Dancer's Body

Chapter 6

"You can just drop me off here," Olivia called to Ava at the wheel.

"Here? This is a Denny's." The judgement in Ava's tone was palpable.

Olivia blushed. Her head was pounding from the whirlwind and alcohol haze of Vegas. "It's okay, my mom's picking me up here."

"Well, at least it's right off the highway," Ava said.

"Send me good vibes not to kill her," Hannah whispered to Olivia as she slid out of the van, with a nod towards Ava who was fixing her lipstick in the rearview mirror.

"See you soon, babe," Olivia said. She'd seen her mom's gurgling VW bus parked right up front, but exhaled deeply when she saw it was empty. For once, her mom had listened to her and was waiting inside.

"There's my baby girl!" Her mom had parked herself at the counter, a steaming cup of green tea in hand. "Tea?"

"Coffee," she said, hugging her mom tight. Already, just being back in Eugene and the scent of her mom's spritz of natural lavender harvested from the front yard calmed her.

Her mom pulled her back and looked at her, those honey-colored eyes searching. "How was Vegas? You look exhausted."

"It was ... okay." Her mom gave her that look that told her she knew she was holding back, but she wouldn't push. Instead, she flipped her waist-length auburn hair, the same as Olivia's, behind her shoulders. She was just barely starting to show hints of silver.

"Do you want to sit here? Or take it to go?" her mom asked. She sat back on the fixed stool, one sandal-clad foot tucked under the flowing gypsy pants from India.

"Let's go home."

"So. How's school? Wyatt? The dance troupe, all of it?" They sat on the worn tweed couch, the same one Olivia remembered from her entire childhood.

"It's good," Olivia said. The caffeine was starting to work, relieving her headache and infusing a touch of energy into her. "School's school. And the dance team's the same. I just have that small part for the spring finale, so it's not a big deal."

"But aren't you the understudy for the lead?"

"Yeah, but you know how that goes. Mia would die on stage of pneumonia before giving that spot up. So basically I'm rehearsing and practicing like a lead and it's totally moot. All work, no glory."

"That's how life is, baby," her mom said. "Don't worry about it. Your time will come, you still have another year. Plus, with them choosing that ... homage, as they call it." She shook her head. "I'm sorry, I know it's sexy, but I can't fathom how The Story of O performed as a modern dance is going to play out."

Olivia shrugged. "It's kind of hard to tell when we're all in tights and tee-shirts, and not our costumes. I'm sure it'll be good. They always are."

"And the internship! I'm sure that will be a great experience."

"Yeah ..."

The excitement of being one of the "holy trinity" as her department called it had worn off since the upheaval at the company. All those changes, the swapping of directors, Dr. Stone acting like they were a nuisance he couldn't bother with—it all boiled down to an underwhelming experience.

"What's wrong?" her mom asked. "You can talk to me, if you want."

Olivia sighed. "It's just ... they replaced Mr. Levine." She sipped at her coffee and avoided her mom's gaze.

"What? Why? You've been wanting to work with him since you were a little girl—"

"Mom, I know. Okay? I don't—I don't know why. It was announced the first day of the internship. And now they have this new director, some Roman Stone, and he—"