Dancing with the Player | Book #1

Jealous much?

"And a 1,2,3,4!" Ms Saunders yelled out for the seventh time today.

We've been practicing our contemporary piece non stop. My body was so tired and sweaty that I felt like if we did this one more time my body parts would dissemble. We haven't even gotten our break yet because Ms Saunders felt like it wasn't time to go on one. I turned my head to the side and frowned once I saw my cold water bottle in the distance. You don't know how badly I wanted to have at least a sip from it.

"Stella, focus!" Ms Saunders yelled, snapping me out of my thoughts.

We did the routine another five or six more times. To be honest, at this point I really couldn't keep track of how many times we had done this.

"Okay take a 10 minute break then we will do it in solos," Ms Saunders announced.

I sighed in relief that we got a break. I quickly walked over to my duffle bag and grabbed my water bottle. I opened the lid and chugged down most of the water. I then collapsed to the floor and closed my eyes.

"I'm so tired."

"You and me both," I agreed.

I cracked open my eyes to look at Elana. Her face was bright red and she was deeply breathing in and out. As I'm about to close my eyes again, Zen appeared in front of me and sat crossed legged.

"How are you not tired?" Stephanie asked Zen, as she took a seat beside me.

"Let's just say I had a lot of caffeine before I came here. I had a feeling she would drill us hectically today," Zen whispered to us.

"Shit I knew I should've made coffee today," Stephanie and I say at the same time.

"I can't drink it, it makes me sleepy," Elana said.

"That's crazy," Zen said in disbelief.

"Okay break time is over and now it's time for solos!" Ms Saunders yelled, causing us to groan.

Ms Saunders first calls up Zen to dance. The music started and Zen danced, not missing a single beat. Every time I watch Zen dance contemporary it always put me in awe since he mostly specialized in hip pop. Next to go up is Max, Selena, then more others go up. Once George finished his dance Ms Saunders called my name.

I stood up and walked over to the middle of the room. The music began to play and I moved my body, following the routine. I then kicked my right leg up, making sure my toes were pointed and held onto it for a few seconds. I then put my leg back down and twirled to the left. I ran across the room to grande jete and pivot in a revolving whirl of sharp precision and accurate grace. I finished the dance off with a leap then an arabesque. Before I knew it, the music stopped, the dance was over, and Ms Saunders called Liam up next.

"You're amazing!" Elana beamed in excitement.

I smiled,"I'm really not but thank you."

"Stella you are amazing! Did you even see Ms Saunders' face? Once you finished your dance she looked so impressed!" Stephanie freaked out.

"I've never seen her face like that before," Zen commented.

I knew I was a good dancer but I wasn't perfect at dancing. I was so lost into the dance and the music to even notice my surroundings. Whenever I danced I always felt like everything around me became a blur and that's why I didn't look at Ms Saunders' face at all.

Once class is finished, Ms Saunders called my name and motioned for me to come to her. I picked up my duffle bag and said bye to Elana, Zen, and Stephanie. I then walked over to Ms Saunders and twiddled my thumbs.

"Stella," she said.

"Ms Saunders," I nod.

She took off her glasses and looked me in the eye,"You're dancing today was impeccable. The way you move, the way you express your emotions with your movements, and your facial expressions. It puts me at awe. You remind me of a younger version of myself. I was driven to become the best dancer I could be and be on broadway, but then my father passed away and I lost my chance. I ended up taking the path of teaching at Juilliard. Don't get me wrong I love teaching, a lot, but I always go back to asking what if' if I continued."

I slightly frowned,"I'm sorry for your father's death."

"Thank you. What I'm trying to say is, you're an incredible dancer. I don't want you to miss your chance at what you dream of doing. So always have that drive in you because I see that passion, that furry, and that ambition inside of you," she told me.

"I will, thank you Ms Saunders."

"You're welcome, now go, and relax. I practically saw you staring at your water as if you could only have a sip of it during practice," she laughed.

I felt my cheeks heat up out of embarrassment. I didn't think she saw me eyeing my water bottle during practice. I waved goodbye then left Juilliard. I walked to my car and instead of driving home, I drove to James' penthouse. In a couple of minutes I arrived his penthouse. I got out of my car and walked towards his place not before locking my car. I went up the elevator and I knocked on the door, waiting for him to open it. I knocked a couple more times and wait some more.

As I'm about to knock for the seventh time the door opened up revealing James. He was wearing dark grey sweatpants and white socks. As for his shirt he wasn't wearing one, exposing his six pack. His dark brown eyes looked tired while his brown hair was messy.

"What do you want?" He questioned me.

"You didn't come to dance so I came here to see if you were okay," I nervously answered.

"Well I'm good," he said.

He closed the door on me but at the last second I stuck my foot through the door. I pushed open the door and closed it behind me.

"What's wrong with you?" I asked, annoyed by his behaviour.

He turned to face me,"Dylan."

I scrunched my eyebrows together in confusion and crossed my arms,"What about Dylan?"

He sighed,"Nothing, forget about it."

"No tell me," I commanded.

I didn't know what Dylan did to bother James so much that he didn't want to come to dance. James would never miss the chance to go to dance. James seemed fine yesterday at Thanksgiving, but I did notice he was glaring at Dylan whenever we were together. Also James heard Dylan talk about our date. My eyes widened once I came to the realization why James was acting like this.

I spoke up,"You're jealous."

He shook his head,"No. I would never be jealous of Dylan."

"Not of Dylan but of us going on our date."

"Not at all, go and have a fun time on your ridiculous date with him," he fumed.

I raised an eyebrow at his harsh words. James was definitely jealous whether he wanted to admit it or not.

"Jealous much?" I poked his chest.

He grabbed my finger and held onto my hand. I looked into his eyes," He's not the one for you Stella."

"Then who is?" I wondered.

"Me. With you I'm better person. I live harder. I laugh until my stomach hurts. I choke up when you leave and think about you all day. I'm not going to let you go again. I don't think I ever could. I would ask you to choose me over him, but it's okay I wouldn't pick me either."

I continued to stare in his eyes, not even noticing that he let go of my hand. He led me to his elevator and pressed the down button for me. I turned around and opened my mouth to say something then closed it.

"Go with Dylan, he's a great guy. I can tell he likes you a lot. Bye Stella," James said as he gave me a small smile.

His smile was anything but a happy one, it was one of those smiles that you have to put on from allowing yourself to entirely fall apart. I walked to my car and opened the door. I sat down in the seat and gripped onto the steering wheel. I started the car and drove back to my apartment with James' words clouding my mind.