Page 125 of We Shouldn't Be Together
“I’m not. I want you to admit the truth to yourself.”
I groan. “Fine, dancing is fun. But I really didn’t care about quitting because I’m the worst in the class.”
He rubs my arm. “But you can be the best if you take more lessons.”
“I’m not like you. I can’t try something once and be the best at it.”
He rolls his eyes. “That’s not what I said.”
My heart plummets to my stomach. The last thing I want is him thinking I’m twisting his words. I don’t want him to see me as that girl again.
Kai brushes my curls off my shoulder and caresses my cheek. “I just want you to do whatever makes you happy.”
I swallow hard. “Really?”
“Of course, really.”
“Well, that’s something new to get used to.”
His voice lowers. “Don’t you think it’s sad that your normal is being around people who don’t care if you’re unhappy?”
I nod. “It is sad.”
He chucks my chin. “Stop thinking I’m one of those people.”
I brighten. “Okay. But, to be fair, you were one of those people before.”
“We’re light years past that. Those versions of us don’t exist anymore.”
Unintentionally, I squeal, bouncing on the balls of my feet. “I love that!”
Kai’s eyes widen, and he snorts. “Okay.”
I grab onto his shoulders. “I really feel like I can move forward. Like, maybe I can stop fearing everybody else’s reactions.” I look up at the neon lights of the dancing platform. “I never would’ve done this with the girls, or my family, for that matter. I’d been too scared of people laughing at me.”
“Well, I thought you were very cute. I liked seeing how hard you were concentrating.”
I mumble a laugh. “That couldn’t have been cute.”
He nods, brushing back my curls. “You’re cute, Tabitha.”
I bite into my lip and fan my face. “You wanna get out of here? The ice-creamery is only a few stores down.”
He smirks. “You need to cool down?”
I blush. “Mm-hmm.”
We grab our bags from the cloakroom and I link my arm around his as we make our way into the crisp afternoon air. The sun is lowering, creating melds of dark orange and navy in the sky. Inside the ice-creamery, I choose the hazelnut swirl, and to my surprise, Kai orders vanilla.
“Such a plain Jane order,” I comment.
He shrugs. “I don’t really eat a lot of sweet foods.”
“Seriously? Oh my gosh, I can’t live without chocolate.”
Kai nods at the server, handing over my paper cup of hazelnut goodness. “Looks chocolaty enough.”
I shake my head and tap the glass display. “That one there has all the chocolate. The fudgy brownie flavor.”
