Pas de Deux

TWO

The second Scott woke up, he knew that something was terribly wrong: he checked his phone and sat up so fast, he felt dizzy for a few seconds.

He had overslept.

He cursed while he stood up and ran into the bathroom.
Not today. Out of all days, not today.

Not with this Mitch and his attitude waiting for him.

Scott rushed through his morning routine, skipped breakfast and raced to work on his bike twenty minutes later, but all efforts had been useless: he entered the rehearsal room fifteen minutes late.

To his dismay, Mitch was already there, and going through his positions calmly.

"Morning..." he said quietly.

Mitch glared at him. "Didn't you say 9 at latest?"

Scott simply rolled his eyes and dropped his bag in the corner, changed into his ballet shoes and started stretching his arms and legs swiftly, before moving on to practise his positions.

"Aren't you warming up?" Mitch asked him. "Don't want you to get injured, after all you've got the main role."

"I ride my bike here" Scott replied curtly. "And now I would like some minutes in quiet to focus on my positions." He continued, hoping that Mitch would leave him alone, but unfortunately, he didn't:

"Yeah, riding your bike  might warm up your legs, but it definitely does nothing for your arms and upper body."

Mitch shook his head in disbelief:
"But do what you want."

"I would, if you would shut up!"

Mitch, who had lifted his arms above his head, dropped them again:
"Okay, first of all: fuck you. I just wanted to help. Secondly: as I said: do what you want."

Scott, who by now felt his  face turning hot from anger, turned towards his new understudy:
"I never asked for your opinion! I don't even know what I did that you chose to hate me the second you entered this room yesterday, but I swear to God I want allow you to stand between me and a successful premiere!"

"I am not standing in between you and the premiere, I only want what is good for the theatre. And maybe it is time for a new face, a change. I am good in what I am doing and I will succeed. If you can't handle competition, this is so not the career for you" Mitch said while still executing his steps fleetingly.

Scott took a deep breath. "You have no idea how hard I fought to get here" he replied. "And I do not doubt your ability to dance, it's just your personality" he said.

"Newsflash, I am not looking for friends" stated Mitch. "Just for someone to learn those steps from and unfortunately that's you."

"Newsflash" Scott mocked Mitch. "If you would stop bitching for a while, I would be able to do so."

Scott knew by the look on Mitch's face that he would love to say something back but instead he just pressed his lips together and nodded.

Scott nodded:
"Good. Where do you want to start?"

"How about the beginning?"

Scott lifted his brow, but said nothing in order to at least try and get them to work.

So instead he nodded and walked in the middle of the room and took his starting position.

"This is the solo for the male lead. We dance a Pas de Deux with the female lead as well, but at first we'll focus on the solo."

Surprisingly, working on the solo with Mitch was rather easy. He hadn't fully dropped his attitude, however, probably because he was focused on nailing the choreography, he was rather quiet.