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“You missed us, Hilary?” Maximus asks as he places his arms over the back of the booth behind me, flashing his award-winning grin at her.
“The rest of your family yes. You, not so much, hot shot,” she replies causing the rest of us to laugh. “Now what are you all having to drink?”
We quickly place our orders and Hillary heads off to make them.
“So shorty, any idea when you will be moved up to principal?” Maximus asks.
“It can’t be much longer, you looked amazing up there tonight sweetheart, you’ve never looked better,” Christian adds. I turn to him smiling.
“You’re biased, though. You always have been.”
“No, I’ve always been honest. That was your best performance yet. Those extra classes are paying off.”
I look away and nod, before quickly changing the subject.
“When’s your next fight? You got anything big coming up?” I ask the twins. Both are professional fighters and tend to win any fight they have.
They both start talking about what they are training for, and Jason fills me in on a new centre they are opening with a local youth club to give the kids somewhere to go instead of hanging around on the streets. For every two gyms they open for the gain, they open one in a deprived area for the locals to use, mainly aimed at the kids. This is one of the main reasons I have so much respect for the guys. They didn’t have much growing up, not until Christian was old enough to make money fighting. Everything they have now they built themselves and they give as much as they can to others.
Hilary brings over our milkshakes and ice cream, and we all dig in chatting away. The whole time I can feel Christian and Jason watching me more than usual. I know neither of them missed the way I changed the subject every time the conversation moves towards my mum, the house, or the extra dance lessons. But there are certain things I don’t want them to know about my life, those being three of them.
???
An hour later, Hilary comes over and kicks us out. We are still chatting when we get back outside and head to the car. I look around and smile at my stepbrothers.
“I’m going to head off from here. My friend lives around the corner and I promised I’d stay there tonight as her boyfriend’s out of town,” I say trying to avoid looking Christian or Jason in the eye.
“I don’t want you walking around on your own,” Christian says as he steps in front of me. I walk to the car, open the trunk, and pull out my dance bag, and flowers.
“I’m a big girl Christian stop fussing. It’s just around the corner,” I add as I lift onto my tiptoes and plant a kiss on his cheek. “I’ll be fine,” I whisper stepping away from him.
“Christians right, we can take you,” Jason says standing by the car, but I shake my head, forcing a smile.
“It’s all one way. You’ll have to go all the way around to get back to that street, this way is much quicker,” I walk round to him, and he pulls me in for a hug, before kissing the top of my head.
“Message when you get there,” he whispers into my hair.
“Will do, dad,” I reply with a wink. He nods for Christian to get into the car. I quickly hug the twins before they climb in as well, threatening to hunt me down if I don’t text.
As I go to walk away Jason steps in front of me. “Don’t think we haven’t noticed how odd you’re acting tonight, what’s going on?” he asks looking into my eyes. “Do you need anything? If you do and you don’t want to admit it in front of Christian, then call me and I will meet you. I know he can be overbearing, but he worries, we all do.”
I force a smile and try desperately not to let him see that my eyes are filling with tears.
“I’m fine don’t worry,” I reply as I kiss him on the cheek again. “I’ll message as soon as I get in,” I call as I jog off round the corner with my bag on my shoulder and flowers in my arm, desperately hoping none of them follows me as I reach the front door of my secret apartment. I quickly look around and let myself in before closing the door and leaning back against it letting out a deep sigh.
“If it isn’t Miss Ballerina.”
I open my eyes and look at the dickhead of a landlord, Sam Black, that lives on the floor below me.
“Look I pay my rent and I don’t report you for all the drug dealing that goes on in your flat, just leave me alone,” I snap storming past him and up the stairs into my dump of an apartment, slamming the door behind me as I hear him laughing. I lean against it and look around. The guys would lose their minds if they knew I was living in this shithole. There’s no way they would let me stay. But I don’t need their sympathy, I just need to get back on my feet and all will be fine.
8
Jasmine
It’s been five days since I saw my stepbrothers and I’ve been avoiding their calls and text messages since. I know they picked up on my behaviour that night and I know they have questions, but I’m not ready to answer them yet. I just need to buy myself a little more time to get a few things in place before I admit to them how bad things have gotten.
I walk into the run-down bar at the end of my street to start my evening shift. I know there are better places to work, but the guys would never be seen dead drinking in here so there’s no chance of them walking in and catching me. They made me promise to tell them if I ever needed money to survive so that I could focus on my studies and dance. But I’ve never asked for help from anyone, I can’t start now. Let’s face it, it’s only a matter of time before they disappear. Everyone does eventually.
