They all nod, and Kenan stands in front of me, his eyes twinkling with mischief. Oh boy. He’s trouble. “Such an honor to meet you, Perse.”
I scan his hand that’s out to meet me before slipping mine into his. “You too.”
He jumps onto the stage and the two others follow behind him. Delila sneaks up beside me, her arms crossed. “They’re going to do great, Perse.”
I tilt my head, running my fingers over my face. “I hope you’re right. Hey, while I have you here.” I smirk, turning over my shoulder slightly to catch the boys all staring at me. “For our acts, would it be too much to ask for the same face makeup that the boys wear?”
Delila cocks a brow. “Oh, you’re brave.”
I laugh, jumping up onto the center stage and ignoring everyone behind me.
“Okay,” I say, looking around at all of them. “I get that this might not be ideal for you all to do so quickly.”
“Perse?” Kenan interferes and I look straight at him. “We’re good, baby girl. You’ll see.”
I exhale a shaky breath. “Okay, good. I put a lot into this, and I don’t want to be an asshole, but it would be a huge relief if I didn’t have to train you.”
“You don’t,” Saskia murmurs, and then as if she’s surprised she’s answered, she looks around at all of us. “Train us, I mean.”
I nod, smiling at her. “Good. So, I’ll play a song, and I want you all to just do what you feel like you want. This song is pretty mellow, but I feel like it loosens your soul and makes it easy to express yourself. The quicker I see your style, the better.”
They all agree, and I spin around, glaring at Delila.
God, I hope she’s right.
I ignore the magnetic pull that is coming from the boys, and from King, picking up my phone and hitting play on “Breathe” by Mako. I hope to erase the memories this song gives me of King and me, and I hope to do that now. With this dance.
The song starts playing and I slightly watch them as they slowly form into a dance line, as if choreographed. They are talented. I can see it already.
When the beat kicks in, I roll around and wave my hips to the rhythm. Swinging my hand out, another hand catches onto mine and Kenan pulls me into his chest. I turn in his grip as the verse comes in again. I roll slowly off him, sweat spilling off me already—all of that alcohol—and when the chorus kicks in again, he throws me out while holding on to my fingers and I dance around him, him moving against me perfectly. Holy shit, Kenan is incredible. My eyes find King’s and I’m locked in. My breathing harbors and my eyes flutter closed. His finger is running over his upper lip, his eyes somewhat shaded by his hoodie. His knee is jiggling, and I can tell it’s agitating him. The song finishes, and I step out of Kenan’s grasp.
“Smooth. Very smooth,” I joke, shaking my head.
Kenan winks. “Yeah?”
I jump off the stage and pick up my phone again, still catching my breath. “The song that we will be doing for our first act will be ‘Copycat’ by Billie Eilish. I have the choreography in my head so I’m going to start laying it out. Though I feel like you all have a good platform of dance so you should catch on quickly.” I inhale, taking another breath when King’s hand comes to my belly. I stop breathing. He pulls me in closer and I feel him against my back. Ignoring him for now, I keep talking, “We’ll play it through. I want you to dance how you want so you can warm up with the song and your body can become warm to it, and then I’ll show you the move—Jake! Play the song and thank you!” I spin around in King’s grasp. “What are you doing?”
“I need to show you something. Now.”
I lick my lips. “Okay, I’ll follow you out.” I follow behind him after yelling at my new dancers to warm up for a few seconds. Once we hit outside, I reach for his arm. “What do you need to show me?”
“It’s in the RV.” His tone is clipped, even though his body language is loud.
I follow him to the RV and inside when we reach it.
The smell hits me first. Blood. The distinct scent of metal. My eyes come to King who is watching me as I close the door. “What have you done?”
King smirks, pulling out a pack of smokes and putting one between his lips. He flicks open the Zippo, and when the light catches it, I recognize it straight away. “King!” I scolded him as I continued to chase him through the forest, diving over fallen branches. “You’re running too fast.”
“Or are you just too slow?” He grinned as he ran backward.
I growled out as I zipped forward, only my foot clipped an old branch and I was falling, straight for the dirt ground.
“Ouch!” I yelled, pushing my palms off the mud.
“You okay?” King asked, kneeling down beside me and grabbing me by the hand. “I can’t trust you for a second, can I?” His smirk was cute, his dimples deeper than ever.
I shoved him playfully just as something flashed on the ground. I bent down and picked it up. “Huh. A lighter!”
“Zippo!” King corrects, taking it from between my fingers.
I shrugged. “Zippo then!” He pockets it and takes my hand. “Hurry up before it gets dark.”
I step up beside King. Slowly turning my head, the body on the floor catches my eyes straight away. There’s a pool of blood spilling out from his body, his face turned toward me. “Jack?” I rush toward him, dropping to my knees. His eyes are rolling to the back of his head, blood leaking out from between his lips.
“King!” I scream, turning to face him. “What did you do?”
King blinks, his eyes coming to mine. “Revenge, only this time, he’s not walking away alive.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I whisper-yell, taking Jack’s hand in mine and squeezing it.
King steps forward and I quickly stand to my feet, putting distance between him and Jack. “Why would you do this? The door opens to the side, the light breaking through. Delila steps inside, assesses the current situation and shakes her head. “I hope you deal with that, King.”
King continues to look at me, his eyes searching mine. “You won’t believe a fucking thing I say anymore, will you?”
“You lied to me! And then you were going to fucking kill me, King!”
“Yeah?” He grabs me by the front of my throat, blocking my airways and forcing my lips against his. “I’ve killed for less, P.” He shoves me backward and I fall onto Jack, my hands slipping in the warm goo. “Good luck with your bullshit, P. I’m fucking done.” He turns and walks out, slamming the door in his retreat.
“Jesus Christ.” I turn quickly, my hands coming to Jack’s chest. “It’s going to be okay. We’ll get you some help.” I pick him up, but he coughs, clutching his ribs. His shirt is torn and blood is spilled all over it. I swing his arm over my shoulder and wrap my arm around his waist, pulling him up to stand straight. “I’ll get you to a hospital and say someone jumped you.” I help him to the door, yanking it open. Thankfully, there are not as many people hanging around because most of them have disappeared for the holiday. I yank him forward, pushing him against the side of the RV. “Wait here. I’m going to get King’s keys.” I rush back inside and shove papers, keys, and other random crap out of the way to find his keys. Running up the stairs, I head straight for his bedroom, shoving away the memories of the last time I was up here.