❝The whole reason we're arguing right now is that you can't set aside your duties to allow us to be an actual couple.❞

‧₊˚✩

     "Enzo dropped this off last night," Rose smiled at her daughter, dropping a garment bag onto the kitchen table in front of the girl.

  A string of incoherent mumbles came from Maxie as she spoke with a mouth full of cornflakes,  earning her a look of disapproval from her mother.

  "Don't speak with your mouth full, Maxie, please," Rose sighed, raising an eyebrow at the girl who gave her nothing but a sheepish look as she swallowed her cereal quickly, trying her best to avoid choking on it.

  Placing the spoon back in the bowl, Maxie leaned over to try and unzip the bag, "Who's Enzo again? And how do you know for sure it's not a body in this bag?" She then asked hesitantly, not wanting to get too close to the possible body bag.

  "Don't be ridiculous, Max, of course, it's not a body," Her mother told her with a slightly bemused scoff, "Besides, I wouldn't have been able to carry an actual body in. And you know Enzo, right? James' Uncle Enzo? Clothes shop Enzo?"

  "Oh, right," She nodded, a faint memory of one of James' many uncles coming to mind, "So, why did he drop off this dress, then?" Maxie asked once she had analysed the contents of the bag, "It's not even a nice one, either."

  Rose couldn't argue with the statement; it definitely wasn't the best dress in the world, and she would've never picked it out if she were to have seen it in a shop, but for Enzo, it was most probably one of his more impressive works.

  "He said something about a wedding, I think," The woman shrugged, moving Maxie's cereal bowl to the side as her daughter made a move to grab her dance bag, "We've both been invited, but apparently James made a special request for you to wear this."

  Maxie's face almost immediately dropped, of course, James was behind that monstrosity of an outfit being chosen for her, "Kathy's wedding, I just remembered!" She exclaimed, her eyes widening as it hit her. 

  A few days ago, James and Deborah had caught Maxie on her way out of the studio and had handed two invitations to their family member Kathy's wedding. Although Max had only met the supposed 'kooky' woman twice, Deborah was convinced she'd love the girl to be at her wedding, even if her mother was at a conference that day.

  "Kooky Kathy?" Rose chuckled to herself gently, "I'm almost glad I'm in Vancouver that weekend because I am convinced that woman cannot stop talking for five minutes, let alone a full wedding ceremony."

  Maxie gasped at her mother's gossiping, a small smile playing on her lips, "Mum!" She chuckled, "Don't be mean, she's lovely really."

  "I'll take your word for it," Rose grinned, moving towards their front door so that she could take the car keys out of the pot, "You ready to go then, my star Dance Captain?" She teased the girl, watching a small blush rise on Maxie's cheeks.

  "Yeah, whatever," She let out a small laugh as the two made their way out the door.

‧₊˚✩

  Over the past few days, Maxie had felt a bit distant from some of the others at the studio. With West being preoccupied with an audition to one of the most prestigious ballet touring companies, James still fifty-fifty on whether or not he was ready to rejoin A-Troupe, and most of her time being taken up with working on her dancing and how she was meant to plan for Internationals as the troupe's new Dance Captain, she had hardly found any time to enjoy herself and the company of her friends.

  After many bombarding messages from Riley, and multiple anxious calls from the team, Maxie had decided to hold a meeting in Hidalgo's to sort out their missing dancer issue once and for all — if there was one thing they couldn't allow, it was another lack of dancers situation similar to the one they had at the Nationals final.

  "So, the most logical thing to do would be to bring someone up from B-Troupe," She continued to work through solutions as the rest of A-Troupe sat in a circle of café chairs, each sharing glum looks, "I mean, there are so many new dancers that've joined it from Elite and J-Troupe, I'm sure it wouldn't hurt to audition them again."

  Michelle frowned, "Yeah, but the new dancers are all ones that lost the competition to one of you guys. Do we seriously want to risk one of them messing up, or even costing us the entire competition? There's a reason they're in B-Troupe."

  "I get that, Michelle, but people can change, and mistakes can be corrected," Max tried to reason, desperately searching for a way out of their problem, "I'm sure it wouldn't hurt to move someone like Richelle, or Skylar, or even Cian up. None of them stumbled in their routines, they were just beat fairly."

  "And what would we do if they just get 'beat fairly' at Internationals?" Eldon asked her, "As much as they are great dancers, Richelle's just a bit young, and we hardly know Cian or Skylar enough to add them to the team."

  Cierra scoffed, "You seem to get along fine with Max and I, how are Skylar and Cian any different?"

  Noah seemed to share the girl's offended stance, "Yeah, and Richelle and I are the same age, and I managed to make it to A-Troupe just fine, how is she any different?"

  "Okay, guys, Eldon doesn't speak for all of us, and at the moment I don't really think he should be speaking at all," Maxie quipped, annoyance present in her tone as she shot her blond friend a look, "But he has a point, it may be a small one, but it's still somewhat logical."

  "Well, what about El?" Noah piped up again, a hint of a smile playing at his lips, "She never got the chance to compete for a spot, and she's an amazing dancer, you know her as well as I do, Maxie, and you know she deserves a spot."

  The girl hesitated for a moment, "That's true, she'd fit in perfectly with the team, but we'd still have to audition her. It wouldn't be fair to just let her in without question when the rest of us had to work hard and prove ourselves to be here."

  Noah slumped in his seat, obviously not too overjoyed at the comment.

  "One of the main reasons I wanted El on the team was because I'm kinda lonely," The boy admitted shyly, "The rest of these guys have a few years on me, and I'd love to have someone my age on the team that I could talk to, not to mention Elvita's really pretty..." He trailed off, before catching himself, "Oh, and obviously she's a good dancer, too."

  "Well, guys, we need a plan," Giselle shrugged, not feeling any better about their lack of options for moving forward.

  In all honesty, Maxie had repeatedly invited James back to fill Shantel's spot, but he kept using his Aunt's wedding preparations as an excuse as to why he hadn't gotten around to making up his mind about it yet. But the girl understood, obviously. He was torn between dance and the band; she didn't want to force him to make such a big decision.

  The tense silence that hung around the air was finally burst by James and Riley's almost joyous arrival.

  "Yo, what's up?" The boy grinned, walking right into the middle of their meeting circle.

  Eldon lacked any emotion in his voice as he spoke, "Oh, we're just having a meeting for Internationals.

  "Oh, for Internationals," James echoed his friend's words, "Yeah that explains all the mopey faces, I don't need this."

  "Uh, yeah, you do," Riley shut him down, preventing her boyfriend from leaving the café with a slight smirk.

  Almost as if he had been hit with an epiphany, James stopped, "Oh, yeah, that's right. I'm on the Internationals team."

  A series of shocked exclamations and questions of reality were elicited from the dancers as each head turned to face James in pure shock and excitement, their queries only being solidified as he nodded his head cooly.

  The dancers practically jumped out of their seats to embrace him, the boy they believed they wouldn't be going to Internationals with them for so long because of Lucien's treacherous mind games.

  "I'm just... I'm so happy 'cause I finally have my best friend back," Eldon grinned in a childlike manner, "And now James, Max, and I dancing together again just feels right."

  Maxie smiled, her face expressing what words couldn't, "I know this was a hard choice for him, but I'm just glad he's back on the team, y'know? I've missed him so much. He's finally out of his Zayn Malik era."

  "Juice is on Maxie!" James grinned at the incredulous scoff she let out at his comment, as the pair led the group over to Hidalgo's counter, silently bickering about who was covering for the drinks as if he'd never been gone.

‧₊˚✩

  A day or so had passed for the troupe and they were finally back in Studio A with their new — but not so new — addition to the team, and things were going well, in most aspects.

  Maxie was loving her role as Dance Captain and was managing the responsibilities that came with it well, however, it wasn't exactly dance or the studio that'd been playing on her mind as of recent. Ever since West had done his audition for the Ballet de la Reine, something had been off between them and she couldn't exactly put her finger on what it was.

  The pair had actually scheduled a date for the day of the audition, not realizing how the day's plans were quick to change as they revolved around West's unspoken ballet rivalry with Eldon; Maxie could distinctly remember the moment her face dropped upon hearing the news that he couldn't make their dinner date due to him making it through to the final audition round.

  She wanted to be happy for him, of course, she did, he was her boyfriend and she'd support him no matter what, but it didn't soften the blow it took to her feelings and their dynamic. Even if he hadn't gotten the position, she still felt as if West was hiding something from her, and she didn't like the toll it was taking.

  Shaking off her doubts, Maxie perked up at the sight of Miss Kate entering the studio, a pushed smile making its way back onto her lips. 

  "All right, you guys, listen up," The woman addressed the room as she held yet another clipboard in her hands, "It's time for us to officially declare the dancers on our Internationals team and I need to make sure that we do not have a repeat of Nationals."

  "At Internationals, we still have no idea what kind of dances we're gonna be doing, which is why I need all thirteen dancers there," Miss Kate explained, "Last time losing Amanda and Daniel and then having Emily injured... That just cannot happen again."

  Making sure the full troupe were paying attention, she proceeded, "Which means I need to make sure every single one of you is one hundred per cent committed to Internationals, and if not, you need to see myself or Maxie immediately," When the majority of the others nodded, she smiled, "Great. I'll get on this. You guys keep warming up."

  Once the group had dispersed, Maxie couldn't help but notice the uneasy look Chloe gave West, confusing the girl even more as to why the pair would exchange such a wary glance. She once again shook off her divided feelings as she made her way to the front of the room, ready to lead the day's warm-up.

  "Okay, let's go, guys, five, six, seven, eight!" She called out, energy making its way back to her body as the rest of the dancers began jogging on the spot in time with her words.

  Proud of the day's work, Maxie finally gave her team a half-hour salvation to rest and cool down before they worked through more of their eleven-person dance: even if the Internationals board hadn't confirmed it, every year the competition had at least one group number, so she wanted the team to be prepared ahead of time for when that letter of confirmation came.

  Exchanging passing conversation with Amanda and Giselle, Maxie couldn't help but find herself somewhat distracted from the conversation, her eyes pulling her gaze towards where Chloe and West were whispering in the corner.

  "Hey, uh, I've just gotta go talk to West," She gave the two girls an apologetic grin, making sure they didn't mind her departure before slipping away from the crowd to try and catch up with her distant boyfriend.

  She hastily jogged over to Chloe and West before greeting the isolated duo with a forced smile, "Hi, guys, what's going on?"

  Almost immediately both West and Chloe stopped talking, their entire body language practically screaming for Max to leave them alone, despite the look of determined intrigue plastered across the Dance Captain's facial features.

  "Hi, Max," Chloe grinned back somewhat awkwardly, "West and I were just talking about, um, our favourite juices from Hidalgos. Which is actually where we're about to go, right now, if you don't mind?"

  "Oh, well, I was hoping to grab West for a chat if that's okay?" She turned to look at her boyfriend. Despite the sweet tone of Maxie's voice, it seemed that her feelings towards their attempt to leave were anything but.

  West gave her a simple nod, "Yeah, um, I'll meet you down there, Chloe," He smiled before Chloe made her way out of the studio, leaving the supposed couple to the tense bubble Maxie had created. "So, what did you want to talk about?"

  "Are you keeping things from me?" She asked him outright, not wanting to leave anything unspoken between them, "Like, secrets?"

  "Do we have to have this conversation here..."

  "Yes, West," Maxie cut him off, a stern tone dripping from her words, "Because this," She gestured to the empty space between them, "Is not what couples are supposed to do, keeping things from each other is not what we're supposed to do."

  He let out an exasperated sigh, bouncing ever so slightly on the balls of his feet as he spoke, "Yeah, I get that, I really do, but this is different."

  "Different how?"

  "You know, Maxie—"

  "No, I really don't," She cut him off again, "If Chloe's having money troubles again, you know she can come to me, right? I mean, I'm the Dance Captain she shouldn't feel the need to hide this stuff from me."

  West shook his head gently, "That's the problem, Maxie. Some things I can't tell you about because you're the Dance Captain. I'm not trying to undermine this amazing achievement of yours, trust me, I'm not, but it's different now."

  The girl hesitated for a second before furrowing her brows, "What's going on with Chloe that you can't tell me about now that I'm Dance Captain?"

  "You have to promise not to tell Miss Kate," West told her, seeming the most serious she'd seen him be.

  "I can't make that promise, you know I can't—" Maxie tried, however, her pleas fell on deaf ears.

  West scoffed ever so slightly, shaking his head once again, "Of course, you can't."

  "I'm sorry, does my loyalty to the studio offend you?"

  "It does when you prioritise it over us," He retorted, "The whole reason we're arguing right now is that you can't set aside your duties to allow us to be an actual couple."

  Maxie looked almost shocked at his comment, "He thinks we're arguing?" She chuckled slightly, "Trust me, I haven't even started yet."

  "How dare you," The girl snapped, catching West off-guard and drawing further attention to their dispute from the rest of the studio, "How dare you say it's my fault we haven't been together recently, because I think we both know that's not true."

  West finally noticed the rest of their peers looking at the pair with concerned glances, "Maxie, maybe let's not do this here."

  His attempts were useless as she continued, "You were the one who called a raincheck on our first proper date at a restaurant, and when we finally settled on a day both of us could do I spent weeks planning it out so it could be perfect for the both of us, only for you to call me an hour before our reservation to say you got so caught up in that ballet audition that you forgot all about it!"

  "So, please, West, go ahead and tell me how what's going on between us is all my fault because I would love to hear it," She fumed, a fierce look of anger spiking through her harsh words as the rest of the room fell eerily silent. When she didn't get a response, the girl sighed, "Yeah, that's what I thought."

  No more words were passed between the two after her outburst, for, upon realising she had begun to get upset, Maxie was quick to duck out of the conversation, leaving West alone with his thoughts as she walked out of Studio A hastily.

‧₊˚✩

  Empire pt. 3 was playing over the speakers in the music room as Maxie found herself beginning to move to the music. It wasn't often she got into arguments with people she cared about and when she did, it hurt. More than she'd like to admit.

  So, instead of risking another fallout with West, she had brought herself to an isolated part of the studio to dance through her feelings, just as many dancers had done previously. 

  With everything that had happened recently, Maxie had hardly found the time to enjoy her dancing, for most routines had been rinsed and intensively run through for the sole intention of Internationals, not for the enjoyment of the dance. So, as she danced through the conflicted emotions clouding her thoughts, it felt nice not to be restrained by a certain set of choreography.

  Out of all the competitions that had challenged the studio so far that year, preparation for Internationals had definitely made its greatest mark — they hadn't even been three weeks in and so much had happened; she hated to think of what the rest of the dance season had in store for her.

  Usually, when Maxie danced, her mind would be taken off everything that'd happened, yet, ever since her fallout with West earlier on, it was all she could think about. Through every turn, illusion, and flip she couldn't help her mind wander back to the boy and the state of their relationship.

  Did his words hold certain truth to them? Did she really put her role as Dance Captain above her relationships? And was this enough to leave both of them brokenhearted?

  The endless train of questions completely filled Maxie's head, creating false illusions of despair and heartbreak that hadn't even happened... yet.

  Right up until the end of the song, she continued to dance, trying her hardest to ignore the mundane buzz in the back of her mind, constantly reminding her that she may have just lost the most important person in her life over nothing but a dumb Dance Captain role.

  Once the music dimmed away, she felt her body sink to the floor, her physical form becoming tired and drained as a few lone tears danced down her face, creating a fragile, unbroken stream from below her eye to the bottom of her cheek. 

  Max hardly ever cried: the first ever funeral of a family member she had attended, she'd just stared blankly at the coffin, no signs of emotion pushing through; the many times she had failed at dance competitions or injured herself trying to learn a new move, she had never let herself cry or show any sign of weakness, especially when it came to dancing; when she had to leave her entire life behind when moving to Canada she only cried once on her own in the school bathroom (after having placed a fire extinguisher in front of the door so that nobody could walk in).

  In conclusion, it took a lot for the girl to finally crack and let the tears flow, and it had only happened a few moments in her life. So, it seemed almost alien for her to feel the wet streaks on her face as she finally came to her senses — the realisation of just how much she'd screwed up her relationship had finally hit her.

  "Maxie? Is that you... are you okay?" A voice cut through the unforgiving cold air of the music room as someone slipped through the door, almost instantly making their way over to the girl upon realising the state she was in.

  Wiping the blurry haze away from her eyes, Maxie sighed, glad to see such a friendly face, "El, I'm so sorry you have to see me like this. God... I'm just being overdramatic, I'll be fine."

  Elvita knew she was bluffing, presenting her with sugarcoated lies to try and push her away, but she also knew the girl wasn't ready to admit what was wrong just yet, so she did what any normal kid would do.

  Without skipping a beat, the B-Trouper sat down beside Maxie and pulled her friend in for a hug, feeling the warmth of her body as Max slowly wrapped her arms around her, reciprocating the embrace, as she tried not to break down in the pre-teen's arms.

  "If you don't wanna talk, that's fine," El told her softly, fiddling with the ends of Maxie's hair as they remained in their tight hug, "I've had a pretty different day, too, mind you."

  "Different how?" Maxie let out a hesitant chuckle as they finally pulled away, both glad she didn't have to talk about her own feelings and intrigued as to what had happened to Elvita.

  The young dancer leant back onto her hands as she began to recall, "Well, initially the day was fine 'cause me, Rich and Abi had come into here to warm up, but then Noah came in and started rambling on about his cat which was weird... Cute, but weird."

  "And then Abi mentioned something about water then he started quizzing me on my thirst levels? Which was once again cutely weird," She giggled at the memory, making Maxie grin ever so slightly, "And then he ran off and got me a water, even though both Richelle and Abi said they wanted one, too. But that wasn't even the weirdest part."

  When Max raised her eyebrows in interest, Elvita continued, "Well, after all that, Abi was being a bit off with me and Noah... Richelle said she thinks Abi might like him, but I'm not that sure, and 'Chelle herself wasn't all that bothered, to be fair, I don't think she really likes Noah in that way, which I think I might be kinda glad about," She trailed off somewhat unsurely.

  "Anyways," El picked pack up again, realising she had gotten off track, "I was sat in Hidalgos in Abi later on and then Noah comes over and can't even form a coherent sentence around me. Like, with Abi? He was totally fine! But then I think he tried to ask me about the drink I had, but it came out as pure gibberish. And then he started laughing, a lot, and completely blanked Abi when she asked him what he was doing sitting at our table," She then chuckled to herself at the memory before proceeding to go into further detail.

  "I'm glad El came in when she did," Maxie admitted with a small smile, "Her story managed to take my mind off things, even if it was only for a few minutes, and I'm honestly so grateful for her."

‧₊˚✩

  "You've got this, dude, 'Love Actually' is in her top ten Christmas movies, she's gonna love it," Eldon grinned, patting West on the back as the car approached Maxie's house.

  Since seeing their, not so secret, discussion in Studio A earlier that day, James and Eldon had devised a plan to help their two best friends reconcile... Promptly after giving West a talking-to about how he'd handled the situation.

  James nodded in agreement with the blond, "Yeah, but just so you know, if she doesn't forgive you after this, then neither do we."

  "So you've helped me set all this up, but won't hesitate to discard all of that if it doesn't work?" West tried to clarify, earning him two nods from both boys, "Noted."

  Noticing movement coming from Max's living room window, James was quick to pass the cards and CD player to West whilst Eldon gave him an encouraging pat on the back, "Don't worry, bro, I did something similar for Emily back in the day, and eventually, she went out with me."

  "That's not the most encouraging pep talk seen as you left her for Michelle, like, two weeks into your relationship," James cringed before turning back to West, "But seriously, though, if this doesn't work, then just be honest with her. As much as Maxie loves to hold grudges, she cares about you too much to let your relationship end because of one stupid fight."

  West swallowed nervously, "You sure she's still gonna want me after everything?"

  "Of course!" James shook his head with shock, "Who wouldn't want you, man? Now, go out there and get your girl!"

  In the comfort of her own home, Maxie had just switched the Tv on when she heard a rather disruptive knock at her front door, followed by three continuous rings of her doorbell, a sound that would surely disturb her mother from her pre-meal shower.

  Muting the television, she jogged over to her front door wearing nothing but old grey joggers and an oversized navy blue hoodie, accompanied by her favourite pair of Minnie Mouse slippers they'd bought off a fake Disney shop on eBay when she was thirteen.

  Wondering who could possibly be calling on them so late into the evening, Maxie opened the door to find none other than West standing before her, looking rather sheepish as he held a number of large pieces of paper and a rather outdated-looking CD player.

  "West? What... What are you doing here, it's, like, seven o'clock," She struggled to find the words, however, quickly shut up as the boy shushed her, quick to pull the first card out to explain what was happening for him.

  "Maxie!" Rose stuck her head out of the bathroom door, obviously agitated by their evening disturbance, "Who is it?"

  Turning back to West, Maxie almost let out a chuckle at what the card said, "Just carol signers!" She shouted back to her mother, who let out an audible scoff.

  "In the middle of September? Tell them they need to go and get drug tested if they think this is really an appropriate time of year..." She yelled back, trailing off as her voice disappeared under the noise of the shower starting up again.

  Letting out a breathy giggle at her mum's complaints, Max looked back to West with an inquisitive look on her face as he clicked for the CD to start playing, emitting sounds of a children's choir singing 'Silent Night', preparing himself to reveal the next cards.

With Any Luck, By Next Year

We Will Have Won Internationals Together
 And Be Taking Our Victory Tour Around Europe

Just The Two Of Us

But, I Know Things Haven't Been Easy For Us Lately
(which i take a lot of the blame for)

So, For Now, Let Me Say

Without Hope Or Agenda

Just Because It's Christmas
(or not in this case)

And At (not) Christmas You Tell
The Truth

To Me, You Are Perfect

And I'm Not Ready To Let You Go
Just Yet

Merry Christmas
And I'm Sorry

  Letting out a small giggle at the last card, Maxie took a moment to process what he'd just done for her. Having gone out of his way to reenact one of the many love confessions she'd forced the boys to watch months ago, West had managed to make her fall even harder for him with or without an explanation.

  "Obviously, you don't have to accept my apology, Max, 'cause I know I haven't been the best boyfriend at all, but I'm willing to try again if you'll have me?" He asked, rubbing the back of his neck as he pleaded to the last second that she accepted his apology.

  She could hardly find the words to explain just how happy he made her by even taking the time to come and see her that evening. So, as if it were the first time all over again, she pushed herself forward, placing her lips against his as they welcomed the taste of each other back.

  Their hands interlocked and their foreheads rested against the other, leaving them a breathy, passionate mess, however, neither of them cared. As long as they had each other, every little problem seemed almost minuscule, and at that moment, Maxie knew where she stood both as his Dance Captain as well as his girlfriend.

  Maybe Maxie and West were gonna be okay, after all.

‧₊˚✩

author's note,,

i'm terribly sorry for having to put u guys through that i promise i won't to it again any time soon xx

but anyways, i hope you guys knew the love actually reference of that last scene bc the idea came to me at like 3am

as always, have a good day/night wherever you are and vote and comment if you enjoyed this chapter!

stay safe <3