Dancing with the Badboy

Chapter 26

Mila's POV

"How nervous are you from a scale of 1-10?"

"11," I replied shortly, bouncing up and down on my toes as we stood in the elevator.

"Oh," Ajax mumbled, clearly not expecting that response.

"Are you not nervous?" I asked in surprise.

"Well I am, but more like a 7."

"Reasonable," I shrugged.

Our relationship was now successfully... awkward. There was a tension between us that made me want to cringe and I hoped it would disappear soon.

The hustle and bustle of the hotel lobby greeted us as we exited the elevator. Our rehearsals had been scheduled for 8 in the evening. We were planning to get into Dresden early this morning but it was pointless so we booked a later train.

Somehow, Ajax and I ended up in the same room as cliché as it sounds. But there was two beds, thank goodness.

My converse tapped against the tile as we entered the backstage area. After checking in, we received passes that went around our necks on a lanyard.

Within 15 minutes, our names were called and we headed on stage to do our rehearsals.

We successfully ran through the blindfolded routine to Silence by Khalid, second routine to Waves by Dean Lewis, and our third dance to If The World Was Ending by JP Saxe.

The first routine would be for the preliminary where we would go up against another team. If we won that, we would advance to the Duel's round which would be between 5 other teams. The Final would be narrowed down to 3 teams, the best would win the competition.

All three routines at once had me sweating and I was exhausted from the long day.

It took a lot of brain power to forget the slip up we'd had, even though we changed that lift. I had to trust Ajax just enough to complete this competition.

I was suddenly reminded of a song I'd heard.

"Mama always told me that I was too naïve, gave away my trust for pennies."

Unfortunately, I found those words to perfectly describe myself.

I was trusting Ajax again after the stupid mistakes he made. But I just couldn't help myself, I was too forgiving for my own good.

Hopefully my decision wouldn't come back to bite me.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Letting out a sigh of frustration, I turned over to stare at the ceiling. For the past hour I had been trying to go to sleep but with no avail. All I could think of was the things that could go wrong tomorrow. Felix and Pia would be here, as well as Ajax's mother. Ajax didn't mention his father, but he didn't seem to be too bothered which was good.

I was internally panicking and I couldn't fall asleep. For most of my life I was an insomniac so my racing thoughts weren't a new issue.

"Mila," Ajax's deep voice came from the other side of the room.

"Yes," I whispered, turning slightly towards his bed.

"I can hear you sighing and wrestling with your sheets," he mumbled. I turned over in the soft white sheets to face him. He was shirtless of course, facing away from me towards the wall.

"I can't sleep," I said quietly, trailing my eyes over his tanned back. I watched as he turned over to face me, his hair a wild mop of brown. The hotel was quiet aside from the occasional echoes of a child and the pounding of footsteps down the hall.