Dance Love

chapter 18

When Addy arrived at Ryan's house she took a deep breath to regain her composure. She wanted to approach the situation with maturity, which would hopefully get through to them. Then she put on her best confident face before ringing the doorbell.

After a couple moments, the door opened, Ryan's mom standing there with a nice smile, his dad in the living room behind her with a much more stoic expression.

"Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Smith. I apologize for showing up unannounced. But um, could I please come in?" Addy politely asked.

"Hello, Addy. Of course you can come in. But Ryan's actually not home right now. He went to do something with his friends I think." Ryan's mom explained.

"Actually, I'm here to talk to you two. If that's ok." Addy said, glancing over at Ryan's dad to gauge his reaction. She tried not to let his stern expression intimidate her as Ryan's mom let her walk inside, closing the door behind her.

"Oh. What is it, Addy?" Ryan's mom inquired curiously.

"So, the dance competition that Ryan and I have been practicing for.... Dance VIP, it's actually tomorrow. Ryan and I have been working really hard for it, and he's put so much into it. And I was talking to him about it, and he's pretty convinced that you guys aren't gonna show up." Addy explained, trying to hide how nervous she was to be talking to Ryan's parents about this.

"It doesn't seem like he wants us to show up honestly. He didn't ask us to." Ryan's dad pointed out.

"He's not going to ask you to. He doesn't want to have to ask you, and with all due respect, I don't think he should have to. I mean, you're his parents. He wants you to support him just because you care about him." Addy told him, braving eye contact with him.

"We do care about him. But he knows that we don't see eye to eye on the whole concept of him doing dance as much as he does. It's not important in my opinion." he explained, crossing his arms.

"But it's important to Ryan. He just wants you guys to believe in him." Addy firmly stated.

"Of course we believe in him." Ryan's mom replied.

"Well, respectfully, I think now would be a good time to show it." Addy countered. She hoped that she wasn't saying too much, or coming across as offensive, but at the same time she couldn't bring herself to care about that much. "Look, I know you guys don't really like that he's pursuing dance as a career instead of something else that you consider more practical, but this is really important to Ryan. And I know for a fact that it would mean the world to him if you guys showed up to Dance VIP tomorrow to support him. You don't have to understand dance or understand why he's so passionate about it, but you could at least try to understand why he wants you there." Addy vented, Ryan's parents just staring at her as they tried to think of what to say.

"Listen, I gotta get home now. Ryan's expecting me to be there when he gets back so we can relax before the competition tomorrow. Thanks for hearing what I had to say, and.... I hope you'll think about it." Addy said before just leaving and closing the door, not even waiting for them to reply since she didn't want to be disappointed by whatever they might say. But she was hoping desperately that she had gotten through to them.

Later that night, Addy and Ryan were watching a movie together, this being the third movie they had watched tonight. They were sitting next to each other on the couch in Addy's living room. Actually, they were sitting so close to each other that it was more like they were cuddling. Ryan had his arm around Addy, holding her close to him as she leaned into his embrace, her head on his chest at this point. It was quiet and most of the lights were off, since they thought that would make for a better movie watching experience, especially with it being later at night by now.