Page 17

Chapter Three

I stand outside the classroom, convinced that when I walk into the room, everyone’s going to be staring at me and talking about how awful I am. Kaiya will have told the entire class that I can’t dance to save my life—not like they couldn’t have seen it themselves—and Lito will decide that he’ll dance with her, and then they’ll fall in love and have perfect little children who look like angels plopped them down from the heavens. Why would their children have to be so cute?

But when I push the door open, no one even looks at me besides Lito, who gives me a smile. It reminds me of the smile he gave me in my dream last night. Instead of tossing me over his desk, he was making me dance the box step repeatedly while telling me that I had a noodle arm.

I sigh before heading to sit on one of the chairs that line the back wall. When I see Kaiya coming toward me, I realize that I need to run, but I can’t when I have no option but to face her.

She sits down next to me and bites her lip. “I’m really sorry about what happened. That wasn’t supposed to… I didn’t mean for you to hear that. And I shouldn’t have said it even if you weren’t going to hear it. My family has been making things really stressful, and I took it out on you. They’re really… my family is hardcore, okay? I’m really sorry.”

I nod. Maybe it’s because my family is similar, or maybe it’s because I’m used to letting people say shit about me and quickly forgiving them, but I’ll give her at least one more chance. It’s not as though I have to like her; I just need to get along with her. Really, all that matters is dancing with Lito.

Thankfully, class goes better. Maybe it’s because I’m not as focused on how I should quit, and am instead thinking about dancing again with Lito. And when class ends, I’m like a kid on Christmas morning.

I try to play it cool by fiddling with my phone while the others leave, but on the inside, I’m an excited and anxious mess while Lito does something in his office. He looks over at me and holds up a finger to let me know he’ll be another minute, so I flash him a huge smile. Now I’m questioning if the smile was too huge. He probably thinks I’m strange at this point.

“Sorry for making you wait, Hunter,” Lito says as he peeks out of his office.

“No! No problem. At all. You’re the one helping me.”

He smiles, and I realize that he really should wear a paper bag on his head. Shouldn’t it be considered torture to give me that look and expect me to pay attention? “Can you come here?”

“I’m coming! Not like that… I don’t know why I added that. It sounded perfectly fine until I added that.”

He’s clearly amused, and I have no idea why. It now sounds like I’m sexually harassing him.

“I wanted to show you a video. Let me see if I can find it,” he says as he slides into his chair. The other chair in the room is covered in papers, leaving his lap as the only open seat, but I choose to stand like a normal human being as he peruses YouTube. “Hmm… I thought I knew right where it was, but I’m not seeing it.” He grabs a Post-it Note and hands it to me. “Write your number down, and if I find it later, I’ll text it to you.”

I’m so excited to hand him my phone number that I momentarily forget what it is. His scrutinizing eyes tell me that he definitely notices but plays it cool, unlike me who is now scratching out the house number I haven’t used in years. “Yeah, you can text me or call me or whatever.”

Lito gives me a smile. “I will when I find it.”

“Awesome.”

“Come on, let’s get some stuff done. Are you ready?”

“Yeah, class went better today.”

“I noticed. I think you looked much more confident, and that does wonders.”

“You think?”

He nods. “I do. Let’s just dance for a few minutes. I’ll lead, and I want you to focus on understanding how I direct the follower.”

When I offer him my hand, he takes it and I find that we’re far too close for comfort. Were we this close Monday?

I try to discreetly step back, but the hand on my shoulder keeps me held in tight. Not that I’m complaining, but there really should be room for Jesus and Buddha and at least one other in there.

“Can you feel me?” he asks.

“Sure can.”

“Good.” He steps into me. “Get that head up. Stop looking at me.”

What if I don’t want to?

“So, you’re going to school for business, right? What do you plan to do with that?” he asks.

He’s so easy to follow. I feel like I know exactly what I’m doing even though a few of the moves we’re doing I’ve never learned. “Whatever my father wants me to do.”

“Hmm… What do you want to do?”

“Dance. Not work with him. He has my brother to carry on his legacy, but he wants me to as well. I’m not much of a legacy carrier.”

“You know what? I didn’t go to school for ballroom.”

I look at him in surprise. “You didn’t?”

“Stay focused.”

I quickly point my head in the right direction. “Yeah, but… you’re amazing. I watched you on YouTube.”

Lito smiles but keeps a perfect frame. “Thank you, but no. I went to school to be an engineer.”

“Really?”

“Yep. I played the nine-to-five game for a while, hating it every day. I felt like my life was miserable because I was doing what I thought I should do. When I finally realized that I couldn’t keep suffering through it, I decided that I needed to do what I really wanted to do. So I worked toward opening my own place and started teaching here. I guess what I’m saying is that it’s good for you to want to keep your father happy, but you need to worry about keeping yourself happy first.”

I stare up at the man. Clearly, he can’t be real. Maybe he’s an android, or maybe this is a dream. Yeah, that sounds likely. Highly likely. “Why couldn’t you be my dad?” Oh no. Now it sounds like I’m talking about the sexual kind of dad. “Not like… daddy dad…”

“Daddy dad?” he asks with a smirk. “Explain to me what a daddy dad is?”

The look on his face tells me he knows exactly what I’m saying, so there is no way I’m answering that question. And, on top of that, he’s still keeping perfect form. I’m now stumbling all over the place and staring at him with wide eyes. “They’re like an ultra dad.”

He starts laughing. “Is that so? Well, I’m not quite old enough to be your dad since I’m only twenty-seven, but I’m not really daddy material.”

What the hell am I saying?

He yanks me toward him hard enough that my front brushes against his and my dick perks up. Just the brushing of my body against his sends my mind reeling.

“Stay focused. You should be able to dance and talk without breaking form.”

Yeah, maybe if he was talking about normal stuff. “I’m trying. You’re distracting me.”

“You’re the one talking about me being your daddy.”

Oh, please stop saying that word. I’m already prepared to die of shame. RIP at the young age of twenty-one, taken by shame. “The weather is nice outside.”

Lito laughs again and lets go of me. “It is. Alright, now that we’ve warmed up, let me look at your choreography.”

I show it to him, and he scrutinizes it for a bit. “Let me guess… has Kaiya picked all these moves?”

“Yes.”

“They’re very follower based. They’re showing off everything she can do and leaving you no room to show off yourself. It’s not her fault; I’m sure she doesn’t even realize what you’re doing. You need to suggest some things as well.”

“Okay. But I’m just happy to dance—I don’t care what I’m doing.”

“I do. I want to see you move.”

I want to see you move without your clothes on , I think. But calling him daddy is probably enough sexual harassment for one day.

I’m lying in bed when the text comes through. My roommate is sleeping since his bedtime is around nine, and he insists that I’m quiet after that. I quickly found that he doesn’t think I can even turn the pages of a book quietly, so I’ve taken to watching videos until the time that normal people fall asleep.

But all of that is forgotten when the text pops up.

Unknown number: Hey Hunter, this is Lito. Here’s the video I was looking for. I want you to watch this guy’s videos and listen to him talk about how important it is to lead with a strong frame. If you have any questions, let me know.

I quickly save his number and instead of writing his name, I write: Sexy Beast, just so I can send it to my brother.

Me: Look! It worked! Telling him I liked his muscles got me his phone number.

Then I send him a screenshot of the text with the name “Sexy Beast” at the top.

Parker: Did you jizz in your pants the moment it came through? And by “Sexy Beast” you mean: Man I couldn’t get even if I paid him a million dollars.

Me: Fuck off.

Parker: They make little sex machines now. You could tape a picture of his face to it.

Me: He texted me.

Parker: Yeah, looks like it’s about classwork. All I see is: You suck, watch a video to see if you can get better.

Me: I called him daddy today.

Parker: And you wonder why you can’t get laid.

Me: It was an accident, but so what?

Parker: How are you so awkward?

Me: I don’t know. Please! I really want him to like me but everything that comes out of my mouth is ridiculous and stupid.

Parker: There’s no saving you. It was good knowing you.

Me: I want him to think I’m sexy. Instead, he probably sees me as an awkward kid.

Parker: You just need to grab him by the balls.

The phone vibrates and another text from Lito comes in.

Sexy Beast: Here’s another video.

“Your phone is too loud!” my roommate barks.

“Sorry,” I say.

Parker: Please don’t.

I switch it to silent and click on the little messages icon to go back to the previous page I was on to answer Parker’s ball-grabbing comment.

Me: You’re hilarious. I mean I WANT to, but I won’t. Dad would murder me if I got thrown out of school for grabbing my professor’s nuts.

The moment I press send is the moment I realize that when I clicked back, it took me to Lito’s text, NOT my brother’s.

Fuck my life.

Fucking… hell. I just texted my professor about grabbing his nuts. But he doesn’t know I’m talking about HIM, right?

Sexy Beast: I’m assuming that wasn’t for me.

I’m hyperventilating as I take a screenshot and send it to Parker. It takes him a mere second before calling me. I leap out of the top bunk and rush for the door. I slip through it and swipe to answer as quickly as I can.

“Parker!” I cry.

His laughter is invading the phone, tearing into my ear. “You did not! Please tell me you didn’t do that!”

“PARKER! STOP LAUGHING! I’m going to die. Literally, the only thing I can do at this moment is die or run away. It was nice knowing you.”

“You have some smooth moves, little bro.”

“This is YOUR fault, Parker!”

Parker is choking now for some reason. I guess that’s called karma. “Oh… holy… shit… this is priceless. How are you going to face him again?”

“I can’t.”

My phone beeps. “HE MESSAGED ME.”

“What’d he say?”

I put him on speaker as I head down to the empty common room. Then I pull up the text.

Sexy Beast: Or was it about me?

“Now he thinks it was about him!”

“Play it off cool. Say, ‘would you want it to be about you?’” Parker suggests.

“Good! Good! That sounds really sexy and points out that A) it wasn’t originally about him and B) it could be about him if he wanted it to.”

Me: No! That wasn’t about you or anyone or anything! My friend wrote that about something that happened on TV! Haha! He’s so funny! Nope! Not you!

“Why?” Parker asks after I tell him what I wrote.

“What? I panicked!” I cry.

“I told you what to say! Now you look so guilty! If you’d texted what I said, you would have looked cool and a little sexy.”

Me: Unless you want it to be about you.

Sexy Beast: The TV or the… other thing you said?

“Noooo, Hunter, stop! You’re killing me. Your awkwardness is literally killing me. You’ve fucked up,” Parker says. “That was supposed to go first. Not after your horrible lie.”

Me: I would like to inform you that I will be withdrawing from class and would like to thank you for your assistance. Goodbye.

Parker starts laughing again. “It sounds like a farewell note.”

“Well, all the blood has left my body and relocated in my face, so it might be.”

Sexy Beast: Clearly it was about the TV show you’re talking about. How about we both forget that text happened, and you come back to class on Monday. Deal?

Me: Yes, please.