Fiction/Young Adult

Worth the Risk — Chapter Nine

Are you willing to lose it all

I was still sore from the brutal attack I did on my body last night. My legs were stiff and sore, and every muscle hurt when I moved.

“What the hell happened to you?” Amber met me at my car when I pulled into the parking area. “Are you sure nothing happened on Saturday night with Marcus? You’re walking like you rode that boy all night long.”

“I practiced my recital dance for like two hours last night. All the stretching and leg splitting kicked my ass after missing three days of practice.” My legs were like jelly, and I held onto the railing that lined the sidewalk.

“There’s my man.” Amber waved at Ricky when he stepped off the bus.

“Why doesn’t he drive to school? He has a car.” I surely wouldn’t be taking public transportation if I had my own car.

“Gas money. He saves for weekend trips he might have to do, like to my house.” Amber signaled for him and his boys to come over, including Marcus. She skipped a bit down the sidewalk in her new FarFetch boots she’d gotten and leaped into Ricky’s arms. She kissed him a hundred times all over his face.

I followed as fast as my legs allowed but had to stop every so often because of leg cramps. The whole group waited for me a short distance up the sidewalk.

I saw Marcus walking back towards me. The last thing I needed was some feel sorry for Chelsey gesture from him, so I backed off the railing and started walking at a brisker pace.

“What happened?” Without even asking, he took my book bag and slung it over his shoulder.

“Hey, hey.”

Oh shit, Bradley’s voice was behind me.

“Is he bothering you, Chels?” Bradley stood in between me and Marcus. He went to grab my bag, but Marcus twisted his shoulder the bag was on so he couldn’t reach it.

“Brad, chill, we’re friends.” I took a step closer to Marcus.

“Friends? Really? You slumming this year.” Bradley chuckled at his own comment and fist-bumped his friend who came in for backup.

I stepped in the middle of the two guys, one had a sinister smile and the other had a snarl that looked like he was ready to kick some rich boy’s ass.

"Bradley, shut up.” I turned around and motioned for Marcus to go back with Amber and Ricky. He didn’t seem to wanna budge and stood his ground waiting to see if Brad had anything else to say.

“Marcus, everything okay.” Ricky, who now had three other guys behind him, called out.

“We’re coming,” I yelled out to Ricky, who was watching the intense standoff.

Bradley looked behind me and must’ve seen the other guys who were waiting to see what he was going to do. He laughed for some stupid reason and shook his head. “Let me know when you’re done doing charity work.”

I stopped Marcus as he lunged for Brad. “Don’t.” I didn’t care if he kicked the shit out of Bradley, but he would get thrown out of school and lose any type of scholarship he was after if he hit him.

“Yeah, listen to Chelsey.” Bradley waggled his finger at him. “You would lose, buddy. Can’t risk losing your free ride here.” Brad walked away looking like he’d just won some sort of duel or something.

Marcus stared down Bradley’s back, then turned around and walked back towards his group. He didn’t say anything to me but continued to carry my bookbag.

I followed behind as quickly as I could without experiencing too much discomfort from my sore muscles.

“What happened?” Ricky was the first to ask what went on with Bradley.

“Nothing. It’s all good now.” Marcus resumed walking up towards the school, not looking to see if anyone was following.

I shrugged when Amber mouthed ‘what happened’ and followed behind Marcus as he stormed up the stairs and into the school. He continued racing past all the other students, not caring if he bumped into them or not.

“Marcus, can you slow down a bit?" I called out to him as he walked half a hallway ahead of me.

He slowed down but didn’t stop to wait for me. I finally caught up with my leg muscles burning from the activity.

“I can take this.” I went to reach for my backpack, but he held it out of the way.

“I got it. You look like you’re in pain.” Marcus began walking at a slower pace.

“I overdid it in dance last night. I didn’t stretch out as much like I should’ve.”

We walked up the stairs to our room. Marcus opened the door and motioned for me to go in.

There weren’t too many other students in the class, so we must be earlier than our usual arrival time. I took my seat, and Marcus sat beside me.

“Was that your boyfriend earlier?” He was talking about Brad.

“He wishes.”

Brad always asked me to go out with him and I always gracefully declined every offer he put out.

“Ex.”

“Never went out with him. He likes to annoy me.” I wondered where Marcus was going with this conversation. He’d made it clear he didn’t want to go out with me again by not calling yesterday and ignoring me in the morning.

“He seems like a total ass.” Marcus looked over at me, and I nodded in agreement. A few more students strolled in and sat in their regular seats. “Do you have time to talk after school?”

I had dance rehearsal every day this week, including Saturday. “I have dance right after school.” It was tempting to not go and spend some time with him, but I had to get this dance number down to perfection.

Marcus rubbed his face like he was frustrated about something. “Any time after that?”

“Um.” I had no idea what he was up to. “The studio is down in the city. We can try to meet around six or so.”

Marcus nodded he could do that. I wrote down the address of where I rehearsed, and he looked kind of shocked at the name.

“Wow, this is a prestigious place. I was thinking it was like some small-time studio or something.”

I smiled at his actual interest in what I did. Everyone else blew the whole dance thing out the window, like it was some sort of phase I was in and would soon get over.

“Do you think I could watch sometime?” His eyes darted over to me, then back to the door when some other students walked in.

“Really?” No one ever came to my rehearsals, not even my parents. Their work and socialization time couldn’t be interrupted by something so irrelevant as dance.

Amber came once, but she’d gotten caught up in drama and was taking acting classes whenever the need to be the center of attention took hold. My nanny used to go when I was younger, but since I was able to drive myself now, she only came to the actual performances.

“Yeah, I think it would be cool.”

My instructor wouldn’t have a problem with Marcus sitting in the audience while we went over our steps. Some of the other dancers had parents, boyfriends, and girlfriends come, so one extra wouldn’t be an issue.

“Today? I mean, if you wanted.”

“Let me see if Ricky can pick me up later.” Marcus took out his cell phone so he could text him.

I put my hand over his before the text message was written. “I’m driving. I’ll take you back home afterward.” I kept my hand in place after he stopped texting.

Marcus’s expression appeared as if he were considering my proposal. After a thirty-second delay, he slowly nodded yes. “Yeah, sure, why not.”

“Cool.” I couldn’t help the smile that beamed from ear to ear.

He kept hold of my hand even after our teacher started the lesson. His thumb traced tiny circles from the top of my hand to my wrist, and it drove me crazy with desire.

I didn’t hear too much of anything our instructor had gone over and if Marcus kept this type of sensual behavior up the rest of the semester, my grade would be sinking quickly. He knew how to get me going by the littlest of touches. He didn’t have to show the same display of affection as Ricky did with Amber to let me know I was on his mind.

The bell rang, and everyone scooted towards the door. I picked up my bag this time as Marcus and I had separate classes on different floors this period. He went upstairs, and I stayed on this level with the rest of the academic privileged.

“Guess I’ll see you at lunch.” Marcus still held my hand, like it was hard to let go.

I squeezed his hand. “Yep, I’ll be there.”

“Salad and all, right.” He smiled to show me he was joking around with my choices of lunch food I got all the time.

So, Marcus had been watching me as much as I watched him all this time during lunch.

“I can’t be gaining weight and expecting to fit into my little skimpy dance uniform.”

Another big smile came across his face when I mentioned how scant my dancing attire was. “Can’t wait to see it.” The warning bell sounded, which meant we all had two minutes before we were tardy. “Bye.” Marcus bit down on his bottom lip like he was nervous about something.

I carefully tippy-toed up and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. “Bye.” I turned around and walked away as fast as I could before he had the chance to react. I looked back down the hall before I turned the corner and saw his head bobbing up and down as he raced up the stairs trying to beat the next bell.