Complete Nothing (True Love #2)(9)

I finished off my water and checked my watch. After our awkward moment, I was longing for some fresh air. And besides, the sooner I got to the Studio, the sooner I’d find out my fate.

“Do you mind if we head out?” I asked Peter. “I’m dying to get over there.” A shadow crossed his face, and my heart stopped once more. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. Yeah, no problem,” he said. “Let’s go.”

I turned to Lester, who was, as always, oblivious to what was going on around him.

“Excuse me?” I said politely, lifting my bag off the floor.

“What?” he asked.

“Dude! Move!” Peter ordered.

Lester instantly shot up. “You guys’re leaving already? What’s up?”

“Claudia has to get to class, and I gotta pick up Michelle,” Peter said, dropping a few dollars on the table.

“You are such an old married couple, picking up the kid and running errands,” Lester groaned. “What’s next, grocery shopping? Are you guys gonna watch HGTV tonight, then not have sex and go to bed?”

“We’re not your parents,” I joked.

“Oh!” Peter and Gavin shouted, high-fiving. Then Peter raised his hand for me to slap as well. Just like that, the tension lifted. The moments when I felt like I belonged among Peter’s friends were few and far between, but when they happened, I reveled in them. I think Peter kind of did too.

“Burn!” Peter shouted in Lester’s face.

We turned and headed out the door, and I suddenly couldn’t stop smiling. Whatever had gone wrong between us back there, I’d set it right. Now I just had to survive the drive to the Studio without peeing in my pants.

*

“Will you come in with me?” I asked Peter when he pulled his old secondhand Buick up in front of the Studio. It was a large storefront on Maple Street, just off Main, and it was the place where I’d spent most of my life for the past thirteen years. Usually walking through that door was like walking into my own home, but today, I was crazy with jitters.

“Why?” Peter asked.

“Because! I’m nervous! What if I don’t get in?”

Peter huffed a sigh and looked through the windshield. For a second his hands worked the steering wheel, his knuckles red, then white, then red, then white. What was going on with him today? Was he angry at me about something?

I was about to ask, but then, suddenly, he turned to me and squeezed my hand. “You’ll get in.”

I grinned. “You think?”

“Let’s go find out.”

He got out of the car, then jogged around and opened my door for me. Together we walked into the brightly lit studio. The reception area was empty, but a dozen dancers worked out on the wide wood floor of the rehearsal space, stretching out and laughing and chatting at the barres. I waved to Lauren, whose heel rested on the barre near the corner. Her black curls were up in a high bun, and she wore a light-pink leotard and skirt that perfectly complemented her latte-hued skin. She widened her eyes toward Madame Helene’s office.

“Lance is in there!” she mouthed.

The butterflies in my stomach were straining to bust out. Peter put his hand on the small of my back, and we walked over to the open office door together. Madame Helene, a short, robust woman with gray hair in curls around her pretty face, stood at the center of the room in front of her desk, talking in hushed tones with my friend and frequent dance partner, Lance Turska. Lance had applied to the Lafayette School as well, and we were both finding out about our auditions today. He stood tall and straight, as always, his shoulders back in his tight white leotard and black tights. I couldn’t see his face. Was he happy? Sad? What?

“Madame?” I said tentatively. I could feel Peter’s heat behind me, and it made me feel brave. Both Madame and Lance turned to face me. Lance’s whole face broke into a smile.

“We did it! We got the auditions!” he announced.

“We did?” I cried.

Lance crossed the room in one long stride and took me up in his arms, spinning me around. I felt as light as air, and I laughed into his shoulder.

“Both of us?” I asked Madame Helene as he replaced me on the floor.

She smiled as if she’d known this would happen. “My star pupils.”

I turned to Peter and moved to hug him, but his face had turned to stone. I stopped and even took a step back at the sight of it. He looked so untouchable. I glanced over my shoulder at Lance, whose smile faltered. Peter had always been a little bit jealous of him, because we spent so much time together at rehearsal, but there was nothing going on between us. There never had been. Lance was like the big brother I never had.

“Peter?” I said, confused.

“Congratulations.” He stoically looked Lance in the eye. “Both of you.”

Then he turned around and walked out of the office.

“Peter!” I called after him.

But he didn’t stop. He shoved open the door with the flat of his hand and was gone.





CHAPTER FOUR


Peter


“And then Kendall was all like, you can’t make me head the ball, and Coach Tarkisian was all, if you don’t want to learn the game, then why are you here? And Kendall was like, what do you know about soccer? You run a dry cleaner! And Talia completely freaked out and went all TMZ on her butt.”