Chapter Fifteen
The reason Amber hadn't been at the party and Leon had, it turned out, was because she'd been visiting her parents over the weekend. When I was walking to my lesson with Ethan on Monday, she shoved me into the wall with a menacing glare. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?"
I blinked, shoving her backwards automatically. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"At this party, apparently you and Leon were hitting it off." She shoved my shoulder and I clenched my fists. The corridor was deserted. "He's my boyfriend you slutty cow."
My eyebrows shot up. "You're hilarious," I barked out a single laugh. "He was draping himself off me all night. I left early because I didn't want to put up with him trying to grope me. Maybe you should be saying this to him and not me." I was leaning forward aggressively by the end, daring her to do anything. This was the first time she'd physically confronted me and I couldn't back down to the challenge.
Amber slapped me. Right across the face as hard as she could and I didn't even have time to retaliate before she'd practically skipped down the corridor. "Don't mess with me. I have status in this school. You're expendable. I will get you if you keep pursuing my boyfriend."
And she disappeared around the corner leaving me stood there in a mixture of shock and anger. The bitch had even split my lip.
Part of me was of the mind to sprint after her, shove her to the floor and give her a good kicking, but the more sensible part remained routed where I was stood. Her threats were no doubt grounded in some real power and I just wanted to stay as far away from the pair of lunatics as possible.
That didn't stop the pain in my lip sending rage rushing through my body, though. My hands were clenched into fists and my toes were curled. I'd never been someone's bitch before and it was the worst feeling in the world.
I was going to have to tell Ethan what had happened. May as well get it over and done with. He'd at least know how to calm me down.
Slipping into the ballet studio, I held the end of my cardigan sleeve to my lip and offered a week smile.
It was the first time I'd seen him since our kiss and I wasn't sure what to expect. Any real reaction was masked by the worry that etched into his features upon seeing my face. "What happened? Did someone hit you?" He brought my hand away from my mouth to see the extent of the damage.
"She only bust my lip, it's not really that much of a big deal." Or maybe I should have stressed it as a bigger deal because having Ethan this close to me again was wreaking havoc with my insides. If he ever let us dance together again I probably wouldn't be able to resist the temptation.
"Amber did this?"
"She got whiff that I'd been trying to steal her boyfriend, apparently. I did let her know that he'd been the one practically falling into me all evening."
"You have to tell someone." Ethan rested his hands on my shoulders. "She can't get away with doing that. It's assault."
"Her slap came with some very real threats," I waved off his concern. "So I'd rather just accept it and get on with my life. Hitting someone isn't the end of the world. I've hit plenty of people and never gotten any repercussions. This was probably some karma."
"I'm still your teacher. I'm still supposed to be looking out for your best interests."
"It's in my best interests to keep my head down and get to the end of the year. I'll be going home for Christmas in less than two weeks and I'll get a break from everything. I don't want to rile Amber up even further, it's not worth it. She knows people, her parents probably donate huge sums to the school or something. I don't want to make it into something more."
Ethan's face hadn't softened. "She hit you."
"She did. And I tried to hit her back. I'm not completely pathetic."
Ethan rolled his eyes and removed his hands. "Well, it's your choice. If she does anything else though I'm reporting it and there's nothing you can do to stop me."
"Fair enough." I didn't think she'd hit me again, anyway. It was kind of weird, but I hadn't really seen Amber and Leon as two people who really cared about each other, even if they were together. It was probably because Amber seemed incapable of any emotion other than bitchiness. That she'd get so upset about the possibility of her boyfriend coming near me was almost surprising.
Unless of course it had all been their meticulous plan so she'd have an excuse to hit me and threaten me. That was still a possibility I hadn't quite let go of yet.
And just like that, awkwardness descended on the room. We'd talked about the need to stay away from each other very briefly, but now was apparently when we were going to have a proper talk.
I really didn't want it.
What was the point?
We had to stay away from each other and that was that. Ethan had already lost one career, he couldn't afford to get fired from here too. This was my only chance at a career. It was imperative that was stayed away from each other.
"It's probably a good job your lip is bust," Ethan decided. "Otherwise I would have been tempted to kiss you once more." As it stood, he trailed his hand down the side of my face. "I'm really sorry it has to be like this. I like you a lot."
A smile ghosted across my lips. "I like you a lot, too."
He stuck to pressing a kiss against my forehead. "Well, there isn't that much of school left, so depending on what you end up doing we can maybe chat again."
"That is a euphemism, right?"
Ethan grinned. "I'm sure we can chat in bed," then he cleared his throat and took a step backwards. "But for now, just chatting. And dancing."
"I didn't mean to make anything uncomfortable for you, by the way," I scratched the back of my head. "I probably could have been a little bit less flirty with you."
"And I probably could have reported you or something if I really didn't want you to be."
"I suppose that's a fair point," I chuckled. "Still, I felt like I should apologise."
"And I should apologise for kissing you, but I'm not going to. Come on, let's just dance. There's not really any point in talking about it anymore."
We started off with the routine he'd been showing me last lesson, which was the two of us dancing together. We'd pieced together quite a few moves now, so there was nearly ten minutes of continuous dancing together. "It's really a shame Amber got the part. You're better than her," Ethan told me, his breath dancing against the skin of my neck as he leant me backwards.
I swallowed audibly and tried to keep the moves in my head. "I'm sure that can't be true. Amber's been going here her whole life. I can't just come in, have a few lessons, and be a top notch ballerina. It's not the way things work."
"I mean, I may be slightly biased, but you're good. You have natural talent and you've worked really hard. You've probably put in three times the effort of everyone here so far this year, of course that's going to net you something."
I wanted to shrug, but the need to retain posture stopped me. "I suppose so. Still, I don't think I'm better than Amber, even if I wanted to be."
"You have better stage presence. You're not better than her technically. You're a better performer," he dragged me close to him again, letting his expression takeover as the music hit a climax. "You're likeable," he muttered against my ear as our movements stilled.
I smiled to stop my jaw turning slack at the feeling of our bodies pressed completely against each other. Ethan pulled back after a moment's hesitation and my eyebrows knitted. "Is dancing with someone always sexual? I always assumed it wasn't, but you're the only person I've ever danced with properly since I was about twelve, and, well," he knew what I meant. The people I danced with here in class didn't count because I actively disliked them.
Ethan laughed. "It isn't. Even all romantic routines aren't sexual. I mean, the moves might be, but if you're not interested in the person then it doesn't work you up like us dancing together does."
"That's what I thought." It made sense. How would ballet dancers ever be in a relationship if that was the case?
Ethan chuckled and flicked through his notes. "Okay, I think we should look at some of the solo stuff for a while."
I rolledmy eyes. He was always such a spoil-sport.
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Yay! A new chapter.
This is an exciting A/N, because I've started a new student/teacher novel! You can find 'Reining Her In' on my wattpad page and from the external link. I'd love to hear what everyone thinks of the first chapter.
The new one is a special favourite because Aidan Turner is cast as the love interest ;)