"It's okay, I'm used to people with cameras," she replied casually. But only when Kevin drags me to the recording studio, she thought, nervously twisting her ring around on her finger.
"Yeah, but I can only imagine what the press is gonna do with it," Justin muttered, glancing at the people dancing and having a good time.
"I know you wanna dance, so go and dance," Ali said, noting Justin's wistful glance at the dance floor.
He turned back to Ali. "No, I..."
"Justin, don't lie to me, I know when people are lying to me. Just go and dance."
"No, I do wanna dance, but I wanna dance with you," Justin said, flashing his famous Timberlake Half-Grin.
Ali never could resist a cute smile. "Okay," she said, letting Justin drag her onto the dance floor, where they caught up with Hallie and JC.
"Hey Hall, is JC keeping up with you?" Justin shouted.
"Ha ha," Hallie shouted over the music. "More like 'Am I keeping up with JC.' I know about the choregraphed stuff, but I had no idea he could dance this well," she said with a smile.
"Thank you, thank you," JC said, gloating.
Ali grinned. "You think you're a good dancer? Check me and Justin."
Justin and Ali proceeded to bump and grind to the beat of Dre and Eminem's Guilty Conscience. JC and Hallie's eyes widened, they looked at each other, than looked at Justin and Ali. Justin was crouched down to Ali's height so their eyes were locked, his arms were around her waist while her arms were wrapped around his neck. JC and Hallie stood back and watched as the two danced to the song, ideas running through both their heads. Soon enough, the song ended and Hallie pried Ali away from Justin and pulled her over to the table.
"What in the hell are you doing?" Hallie yelled.
"Dancing, and I think you already had this conversation with Brian," Ali said, sitting down opposite Hallie.
"What about Kevin?" Hallie asked, toning down her temper. "What happens if he finds out about this?"
Ali looked up with a panicked face. "You're not gonna tell him, are you?"
"No, I won't, not if you don't want me to. But I have this feeling, he's gonna find out. How do you think he's gonna take it if he sees film of some sort of you two getting down?"
Ali's eyes lowered. "I dunno," she muttered.
Hallie sighed. "What's up with you chickie? You haven't talked to Kevin since we left. That was almost a week ago." Hallie furrowed her brows when the realization hit her. "Are you still in love with him?"
Ali remained silent, hesitating answering. "I don't know anymore," she said. She looked up to face Hallie. "I'm not sure. I mean, now I know what AJ was talking about when he said I was too young to get married. I'm barely twenty years old... I wanna have fun while I still can."
Hallie shook her head, understanding completely. "I know, you wanna go out and have fun with guys. But Are you sure about Kevin? What do you wanna do about the engagement?"
Ali glanced to her left, where Justin and JC were heading back to the table. Her eyes locked with Justin's concerned ones. "I don't know. I'm not sure. Maybe... maybe I should put it off for a while," she said, looking down at her ring. She glanced back at Hallie, who was just staring into space. After a few seconds, she felt someone's arms put themselves around her. She looked down and saw Justin's class ring before she realized who it was.
"What's wrong?" he asked gently. "You can tell me anything, you know that," he whispered in Ali's ear.
Without a word, Ali slipped the engagement ring off her finger and put it in her pocket. "Nothing anymore," she said, standing up and walking out to the dance floor with Justin.
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