Breaking Promises (B-Boy #1) Page 14
“This is clearly not worth it.” She paused and threw Mitch a wink, spinning around. “Call me.”
He ignored her and waited until she was out of earshot to speak. “Aurora, I don’t know why that just happened—”
“You don’t know why she sat on your lap? Or why you didn’t push her off? Or why she kissed you? Or why you didn’t stop her?”
I was fully aware that the two or three other people in the cafeteria—Clemence included—were staring at us, but I didn’t care. I was used to notoriety.
Through gritted teeth, he ground out, “I didn’t do anything wrong.”
My eyes widened, showing off the white of my eyes. “Are you fucking serious?”
Mitch groaned. “Please stop looking at me like that. For fuck’s sake, we aren’t even dating.”
Okay, that was it. As if a tidal wave had just pounded over me, I felt myself being beaten down, only to come out of it stronger.
“You’re right.” My voice was eerily calm. “We aren’t dating.”
Mitch shut his eyes and groaned. “Aurora—”
I swiped my hand through the air. “No. You’re right, we’re not. In fact, were we even friends to begin with?”
The look of horror on his face was unmistakable. “Of course we’re friends!”
Ignoring him, I pressed on. “Because friends do not fuck over other friends like that.”
If only I really did have some real friends on campus. Dealing with this bullshit would have been a hell of a lot easier with somebody by my side.
As if God heard my prayers, Clemence took a confident step by my side. She tugged at my arm, glancing over at Mitch with an unreadable expression on her face. Without saying a word, she pulled me away gently. I followed without resistance.
“Aurora—”
“No! Just don’t!” I cut Mitch off.
“But what about the audition?” he practically whimpered.
“Yeah, what about the audition?” Craig seemed to appear out of nowhere. Taking a step beside Mitch, he eyed me pointedly. “You ready to show me your moves? I take it Mitch has already seenall of them. He has skills like that, you know what I mean?”
The twinkle in his eye almost made him look more conniving than usual.
Throwing my head back, I let out a strained laugh. “I wouldn’t be caught dead in your dumbass crew.”
To my surprise, Craig merely shrugged, elbowing Mitch in the ribs. “Can’t say this one wasn’t more entertaining than the rest.”
“Shut the fuck up, Craig,” Mitch growled.
Not wanting to waste my time any longer, I spun on my heel and practically jogged toward the exit. Within seconds, Clemence was by my side. Just as we were almost out the door I felt a calloused hand on top of my shoulder. “Aurora—”
“Stop it. Just don’t even talk to me.” I turned around and looked up at him, trying my best to mask the pain. “I knew you were a mistake from the beginning. I knew getting close to anybody here was a mistake. I’m here to start my life over, not ruin it again.”
“Aurora, listen to me. Please!”
I pushed his hand away and growled what I expected to be my final words to him. “Leave me alone.”
Mitch
Leave me alone.
They were the last words I heard from her. For two days straight she ignored my texts, my calls, and even went as far as avoiding the cafeteria. I was tempted to show up at her dorm, but honestly, her roommate creeped the fuck out of me.
“Just let her go, man. She ain’t no different than all those other girls you messed with.” Craig flipped on the lights in the empty storefront adjacent to Sal’s Diner. Sal had agreed to let Annihilation practice in the extra space while he waited to lease it. It was partly the reason why I stayed on as a busboy even if I couldn’t stand the job.
“Sheis different,” I explained, not sure why I even bothered talking to Craig about these things. I adjusted the beanie on my head and scowled. “For one, she understands all this.”
“All what, exactly? How to do flips and dance?”
“No, she understands the passion it takes to do this. All those other girls were just superficial shells. Aurora was the yolk.”
Leo walked in behind us, dropping his bag by my feet. Shaking his head with exasperation, he grunted, “Oh, man. You are so whipped.”
“No, he’s not.” Craig shot me an irritated look. “He had some good pussy and now he just wants seconds.”
My jaw clenched. I took a step forward and shoved him toward the wall. “Don’t you dare talk about her like that again.”
Craig walked back up to me, eyes blazing. He strained his neck, looking down at me. “Oh, you want to do this? We can do this now.”
Marty sighed and stepped in between us. “Stop it, you two, for real. We have some work to do. The battle’s coming up in a few weeks.”
“Tell this asshat,” I snapped, never taking my eyes off Craig.
Marty pushed me back cautiously. “Annihilation is far better than fighting over some girl.”
“She is not some—”
Anthony rolled his eyes. “Marty’s right. We have Battle of the Crews at the end of the semester and we still can’t stick our routines. Don’t you think you should get your head out of your ass and focus on that and not on her?”
“Aurora was different. I could feel it. In fact, I think I was even…” Now wasn’t the time to face those feelings. Not without Aurora by my side, and definitely not in front of these haters.
Craig lifted his pierced eyebrow. The two barbells shined under the dim lights of the musky room, making him look a tad more intimidating. “Do you actually think you loved her, brah? Seriously, you just met her. She’s new and that’s all that was. New girl syndrome.”
“New girl syndrome?” I muttered.
“Yeah. Trust me. We’ll go out this Friday and I guarantee you’ll just forget about her like any other girl you’ve dealt with.”
They so did not get it.
“No! You do not understand at all, do you? She is not just some girl I can pretend never existed.” I shut my eyes and bowed my head. “Honestly, this isn’t going to stop bothering me.”
Craig shot me an incredulous look. “Dude, when did you grow a vagina?”
I snorted. “You know, you really are chauvinistic. Maybeyou should grow a vagina for a change. It might make you a better person.”
He laughed hysterically. “Holy shit! You really are some pansy, now, aren’t you?”
“Fuck you,” I muttered.
Craig clicked his tongue and shook his head. “Enough with this bullshit. Let’s practice, bro. We have to get this right.”
I glanced over at Anthony, who merely shrugged as if agreeing with Craig—again. I shook my head and plugged my speakers into my iPod.
They’d never understand.
Aurora
Life was dull.
It was boring.
I take that back—life was depressing as shit.
All the emotions I experienced after dropping gymnastics reared their ugly heads again. I felt empty, just an empty shell of myself. It was as if I had no drive left.
I guess it was the reason why I took to b-girling so easily and so quickly. It gave me a purpose.
“So…how are you feeling?” Heidi had called me out of the blue one afternoon and I couldn’t help but wonder if somehow she felt all my negative energy all the way from Ohio. Whatever her reason, it must have been important. She rung me four times before I was up to answering the phone.
“Did you really just call me to see how I was doing? Where were you for the last few weeks?” I rubbed at my swollen eyelids. I blamed their condition on exhaustion, though all the tears I snuck under my covers at night probably caused them.
“No…I wanted to check up on you…”
Heidi was always weird, but today she took the cake. “Listen, it’s cool you called to talk and everything, but I’ve had an exhausting couple of days and—”
“What are you talking about?” I asked in surprise.
“You…you sort of went viral.” Her voice dropped a few octaves, leaving me straining to hear.
“What…I…” Confusion took me over tenfold. I had a vague idea of what she was talking about, but truthfully I was almost too scared to know.
“Aurora? Are you there?”
I swallowed. “Yes.”
Of course, Clemence and Katy chose that precise moment to enter the room. Both were giggling and laughing about some weird yoga thing or other and barely noticed the fact that I was slowly dying beside them.
Heidi cleared her throat. “There’s a video online of you basically screaming at some really hot looking dude. Was he your boyfriend?”
“Beside the point,” I growled and jumped up, startling the two yogis. I scrambled toward my laptop and signed onto my account. “What’s the video under?”
“You seriously didn’t know about it at all?” she asked doubtfully.
“No. I’ve been too busy with school.”
Not to mention that after my accident I basically fell off the social media sphere, not wanting to catch old videos of my accident.
My fingers shook as they hovered over the keyboard. “What’s it under?”
“Aurora—”
“What’s it under?” I practically screamed at her.
Clemence and Katy shot me shocked looks. Guess I ruined their Zen.
“It’s under a channel called Annihilation Crew. I’m not sure you want to see it, though,” she answered softly.
I hung up on her without reply.
It was like opening Pandora’s Box. I knew I shouldn’t have, but I just couldn’t help myself. I sucked in my breath and typed in:
Annihilation Crew
The very first result had a thumbnail…of my crazed face!
I was shaking uncontrollably, but still had the mind to hit ‘Play’ on the video. Some horribly edited auto-tune began to blast from my speakers.
Mitch! Mitch! Mitch!
I will beat your twig ass!
Mitch! Mitch! Mitch!
Toxic Chic
My vision was tinged with red. Somebody made a fucking remix of our argument and I had an inkling of who did. I threw my head back, letting out a war cry, and immediately jumped to my feet. Clemence and Katy were stilled, staring at me as if I had grown two heads.
It didn’t even occur to me to grab my purse, keys, or anything else before I opened the door. I didn’t care how I was going to see Mitch—I’d walk the ten miles to his apartment if I needed to. Of course, I didn’t have to go so far.
I flung the door open and found the chagrined looking b-boy standing awkwardly at my doorstep.
“You!” I growled. From behind me the video still ran, playing on an unending auto-play loop.
Mitch glanced behind me and grimaced. “So you saw?”
“It’s fucking viral!” I growled angrily.
At least Clemence had the decency to shut my computer off.
“I swear, it wasn’t my fault.”
I snorted. “What an apology. How long did it take you to think that excuse up?”
“It wasn’t me who put that video up. I didn’t even record it!” There was a desperation in his voice that was really hard to miss, but I was too far off the deep end to even care.
“I know that you didn’t record it, dumbass,” I muttered, crossing my arms over my chest. “You were in the video.”
He bowed his head apologetically. “I didn’t mean for this to happen. I’m sorry. It was a dick move, I know it.”
“Just leave, Mitch. What did I say about never wanting to see you again?”
“Please, I’ll make them take it down!” he pleaded.
“About that, if you knew about it all along, why didn’t you take it down already? Sounds to me that you’re just as guilty as the rest of them!” a voice clucked from behind us. We turned and saw Katy stand up and slowly walk toward the door. Each movement was graceful. She looked like a gazelle.
“Who are you?” Mitch muttered, which only annoyed me further.
“Katy, not that it’s any of your business. I’m a friend of Aurora’s, and frankly, I think you and all your friends are dicks.”
Since when were we friends?
Guilt began to pool in my stomach. All this time, I always thought of Clemence and her friends as whacky-doodles, when here they were defending me when no one else would.
Mitch’s bottom lip twitched in annoyance. “I’m not gonna deny that Craig, who probably did put this video up,is a dick. But you don’t even know me or any of the other guys in the crew. We’re good people.”
Katy pressed her thin lips together. “I know enough from the girls Idoknow that you and your friends basically treat women like garbage. Hit ’em and quiet ’em, am I right?”
The embarrassment on his face was hard to miss. “I wouldn’t do that to Aurora.” His eyes shot back to me. “Aurora, I really care about you. Please, this is all just a misunderstanding.”
“Go away.” I turned away once my vision started to blur with tears. I was not going to allow him to see me cry. “I told you I didn’t want to see you again.”
“Aurora, please.”
Katy lifted her fingers and waved them one by one. “Bye.”
She slammed the door before either Mitch or I could move.
It was quiet in the dorm room as Clemence came up to me and gently led me toward my bed. I followed blankly, feeling like a zombie. She sat me down and placed a warm thermos in my hands.
“What’s this?” I frowned at the army green colored jug. I unscrewed the cap and sniffed. “Is there opium in here or something?”
“Oh, stop with the stereotypes! It’s just Earl Grey.” Fortunately, Clemence didn’t look angry. In fact, she never did. Maybe she had something going on with all her Yoga-ing and weird tea stuff. I took a sip of the warm liquid and felt my muscles instantly calm.
Katy sat down beside me and frowned with concern. “They’re just jerks. This will all blow over in a few weeks.”
“A few weeks?” I cringed and dropped my head. Even all the media bullshit I dealt with back in Ohio didn’t hold a pickle to the humiliation I felt now. Back home, I was at least spotlighted for my skills and my ‘unfortunate fall’ from grace. I was shown as someone who worked hard, not someone who had a psycho screaming match with her boyfriend. He wasn’t even my boyfriend!
I hung my head. “What am I going to do?”
Katy bit her lip and threw a desperate look at Clemence. My roommate shrugged and asked, “Tell me again how you even got caught up with these guys?”
I sighed and shut my eyes. “It’s a long story.”
“We have time,” Katy responded, pushing back her blonde dreads.
I gritted my teeth. “Okay, fine.”
So began my long tirade about meeting Mitch, battling him, being encouraged to try out for the crew, and my undying hatred for the b-boy known as Cruel. By the end of my story, the girls were leaning toward me, batting their eyes in pure interest.
“And, that’s it.” I took a deep breath. My throat began to feel dry, leading me to take another swig of tea as if it were aged scotch. “Mitch and I hooked up and now I regret it.”
Clemence’s green eyes sparkled in a way I never noticed before. “I respect you.”
I scratched my head and shifted uncomfortably. “Uh, thanks?”
Katy nodded her head in agreement. “All this time I thought you were just another one of the sheep around campus. A blind follower to what was ‘cool’ and a devotee to the hot guys that walk around like they’re God’s gift to women.”
I cleared my throat, not knowing how to digest her words. “That’s totally not me.”
“We know,” she cooed. “I really love the fact that you wanted to show up Craig. That right there is honorable.”
I shrugged my shoulders and fell back onto my bed
, grabbing a pillow to cover my forehead. “Well, it’s not like it’s going to happen now. I’m not setting foot anywhere near those jerks.”
Clemence and Katy shared conspiratorial looks. After a while, both began to giggle uncontrollably.
“Am I missing something?” I muttered.
My roommate cleared her throat. “Why can’t you battle them?”
“Um, no?” What weird fairy dust were they inhaling?
“Why not?” Clemence pressed.
“Because, I’ve been to these battles and no girl ever wins! I’ll just end up embarrassing myself even more!”
“They don’t have individual competitions?”
“I mean they do, but I’m not going to go out there and battle by myself. All these guys have a following, if not a whole crew. I can’t compete with that.”
“We’ll be your crew.” Katy gestured between her and Clemence.
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
I stared at them blankly. “What?”
“We’ll start our own crew and battle them. We’ll show those sexist pigs that we’re just as good as they are!”
I pushed myself up and frowned. “We can’t battle them.”
“And why not?” Clemence asked pointedly.
I pulled at my throat. “Well, for one, you guys don’t know how to break.”
On cue, Katy walked over to the middle of the room, lowered herself into a handstand and did a perfect scorpion. Clemence clapped in appreciation.
I blinked in shock. Of course they’d be able to do perfect freezes! Yoga gave them the strength and flexibility to be able to withstand a ton of moves. I glanced over at Clemence. “What can you do?”
She stood up and grabbed onto her toes, pulling her leg up and threading her arms right through. With one leg, she jumped over the little bridge she made with the other and in a move that would make any contortionist proud, she somehow returned to her standing position.
“Wow,” I whispered.
“So what do you say?”
Thinking back to one of Mitch’s last texts to me, I responded. “We can’t just do moves and expect to win. We need to have flow. We need to dance. Do either of you know how?”