Page 14 of Up All Night

“I know. I’m just worried about you.” She joined me on the floor. “Might be worth thinking about either going down to one job or finding a second job that’s not so physically demanding.”

It’s not like I hadn’t thought about figuring out another way to earn an income without working myself to the bone, but if I had to drop one of my jobs, it would have to be the dance studio. That would be the financially smart thing to do. I made more money at the gym, and if I picked up more clients, I could make more money than I made in the hours I taught dance classes.

But I couldn’t give up teaching dance. It was what I loved to do. It was what I wanted to be doing full time, with my own studio, with my own students, with my own dance recitals. Dance was my true passion.

“I can’t start thinking about that until I’m done covering for Ben at Fitness First, so for the next twenty days and counting, this is my life.” I stared out at our apartment in its boho chic style, willing myself to get up.

Kate stood up and held out her hand. “C’mon, let’s get you fed. I made chicken pasta salad earlier, and there’s more in the fridge if you want some.”

My stomach grumbled in response. “That sounds amazing.”

I’d only put one bite in my mouth before a loud explosive noise filled the air.

What the?

Another loud repeating noise sounded next, followed by what sounded like another explosion, my feet feeling a reverberation from the floor.

The noise was coming from downstairs.

My eyes narrowed on their own.

West.

I continued to listen and figured out that he and his roommate must be playing some type of video game at an unbelievably high volume. From what I could tell, it had lots of shooting and things getting blown up. I was pretty sure he’d chosen the loudest video game they had.

I guess he’d been serious when he’d said that our feud wasn’t over.

The ridiculously loud video game-playing continued on for almost an hour, but like I knew it would, it ended right at nine o’clock. I laughed to myself, knowing that West cared more about his schedule than anything else, including getting back at me. He wasn’t as cutthroat at this whole feud thing as he claimed to be. But I laughed again because I was sure he thought he had gotten me good.

What he didn’t know was that I didn’t really care about the excessively loud video game. I’d eaten my dinner and taken an extremely long shower (successfully drowning out most of the sound), and by the time I’d finished getting ready for bed, the noise had stopped. Perfect timing for me to now get in bed.

I didn’t normally go to bed this early and I probably should have been working on more choreography stuff, but I was too tired to stay awake any longer.

I got in bed, pulling the covers to my chin. Looking over at the clock, it read 9:06.

West would be so proud, I thought to myself. Not that I cared what he thought. I just couldn’t get over how he went to bed this early every night. He was probably already in bed. In his bedroom that was right below mine. Only a floor/ceiling separating us.

Which had me wondering. I eyed the floor vent in the corner of my room and had an idea.

6

West

“West.”

I stirred in my bed, looking around the dark room. Was Cannon saying my name?

“West!”

Wait. Was that Halle’s voice?

“Yoo-hoo,” she yodeled.

Yoo-hoo? Why was she yoo-hooing me at 9:07? She knew I went to bed at nine. Closing my eyes, I let out a loud sigh. This girl was going to be the death of me.

“Can you hear me?” she called through what I assumed was the vent in her room.

“Unfortunately,” I called back.

---