Sometimes

Chapter seven

I was free when I was dancing.  No longer confined to the thoughts that plagued me throughout the day; had I any homework to do?  Was I supposed to have called Cassie?  Were my grades up to scratch?  It was almost like dancing put me in my own little bubble.  I could see the people looking in, watching me move to the rhythm of the music, but they had no say in how I interpreted the music.  They couldn’t tell me I was doing it wrong, because there was no right or wrong.  Dancing was a way of expressing yourself and I embraced it every time I entered the dance studio, leaving the thoughts that weighed me down at the door.

    I jumped on the spot, readying myself for the fast tempo part.  My heart was racing in expectation and my skin was tingling from my pointed toes right the way up to my finger tips that I was pointing at the sky.  Three.  Two.  One.  And it started.  The spinning, leaping, swaying.  The sensation of escape followed me around the room as I pulled shapes, the music echoing in my head.  The smile on my face was reserved only for when I danced.  My body was drenched in sweat and my muscles ached with the effort of keeping up with the music, but I didn’t care.  When I danced, nothing else mattered.  

    I finished off the new freestyle routine I’d been working on with the help of Maddi, my teacher, before heading to the benches to grab my bottle of water from my bag.  I could feel beads of sweat on my forehead and I was glad that no-one I knew was here to see me looking as though I’d just trekked a hundred miles across the Sahara desert.  I downed what was left of the water in my bottle and sank down onto the wooden slats of the bench.  My heart was still pumping with the adrenaline that the dancing had worked up and I took a few deep breaths to try and steady it. 

    Checking my phone, I saw that I had two messages.  I read the one from Cassie first.  She was annoyed that I was missing the chance to hang out with Brandon but I text her back saying that I’d rather stick pins in my eyes than pretend to be interested in the football game.  Message sent, I made to open the second message from Leanne, just as I heard my name being called.

    “Harriet.  Yo!”

My eyes widened in horror and I frantically tried to get my fringe to quit sticking to my forehead; it felt greasy with sweat.  Then a thought crossed my mind; I bet I smelt worse than a swamp.

    “Harriet.  Did you get Leanne’s text?  She can’t pick you up, so she sent me instead.  Something about having to cover someone’s shift.”

I slowly peeled my gaze away from the floor and looked up straight into a pair of gorgeous coffee brown eyes.

    “I was, uh, just about to, uh, read it,” I stammered, waving my phone at him.  Smooth.

Sonny smiled and my stomach squeezed.  “Well we’re here now anyway,” he replied, sounding as slick as ever.

    I couldn’t believe what was happening.  The one time I was guaranteed to look all clammy and frumpy, dressed in my old pink sweats, Sonny had to turn up looking like the image of perfection.  My eyes skimmed over his dark jeans and tight fitting t-shirt.  How was I supposed to sit in a car with him without making myself look like an idiot?  If I didn’t say anything, he’d think I didn’t like him.  So not true.  But if I tried to have a conversation, I’d probably end up saying something stupid.  Again.  I was arguing with myself, trying to figure out what to do, when I realised what he’d said.  ‘We’re here now?’

    “I reckon I could be a dancer, you know.  I have the physique for it.” 

Aiden’s voice sounded too loud in my ears and I buried my face in my palms.

    “Harriet, you alright?” Sonny asked.

My head snapped up in an instant, just in time to see Aiden come to a halt beside Sonny.  Aiden was a good few inches smaller than Sonny and he had far less muscle.  His arms looked stick like next to Sonny, who I knew for a fact worked out twice a week.