Just the Friend

-DYLANS POV-
The next morning I woke up in my bedroom with my face feeling puffy and my hair a ratted mess. Let’s just say I didn’t get much sleep. My mom and I stayed up really late while I explained what happened on tour and she gave me motherly advice. It was 3:30 AM when I finally got to bed so my family was shocked when I walked into the Lounge dressed in dance clothes. My maroon sweat pants were tight near my ankles but got looser as they moved up my body. I had a crop t-shirt covering most of my torso and my favorite sneakers.
I know what you are thinking: I should stay indoors and treat myself to some ice cream and multiple episodes of American Horror Story on Netflix, but in reality, dancing distracts me in ways like nothing else on this earth can. Not even cookies!
“Where do you think you are going missy?” My mom frowns as I grab a banana off of the kitchen table.
“I have hip hop this morning ma, remember? I am going to surprise the crew with donuts because they don’t know I am back.” I smile a little at my parents and grab my skateboard from the garage.
“Be careful honey and have fun.” My father gets up from the sofa with a mug of tea in one hand and the newspaper in the other. He kisses me on the side of the head and walks past me into the kitchen.
“You sure you don’t want a ride?” Ryan asks looking a little hopeful. He had come home from his college classes as soon as my mom texted him saying that I had come back and was in need of comforting. My brother was the best person to lighten my mood. He always makes me laugh, even when I really don’t want to.
He most likely just wanted to talk to me alone before he went back to college tonight.
“I mean if you’re not busy.” I giggled at his puppy dog expression. He smiled widely and pulled his car keys out of his pocket.
“So what was really going on between you and this Lewis dude? I mean I know you went on a couple of dates or whatever so does this mean you guys are official?” Ryan kind of grimaced as we pulled out of my driveway.
“It’s Louis,” I corrected him, “and we are in a pretty serious relationship but I think I fucked that up now…” I confess.
“How?” He’s amused. Bastard.
“Ashton kissed me.” I said quietly looking at my folded hands that were resting in my lap.
“So? I don’t see how that’s your fault.”
“I didn’t exactly stop him Ry…” I whispered.
He gasps. “You’re such a whore!” He yells in a girly voice and I backhand his chest. “Ow.” Ryan pouted. “That was my moobDyl!” I was trying not to smile, but we both knew I wasn’t going to last long. Soon we were both laughing loudly.
“In all seriousness, who do you love more?” Ryan asks after we had calmed down for a few minutes.
“To be honest, I don’t know.”

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Ryan and I stopped at the donut shop to grab a couple dozen before he dropped me off at the studio, but not before he stealing a chocolate donut or two of course.
“DYLAN!” Multiple voices makes my name ring in my ears. Jess and Joe, the twins, come running towards me, squealing like children on Christmas. There are six total people in my dance crew. The girls: Jess and Kat are best friends and we all three met through ballet class at age 5. Joe, Alec, and Thomas, the guys, I all met separately. Alec is 19 and I met him in my Intro to Psyc class. He was really funny and made a great first impression. Thomas on the other hand, was a pain in my ass. He was a complete dick to me when we bumped into each other in the hallway once at school. Thomas immediately got defensive and blamed the whole fiasco on me. We would always argue and I hated him until my Lit teacher assigned us as partners for a project. He only had to come over to my house one time to know that we were both in the wrong. It all went uphill from there and now we are really close. I befriended Joe at Jess’s birthday party last year. The squealing girls were pissing me off so I snuck out of Jess’s room and happened to run into Joe, where he let me play fifa with him and pass out on his bed. I realized he was quite the gentleman when I woke up the next morning and he was asleep on the floor under a duvet.
The crew started after we had all snuck out to go to a club downtown. Drunkenly standing, or stumbling, into a circle, we all took turns showing each other dance moves and laughing at each other every time someone faltered enough to actually fall over. It was then that we realized why all of these people, so different in every way, still fit together like peas in a pod; we shared the same dream and talent.
Joe, Jess, Alec, Kat, Thomas and I started the crew that summer and have already won over 20 competitions.
“Dyl! I missed my favorite famous person!” Alec laughed at his own stupid joke and ran over pretending to cry, joining in on the hug. Eventually, it was just one big group hug.
I love these people.
“Where’s Kat?” I pout.
“She had a family thing.” Thomas exclaims glumly. He has had the biggest crush on her forever but is too scared to ask her out.
“Does that mean we need another person for the day?” I bet I mentally had a light bulb above my head, “because I know exactly who to call.”

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“Dylannnnn!” Rosie squeals and runs to me. I pick her up and set her on my hip.
“Hey you! Where’s Jamie?” I question the small child while my friends stand behind me and make silly faces at her.
“Right here.” Jamie walks in with a messenger bag slung around her shoulder dressed in high-waisted jean shorts and a tight crop top with a blue flannel tied around her middle.
“Alec, Thomas, Jess, and Joe, this is Jamie and her younger sister Rosie.” I introduce them and they all shake hands and hug and giggle like normal introductions.
Jamie puts Rosie in the corner of the room with her pillow and Jamie’s phone then grabs a donut and heads to the middle where the rest of the group was standing.
“Well since Kat is not here, Jamie you will be Joe’s partner. Alecremember that dance we made up before I left? We were going to teach it but then I went with…..” I couldn’t say his name. “..you know who, do you remember it?”
“Bubblegum?”
“Yes!”
“Do you wanna try it really quick so they can get a view of it?”Alec asks and I nod. I plug my phone into the speakers then head to the middle. The other 4 stand of to the side as the music starts and we begin to move our bodies in time. As soon as I got into it, everything else disappeared. Ashton, Louis, the kiss, tour, everything. All of my worries and doubts flowed out of my body as if dancing were a coffee filter.
When we finished, everyone was smiling and clapping. Alec and I pretended to take a bow and did our handshake before speaking.
“So who is ready to learn it?”

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After an hour and a half and a lot of sweat and laughs, we all had it memorized and were ready to film it for our youtubechannel.
A couple tries later, we had it recorded. Thomas was a genius with editing so he decided to be the one to take it home, edit it, and upload it. I had made sure that I talked to everyone in the group, even texting Kat.
“Okay so before I go I have an announcement. Jamie, the crew has made an executive decision to invite you into our crew. You are a phenomenal dancer and we all love you already. So if you will have us, we want you and Rosie to be a part of family. What do ya say?” I Bounce hopefully on my shoes. Jamie had her mouth wide open and I could see her eyes welling up with tears as she nodded.
“Those better be happy tears!” Alec laughs and she chuckles wiping her face and nods again and runs to hug Alec. The rest of us all laugh as he happily embraces the pretty girl right back. Soon we were all cuddled into each other like penguins.
( https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AKzU4EDexmo )

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After 6 more group hugs and a small fit from Rosie, I left the dance studio in a happy mood. When I checked my phone, I saw time that read 6:00 PM. I had been in the dance studio all day and hadn’t even realized it. I also noticed that I had 22 text messages from Louis, 16 messages from Michael, 12 fromCalum, 14 from Luke, and 34 from Ashton. I also had over 30 missed calls. Not wanting to deal with any of their shit, I lock my phone and start to board home.
I almost fall off of the skateboard when I fly past the hill. That very special hill.
Part of me wanted to pretend like I hadn’t just seen it, but the other part of me wanted to venture up the hill and see how much it has changed since that last summer. So the next thing I knew, I was trudging up the grassy mound, breathing heavily.
The breath got caught in my throat as I take in my surroundings. Everything was exactly the same. The tree that we carved our initials into was even still there!
This trip back to memory lane made my eyes start to well up with tears so as I descended the hill, I lost my footing and tumbled down the slope, twisting my ankle in the process. Honestly I don’t know whether I was crying out of pain, or solely for the reason that the reason I fell was because of the same damn rabbit hole that tripped me a year ago, except this time I didn’t fall into a dreamy guy’s lips, I fell to the ground, hard.
Using all of my energy to stand up, I grab my skateboard, which had tumbled down with me and was now lying on the ground a few feet away, and hobble down the sidewalk with tears streaming down my cheeks. Winces came out of my mouth every few seconds and boy was I glad that I only lived a few blocks from that hill.
When I finally reached my doorstep, I grab my house key from my pocket and unlock the wooden door, swinging it open in the process.
“Mom?Dad? Are you home because I could really use some help!?” I yell then gasp as I step on a certain part of my foot that sent what felt like an electrical shock of pain up the left side of my body.
“Fuck! That hurts like a bitch!”
“Dylan! Watch your language!” My mom comes rushing in with an angry scowl on her face, but her anger soon disappeared when she saw my tear stained face.
“What the hell happened to you?!” Her Spanish accent occasionally appears when she is upset.
“I may or may not have fell down a cursed hill.” I say quietly.
“Well I will grab you some ice, how about you hobble into the living room. There is someone here to see you.” My mom smiles. I knew exactly who it was! Lilly was here!
I get excited and stagger, rather quickly might I add, into the living room.
But can I say first that I was way and completely off. The blood drained from my body and I could feel it all leave my frame and seep into the floorboards.
“Ashton?!”

Notes

GUYS I UPDATED AGAIN! So what did you think? Were you expecting that? I was going to update this yesterday but I got busy with other homework. You guys are lucky I love my readers because I should really be starting a French project due tomorrow but I chose to write instead.
COMMENT COMMENTCOMMENT! ITS NOT THAT FUCKING HARD! Literally even leaving a smiley face will make my day so much better. I just like to know that people are actually reading this.
So here is the question?
Dashton or Lylan?
Is Dylan going to make up with Ashton or is she going to run?
Do you think that Louis knows Ashton is there?