Breaking Hearts (B-Boy #2) (10 page)

Chapter 17

“Hey, you’re here early.” Jacob entered the dance studio and shot me his trademark crooked grin. Not knowing whether I should approach him or stay partially hidden in my lone corner of the room, I opted to take a few steps forward and watch as he set up his set of mini-speakers. “Are you ready for today? Prepping up for the battle this weekend?”

“I guess…” I mumbled.

“No, guessing. You got this, E!” Cue another wicked grin.

Shifting uncomfortably, I asked, “Do you mind me asking you a question?”

“You mean other than the one you literally just asked me,” he teased.

My cheeks reddened. “I…uh…”

“I’m kidding.” He snickered and flipped on his iPod. Within seconds a classic hip hop song echoed inside the tiny room. “So, shoot. What did you want to ask me?”

“Um, how did you get started in this, anyway? It just seems to unique…I doubt there are like sign-up sheets for breaking or what not.”

The expression on his face fleeted from nostalgic, to excited, to peaceful. “There were a bunch of guys in middle school who’d always be practicing around the hallways. You know the kind—cool,
Rebel Without a Cause
types.”

I nodded.

“I was a pretty awkward sixth-grader and on some afternoons I’d stay after school and just watched these guys tearing up the floor. I started to imitate them, practicing secretly in my room. Call it complete insanity, but one day I decided I could battle any one of them and win, and you know what?”

“You won?” I asked with a smile.

He shook his head. “No. But it sure taught me an important lesson about knowing my shit before calling someone out. It’s partly the reason why I am how I am now. I have to earn something in order to feel right about it.”

“Is that why you’re so passionate about it?” I pressed. “Is that why you love it so much?”

He cocked his head to the side and narrowed his eyes in thought. “It was pretty cut and dry for me. I never was the type for organized sports and I was always a bit of a lone wolf. While everyone signed up to play football and basketball, I started to practice my head spins. I guess I did it so much that it was inevitable I’d fall in love with it.”

I shook my head in admiration. “Well, practice made perfect for sure. Your head spins are…um…”

“Amazing?” he asked with a wink.

“Shut up!” I squeaked, but I couldn’t stop myself from laughing.

Sharing a conspiratorial smile, he asked, “Have you ever thought of dancing?”

“Me?” My eyes widened in both surprise and amusement. “Oh, no. I’m about as uncoordinated as they come.”

His gaze automatically dropped down to my legs. “Are you sure about that?”

I crossed one ankle over the other instinctively, as if hiding myself, staring down at my hot pink Chucks. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure. My power moves would be to trip over my own feet.”

That certainly caused him to chuckle. “Nah, I think I could teach you a few moves that you’d be great at.”

“Well, I admire your confidence, but for the sake of saving us both time, I’ll have to veto that idea.”

Smiling, he rolled his eyes and walked over to me, causing me to melt into a puddle. He grabbed onto my arm and yanked me forward. “Come on, it’ll be fun.”

“Somehow spotlighting my two left feet does not sound like my definition of fun.”

He peered into my eyes. “Would it help if I told you doing this will probably make your photos turn out better?”

Okay, that definitely caught my attention.

“What do you mean?”

“They say those who can’t do, teach—which is obviously bull since I’m the best and can teach just as well.” Coming from anybody else that statement would have been deemed cocky, but somehow with Jacob it was almost endearing. He placed a finger on my collarbone and tapped lightly. “And those who can take good photos.”

“Funny, I’ve never heard that adage before,” I teased.

“Come on,” he coaxed. “It’ll be fun.”

Fully aware that he was still gripping my arm, I gulped but finally relented. “Okay, let’s go.”

“Really?” he asked in surprise.

“Yeah, why? You don’t want me to do it anymore?” I shot back rather defensively.

“No, I’m just surprised it didn’t take much convincing. I assumed I’d have to drag you out here.”

I rolled my eyes, fully sick of assumptions. “Every assumption has an ass in it,” I muttered without thinking. Realizing what I just said, I clamped my hand over my mouth. “I’m…I’m sorry.”

Luckily, Jacob looked amused. He dropped his hand from my arm and motioned toward the center of the studio. “Let’s do this.”

I walked toward the middle of the wooden floor and shrugged my shoulders. “Okay, now what?”

“Get on your knees.”

I glanced away before the blood rushed to my face. Did he really need to say that? Considering I just finished reading this week’s newest smut, my mind was already swimming with some very inappropriate imagery.

I gulped, doing as I was told, slowly lowering to the floor. I winced as my knee banged against the wood tiling. “Now what?”

He knelt down beside me and leaned onto one hand, while kicking his right leg out with the other. “Copy me.”

“Um, okay.” My arm shook as I struggled to hold my body weight up. In what had to be the most uncoordinated move ever, I extended my right leg. “There you go.”

“Okay, pull your left leg forward until it’s bent.”

I gaped at him. “This is like the world’s worst version of Twister.”

He snickered and watched as I successfully completed the task. “Okay, that’s good. Now go into the crab position.”

My arms screamed as I straightened them behind me, feeling as if my shoulders were going to pop out. It was no secret I was out of shape, but gosh darn it, was this hard! By the time we moved onto the next few moves, which included sweeping the other leg around until we were back to square one, a pool of sweat had already begun to collect at my eyebrows.

Feeling a bit out of breath—considering he made me repeat the same move about three times—I jumped to my feet, desperate for water. As if reading my mind, Jacob walked toward his gym bag and grabbed one bottle, unscrewing the top and taking down a few gulps. I watched the muscles in his neck move as he brought his head back, taking in a few more sips. Smacking his mouth with an “Ahhh,” he proceeded to walk over to me and handed me the same bottle.

“Here.” He held it out to me, which I took gratefully. “Drink up.”

It’d be embarrassing to admit the thoughts I had in my mind as I wrapped my lips around the same opening he had just a few moments ago. Fully aware he was watching me, I took a few sips, only to have the liquid go down the wrong pipe. Like an idiot, I began coughing uncontrollably.

“You all right?” Jacob rubbed his hand across my back, creating circles. Though he thought he was helping, he only caused me to choke up a bit more.

“I’m…fine…” I gasped for breath.

He looked at me doubtfully, but after my coughs finally seized, he took the bottle from me and placed it on the floor. “What move should we do next?”

“We’re doing more?” I squeaked.

“Oh, yeah.” He nodded. “Can’t fully appreciate the art until you’ve tried it yourself.”

“But I already tried,” I whined, only half-kidding.

“Let’s do something easy.”

I brightened. “I’m down for easy.”

“Let’s do some top rocks. Try doing this.” He extended his arms out so he made a cross with his body and stepped one foot forward before bringing it back and repeating the move on the other side. “Now you try.”

Without gazing at the wall-length mirror, I knew I looked about as far from hip hop as possible. I was pretty sure my body movements mimicked a grade school rendition of Charlie Brown. Regardless, I couldn’t help but giggle, which in turn made Jacob laugh. Soon enough we were both in hysterics.

“See!” I yelped. “I told you I can’t dance.”

He shrugged. “Well, at least you tried. Some people don’t even get that far.”

“I mean, I had so much respect for the community before, but trying it now…let’s just say I’m in awe of you guys.”

He wagged his eyebrows. “We’re amazing, right?”

“Don’t you speak that word to me again!” I exclaimed, still laughing. After quieting down, I frowned in thought. “Any chance you can teach me that head spin thing you do?”

He looked at me in surprise. “Seriously? I thought you just said you can’t dance.”

I shrugged. “It looks less like dancing than acrobatics. Maybe I can do it.”

The words flew out of my mouth before I could stop them and I couldn’t help but wonder if I had offended him. He stood beside me quietly, scratching his head with narrowed eyes. To my relief, he shrugged. “Okay, I’ll do my best, but you won’t get it right the first time around.”

“Oh, I’m sure.” I agreed.

“In order to do this correctly, you first have to know how to do a headstand…would you happen to know how to do one?”

I shook my head.

“I didn’t think so.” He took one step back and pointed towards the floor. “Here. Place your head on the floor and brace your hands on either side of it. Kick up and I’ll catch your legs in the process.”

Okay, maybe learning how to do a head spin wasn’t my brightest idea. I gulped. “Are you sure about this?”

“Do you trust me?” For some reason, I did absolutely, wholeheartedly trust him. I nodded my head slowly, which seemed to satisfy him. “Okay, then. Do your thing.”

Shaking slightly, I lowered myself and placed the crown of my head against the floor. My palms were sweating, and as I placed them on either side of my head, I couldn’t help but wonder if they’d slide out from under me at any moment. That’d be just what a needed, a broken neck.

“Jacob—” I mumbled, suddenly growing second thoughts.

“Don’t worry. I’ll catch you.” For some reason there seemed to be a deeper meaning behind his words.

I sucked in my breath and kicked up, but right before I thought I was going to crash flat on my back, Jacob caught my legs easily. His hands slid down the thin material of my leggings until they rested at the curve of my thighs.

I gulped and stammered, in full disbelief at what was happening. I tried to focus on anything else other than the fact he was touching so close to the areas of me that seemed to scream for him more. I trembled a little and coughed out, “N-now what?”

I kept my gaze glued on his signature red sneakers, but even there I could sense the tension in his body.

His voice came out deeper, almost velvety. “You up for me running around in a circle so you get the sensation of spinning? This is actually how I sort of learned.”

“Really?” I urged, despite feeling as if the blood were already rushing to my head.

“Oh, yeah. I’d have someone hold my legs and push off so that I could spin around. It really helped me work on balance.”

“That’s nice.” God, was I lame.

“Are you ready? I won’t let go, I promise.”

I took a deep breath. “Okay.”

His hands gently traveled back up towards my ankles, squeezing me gently. My shirt rolled down enough for me to feel the cool air of the AC blowing against my bare navel. Though I couldn’t see him, I felt his stare burning into my skin.

I shut my eyes, trying to ignore the ache in my core to focus on what was about to happen.

“Here I go,” he warned.

Just as he was about to push off, we heard the studio door slam open. Startled, I inadvertently kicked out, knocking Jacob in the head. He groaned in pain, stumbling back slightly enough to make me lose balance. Before I knew it we were in a pile on the floor, my sneakers just inches from kicking his groin.

“Oh! I didn’t think I’d be interrupting anything.” I scrambled to my feet to find a very surprised and very pissed off looking Gemma. Her dark eyes grew even darker, narrowing slightly.

“Hey, Gemma,” I squeaked. “Um, Jacob was just showing me some moves.”

“I see that,” she replied flatly.

Jacob looked more relaxed as he stood up. “Yeah, I told E that she’d do much better if she knew exactly what she was photographing. Figured I’d give her a little lesson so she’d appreciate the art form just a tad bit more.”

Gemma visibly relaxed. “Well, um, since I didn’t know there’d be any private lessons today, I guess I’ll just come back when everyone gets here.”

“Gemma,” Jacob warned.

“See you later.” She was out the door before he could stop her.

Groaning, he threw his head back and sighed. “Passive aggressiveness at its finest.”

I brushed myself off and pulled down my shirt, feeling awkward. “What was her problem?”

“She’s a bit possessive.”

You think?