It's Always You- Bryles

10. Deserve

The heat from the lights was literally baking me, but I tried not to mind it as I read through the scene. It was only a few lines, so pretty soon action was called and we began flowing through the script.

"I'm really nervous," Briar spoke the words of her character, looking terrified.

"What?" I painted a surprised expression on my face. "But... nerves never bother you."

"Not nerves like this," Bri paused, staring out on to the stage where another duet was being performed and fidgeting her hands. I let the pause that was supposed to happen occur before saying my next line.

"Just pretend like you're dancing in your bedroom. That's what I did when I was dancing at internationals... that, and I was blindfolded." I awkwardly looked onto the stage, realising the joke in the line.

Briar giggled before smiling lightly. "I like that," she nodded.

Then it was time to perform our duet.

The jazz music began to play, both of us working through the choreography seamlessly. All of our lifts went perfectly, and honestly it just felt great to be dancing with her again. I hadn't been able to do any of that, what with all the scenes I had to film with Logan, and it was a feeling I missed. All the lifts were perfect, everything in sync, and the dance was so much fun to perform. The audience loved it, and it was this that fuelled us to the very end.

The arm that she had around my neck met her other arm, my hands falling to her waist while I hugged her before pulling away and clutching her hand. Looking over at the wings, I saw all the cast were in their characters, giving us cheers and reassuring smiles.

With a staged nervous breath, I stared forward at the table of judges. I already knew the Next Step was going to win, but faked a shocked look as I happily hugged Briar once more, putting my arm around her shoulders and running off into the stands.

The slight shot of the team jumping with joy was where the scene ended, and so the end was called and we were congratulated as people.

Walking on the stage again as ourselves, we took pictures with the fans and greeted as many of them as possible. That was the last dance to film today, so the crowd was cleared until tomorrow. It was announced that we were done for the day, so we wrapped up and changed before I drove home.

Placing my phone and keys on the kitchen counter, I took a warm shower, already feeling a hundred times more fresh and energetic when I got out. I changed into some comfortable sweats and lay on my couch to watch House of Cards season 2. Not long into the 2nd episode, I heard my phone vibrating against the counter and saw the image of Briar pop up on the screen.

I walked over to the kitchen and picked up the picked up the phone, pausing to look at her contact picture. It was a picture of her smiling at the beach, a candid that I had snapped when she was laughing at some joke.