Breaking Promises (B-Boy #1) Read online

  Her lip twitched slightly. “Just to put it out there, I really need this semester to myself. I have a bunch of shit going on and…” Her voice trailed off. I waited for her to say something more, but when she didn’t budge I knew I had to push her a bit.

  “Why don’t you come to one of our battles? Once you see what goes on in one, I’m sure you’ll change your mind.”

  “Change my mind about what?” she asked, looking a bit confused.

  “About locking yourself up for a semester,” I replied calmly. “Listen, Cal State isn’t that bad and it would be a lot easier if you had friends. I really think you’d enjoy breaking with us if you gave it a shot.”

  “I have friends!” she argued.

  I cocked my head to the side and smirked. “Do you really?”

  “No.” Her head bowed forward and the slight pout in her lips looked cute as hell.

  “That settles it. You’re coming to one of our sessions.”

  “If it’s like that thing you guys were doing at Club Row yesterday, I hate to say it, but it’s a bit boring.”

  I knew some cute girls could be hella annoying and she was definitely skating that thin line. “What do you mean?”

  “All you do is roll around on the floor, doing the same old thing. It gets a bit redundant.” Getting a mischievous glint in her eyes, she added, “And I’m only telling you this because you know I’d never lie to you.”

  “I wasn’t just doing the ‘same old thing.’ If you were paying attention,you would have seen the intricacies I put into each of my runs.” I smacked my tongue and narrowed my eyes. “You’re seriously making it a bit hard to play nice, ifI’m being honest.”

  “I didn’t just mean you. I mean all of you!

  “Oh, yeah. That’s way better,” I replied, making a face, hoping she’d take the hint and stop talking. The fact that my plan to shut her up failed miserably did not escape me.

  Too bad she wasn’t about to drop the subject any time soon. “Seriously, all the moves you do look pretty identical. It gets old after a few minutes.”

  Though she was starting to rub me the wrong way—maybe not starting because she was definitelyburning me—I couldn’t shake the feeling that she’d add something different to the table. I wouldn’t admit it to her, but our sessions could get pretty redundant. Call it a gut feeling, but I just knew I needed to get her to come to one of our events. It’d be a life changer, and not just for her.

  “Can you please just come?” I’d never had to beg a girl to hang out with me before so the whole situation was a bit humbling, but I guess there was a first time for everything.

  “No.”

  How did I know she was going to say that?

  She didn’t even wait for me to reply before she walked toward the door. Her hand gripped the handle, but she paused for a moment and turned at her waist. “It was nice meeting you, Mitch.”

  “Kickwit.”

  She frowned in confusion. “Dimwit?”

  “Kickwit,” I corrected with a roll of my eyes. It wasn’t the first time I heard the joke, but I admit, it bothered me this time more than it had in a while. “It’s my b-boy name.”

  “Oh, sorry.”

  I shrugged. “See you around some time then, Aura.”

  Her face quickly reddened. “It’s Aurora. Seriously, have you talked to my roommate? She calls me that too.”

  “I don’t even know where your dorm is, honey…unless you want to tell me.”

  Her sneer faltered a little, but she tried her hardest to keep a straight face. “Aurora.”

  “Okay, bye, Aura,” I replied with a wicked grin. “See you around.”

  Aurora

  “There’s breakdancing over there? Isn’t that from the eighties or something?” Heidi, my old teammate and roomie smacked her gum on the other line and laughed. “What school are you going to, anyway? Bayside High?”

  “The only school that would accept me based on my GPA alone,” I admitted sadly.

  Her breathy sigh rang in my ear. “You can always come back, you know. We miss you. There wasn’t a need for you to move away.”

  “We’ve been through this already, Heidi. Do you really think I’d be able to stomach walking across that campus knowing I couldn’t compete with you guys? Or how about hearing everyone call me ‘The girl that broke her neck?’ Everything in Ohio just reminds me of what a failure I am.”

  “It was a freak accident, Aurora. It could have happened to anybody. I’ve seen you do that vault a million times. Your hand slipped—that’s it! Besides, you weren’t kicked off the team. You know Coach would take you back with open arms. You were one of her favorites, for shit’s sake.”

  I shut my eyes, picturing that fateful afternoon again. For as self-defining as it was, the only thing I could remember was how dark everything had gotten. Fucked up, right?

  “Aurora, you don’t realize how lucky you really are,” Heidi pressed.

  Lucky.

  It was what the doctors called me time and time again. If the break was in any other position in my neck, or if I had landed on it with a bit more force, I could have been paralyzed—or worse—dead.

  The familiar lump formed in my throat. Coughing a bit, I ground out, “Listen, I have to go.”

  “Aurora, don’t be like that.”

  “Talk to you soon. Bye.” I hung up before she could get another word in.

  There was no way I could go back to Ohio, and as much as I hated Cal State so far, it was easier than dealing with the bullshit I’d have to face back home.

  I hugged my knees up to my chest and sighed as I glanced over at Clemence’s sleeping body. Maybe she had something going with all her yoga, crystals, and Zen crap.

  Maybe she could help me forget.

  Mitch

  “Dude, that sucks!” I winced, examining Woody’s arm. “So it’s broken in three places? How the hell did you do that?”

  Woody waved his neon green cast around in my face and shrugged. “Just talented, I guess. Didn’t even know you could break anything on a hollowback.”

  “Well, we are talking about you,” I teased, trying to alleviate the tension in the room. As bad timing went, we had a huge group battle in a few months, and without Woody, our crew was severely handicapped.

  “What are we going to do, man?” Anthony rubbed at his shaved head and frowned. “Our last routine needs someone who could do a ten plus headspin drill as well as this bonehead can.” He jutted his thumb toward Woody. “How the hell do you even fall that hard doing a freeze?”

  “Just gifted, I guess,” he repeated, sounding bored.

  “We don’t need anybody new.” Craig, the leader of our crew, Annihilation, walked into our living room and plopped down beside me, making himself comfortable.

  “Since when do you think walking into my house without knocking is okay?” I elbowed him in the ribs only half-jokingly. Truth be told, Craig had been getting on my nerves for the past few weeks due to his excessive micro-management. Regardless, he was one of the best b-boys in the area, so who was I to say anything?

  Ignoring me, Craig reached over and swiped the remote from Anthony’s hands.

  “Seriously?” Anthony shook his head in annoyance, but just like me he kept his complaints to a minimum. He crossed his arms and sulked against our couch, which looked ripped right out of a bad episode of the Brady Bunch. I often wondered whyanybody would want to hang out at our place. For as rich as Anthony’s dad was, he had really bad taste.

  “We’ll do fine at Battle of the Crews without Woody—no offense,” Craig added, though I was pretty sure there was an insult thrown in there somewhere.

  Woody rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”

  “Oh, come on,” I protested. “We can always use fresh blood. In fact, I met a girl who—”

  Craig waved his hand, cutting me off. “A girl? Okay, before you finish that sentence, warn me if it’s gonna end up like your story about Kimber and your trip to Rosarito.”

  Imag
es of the buxom blonde and a night full of inebriation flashed through my mind. Damn, I couldn’t help but wonder what she was up to since our night messing up our hotel room.

  “No.” I shook my head, but couldn’t lose the smug smile on my face. “She’s actually a sick b-girl. I think she can definitely add some style to our crew—”

  “Hold up,” Craig interrupted, throwing his head back to laugh. “You want a girl to join our crew?”

  My jaw clenched. “What year do you live in? 1910? Yes, I want a girl to join our crew. Damn man, way to be sexist.”

  “I wasn’t being sexist,” he snapped, though honestly I wasn’t too sure about that. “It’s just that Annihilation has been good the way it’s always been. We don’t need to add anybody to our formula. It’ll only fuck things up.”

  I couldn’t help but snort. “Seriously though, if you don’t snatch up this girl she could be going straight to Knight—” Craig shot me a look, so I quickly corrected myself. “Our competition.”

  Knight Crawlerz was our number one rival that spanned all the way back from high school. Hell, I don’t even remember what started the whole rivalry to begin with; probably because they were just as good as any of us…and we had the habit of dating the same girls. Seriously, even speaking Knight Crawlerz’s name was the equivalent of saying Voldemort out loud.

  Craig took off his snapback and ran a hand through his shoulder length hair, which hung in gross looking oily clumps. Replacing it on top of his head, he leaned back and sighed. “Okay, how long has she been breaking for?”

  I grimaced and rubbed the back of my neck. “Um, you see…she isn’t exactly a b-girl, per-se…”

  Craig’s face lost all amusement.

  “She’s more of a gymnast and can do some sick power moves,” I explained quickly, realizing that I was losing my captive audience. Even Mr. Broken Arm himself looked as if he wanted to laugh in my face.

  “I need a dancer, not a cheerleader,” Craig, our leader supreme, snapped in annoyance. “If you’re going to approach me with an idea, make sure it’s not stupid first.”

  Anthony stifled a laugh.

  “I’m being serious, Craig. She’s gonna go places. I feel it.”

  “I’m done with this conversation.” Craig immediately stood and walked toward my kitchen and opened my refrigerator.

  I watched after him in distaste and felt Anthony hit my back. “Yo, just drop it. You know once Craig makes his mind up about something, it’s finito.”

  “It’s not finished,” I muttered, feeling a bit annoyed. Since when was Craig the ‘end all, be all?’

  “You can’t expect him to say yes knowing she has no experience. Come on, man, you’re smarter than that.”

  Instead of answering him, my mind began to tick away. I couldn’t explain it, but I just knew Aurora was special and I was going to show everybody I wasn’t crazy.

  “Uh, oh. I know that look.” Anthony sighed and shook his head with a laugh. “I take it this isn’t the last time we’ll hear about this?”

  “Nope.” I pressed my lips together and shook my head. “Only next time I’ll be more prepared.

  Aurora

  A blinding neon orange flyer was shoved in my face. Scowling, I pushed the culprit’s hand away and scowled. “What the hell are you doing? What is this?”

  Mitch, with his usual cocky grin, took a seat in front of me. I had purposely chosen the farthest, most isolated table in the cafeteria and couldn’t help but feel annoyed that somebody—especially him—was bothering me.

  “It’s a flyer,” he answered with a wink.

  “I see that, dipshit,” I replied slowly. Gosh, was this guy stupid or something?

  Mitch rolled his eyes and began to roll his neck, causing me to wince. Involuntarily, my hand shot up toward my own, rubbing circles against my skin. The b-boy’s thick lips curled into a semi-grin. “I think you should come.”

  “Okay, if this is a pick-up line you use on your Tinder profile, I’m sorry to tell you that it’s pretty lame and perverted.”

  The look on his face was priceless. Like a deer in headlights, his eyes widened and mouth slackened. He cleared his throat awkwardly. “Um, no. I just meant that I think you have a lot of potential to compete—”

  “I don’t compete in anything anymore,” I cut him off with a snap of my fingers.

  “Oh, come on! Breaking is awesome. You obviously can do it, why don’t you give it a chance?”

  The knowledge that he was practically whining did nothing but irritate me more. I grabbed the sides of my clunky art history book and held it up in the air. “Do you see this? It’s my invisible ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign. I’m studying. Can you please leave me alone?”

  “What do you have against breaking, anyway? You seem to have a stick up your ass any time it’s mentioned.”

  I narrowed my eyes in thought. “Honestly, it doesn’t seem to have any structure. Like I said, I grew up doing gymnastics. It took discipline and attention to detail. In fact, many dances require just that. Breaking just seems…messy.”

  “Wow, was that a serious answer for a change?” The smile never left Mitch’s face.

  I sighed. “Just leave me along,Dimwit. I’m busy.”

  “Just consider attending. Maybe once you see how structured b-boying really is, you might reconsider it,” he coaxed.

  “What is your deal, dude? Why do you want me to compete so much?”

  Mitch leaned back and cocked his head to the side. After a moment of thought, he shrugged. “Honestly, I just have a feeling about you.”

  “A feeling,” I repeated doubtfully.

  “And nine out of ten times, my gut is always right. As odd as it sounds, I think you might be a good fit for our crew.”

  “Crew?”

  He snorted. “Team.”

  “Oh…so you want me to try out or something?” I grimaced and shook my head. “No, thank you.”

  Instead of replying, he jumped to his feet and slid the flyer toward me, tapping on it twice. “Don’t make up your mind yet. Just attend this one event and then come talk to me. I promise, it’ll change your life.”

  I curled my lips in distaste and watched as he walked away. Once he was out of sight, I lifted the flyer and read:

  Bragging Rights.

  Battle starts at four p.m. Saturday the eleventh at Rancho Del Carne pub.

  My gaze flitted back up to where I last saw Mitch and frowned. It wasn’t as if I had anything to do that weekend and honestly, I had no idea how much longer I could stand watching Clemence strike a Warrior Two pose.

  Scrunching up my mouth to the side, I sighed. “Guess, I’ll be seeing you this Saturday, Mit-ch,” I said, enunciating the last two letters of his name. “Let’s see how long I’ll be able to stand it.”

  ***

  Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.

  My eardrums felt as if they’d burst at any moment. I winced, fighting the urge to plug my ears at the risk of looking like a total dork.

  My sneakers squeaked against the wooden floor as I shuffled toward the back of the pub. I thought it was rather odd that anybody in their right mind would hold a competition at a bar, not to mention call the battleBragging Rightsto begin with,but once I saw the huge sound system set up and the crowd gathering along the walls, I couldn’t help but appreciate the ruggedness of the whole thing. It was gritty and I liked grit.

  Not knowing where to sit or stand, I opted to walk over to an empty spot in front of the D.J. booth. Figuring it would give me a good view of the battle, I began to settle in front of a giant pair of speakers, but as soon as I began to relax, the D.J. leaned over and tapped me on the shoulder. He lifted his baseball cap slightly and peered at me through two narrowed slits. “Sorry, Hun, but you can’t stand there. You’ll be in my way. I need to watch the b-boys.”

  I gaped, feeling a bit embarrassed. “Um, where should I stand then?”

  Looking bored, he motioned around the tiny room. “Take your pick.”

  Fee
ling a bit perturbed, I bit my lip and stalked off with my head down. My cheeks felt as if they were burning. Barely lifting my gaze, I glanced around feelingthis close to just walking out and calling it a day. Luckily, a lone spot opened up near a corner of the room and I practically ran toward it, staking my claim before anybody else could.

  As I leaned back, placing the sole of my right foot against the wall, I muttered, “What the hell am I doing here? I don’t even like this shit.”

  A few people close by must have heard me, quickly throwing me disapproving scowls. I dropped my head again and began twiddling with my thumbs, praying I wouldn’t get beat up at my first official battle—wait, a minute!First?More likelast battle ever.

  Just when I was getting ready to throw in the towel, the house lights dimmed. The collective buzz of the crowd heightened as the beat of the music changed. A thin man with dreads walked out into the center of the room, where rows of people had sat down, forming a wide circle. Though I hated to admit it, the electricity in the room fired me up, reminding me of the feeling I used to get before I walked out to my competitions. I sucked in my breath and gazed around in admiration. There was no way I could leave now. No wonder Mitch was so amped about it. A competition was a competition, regardless of what type of sport it was.

  “Good evening, ladies and gents.” The man lifted his hand in greeting. “Thanks for showing up tonight. I know the venue’s a bit crowded, but it was the best we could do this time around. So just a few safety reminders. Give the b-boys as much room as possible unless you want to get kicked in the face.” He paused and glanced down at a guy whose legs were stretched out toward the center of the makeshift circle in the middle of the room. “You. I’m talking about you, Josh. God, move back! Acting like you’ve never been to one of these before.”

  I paled slightly, recalling my coach’s no-mess attitude, but calmed a bit when I realized everyone was cracking up.

  The man in the center grinned again. “Okay, so we’re doing this lottery style. All of you who signed up for this battle have your names in here.” He lifted a trucker styled baseball cap. “We’ll be pulling names out at random to decide who’s going to battle who.”