One At A Time [S. Smythe] [Rewriting]

~22~

Note: none. Enjoy!

Edited April 2023

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"One... two... three..."

I was doing basics at the auditorium. It was empty and I needed to get my head together after everything. 

Tommy was back. I was happy and thrilled at first but... but now I'm in a panic. he was back and yes, it felt like nothing had changed. Except that was the problem everything had changed. 

I went to my phone and plugged it into the speaker and just played a song I did for competition months ago. 

This time performing it felt different I was using my emotions to act out my pain. 

When it was over, I heard clapping and looked up to see the one person I didn't want to see right now. 

"You've grown more graceful," Tommy said. 

I stood there as he got up from his seat and stood at the bottom of the steps in the middle of the stage. 

"I can't do this Tommy," I said while catching my breath. "I... it's been years."

"Four," He answered. "I figured the happiness would leave and everything else will follow."

I closed my eyes and walked over to sit at the edge of the stage and looked at him. 

"I wrote to you because I thought you'd cared as much as I did, but you never wrote back?"

"You think I didn't?" He asked. "Adaline, I did but I never sent them."

"Why?"

"Because my father was hiding them from me," he said stepping forward. "We moved and he turned into a completely different man. Then we moved again and it got worse that's when I stopped dancing."

I just looked at him. 

"I didn't find your letters until a year ago. By then I had figured you moved on, which I was certainly right."

"But you did write back," I said. "You sent me the bracelet."

"I did, and I was an idiot to not write a return address because I've missed you like hell."

I looked away and crossed my arms. "Things changed."

"Buttercup," he called out to me. 

I looked up and saw him step down the stairs and stand just in front of the stage, two feet from me. 

"You remember why I call you that?"

"Because we watched Princess Bride so many times," I answered with a small smile on my face. "You said I was your Princess Buttercup."