Dance Academy- One Step At A Time

CHAPTER #2

The next few days Ethan juggled his work obligations with showing Tara around Barcelona.  He was seeing it through her eyes, like a child would experience.  She bravely tried new foods and drinks, her surprise at the first time tasting vermouth, made him adore her all over again.  It was like time and distance hadn't been there at all.  Still even with all the wonder around, a dark cloud hovered above her.  

To try and cheer her up he took her dancing to one of the hot clubs.  Tara had a few drinks and was feeling the alcohol.  It loosened her up and gave her the courage to dance with some random guy.  Ethan was near by but she didn't want to dance with him.  Every time he tried to get close, the guy she'd picked in the beginning, blocked contact.  He noticed the guy feeding her booze all night long, but she didn't say no and drank it all.  It wasn't until he saw Tara wanting to leave and the same guy not let her go, that Ethan got more involved.  He put his body in front of Tara's and got in the guy's face.  His height made him more intimidating and the strange guy backed off.  That's when it was time to go.

"Since when do you drink so much?" Ethan asked as they got out of the car, back at his flat.

She shrugged, "I'm on vacation.  Why do you care, you're not my boyfriend and you're not my dad."

"Tara," he exclaimed, surprised she was being so cold.

"I had fun, thanks."  Inside the flat, she ignored him and went straight to her room.

As he walked by her door, on his way to bed, he heard her crying.  He knocked, but she didn't answer.  He waited a moment, not sure if he should go in anyway, then changed his mind.  When she was ready, she'd talk to him.

** ~ ~ ~ ~ ~**~ ~ ~ ~ ~ **

Again, in the morning when he returned from his jog, Ethan heard her crying.  This time she was in the bathroom.  He didn't ask her if she was okay and didn't let her know he'd heard. But he wanted to help her let it out, whatever was drowning her in depression.  So he decided to invite her to one of his classes, when she came to join him for breakfast.

"You teach?" Tara asked in surprise.

"I have to supplement my income. I pay my own way now."

"What are you teaching tonight?"

"It's an open expression contemporary class.  The assignment is making an inanimate object come alive.  If a painter can do it on canvas, then so should a dancer be able to do it with steps."

"You sound like Zach," Tara commented.

"He's a great teacher, but too stuck on traditional contemporary."

Ethan showed her to the girl's change room and waited until she came out.  It felt like they were back in school, when he saw her in the usual dancer's outfit.  He took her bag and led her to the studio.  She warmed up with the other dancers.  He introduced his guest, so the curious whispers would stop.

"Ethan, how are we supposed to give human emotion to a rock? It just sits there."

"I've got this one.  Let me show you," Tara announced.  She whispered her idea to Ethan, who chose some music to go with it.

Tara picked up a plastic bag from her gear and emptied it.  Then put it on the floor.  Ethan turned on the stereo.  As she danced, Tara's story as a plastic bag was told.  First she was tossed aside, no longer needed, then picked up by the wind and tumbled around.  Only to be plucked by a person for recycling, emerging as a plastic kite.  The class didn't understand all of it that way, had Ethan not explained as she went.  But they finally got what he was looking for.