Flirting with Danger Bk 1

“Well, let’s just show them what competition really is!” Jack said and we all cheered. We ran over to our little spot and got ready to work.
“Okay, now Kota, Louis, you stand over there and we’ll figure out how we’ll have you stand.” Jason said and Louis pulled me to where Jason had indicated.
Louis brought me to him and wrapped one arm around my waist and the other was placed on my back. He smiled at me and I gave him a warning look. “No,” Jason said, “try something else.”
So Louis leaned me back and made the “movie perfect” kiss scene, with one hand holding me up while the other was by his side and one of mine was almost touching the ground while the other was on the arm that was holding me up. “Well, now that one’s pretty good, but I think that would be too hard to keep the snow from falling. Try something else.” said Dale.
“Well, why don’t you give me some kind of idea of what you want?” Louis said. “It’s pretty hard trying to come up with something I don’t even have an example of.”
“Something that screams love, you know, like you two about to kiss, or love that’s having problems. Something like that.” Jason said, leaning against the tree.
“Oh, that narrows it down.” Louis said under his breath.
“Like we haven’t already been doing that.” I said and he nodded.
So, we went through one position after the other, kind of feeling like we were dancing in really slow motion. Then, we finally came down to three possible winners. One was another close to kissing position, like we had just discovered our love, one was a really sexy position with my leg over his, showing my thigh, while my other leg trailed the ground like he was doing that sexy drag thing they do sometimes, and I’m looking up at him like I can’t wait to kiss him. The last one, we were still working on.
“Hey, I know what’ll help.” said Dale. By this time, everyone had been up there with me to try their own positions and right when Dale had said that, I was with Louis again and all the guys were going around us, telling us to do this, or for Louis to hold me like that.
“What?” asked Jason.
“We can make a scene, you know, work up a mood and see how that works.” Dale said and nodded, wanting us to try it.
“Well, we’ve done just about everything else.” said Jason, and then the boys all went over by Dale.
“Okay, say something.” said Dale, looking at Louis.
“Oh, you had the idea, but you want us to make up the lines. Nice.” Louis said and looked down for a minute, thinking.
“Okay,” he said, “Here goes.”
Then he looked at me for a minute, his face now angry and confused. “I don’t like him.” he said. I looked at him in confusion for half a second, but then it clicked what he was doing and I gave him a sharp look.
“Louis, don’t bring this up now.” I said, looking down half in embarrassment that he was doing this in front of our friends and half angry about it. I couldn’t believe he was trying to do this, THIS, in front of the guys!
“He’s not good enough for you.” Louis said, walking towards me.
“And who is? You?” I looked up at him now, showing my anger.
“Yeah.” he said, looking at me seriously. My face changed to one of shock.
“I love you.” he said, coming closer to me and brushing a lock of hair out of my face and then brushing my cheek. “I always have. Since the first time I saw you, I knew we were meant to be together.”
The boys were enraptured to say the least. And so was I. I suddenly couldn’t think. My mind was completely blank. I was still looking at him in surprise when he took my right hand in his and started to lean forward.
“Louis,” I said, looking into his eyes, “I love him.” Then, just for a minute, I saw the sadness and heartbroken pain in his eyes, but then his eyes went back to determination.
“It won’t last.” he said, wrapping his other hand around my waist. I was caught between shock and exploding anger. “He’ll hurt you, break your heart, and then leave.” he said this slowly, like he was trying to be gentle about it.
“Stop.” I said, looking down. This had gone too far. He had gone too far.
“But I won’t.” he said and I looked up at him. “I will never hurt you, Kota. And I will never leave you. Ever.”
“Stop. Please.” I said, letting a single tear run down my cheek.
“No. I’m not going to stop and let him hurt you. I’m not going to stop trying to be with you. I won’t go away. I’ll never leave you and I’ll never stop loving you. I’m going to be with you until the end.” he said, looking at me, completely serious. If he had been playing around at all, he was definitely not playing about this. I stared at him for a few more seconds until I couldn’t bare it any longer, and then looked away.
The boys sat there for a few minutes in dead silence. Then slowly, they started to breathe again and Jason jumped up and yelled, “Perfect!”
“That was amazing!” cheered Dale.
“You should be actors, you were so good!” said Chase.
“Okay, don’t move. We’ll get the basic outlay of you both. Jack, take a picture of them so they can stand the exact same way tomorrow.” Jason said and everyone started rushing around, except for us. Louis and I stood stone still and I could feel his eyes raking over me.
“You went too far.” I said just loud enough for him to hear.
“I’m not sorry about what I said. I meant every word of it.” he said at the same volume.
“You didn’t mean those things about him leaving me.” I said.
“I did.” he said.
“You don’t know what’ll happen.” I said forcefully.
“Yes, I do.” he said it like he was sad he had to tell me.
“You shouldn’t have done this.” I whispered now, because I was losing my voice.
“I had to.” he whispered back.
“Why?” I whispered, my voice barely audible. I was on the edge of tears.
I felt him lean forward and then his breath blowing my hair as his voice spoke in my ear, “Because I love you.”
I closed my eyes and let the tears fall.
I didn’t know why I let what he said get to me so bad. He was probably just messing with me, but there was a nagging feeling at the back of my mind that told me he wasn’t. From then on, the way he looked at me and the way he acted around me changed.
He no longer cared who saw that he had feelings for me. He even acted like this right in front of Connelly, who was so outraged that I almost had to hold him back from killing Louis. And this was all tormenting me. I couldn’t handle this type of thing, especially at this time. I was in love with Connelly, not Louis. Connelly and I had our own little hideout, not me and Louis. I was Connelly’s, not Louis’s.
I started staying with Connelly more and more, and Alister, who had become the best friend I never thought I would have. He would tell me stories of his and his siblings childhood, both of us laughing harder when Connelly would shove Alister because he was telling an embarrassing story about him. We spent hours in the library looking at thousands of pictures in photo albums, and when Connelly left for whatever reason Alister would comfort me and help me with my Louis problems.
I spent the least amount of time with my friends than ever. The only time I really saw them was when we sculpted the dance, and I felt bad for it, but Louis kept me away. And Dale was even more outraged about this than he was at the beginning. He started calling me so we could all go out without Louis knowing. It was only during these secret gatherings that I got caught up with what was going on with them.
I found out Dale, and just about the rest of them had had a fight with Louis over this, though his and Dale’s was the worst. Dale I think was the most protective over me, mostly I think because I knew him the longest. He was really like an older brother to me, and it seemed to me he agreed, taking his brotherly responsibilities very seriously.
At the end of the week, I hadn’t spoken to Louis since Tuesday and our dance sculpture won the contest. I wasn’t there to celebrate with everyone, but was with Connelly at his house playing Monopoly with Sue, Ivan, and the now fully recovered Alister. Dale called me afterwards to set up a time for us to all go out and celebrate without Louis, inviting Sue, the twins, and even Alister. It ended up being one in the morning when I finally snuck back into my room.