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.
Ben visibly relaxed when he saw his brother. Thomas was sitting up in his bed, watching some TV, but he muted it when he saw us walking into his room. He smiled and Ben gave him a long hug before pulling away and taking a step back.
I wrapped my arms a bit awkwardly around Thomas and then tugged myself away and stood back to stand next to Ben. Thomas' nose wrinkled up in disgust. "You both smell like shit," he complained. Ben chuckled and I smiled with a blush forming on my face.
"We just got back from the studio," Ben explained to his brother. "We were practicing your guys' jive routine."
Thomas raised the eyebrow that was visible. "Oh?" he asked. Ben and I nodded. "And how's that going?"
Ben and I glanced at each other and then back at Thomas with a shrug. "It's certainly going," Ben said dryly as he took the seat already set up next to his brother. I grabbed a chair that was against the wall and brought it over to the other side of Thomas.
Thomas' lip quirked up. I had missed that quirk.
"Keep on messing it up, huh?" Thomas mused. "Are you two not getting along very well, then?"
Ben and I didn't answer. I just stared down at my hands in my lap and played with my thumbs. Thomas nodded understandingly. "I see, I see. So you two thought that if you saw me, it might motivate you to not give up on each other?" Thomas guessed.
Once again, Ben and I stayed quiet, as that had been precisely why we had come to visit Thomas.
Thomas tsked us both, shaking his head in disappointment. "You two are just incorrigible," Thomas finally announced. Ben and I both looked up at glared at Thomas at that and he just smiled at us both. "Well, you are. I'm only speaking the truth!"
Ben rolled his eyes at his twin and stood up. "I'm going to call Claire," he proclaimed to Thomas and me, and then he left the room while he took his phone out of his pocket. I turned my attention back on Thomas, who was already looking at me with his one eye.
"Well?" Thomas prodded. "Rant about my brother to me already. I know you want to."
Thomas had always been very empathetic. I gave in and quietly vented on about how difficult it was to work with Ben. "He's so damn happy all the time!" I complained, making Thomas laugh. I glared at Thomas. "I'm being serious, which your brother never can seem to be. He's like a freaking leprechaun. I can't stand it!" I whined.
"Was I never happy?" Thomas raised his eyebrow.
I sighed. "You were, just not like him. You hide your emotions well, and Ben just lets them go. Plus, he's so stubborn! And aggravating! And sometimes, he's almost too polite. You know he punched Jason, right?"
Thomas, with his lip quirked up at the side, nodded. "I did indeed. I thought that that was nice of him, although wasn't it an agreement that he would get rid of Jason and you would give him a chance? So you really can't fault him on that."
I narrowed my eyes. "I hate when you're right."
Thomas just chuckled again.
I went on for a few more minutes complaining about Thomas' ever-so-cheerful twin brother until the so-called twin came back into the room with a tired look in his eyes. Thomas and I both gave our attention to Ben as he sat down next to Thomas. "What's up, bro?" Thomas asked.
Ben opened his mouth, looked at me, and then closed it. I got the message he was sending and stood up with a fake smile. "I'll just, eh, go to the cafeteria, then." I said, quickly exiting the room.
I found my way back to the elevators that Ben and I had gotten off of and took them down to the basement floor where waiting rooms and, apparently, the cafeteria, were located.
At the cafeteria, I bought myself an overpriced muffin and sat down to slowly eat and enjoy it. I gave Thomas and Ben fifteen minutes to say whatever they needed to say before I went back upstairs by elevator and took my time walking to Thomas' room.
When I walked in with a light tap on the door, I could hear shouting and was worried that maybe I had walked in on the wrong time, but with further inspection I found Thomas and Ben not shouting at each other but at a sports game that was on the TV.
I laughed at the sight of them getting so worked up over nothing and they both glanced over at me.
Yup. Definitely twins.
"What are you laughing at?" Thomas asked with lip quirked up in amusement.
I shrugged. "Just at you two getting so angry at nothing."
"Football is not nothing," Ben retorted, shaking his head at me.
I rolled my eyes at him. "If you say so," I muttered and then walked around Thomas to my seat. "Who's playing, anyways?" I asked, just to say something. I didn't actually care.
Thomas answered me, but I wasn't paying attention so I missed it. "Repeat that again?" I asked.
"See?" Ben suddenly said, pointing at me. "See what I'm talking about?"
I narrowed my eyes at him and stood up so I wasn't at such a disadvantage. Ben was still a good foot taller than me, but I didn't have to look so high up to meet his eyes. "What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, now get angry myself.
"You're never listening to what I say to you." Ben articulated slowly, as if I was dumb, or, as he had put, wasn't listening to him. I glared at him, shooting daggers his way.
"I do too listen to you!" I responded, because I couldn't think of anything better to say as a comeback.
Ben rolled his eyes at me. "Hardly. You never take my suggestions into consideration and are only thinking about yourself." He countered, and I gasped.
"Are you saying that I'm selfish?" I queried.
Ben shrugged. "And if I am?" he prodded.
I grabbed my purse and held it to my chest and stomped out of the room because I didn't have an answer. I didn't want to anger Ben further and get into an actual fight with him, so I left before our argument got out of hand.
The nerve on him! Saying that I was selfish and never listened to him!
I wanted to laugh. And cry. Or maybe both. My emotions were all over the place as I walked out of the hospital and got myself a cab back to my apartment. I just told the taxi driver where I lived and to step on it and he didn't ask any questions.
I was back inside of my apartment fifteen-plus minutes later, lounging on my couch and taking in deep breaths to settle myself down so that I wouldn't burst into tears.
To keep myself from crying, I called Matt, the one person I could count on to always brighten my day. Matt picked up on the first ring with a "hello?" and I breathed out a sigh of relief at hearing his voice.
"Hey, Matt," I said, taking in a deep breath and then letting it out shakily.
"Hey, Isa. What's up? Is something wrong?" he asked, instantly knowing that something was up just from how my voice sounded. I smiled and sighed, relaxing into my couch.
"I'm okay. I just got in a fight with my new dance partner." I said.
"New dance partner?" Matt asked, confused. I went on to explain the entire situation I had found myself in. "I see," I could see Matt nodding my imagination. "So you and this Ben guy don't get along very well, huh?" he questioned.
"Nope," I answered, popping the "p".
"And Ben is Thomas' twin?"
"Yup."
"Have you talked to American Encore about this yet?" Matt asked.
I instantly sat up, swearing. "I've gotta go, Matt," I quickly said and hung up, then called American Encore's Michigan headquarters number.
Lucky me, they picked up, and after explaining the situation to the dude and answering all of his questions, he changed the name of my dance partner and everything was settled.
I texted Thomas what the guy had just said for Ben to do, figuring that Ben was still with Thomas and then I went and got dressed to work at Rizzo's for the next few hours of the door.
But I didn't mind it, and I was no longer angry at Ben for what he had said in Thomas' room. Well, I was still angry with him, but I wasn't distressed about it any longer. Matt had brightened up my day with only a few words.