Under the spotlight

Chapter 16: Katarina's story

"Oh my God Agnes I'm so sorry," Sarah hugged me and I smiled just a bit. Her worrying over me was so cute.

"I'm...good, Nikolai was very caregiving and Dominique was so sweet but as always, Sebastian had to ruin it," I sighed and took the boots off.

Sarah and I spoke for a while now about how my afternoon had gone, I told her about my panic attack and how lovely the boys had been the first morning. When I got to the romantic night with Dominique we both giggled, it made me feel butterflies all over my stomach. We even forgot to eat dinner between all our chattering and gossiping.

"Girl, I hate to be the one to say it but we have classes tomorrow morning," I checked the time and realized it was 10 pm. "Good night sweetie," She yawned and went to her room.

I stayed on the couch, staring outside knowing I wasn't a bit tired...maybe I was but not that much, thinking about the three boys had made me flutter. I really really liked how Dominique made me feel and Nikolai was so loving with me...they had been nothing but perfect. It hurt, it hurt that Sebastian wasn't like them, thinking I'd need to practice with him made me uncomfortable. What would it be like tomorrow?

There was only one way to know, going. I drifted to sleep on the couch thinking about them and their image never left my mind, not even the nightmares bothered me.

(...)

"Good morning girl," Sarah was fully awake with a healthy smoothie on her hand.

I stretched my legs and stood up from the couch, my hair was all tangled and I was still on my clothes. Sarah was behind the counter looking at her phone and muttering a song.

"What is that?" I asked with a disgusted face.

"I read this article that says that starting the day with a smoothie makes you more practical and energetic, it also helps with your metabolism," I laughed at her statement, smoothies were a big lie.

"If you want to be skinnier than stop drinking so much," I said and picked my glass of water.

"Yeah sure, like I can do that," I laughed at her sarcasm. "Anyway, I need to go, see ya," She took her coat and left the dorm running.

It was still early for practice so I served coffee and sat on the couch. I had stopped going to the coffee shop in the mornings because it consumed a lot of time from my routine. Instead I made my own breakfast, even though I'd sometimes forget about it. Usually when the nightmares were too bad I would lose my appetite. When no one was watching me I didn't cook.

Ready to go, with me leotard on and a loose hoodie over it I left the dorm. I had a water bottle on one hand and my phone on the other, well and my bag hanging from my shoulder. I sprinted out of the building and tried to not bump into the students who were going to classes. I had memorized the path to the ballet building like the palm of my hand. I didn't even need to be paying attention to get where I wanted.

I was surprised to see no one inside the classroom once I got there. Katarina's office had its lights off and the blinds were all down. It was better that way regardless, I didn't want to see Sebastian yet. Even though I was going to have to practice with him this few next months until December, 'lucky me' note the sarcasm. October was just starting and it didn't matter what problems I had with him, I needed to do this perfectly. My grannies were going to come and I was excited towards it, I wanted to make them proud.

I looked at my pointe shoes, they were in very bad shape. Taking advantage that I had some time left to myself I went to the little shop to find new shoes. There were all kinds of them, white, pink, black, red, with long or short laces and with or without bows. I usually got white ones, they were my favorites and they matched with all my leotards, except the black ones. I went to the drawer and took out one pair like I usually did. Then I saw it, I saw it again, the beautiful blue dress. The closet door was open and I had a direct view to it. The tutu was like I remembered with its tulle hanging in the back and with little clear stones glued on. The top part was stunning as well, it had silver embroidery in the form of spikes and circles, totally breathtaking.