Page 33 of Becoming Cinderella

I prop my right leg up on the bar that runs across the mirror, acting like his words don’t affect me. I don’t even know why they are affecting me.

I slowly inhale, hoping to ease the tight feeling in my chest, before pointing to the spot next to me. “Come on, you need to warm up before we can begin.”

We start off slow, going over each count of eight step by step repeatedly before I allow us to move to the next part. The clock on the wall tells me we’ve been going at it for two hours and I know I should wrap up this practice soon. Liam’s a good student though and I don’t want to ruin the groove we’re in. He watches carefully and listens intently and I know he’s trying to commit everything to memory, but he’s still struggling.

“You’re spinning to the right which is good, but I’m still spinning faster than you.”

Liam places his hands on his hips with a frustrated groan. His jaw is tight and I know he’s feeling defeated at not having the choreography down better.

“It’s okay, let’s just try it again and we’ll slow it down.”

Liam shakes his head. “I need a dance break.”

“That’s literally what we’re doing.”

“No. We’re dancing seriously.” Liam puffs his chest out. “I need to let loose.”

I step back, gesturing my hand to the rest of the dance floor. “Be my guest.”

He leans towards me, looking at me with a mischievous smile. “Correction, we need to let loose.”

“And what exactly do you have in mind?”

Liam holds up his pointer finger, signaling for me to wait. He turns on his heels to go unplug my phone from the speaker before he plugs in his own. He studies his phone as his thumbs move quickly over the screen before he looks up at me through his eyelashes, ones that seem to be miles long. Half the girls in my class get lash extensions to even try to compete with lashes like his.

“Are you ready for this?” Liam’s voice fills the studio and I pull my focus from his eyelashes, hoping he doesn’t notice I was staring.

Liam taps play on his phone and the studio fills with the first notes to *NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye”.

“Do you know the dance?”

“You mean stomp and throw my fist in the air? Yeah, I think I know it.”

Liam mocks offended. “Don’t disrespect NSYNC.” He slides to me, bumping my hip with his before he starts dancing the iconic choreography.

I feel a goofy grin spread across my face as I watch Liam let loose. His care-free attitude is contagious as he moves to stand directly in front of me, grabbing both of my hands and waving them along with the music. He does this for a few beats before he lets go of one hand and launches me out into a spin and then pulls me back towards him.

My stomach jumps into my throat as I look up in his eyes. He’s looking down at me with his crooked smile and I want to freeze this moment, to never forget the way he looks when I’m this close to him.

At once it seems hard to swallow, I’m suddenly too aware of how close we are until Liam lets go of my hands and starts doing the sprinkler. He raises an eyebrow at me, a silent challenge to join in.

Oh, what the heck. Why not?

I start to jump around, throwing my fists in the air and motion goodbye as I sing along to the song. I don’t even care that I can’t sing because Liam and I both sing loudly like we’re front row at an actual *NSYNC concert.

When the next song starts to play, I head towards the phone. “Ready to get back to work?”

“Come on Carter, just one more?”

“We still have a lot to-” I let out a yelp as he starts to chase me to keep me from changing the playlist.

I start to run in a zig zag in an attempt to slow him down and risk a look behind me, only to see playful determination in Liam’s eyes. I make a quick pivot away from my original direction to try to gain some distance on him.

Liam, not expecting my turn, stumbles and we both tumble to the ground. Liam softens my fall though since I land directly in his lap. Liam wraps his arms around me, tightening his hold as I try to stand. He pokes at my sides, making me squirm against him.

My heart crashes in my chest as warm tingles spread all the way up my arms and light up each of my molecules.

“Gotcha,” he says in my ear.

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