Funny Little Love

You Have A Gift

20

ALEX

"KEEP YOUR FEET UP. DON'T LET THEM REST, NOT NOW. THOSE METATARSALS ARE FAR STRONGER THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE. LET YOUR BODY TRANSLATE YOUR FEELINGS INTO A VISIBLE EXPRESSION." the coach says.

It's Monday again. The first day at school after Lizzie's pageant and the night I saw Shawn and Natalie kiss. It hasn't been much time, just a little more than a day but the range of emotions and feelings that my brain has gone through is unbelievably huge. I cried for a few hours after I returned home and then my body got tired of crying and somehow I feel asleep, I woke up and cried again and then I went into a phase of intense depression.

Lizzie showed up at my house to check on me if everything was okay because I left early the night before without even talking to her directly.

"Hey, you left the club without saying anything. What happened?" she asks me. 

"Oh, nothing. Just felt sleepy." I answer.

I don't wanna talk about it right now, not even with Lizzie. 

"It was just 9 when I noticed you're gone. You expect me to believe that you left because you felt sleepy?" Lizzie said raising her eyebrows in disbelieving manner.

"Yes, I was tired." I say, trying to keep my lie intact. 

"Alex, you know you can trust me with anything. You don't have to go through anything alone. You can share with me. I'll always be there for you." Lizzie says. 

That makes me feel a thousand times better. One of the main things about Lizzie is her honesty. She is almost always honest. No matter what, she'll always say what's on her mind, no beating around the bush with her and now, when she asks me to trust her with anything and that she'll always be there for me, I know it's not just to make me feel better but a very honest assurance.

She grabs my right hand and squeezes it to comfort me.

I feel like I can tell her what happened.

"Shawn and Natalie kissed." I say. 

Lizzie seemed to process the information for some time with an unreadable blank expression on her face and then frowned in disbelief. 

"WHAT?" she said in surprise still not seeming to believe her ears.

"Shawn and Natalie kissed and they did it in front of me." I say.

No matter how much those words hurt, I had to tell someone.

"He was talking about apologizing to you before you came to my house and ended up kissing some other person? How messed up is he?" Lizzie said.

"I just feel as if I've been replaced by someone better than me. The person I love doesn't love me back and prefers some other girl much better looking than me, with a much more likeable personality." tears appear in my eyes almost automatically and my throat feels all dried up from me trying to hold back my sobs. Just the thought of what happened makes my heart feel heavy. 

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?" Lizzie says scooching over to my side and hugging my head sideways. I sob into her shoulders. 

I'm so grateful that I have her as my best friend.

"ALEX, YOU'RE DOING IT ENTIRELY WRONG. THE PAS DE BOURRE IS THE PRECEDING STEP TO YOURS AND CAIN'S PAS DE DEUX. IT IS NOT DUE FOR ANOTHER 5 MINUTES. PAY ATTENTION." the coach yells from one of the seats in the audience.