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Chapter 5

~~June 27, 2012 [WED] // 3:55 pm~~

 

 

o   Carol

 

Today, us swing dancers met up at Angel’s house for more practice. While we were pretty much good with all the moves, I noticed how short our number was, so I took it upon myself to add more music and more moves.

After two hours of practice, the four of us grabbed some pizza and soda while we rested.

I was sitting at the top step from Angel’s backyard balcony, consulting my notebook filled with scribbles and drawings of the additional moves I had come up with late last night. Someone sat beside me.

“Here, eat up,” Dante said, handing me a plate with a slice of pepperoni pizza in it. He also placed a cup of Coke in between the two of us.

“Thanks,” I took the plate from him.

Dante took his own plate and took a bite of his own slice. “Nice job making up all these moves just last night.”

I shrugged modestly. “Thanks. Do you like them?”

“I feel as stiff as a twig when I try them out, but I’m enjoying them nonetheless.”

I laughed, and he laughed along with me. Our gazes met, and I stopped abruptly. He did, too.

There was something about his eyes in that moment, like something new was there, or maybe something was missing. His smile was the same as ever, but I could feel something different about it.

Moreover, I was suddenly finding it a chore to tear my eyes away. I didn’t understand why this was happening only just now, but then again, Dante and I didn’t always make eye contact. When it wasn’t me who would avoid his gaze, he would take it as a sign of some sort to take it upon himself to avoid my eyes. This was the way we operated for over a year now, and often, I didn’t get why this was the case. I’d come up with an array of the most ridiculous, paranoid guesses over time: he was afraid of me, he was angry at me, he was shy around me, he was sad whenever he saw me, he was hiding something, he wasn’t sure just who I was. Recently, though, Dante had been open and friendly with me, as if something significant happened that caused him to break our routine.

What’s more, was it just me, or was I feeling a bit short of breath?

“Carol? Are you all right?” he asked, not breaking eye contact.

“Yes,” I murmured, forcing myself to look away, “Umm.  Where are Martin and Angel?”

“Probably having another one-on-one inside,” Dante gave a rather halfhearted chuckle.

“Well, um, what do you think? About them?”

“About Martin and Angel? You mean about yesterday?”

“Yeah. What do you think?” I surreptitiously inched away from him, hoping I’d be able to breathe normally that way.

“Well…they seemed to be pretty focused on each other. It was like I wasn’t there.”

“Is that right?” I snickered, “Okay, so they’re meant to be.”

I expected Dante to recognize my humor and laugh, but he didn’t. He froze up and said in a low voice, “Hmm. If you say so.”

I couldn’t help recognizing disagreement in his tone. “You don’t think so?” I said tentatively.

Dante looked blank. “I don’t know.”