The Girl With The Tattoo

22. all eyes on me

Sophie

"Wow, this building is so big!" I look around as we walk into the front entrance of the ballet school.

"Yeah, it's probably because it's for rich people." Lexi replies with.

Everyone starts piling into the room, looking around at the different things that are on display. And it's so crowded in here. There are so many girls that I don't recognise, most of them wearing pink and white tutus over their leotards.

I even notice some guys here which I don't normally see. Our studio only has one boy or two and they're not really serious about dance, but here they're on a whole other level!

"No, it's for people that are really fucking good at dancing." Lexi states the obvious "So not me then."

"Yes, you!" I try to convince her but I know that she doesn't believe in herself "We've already gone over this like a billion times!"

"Yeah, yeah. If I was a good dancer then Mr Adams would've actually wanted me to be here. We all know that he wouldn't have asked me if it was invitational." Lexi says.

"Who cares who he would've asked." I say to her "You're still a really good dancer and everyone knows it."

"Oh, so then I guess my mom was a good dancer too when she was drunk out of her mind and dancing on our dining room table?!" She jokes.

"Lexi! Can we not talk about this anymore?" I ask her, not wanting to hear her continue to talk badly about herself.

"Sure, sure."

Suddenly, a woman approaches the both of us and I notice that she has something in her hand. She then holds the things out to us, handing them over as I take them off of her without hesitation.

"These are your cards, ladies." She informs us "You scan them outside the doors so that they open. You'll also need to keep them close to you as they'll be used for our staff to be able to recognise you when you're walking around the building."

"Thank you." I thank her as Lexi seems to be too engrossed in her card.

The woman then walks away, tapping on another girl. But before I can even have a look at my card, Lexi begins to make a fuss about something as she looks at hers with a confused look on her face.

"What the fuck?!" Lexi raises her voice "Are they messing with me or something?! This isn't my card!"

"What?" I ask her, moving over to her so that I can get a closer look.

"Olivia Allen?! Who the fuck is that?!" Lexi asks, clearly upset over the fact that they handed her the wrong card "Do I look like a fucking Olivia?!"

As Lexi is making a lot of noise, I try to calm her down "It's okay, I'm sure it was just an honest mistake. We can go to the front desk to see if they can change it for you."

I grab Lexi's hand as I guide her towards the front desk. She seems overly upset about this and it's a little weird. I can feel just how shaky she is and I can't help but notice that her breathing has changed.

As the both of us finally get to the front desk without Lexi having a meltdown, I try to explain the situation to the woman there "Excuse me! We've just been giving our cards and my friend has the wrong one. Look, this isn't her name."

She takes the card off of me, investigating it "Oh, I'm sorry about that. Things like this don't often happen."

And then she says to Lexi "Can I take your name?"

Unexpectedly, Lexi still seems to be annoyed about this as she raises her voice again "Yeah, it's Lexi Donovan! Do you need me to spell it for you?!"

"Lexi!" I hiss.

"Donovan, did you say?" The woman asks, trying her best to find Lexi's card as quickly as possible.

"Yeah." Lexi replies.

The woman searches on her computer for Lexi's name but she seems to be taking a while, her face showing just how concentrated she is "We have an Alexa, is that you?"

Unexpectedly, Lexi says "Yeah, just give me it!" But I decide to brush it off because maybe it was just a mistake.

A few minutes go by and then Lexi's card is finally handed to her. She gives the other card back to the woman so that it can be given to whoever it belongs to.

I find it strange that Lexi overreacted like that but I'm not going to talk to her about it. Maybe she's just having a bad day? I mean, it happens to me all the time and I'll sometimes make a big deal out of things that are so minor. I just hope she cools down.

Lexi

As Sophie and I are walking back towards the centre of the room, I can't help but notice that Isabella seems to be looking in my direction. I don't know why but I just have this feeling that she's laughing at me.

I don't know if it's because I'm in a place that's so crowded but I feel like all eyes are on me. I'm on high alert right now and I'm ready to protect myself from any fucker that tries to get in my way.

"What the fuck is she looking at?" I ask Sophie, talking about Isabella.

Sophie furrows her brows "Who?"

"Isabella." I tell her, looking in her direction.

"What do you mean, Lex? She's not there." She says to me, and it only makes me feel even more confused than I already was about things.

"What?!" I raise my voice slightly "She was just there, I swear! She was just looking right at me! Oh, I swear I could punch her in the fucking face right now!"

"Lexi, calm down." She says to me, but I don't know how she could say that right now.

"No, Soph. There's something about her, I feel like she's gonna fuck with me!" I express how I feel about her.

But instead of listening to me and not making me feel like I'm going crazy, she puts her hand on my back, guiding me out of the building. I follow her because I feel like my legs aren't working right now and I honestly just want to get out of here too.

"I think you just need to calm down." Sophie tells me as I finally breathe in some fresh air "I get it, new places can be really overwhelming. I used to get like that when mom would take me out of town sometimes. There would be so many people and it would all get a little much."

Suddenly, she stops walking, putting her hands on my shoulders instead and looking into my eyes "Just relax, Lex. We can go to our room and de-stress if you want. How does that sound?"

"De-stress?" I wink, hoping that she means what I think she does "Like how?"

"No, not sex, Lexi!" She explains "I meant listen to some music or take a shower or something."

"Oh." I lower my head, a little disappointed because I know that sex would definitely take my mind off of things right now.

Sex is like the quickest way for me to de-stress and forget about my fucked up life.

Sophie grabs hold of my hand "So come on, let's go and relax."