Dance with Me

Justin’s POV

Two days, two days had gone by since I had last been at the studio. I had spent those two days barely getting any sleep. I was constantly running back and forth from interviews to photo shoots.. I could only sleep when I was on the plan on in the car. Even then I hardly go any sleep.

Before I knew it, it was the day of the auditions. I had to fly back to Atlanta for them. They were being held in a theater downtown. Why a theater, I’ll never know. Then again there were going to be way to many people there for it to be in a studio. People were flying in from New York, Texas, and many other places. Scooter had made sure that exclusive studios knew about the auditions. Of course, I had only gone to Tony’s studio.

Ryan, Scooter and I were sitting in the back row of the theater. Only the people from Tony’s studio knew who they were auditioning for, so it was best to stay out of sight for a while. The lights on the stage were so bright that the dancers could only see the 3 judges that were in the front row. I wasn’t actually judging the routines this time, I was just observing.

Scooter nudged my arm causing me to wake up. Like I said before, I had barely gotten any sleep,. I figured that I could catch a small nap right now since the dancers were just stretching on stage right now. I yawned and stretched my arms before sitting upright in the chair.

“Couldn‘t you just pretend that you‘re not tired?” Scooter questioned.

“I don‘t know. Couldn‘t you have pretended that I was awake” I countered.

Scooter rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath. This was a regular for us lately. We were both beyond tired, so it was natural for us to be a little cranky. Normally we would be getting along just fine.

I looked to my left and noticed that Ryan was asleep. His head was leaning back against the chair so that his face was towards the ceiling. His mouth was wide open and a few snores were escaping. I nudged his arm, causing him to quickly jump up.

“I‘m awake, I‘m awake” he quickly spoke as he looked form side to side. I shook my head and did my best not to laugh. Ryan looked at me and glared.

“Fuck you man” he spat before leaning back against the seat. He closed his eyes, but I punched him in the arm before he could go to sleep.

“Wake-up. If I can‘t sleep neither can you” I said.

“You‘re the one judging not me”

“Yeah, but you wanted to see hot dancers and your snoring is going to scare them off” I joked.

Ryan immediately sat up in his chair. His eyes directly went to the stage, as he watched a few girls stretch. “Good point” he nodded.

I smirked and shook my head. Leave it to Ryan to wake up because of hot girls. This wouldn’t work for me. There was only one girl that I had even been thinking about for the past two days. Sure, I may have a hectic schedule but once in a while something would remind me of her and I couldn’t help it. I tried to keep myself busy so that I wouldn’t think about her, but one way or another, Natalie would always find a way back into my mind.

Andrew suddenly walked out from the right of stage, and in front of the dancers. He clapped his hands together to get the dancers attention.

“Alright I‘m Andrew Hanks, your choreographer for today and if your lucky, on tour as well. In the front row are the three judges who will decide your fate today, but no pressure”

“That‘s a lie” Ryan muttered with a smirk plastered onto his face.

I rolled my eyes and shook my head once again. Whenever someone says no pressure, it’s code for there’s tons of pressure and I want you to know that.

Andrew began to walk back and forth on the stage as he explained what the judges would be looking for when they auditioned. He explained how they would audition and so on and so forth. I ended up tuning him out as I sat there. I wasn’t a dancer so I didn’t care what the judges were looking for, just as long as they picked good dancers.

I started to mindlessly scan the crowd as I sat there. Although, I was scanning the dancers, I was only thinking about one person, Natalie.

She wasn’t here, and I wouldn’t be able to see her again. For once, I didn’t get something that I wanted. What I wanted was her as a back-up dancer, but now, I think I wanted more. I think I wanted more from her than for her to just be in the back ground on stage. I wanted her to play a more important role in my life, though I didn’t know what it was, or if I really meant it.

I quickly shook the thought of her out of my head. It wasn’t good to think about someone that I wouldn’t ever see again.

Suddenly my eyes landed on a pair of familiar brown ones in the back row. I sat up in my chair and leaned forward to get a better look. I could see Scooter furrowing his brows out of confusion from the corner of my eye, but I ignored him. Those deep brown eyes were all to familiar. They captivated me although they weren’t looking directly at me.

That’s when it clicked, I had gazed into those eyes many times before. But it couldn’t be, she wasn’t here, she was supposed to be anywhere but here.

I quickly stood up out of my chair on a complete impulse. “Hold it!” I shouted/

Andrew stopped talking mid-sentence and turned around to face me. He and the dancers all had a look of confusion plastered onto their faces, but I ignored it. I had to know if it was true or not.

“What the hell are you doing?” Scooter muttered from next to me, slightly above a whisper. I ignored him as well. I just had to know.

“Number thirty-two!” I yelled once again. “Take a step to the left!”

The dancer took a step to the left. My heart skipped a beat at the sight. Standing behind the girl in the back row was Natalie. She was standing there in the flesh. She was actually at the audition.

“Everybody take five, number 17, come to the door!” I knew that I was going to hear from Scooter later but right now, I could care less.

Everyone had a confused look on their faces, including Natalie. None the less, she walked off of the stage and towards the door next to the back row.

I quickly walked past Scooter before he could say anything. It took all of my will power not to run down the row of chairs. I made to the end of the row before she made it to the door. Once she was close enough, I grabbed her wrist and pulled her into the empty hallway.

She opened her mouth to speak but stopped when she saw that it was me. I dropped her wrist and stared at her in disbelief.

“What are you doing here?” I questioned.

“Do you not want me here?” she questioned as she stared at me. “’cause I can go if you want me gone”

“No” I quickly replied. “It‘s just…ugh” I groaned as I ran a hand through my hair. I started to pace back and forth through the hallway. Why was she here? It’s not that I didn’t want her here, its just that, I thought wasn’t going to be here. The whole point of me not convincing her anymore is so that I’m no taking her away form her brother. If she comes anyway, then there really wasn’t a point to me doing what I did. Her being here just made things more complicated. Natalie simply remain silent and watched me.

After a few minutes I stopped pacing. I sighed and turned to look at her. “I thought you didn‘t want to audition?”

She looked down at her shoes and leaned back against the wall. She crossed her arms over her chest, and pursed her lips to the side. A small smile form on my lips. She always did when she was thinking about something.

“It‘s complicated” she spoke as she looked back up at me.

I don’t know what came over me to make me do this but I did. I placed my arms on either side of her on the wall. I licked my lips as I stared at her. “Then uncomplicated it” I spoke in a low tone.

She bit her lip as she stared at me. A smirk made it’s way onto my face. Another habit that she has, she does it when ever we started flirting with each other.

She closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the wall. “Justin….I‘ll explain it later”

She then opened her eyes and stared at me. “After I audition”

I couldn’t stop the smile that made it’s way onto my face when the words left her mouth. Those were the words that I had wanted to here her say for the longest time.

-X-

The auditions were unbearably long. I don’t know how the dancers were able to do it, but they did. We ended up [airing them off after they were taught the routine and having them perform then. Natalie and Annabelle ended up paired together and they preformed the routine flawlessly. Somehow, I knew that they would.

After the list was posted for who made it and who didn’t everyone left, well almost everyone. Natalie was still here. She was standing in front of the stage talking to Allan. I had to resist the urge to scowl at how close they were, physically and emotionally.

I shoved my hands in my pockets and started walking over to them. I could here her laughing at something that he had said to her as I walked down the aisle. Even though, I wasn’t the one making her laugh, I still loved hearing it.

“Hey” I replied once I reached the,.

Both of them set there gaze on me. A small smile played on Natalie’s lips while Allan remained emotionless.

“Hey” he replied with a nod and a small smile. He then bent down and picked his bag up off the floor. He turned around to face her and whispered something in her ear. She rolled her eyes and pushed him.

“Bye Allan” she spoke.

He smirked before starting to walk away. “See you on tour man” he spoke as he walked past me.

I simply gave him a small nod as he walked past. As much as I hated the idea of Natalie and him being on tour together, there was nothing for me to do about it. Allan was a good dancer so of course he was picked to go on tour.

“So congrats” I spoke.

Natalie simply gave me a small smile. “Thanks” she muttered

“So…what made you change your mind?”

She sighed and closed her eyes. “Look Justin, I‘m going to make a long story short” she started.

She opened her eyes and locked her gaze with mine. “I didn‘t do this for you. I did this because I wanted to. It may have taken me a while to realize it but I know that I wanted to audition. I did it because I wanted to, not because of you. You stopped convincing me remember”

I felt my heart drop at what she had said. It almost sounded as if she was hurt but if she was, she was doing a great job of covering it up.

A smirk then made it’s way onto my face. This is how this all started, she was being stubborn and didn’t want to audition but in the end, she did.

I took a step towards her so that I was standing in front of her.Maybe I would be able to get something else form her being stubborn.

“So you did this because you wanted to?” I questioned.

She nodded her head and crossed her arms over her chest. “Exactly”

“Well” I started “I did this because I wanted to”

She furrowed her brows in confusion as she stared at me. But before she could speak,

I crashed my lips into hers.