoke anyway. “What are you doing after the competition here next week?”

Andrea thought about coming up with something as an excuse, but she couldn’t think of anything immediately believable, and part of her knew that even if she had thought of something, she wouldn’t have been able to lie. Lying was not a strength of hers. So she chose to answer truthfully. “Nothing, probably. Hopefully something restful, since I’ll probably be sore.” She laughed, hoping to make him feel a little more comfortable.

“How about a movie?” Jay asked quickly. Andrea could tell he was nervous, and she thought it was cute.

She answered before her brain could really start thinking about who she was talking to and what she should be answering. “Sure.”

Jay looked really relieved. “Great. I’ll see you then?”

Andrea nodded, feeling like she was in high school again.

“I’ll find you afterwards,” Jay continued, talking quickly. “Just stay backstage.

“Alright,” Andrea said, trying to act like she didn’t notice how excited he seemed.

With one last smile, Jay turned and walked back into the building, slipping his hands casually into the pockets of his sweat pants, but Andrea could still tell that he was really pleased with the outcome of the conversation.

Shaking her head with amusement, she made her way to Ryan’s car.

She climbed into the passenger’s seat, knowing that Ryan was looking at her intently, a goofy smile on his face. He knew, somehow, what had just happened.

“Drive,” Andrea ordered, unable to keep the smile off of her face because of her friend.

Ryan, though he did follow her order, couldn’t help himself, and let out a laugh.

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Sorry for inconsistent updates. School's getting in the way.

June will be much better, I promise.