Chloe’s POV
“What do you mean she knows?”
“I mean she knows, Chlo.”
“Are you sure she was talking about us? What’d she say?”
“She said, ‘You can’t keep a secret from me.’”
“That’s what she said?”
“Word for word.”
“Are you sure she wasn’t talking about how you stole 20 bucks from her or something.”
“I’m positive. She knows.” Panic started to build up inside of me.
“Chloe, we’re leaving for dance in 5 minutes.” My mom hollered from the bottom of the stairs.
“Did you hear that?” I scream-whispered into the microphone of my phone, “I have 5 minutes to figure out what to say to Paige.”
“Just run straight into class, so you don’t have time to talk.”
“Ok that works for before class, but what about after. I can’t ignore her forever and even during class she’s going to be livid. I can’t handle this, I just can’t!”
“Chloe-”
“Maybe, I can just not go to dance. I can tell my mom I’m sick or something. I can do that.”
“You’re not missing dance then you’ll have two people mad at you. Just calm down for a second.”
“Calm down? How can you tell me to calm down? You told me at the last possible second!”
“I’m sorry, my phone was dead, and then I had school, then hockey.” I could barley hear Josh’s voice above the throbbing sound in my head. My face felt like it was on fire.
“Chloe, we’re leaving.” I tried taking heavy, drawn-out breath to calm myself, but it wasn’t working as well as I’d hoped.
“I can do this.” I whispered to myself.
“That’s the spirit.” Josh stated. I almost forgot my ear was still pressed against my phone.
“I have to go. I’ll talk to you later, if I get don’t get killed.”
“Don’t worry she wouldn’t kill you at dance.”
“Just at dance! Thanks for the comforting words Josh!” I hysterically stated.
“No I mean-“
“Chloe, we need to leave, now! We’re going to be late.” I pressed the end button on my phone and slipped it into my dance bag, then raced down the stairs.
“You ok, kiddo? You seem stressed.” My mom told me, as we drove care freely towards my awaiting nightmare.
“Ya, I’m just a little nervous about the competition tomorrow.” I said, lying through my teeth. I’d been doing a lot of that lately.
“Don’t be. For once, you’ve gotten a decent amount of practice time from Abby. You are well prepared. You just have to go out there and do what you do best.”
“Easier said then done.” I mumbled to myself. I love my mom, but you can’t say things like that. No one knows what I go through with dance, except for the six girls who have to go through it with me. One of them being Paige, my soon-to-be ex-best friend. I started to bang my knees together even more anxiously then before, but I tried to cover them up by pressing my dance bag down on my legs, to keep them steady.
“Here we are!” my mom sung, pulling up to the door of the studio. She continued, “I can’t stay tonight because of Clara’s school thing, but I’ll pick you up at 9, ok?” I nodded my head and hoped out of the car. Butterflies erupted in my stomach as I cautiously walked towards the double doors.
“Chloe, get in there! Abby just went into studio A to practice the group dance.” Gianna exclaimed. I let out a sigh of relief. No before class chatter meant no talking to Paige. I ran into studio and immediately scanned the room for her.
“Finally you showed up! Get in your position!” Abby barked. As I walked to the other side of the room I kept my eyes locked with Paige’s. She seemed fidgety.
“She’s probably fidgeting with anger.” I thought to myself, but then again her eyes looked almost excited. I swiftly broke eye contact and began dancing with the rest of the group.
Because of our “devastating” loss at the last competition Abby decided to do one of her thought-provoking contemporary pieces that always win everything, to the song Demons, by Imagine Dragons. At first I thought it would be similar to our group dance Angels and Demons, which I have bad memories of, for obvious reasons. However, it’s a bit different. We start out doing a typical lyrical dance, or so the judges think. Then, Maddie comes on stage and acts as a mirror for each of us, supposedly showing that even graceful, innocent dancers have there own inner-demons. Abby definitely knows how to tell a story.
“Ok girls, take a 5 minute break, then meet me in the dancers den, so you can try on your costumes.” Abby exclaimed, causing Nia and Maddie to squeal in delight. Usually I’d be squealing with them, but my head was still spinning and my legs were still twitching. Abby swished her hand at us as a sign for us to shoo. All of the girls skipped out the door except for Paige and I. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her catching up to me, so I quickly picked up my pace and tried to blend in with the group of dancers around me. However, being the tallest and the only blonde in the room I was a dead giveaway in a crowd, so I slipped into the bathroom and hid in one of the stalls.
“Why am I doing this?” I asked myself, while huddled in a ball on the seat of a toilet. I’m hiding from my best friend, and for what? A guy? He wasn’t just any guy. He was Josh. The boy I’ve known my entire life. Why was I putting myself through this? More importantly, why was I putting Paige through this? My head spun so fast I almost fell off of the toilet I’ve been perched at for the past few minutes. A few minutes, as in 5 minutes? I cracked open the stall door and found no one else in the bathroom, which made me think it was safe to come out. When I looked in the mirror all I saw was a disheveled mess. My ponytail was about to fall out, one of the straps on my leotard was slipping off my shoulder and the mascara I had put on earlier in the day had slowly fell down my face, giving me dark circles under my eyes. As an instinct I took my pinkie figure and pressed hard under my eyes, in an attempt to smear away the black, and tightened my ponytail. On my way out of the bathroom I shook my shoulder until my strap fell back in place. There, now I was only a mess on the inside.
“Where’s Chloe?” I heard Abby ask from the dancers den. I quickly sneaked into the crowded room and placed myself behind Nia.
“I’m right here Miss Abby!” I announced innocently, pretending I’d been there all along.
“Well here’s your costume for the group number and here’s Nia’s.” Abby said, holding out two plastic bagged costumes. They were plain white dresses. Behind Abby I could see three more white dresses and one that looked like it fell through a sooty chimney. It must’ve been Maddie’s. After I slipped mine on, over my leotard, I searched my bag for my phone. 2 Messages From Paige Before I even have time to open them I felt a small tap on my shoulder.
“Hey Chlo, can we talk?” A meek voice asked me. I guess I didn’t need to open the messages anyways. She didn’t look angry, just anxious. I took that as a good sign and nodded my head slightly, but before we could sneak out of the dancers den Abby called us over to examine our costumes. She lined us up and went down the row to give the Abby Lee Miller final approval.
“Ok, Chloe and Paige, here are your duet costumes.” My mouth dropped in awe. They were a beautiful, dark hue of red encrusted in sparkling, ruby stones. The dress ended at the hip, where a variety of fabric was bunched together on one of the hips to form a rose with swirls of black hidden between the layers of red.
“They’re beautiful, Miss Abby.” Paige and I whispered while twirling in our new costumes. Abby chuckled to herself, obviously amused.
“Ok, Maddie and Kendall. Here are your solo costumes, but Kendall, be careful while putting on the skirt, because I think-“ Before I could hear the rest I was being pulled into the bathroom.
After a few seconds of silence Paige exclaimed, “Abby really outdid herself with these costumes. They’re pretty amazing, wouldn’t you say.” I nodded and took a big gulp of anticipation. Here it was. “So, listen Chlo. I figured it out.”
“Figured what out?” Paige gave me a frown. So, playing dumb wasn’t working.
“Why everyone’s been so secretive, including you.”
“I haven’t been trying to be secretive.” I said, the guilt eating me up inside.
“Yes you have, but when you have a secret I guess you sort of have to be. I just wish you would’ve told me.”
I let out a deep sigh. No more playing innocent. “I wanted to, I just was scared.”
“Scared of what? You really think I can’t keep a secret?”
“No, that not it at all. I didn’t want you to be upset.”
“Why would I be upset? I mean I know it’s my brother and all, but I don’t care if Kendall and him are dating.“
“Kendall?” I wanted to scream aloud. It took all my strength to refrain.
“I just hope she knows that no matter how many times he says ‘I love you’ he’ll never actually mean it. Of course she doesn’t know. Maybe we could warn her. But, she’ll never listen. Remember how many times we tried to warn Josh’s ‘girlfriends’ about him? Chlo? Hello Earth to Chloe.”
“No, ya I’m listening.” I replied weakly. If I thought my head was spinning before…
“I guess we’ll just have to be there for her when he breaks her heart.”
“Why are you so sure he’ll break her heart?” I asked, slightly defensively.
“Come on Chlo, it’s Josh we’re talking about. Of course he’ll break her heart. Good thing she has us to pick up the pieces.” Paige linked her arm in mine, which was probably a good thing, because I felt ready to collapse. “We better head back, Abby’s probably wondering where we are. I’m pretty sure we’re running through our duet after costumes.” She said, pulling me out of the bathroom and back into the dancer’s den.
The room was vacated when we walked in. They were all back in the studio, no doubt. I plopped down on one of the benches near my bag and took a big swig of my water bottle. Paige was already at the door, leading into the studio, and was waving her hand to tell me to sneak in while Abby wasn’t looking.
“I’ll be there in a minute. Tell her I’m in the bathroom.” I exclaimed. When Paige slipped into the studio I pulled out my phone to text Josh.
Me: She thinks you’re dating Kendall… Just go with it for now
I shoved my phone back into my bag, not waiting for a reply. My head fell between my legs, in an attempt to stop the room from spinning. I took one last sip of water, then cautiously stood back up. While fixing the hairs, that were too short for my ponytail, behind my ears I decided. I was telling Paige after the competition the weekend, whether I wanted to or not.