Page 35 of The Last Dance

‘Good.Then I don’t have to say it.’ She crosses her arms over her chest.

A nervous laugh bubbles up through my throat. I swallow it away. My emotions are a mess right now. ‘Ambri, I have no idea what I’m doing when I’m around you now. I feel like I know you, but I also feel as if I don’t knowanythingabout you anymore. I… I don’t even know what to say.’

She drops her arms to her sides with a sigh. ‘How about you start by telling me why you’re even here? Why all the sudden come back when you supposedly needed to be away from here? Or maybe it was just me you needed to be away from.’

I hesitantly step towards her again, reaching out to touch her arm but pulling back when I remember I don’t get to touch her anymore. ‘That’snotit. I know I said something like that, but I didn’t mean it. I was mad at myself and I took it out on you. I’m sorry.’ I watch her bite her lip.

‘Then why come back to the place that ruined you?’

‘My job brought me back.’

She nods, looking from me to the floor.

‘I never meant to hurt you, Ambri. It wasn’tyouI was running from. Please don’t ever think that it was.’

‘Huh. Well, I was the only girl there. I must’ve had something to do with it.’ She shrugs; the look on her face is pained, hurting me as much as I can see she still hurts. ‘I should get back.’ She takes a few steps backwards away from me obviously having forgotten about her being headed in the direction of the bathroom. She hesitates for a moment before turning to make her way through the crowd, but glancing back, our eyes meeting once again for only a second before she completely disappears. What’s left of my heart now feeling like it would only show a flat line if on a heart monitor.

I’m not over her like I’ve been telling myself I was. Not even a little bit.

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