Icarus

Distance

Distance

        Cassie was so into the shoot that she didn't even notice when Uncle Jon, that's what Tate told her to call him, mesmerized with the grace and beauty he was seeing, let out, "You are amazing Cassandra!"

Cassie danced with stoic, elegant excellence worthy of a prima ballerina from the famed Bolshoi Ballet. Her lines were long and lean, her moves intimidating, yet artistically breathtaking and powerful. 

The entire group noticed, but Philip burst out laughing and made Chester crack up too. Cassie held in her reaction, but in a matter of seconds the entire room was filled with big smiles and sounds of joy at Cassie's surprisingly creative contribution.

"It's Cascadia, Uncle Jon!" Lauren said covering her mouth with her hand while trying to contain her glee, her stomach and cheeks hurting from holding in the laughing and smiling she wanted to let out.

Finally, with Chester leading the way, everyone connected to the shoot broke the professional mood on set and gave into the joy of the moment all inspired by Cassie's beautiful dancing. Mac, always the one to put a damper on the band's fun, didn't like what was going on.

"Aw don't be jerk, we are having fun!" Chester hissed.

"But we have to finish this shit tonight! What time is it?" Mac chided.

"It's 8 P.M.," Lauren yelled from the other side of the room while she was in the midst of arranging some posters that fell to the floor.

"It's not even that late, Mac," said Lip while sitting on the platform, his legs dangling over the side.

"Mac...," called Chester, summoning up whatever ounce of seriousness was left inside him.

"What?"

"Mac...," Chester pointed at the red haired boy, "and Cheese!"

He was just being silly. Cassie shook her head, realizing that she was the cause of the shoot turning into a circus. With that, Chester started laughing so much he was on the verge of tears.

"They are not even that funny," Tate whispered to Cassie, his soft voice coming from behind her, but Tate wasn't there; he was across the room staring at her from a distance. He smirked, knowing he was showing off some of his powers. He was the only one entirely visible to her now; the others were just dark animated shadows.

"This is just like the last time but—without the vertigo. Like when I was at ballet class and you called me," she whispered in response, more to herself than to Tate.

"It is... the closer we are the better our minds connect."

Tate jumped off of the platform and stood in front of her. Just then Cassie remembered dancing with him in his house not that long ago, and recalled how she hated him afterwards... and she still does? But the way he made her feel... standing there right in front of her— she wouldn't describe it as magical, because there is nothing magical about being forced to love someone you are supposed to kill. It was more like a perfect storm where the sky looked alive, and the thunder was a vein furrowing the body of clouds. It was beautiful and scary, and tremendously dangerous. 

"Can I do it too?"

Cassie felt the flow of electricity pulsing through her veins whenever she was close to him. She recalled what he'd said that morning, that he would accept the fact that he liked her just so he'd have more time to love her. Could Cassie do the same? 

"You can do whatever you put your mind to... understand?" He did weird gestures with his hands above his head "Because it's... mind reading, eh?"