I'll Be Your Safe Ride Home, When You Call Me

Slowly but surely, it was September 1st, I was walking into the set of Dancing with the Stars, my nerves on edge. I was excited to find out who I was dancing with, and to find out my other cast mates.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the new season of Dancing with the Stars,” Tom Bergeron announced as I looked around at all the faces in the room.

Holy shit! There’s a ton a famous people in here.

They went on announcing who was partnered with who, and I about died when they called my name.

“Tallulah Williams, professional dancer, will be partnered with Alex Gaskarth, lead singer of All Time Low.”

Holy shit.

Everyone was conversing with their partners, and I was just standing quietly next to Alex, until I decided to try to start a conversation.

“Hi, I’m really excited about this, what about you?” I asked, biting the inside of my lip.

He kind of rolled his eyes, “Not really. The guys made me do this show.”

“Oh,” I replied quietly. Well, this shall be fun then. Not.

We had about two and a half weeks to prepare for the first show. I was scared and nervous. Alex was being a jerk, so I decided I wasn’t going to be the nice Tally everyone knew me as, at least until he stopped being a jerk.

We found out we’d be dancing the Cha Cha to a Katy Perry song.

Practice starts tomorrow, bright and early.

Alex and I ended up sharing a car that would take us back to the hotel the show rented out for us.

“Why are you being such a jerk? I mean really….” I asked.

He sighed, “I don’t want to talk about it.”

I huffed, “Whatever.”

“You know, just because you’re being nosey and shit, does give you a right to be a bitch.”

“Shut up Alex.”

He opened his mouth to say something, but I gave him a look, and he shut his mouth.

“Thank God!” I exclaimed as we pulled up to the hotel. Our stuff had already been dropped off into our respective rooms. It turns out all of the partners have connected rooms. Just wonderful.

I slid the key into the lock, and ran into my room before Alex could say anything to me. I took a shower, and climbed into my bed, not ready for the five am wake-up call.

Yeah, five am is not nice to me at all. I was so exhausted from the time difference.

“C’mon, Tally, wake up,” I whispered to myself as I threw on my dance clothes. I was content in a pair of Paramore shorts, and a tank top from Vengeance University. I put on dance shoes, grabbed all the things I needed, and headed out the door. I bumped right into Mr. Douche Bag on the way, of course.

“Oh, hi,” he smirked as he looked me over.

“Oh, now you’re gonna play Mr. Nice Alex because I’m in shorts and a tank top. Get over yourself.”

He glared at me, “Well, I was going to tell you that you looked nice, but never mind. You’re personality is terrible, which diminishes your good looks.”

I rolled my eyes and called him an asshat under my breath.

“Excuse me?” Alex asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Nothing, dear Alex,” I smiled.

He just shook his head, and started ignoring me.

It didn’t take very long to get to the set where we would work out, and of course be on the show.

We got set up in our room, and I fixed the music to start teaching him the steps to the Cha Cha.

“Okay, Alex, stand facing me.”

I heard him sigh, but he did what I said, and was completely quiet as I told him what to do. We went through all of the steps first, without dancing, just so he would know kind of what to do.

“Now, time to dance.”

The first fifteen times were terrible. He would step on my feet, or we’d move the wrong way. I mean, he is taller than me, but still, I’m the actual dancer in this equation.

“Alex,” I called, breaking him out of his trance.

“Hm?”

“What’s wrong?”

“I keep screwing this up. It’s frustrating!” He exclaimed, running his hand through his hair.

“Just, chill, we will take a break. You will get the hang of this, I promise.”

He lightly smiled at me, and sat down on the floor as he grabbed a bottle of water.

“So, you obviously listen to Paramore, so do you listen to us?”

I nodded my head yes.

“So, what’s your story Tallulah?”

“You’re being nice?”

He shrugged, “I’m trying to be anyway. I’m really not that big of a jerk. I’ve been going through some things, and yeah…”

I just nodded, “You can call me Tally if you want, I’m twenty-two, born and raised mostly in New York City. I drive a 2005 Chevy Colorado, and I’ve been dancing since I was four.”

“Mostly in New York City?”

“Haha, yeah, when I was about ten till I was sixteen, we lived in Jacksonville, North Carolina. My dad was in a motorcycle accident when I was sixteen, and mom decided we needed to go back to New York. That’s why my accent switches from Southern to Northern.”

“Were you close to your dad?”

I smiled thinking of him, “Yes, I was a daddy’s girl. I miss him.”

Alex smiled softly at my expression.

I cleared my throat and smacked his leg playfully, “What about you Mr. Rock star?”

“Um, well, you should know all about me…”

“No, I want to know the real you, and not the rock star you.”

“Well, I’m turning twenty-three in December. I was born in England, but raised in Maryland. I’m single.”

I kind of giggled at that, but then I stopped laughing when I saw his face.
“Lisa, the girl that I dated forever, cheated on me, and I caught her. That’s why the guys signed me up for this show. I started partying a lot more, and doing things that weren’t me. They were worried.”

“Alex, I’m sorry.” I pulled him into a hug.

He shrugged, “Let’s get back to work.”

This time, we got the dance right, and I was keeping my fingers crossed that we would do well on the first night of the competition.