"Let the competition begin" Troy announces and walks away. The place becomes noisy.
Jake looks at me and I take my eyes off him.
Danny brings up Justin Timberlake's song DANCE as the intro.
"This song is for warming up" Danny says to us
Kate begins to bounce and smirks at me. I roll my eyes and do some stretches. Then I jog and jump.
The song switches to Nikki Minaj's Megatron and the crowd goes wild.
"Dance begins" Danny announces.
"Who's starting?" Jake asks.
"Me" Kate quickly says.
"Okay" Jake says.
Kate begins to move her body. She sways her hips and twerks. I just look at her. But I must admit she's good at dancing.
The song continues and Kate continues to dance and her fans roar. Then she gives me the stink eye when she's done! The song comes to an end. How dare she?
"You're up Nikki! Yours is Sorry by Justin Beiber"Danny announces
My breath gets caught in my throat but I start my moves the moment the song comes on
I sway my hips in a similar way but in a more elegant way and the crowd roars. Kate folds her arms and looks at me with a bored expression.
I wind my waist as if there was an invisible hula hoop around it. I moved my body so swiftly and Kate's jaw nearly hit the floor. The crowd roared even louder. Then I did a somersault and rolled on the ground. The cheers become louder.
Then the music ended and I gave Kate the middle finger and a wink. She was about to explode but she quickly brightens up and smiles.
" who's winning?"Troy asks.
The crowd yells our names.
"Let's ask the judge" Troy says and walks to Jake. I was breathless.
"Who's winning judge?" Troy asks Jake. He smirks and looks at the two of us.
"Looks like we do not have a winner Troy because its a tie" he spits.
"What?!" I blurt.
The crowd cheers even louder.
"We have a tie guys! And we need to break that tie by another performance" Troy spits.
"Go Danny! This time, you're starting Nikki" Troy spits.
I groan. Aaron was right! I shouldn't have come.
"Okay! This one's for you Nikki! I like it by Cardi B" Danny says and I nod.
The song comes on and I perform. It wasn't that bad! I moved my body so swiftly and did all the styles perfectly! I even twerked! I moved my legs and arms in perfect rhythm to the song. Then I ended with the gwara gwara dance. The whole place is lit. Everyone was yelling my name. I smile.
"You're up Kate! You are dancing to Wolves by Selena Gomez" Danny announces and the song comes on.
Kate begins her dance and I could swear she looked like a chicken dancing. I had to control myself and bite my lip so that I don't laugh in her face. She was trying to copy my moves but it just didn't suit her body plus it didn't match the song.
Finally she ended her dance and there is a grand applause.
"Okay! Who wins now judge?" Troy asks Jake.
I hold my breath.
"Well the winner is........" Jake trails off.
"Mm hmm" Troy urges and the crowd yells my name.
"Nikki" Jake says and I release my breath.
Kate turns red and leaves the stage. I smile and wave my fans.
"Congratulations Nikki" Troy says to me and hugs me. I get off stage without looking at Jake.
"We have a drinking competition next" Troy announces.
I go to my friends.
"That was amazing Nicole! I never knew you could dance like that" Trina gushes the moment she sees me.
"I agree with Trina! You were awesome" Kimberly follows
I look at Aaron with an eyebrow raised.
He chuckles.
"That was a great performance Nikki! Well done" he simply says and I smile.
I take a glass of water and gulp of down. My throat was so dry. Then I get up and go to the kitchen for a drink.
I walked through the crowd. Someone grabs my arm and I flinch in surprise. I turn to look at the person and its Jake. My blood boils.
"Leave me alone!" I yell at him.
He rather drags me closer to him with his jaw tightly clenched.
"I know you are the one who gave my address to my father! Aren't you?" He spits and I swallow hard. How did he know?
"I don't know what you're talking about" I say and push him away. Then I make a run but he catches me.
"Not so fast Anderson! Am not done" he spits in my face holding me in place.
"Look! I'm not in the mood to listen to your false accusations" I point out and he chuckles.
"You know what am saying is true! It was you!" He yells.
"Just stop it okay! Let me go"I reply but he doesn't leave me and I huff.
" what do you want?"I deadpan
"I need you to listen to me and admit that you are the one who reported me to my dad" he states.
"Fine" I say.
I ask him to follow me into an empty room in the house and I shut the door.
"So?" He says the moment I walk into the room and sit in a couch.
"Well yeah! I was the one who did it! It was for your own benefit because I knew you wouldn't face your dad anytime soon! Even though I was angry at you" I say and scoff at the end.
"I knew it was you! Who else apart from you knew I was at home? And why would someone report and not take the reward attached? My suspicions were right" he says and I roll my eyes.
"Okay! Now you know the truth! Can I go now?" I spit.
"No! Look I'm sorry for the way I treated you the last time we met" he apologizes
"Oh don't worry! You were right! I was behaving like a mom" I state even though it hurt.
"I didn't mean it that way! I meant you were being too nosy" he clarifies and I nod.
"Apology accepted! Can I go now?" I deadpan.
"Not yet! I would like to tell you about the girl you saw with me in the picture" he says and am interested
"No! I don't wanna hear it anymore! You should have told me the day I asked for it" I deadpan.
"But......" Jake trails off confused.
"Its too late to tell me! And I suggest we keep our distance from now on" I reply and he's shocked.
"It hasn't come to this Nicole! You know I have anger issues" Jake says.
I sigh.
"Okay let's do this! I'll tell you the story and we will never see each other again" he states and looks on the ground. He looks hurt.
"Fine!" I say.
"The girl you saw in the picture with me is called Helen. She was my best friend. We were best friends for a very long time and soon we began to have feelings for each other and so we started a relationship" he says and pauses.
I listen intently. I never knew he has fallen in love with someone before, but I wonder where she is? Am sure he loved her so much! That's why he got her name on his skin! But what happened? Did she break his heart? I look at his expression. He looks sad.
"It all happened so fast and it still haunts me! My world tumbled down that day and I was never the same" he states with his voice choking.
"What happened?" I ask curious to know now.
"Helen and I decided to go to a friend's party one night. After the party, I joined her in her car because I wasn't having one then." He states with his head bowed down.
"What happened that night?" I ask him
He sniffs and tears roll down his cheeks when he raises his head. He gets up and walks to the window with his back faced to me. He was looking at the moon.
Am sure what the hell happened must have affected him so badly.
"She got me to my house and we said our goodbyes but I didn't know that will be the last time I'll ever see her" he says and he cries in his palm.
I am frozen in my spot. I don't know if I should go and cuddle him and urge him to stop crying or just sit here and listen.
"That same night, she got into a fatal accident. She run into a truck and her car got smashed. She died on the spot" he finally says and my heart freezes.
She died? That's horrible! No wonder he's so hurt! I would have committed suicide if I were in his shoes.
I cover my mouth in disbelief and he turns to face me. His face is soaked.
"I didn't believe it either" he said as if reading my thoughts.
"She was so young! So beautiful" he states.
"It happened recently and I only believed that she was really dead when I saw the accident scene and went to her funeral" Jake says and wipes a few tears.
"I'm so sorry" I say.
He nods with a sniff and ruffles his hair. Jake has gone through a lot now that I'm getting to know him.
"Its my fault she died! I shouldn't have convinced her to go to that party with me! Like by now, she would be alive"he says.
I walk to him and hug him rubbing his back to calm him.
" its not your fault! You didn't know that was going to happen "I argue when we break the hug.
" it is! Because she died because of me! She was my first love! She stole my heart! And I was wounded with that"he states.
"So what happened with the truck driver? Was he wounded?"I ask.
Jake smiles slightly.
" He was drunk when he was driving! That's why he had the accident! He crashed into her "he scoffs with pain evident in his tone.
" But the most painful thing is that, he didn't get a scratch on his body! And he's still alive! But he killed an innocent soul! My best friend! My...."he trails off and releases another round of tears.
"Stop crying" I say brush his hair with my hands.
He smiles gratefully. He takes my hands.
"Now you know who she is! And you know the reason why I don't like talking about her" he says and kisses my hand.
"So as you suggested, we will keep our distance" he says leaving my hands with hurt on his face.
He looks at me for the last time and heads towards the door.
"Jake wait!" I yell and he stops to look at me.
I don't know what to say! I feel bad for him.
"We can be friends!" I say.
He furrows his eyebrows in confusion.
"We can see each other! There's no need to keep our distance" I clarify.
He smirks.
"I thought you wanted that" he taunts and I sigh.
"I changed my mind" I reply.
"Thanks Nikki" he says and hugs me.