The Waiting One

Chapter 4- She's Harmless

Chapter 4- She’s Harmless

The first few weeks of practice for Serronie and Zachary were fairly difficult. She wasn’t comfortable with the amount of touching and closeness the dance required. He constantly danced on eggshells to make sure the line was never crossed. Serronie rarely ever gave him eye contact when they danced. It’s almost as though she went out of her way to avoid it. Even in the face to face stances, she found another focal point on his face.

Her timid nature irritated him at times. Girls were never so reserved towards him. Zachary’s pride was a bit bruised by Serronie’s nonchalance towards him. He noticed how the other girls glared in their direction each time an incident happened. He knew any other female in the room would be dying to be close to him. He realized how boring it was to be “stuck” with Serronie. Any time there was a slip of his hand anywhere, she reacted swiftly and her face read major discomfort. Zachary spent so much of their practice time apologizing. In spite of his frustration, he always put his best effort forward to work through the sessions.

“Is there anything I can do to make you less, um, edgy?” asked Zachary as they stretched in the mirror. Serronie lifted from her one-legged bow on the ballet bar and turned to face him. “What makes you think I’m ‘edgy’?” she queried. He took in a deep breath and relaxed him expression. Zachary chose his words wisely so it wouldn’t come out the wrong way. “It seems like you’re almost repulsed by me touching you or anything. I understand that this routine is very intimate, but I wouldn’t do anything that wasn’t absolutely necessary. I don’t feel like we’re going to make much progress at the rate we’re going.” Serronie paused and slightly tilted her head in thought. Then she spoke, “Oh. I didn’t notice. Um, sorry??” she ended on a tone of confusion. Her eyes shifted from the ground to his shoulder as she twisted her foot nervously, waiting for him to reply. She was dodging eye contact.

He was a tad bit angry at her short comment. “Soooo, um, we have to fix this. Don’t be sorry, just chill out. If you do that, then we’ll do so much better. I’m not a loser and I don’t lose.” Serronie took a step back and recoiled. Zachary realized that he probably came off rudely. Her head slightly faced the floor as she shamefacedly replied, “I’m sorry Zachary. I know you’re probably used to this kind of thing, but I’m not. I know these other girls would kill to be in my place, and I’m sorry that they chose me as your partner. But I’ll do better to make this process less torturous for you.” His heart plummeted to the floor. Zachary felt bad. She was too timid to even call him out on his discourtesy. Her round face elongated with embarrassment. His instincts were telling him to go hug her and apologize; but, that would probably turn out badly with Serronie.

Zachary spoke sincerely, “I didn’t mean it in a bad way Serronie”, he took a deep breath, “I just want you to have fun. I feel like you’re uncomfortable, and well, I want to do my part to put you at ease. I don’t feel like you are a bad partner or anything, I can just feel the tension, that’s all. I promise I didn’t mean to be invasive.” She was slow to reply, keeping her head in the same lowered position. “Okay Zachary, no offence taken.” He lightened up the tone in his voice, “I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings if I did at all, partner. Are we good?” She smiled slightly at him and relaxed her bearing. He held his arms out to her for a hug, “No harm, no foul?” he prosed. He was nervous that she would leave him hanging, but he did what was necessary to humble himself to her. Zachary was suddenly troubled by the thought of Serronie thinking he was a jerk.

 She gradually stepped forward into a gentle embrace. Her small arms softly wrapped around his torso as her thick curly hair swayed below his nose. The coconut vanilla scent of her mane flowed through his nose and triggered him to tug her in moderately. “We’re good”, she declared through a giggle. “And you can call me Zack by the way, all my friends do”, he added as he released her. “Well, I don’t really have a nickname, you can call me whatever you want”, she laughed. He was animated as he put his hand on his chin to illustrate deep thought. “Ronnie. I want to call you Ronnie.” She nodded her head and retorted happily, “I can roll with that.” She flashed her retainer-bridged smile at Zachary. It didn’t amuse him this time though, he was almost captivated. Her face as a whole, he noticed, was gorgeous.

*Well, well, well, guess he's not such a bad guy after all, huh? You have no idea readers! +sneaky grin+ -LeeBabyRnR