Bella Danza | #Wattys2015

E l e v e n

E l e v e n 💃 September 13th

As I had been expecting but hoping wouldn't be the case, we still made the same mistakes (and new mistakes) on Monday in the morning as we practiced the dance.

Our mistakes were endless and silly and shouldn't even be occurring. We were both very good (him way better than me) dancers, and yet we kept making insignificant mistakes that just wrecked and toppled. I was definitely not going to try that crazy lift with him. No sir-ee.

Ben was slightly upset with me about this and we ended up having a short but to-the-point argument over it. He was saying that even though I was scared, we still had to try it and I was disagreeing with him, saying we had enough time that we could wait until a little later before trying out the scary lift for the first time.

In the end of the argument, I won because Ben couldn't actually force me to do the lift, and we moved on in the dance. We added on about twenty more seconds of the dance from practicing this morning, which was a pretty great accomplishment and we managed to get through the entire thing without messing up one time.

After four hours of nonstop practicing, Ben decided that we needed a break and told me to pack my stuff. I complied, only because he had a very serious and worn out look on his face, and I followed him outside of the studio and to his car.

"Where are we going?" I asked carefully, trying not to upset him.

But for some reason, my voice did upset him and his jaw tightened in annoyance. "To the hospital to see Thomas," he ground out through clenched teeth. His palms were white from holding the steering wheel so tightly, and he looked as if he was in pain.

I nodded and decided that it was best if I didn't talk for the rest of the drive. So, I just laid my head against the window and watched Sault Sainte Marie sceneries pass me by.

Ben spoke, "Thomas has been asking to see you. I think seeing him in the shape he's in will be good for us. Move us forward. Plus, I want some quiet so I can call Claire."

I frowned, wracking my brain to remember a "Claire", but I came up with nothing. I opened my mouth to ask him who Claire was, but Ben could somehow read minds and said, "Claire's my fiancée, remember?"

I nodded slowly as the conversation from the bar went through my mind. That was right. Ben was engaged to a woman named Claire, but they hadn't picked out a wedding date and they had only been with each other for a year, I remembered.

It was amazing that I could recall of this by memory. Usually, my memory sucked due to my Dad's side of the family (according to Noni).

So, I was pretty proud of myself.

We parked in the hospital parking ramp on level 3 and got out of the car. Ben slammed his door shut, running a hand through his hair. I gave him a worried look, but he just ignored me. Something was seriously nagging at him, and I wasn't sure what it was.

I followed Ben onto an elevator once we were inside the hotel's lobby and let him press the button to Thomas' current room. Unfortunately, we were the only two people on the elevator so the tension was thick between us and we both looked anywhere but at each other.

I hurried to catch up with Ben when we stepped out of the elevator. I practically had to jog to catch up with Ben's long strides down the hallway. Finally, we had made it to room 441, and Ben walked in with a sharp turn with me trailing in after him.

Mr. and Mrs. Abram weren't here. Thomas was looking much better than what he had before, but he still had on an eye-patch and had a gruesome cut on his face and his leg was still held up. I wondered if he would ever see out of his eye, but I didn't want to ask this question for obvious reasons.