Killing Swans

Chapter 9 - Just the two of us

Present

I debated on skipping today, I actually did. I had never skipped a day of training in my life, not even the day after my parents threw me out and I didn't know what to do with myself. I still went into the studio and danced. But now, I didn't want to be confronted by Milo again. I didn't like that now he knew something about me, which only Josh and my parents knew. Of course I didn't tell him everything, but it was still a glimpse at the real Henry, who didn't need to concern him. 

But instead of avoiding him, I decided to gather all my strength and just...pretend it never happened. If he would try to talk to me, get me to open up or something, I would just act like I didn't know what he was talking about and if he wouldn't get the hint, I could just get pissy again and walk away from him. I would not let this foolish mistake ruin my whole career and therefore my life. I needed this for myself and for other reasons. 

I couldn't sleep all night, maybe because I was still shaken up about running late to rehearsals yesterday and so I did not take any sleeping pills, not even just a small dosage. I rested, but I didn't sleep, so at five am I decided to get up again and go to the company to train before today me and Milo would rehears with Zoe, who danced the lead. I was, again, the first one there and I took my time showering in the locker room before changing and walking towards the studio. But there, I bumped into somebody else. 

"Oh...sorry, should I look for another studio?" Milo asked and I groaned internally. Shit, of course he was here as well. Was he stalking me or was it really just a coincidence? I swear to god, if that asshole was now even stalking me I would throw him off the next skyscraper and then probably jump right after him, cause I would be so fucking done. Ugh, yeah, no sleep and meeting the one person I did not need to see so early in the morning really made me a grumpy old man. 

"Do whatever you want" I grumbled, walking inside the studio and not giving him the satisfaction of acting as if meeting him was a big deal to me. I didn't check to see if he was following me, but if he was, he would surly try to talk to me or something. I just put down my bag, walking over to the mirror, before I started stretching, closing my eyes. Firstly it was better to find peace and breath into the pain, secondly I was too tired to keep my eyes open for long and thirdly, I didn't need to see if Milo was following me. Oh he sure as hell would try to have a talk with me, apologizing again and asking, if I was alright, if I needed therapy or something. He should just mind his own business. 

After about ten minutes of just stretching my legs and feet as well as my sides, I opened my eyes, checking if Milo was, as always, sitting annoyingly close to me, but to my surprise, he was far away from me, stretching at the railing and not paying any attention to me. Oh. Yeah, good. This was good. This was better than good or at least better than I would have expected. I thought he would run up to me and ask me annoying questions about it, like, if my parents had always hit me, which they hadn't. He would get all up in my business and then maybe he would fine out more...But no, Milo didn't try to find anything out, he really just wanted to warm up. 

We continued warming up for a bit and that in complete silence. No music, no words were exchanged. It was almost like we were complete strangers, which we were, kind of, though Milo already knew a lot about me and I actually knew basically nothing about him, except that he had friends and was a happy person. Expect for now it seemed. Now he appeared to be concentrating, wanting to do his best and I tried not to look at him and his moves through the mirror, because it was simply none of my concern. 

And suddenly, when I was just getting into position again to rehearse a move I was already nailing perfectly, I felt somebody tap my shoulder. When I turned around I looked into Milo's brown eyes. Oh great, here we go. Now that he was finished warming up, he wanted to have that talk, great, just perfect. "What?" I asked, sounding a bit annoyed, but actually, I had been terrified that exactly this would happen. But I had prepared for this, I knew exactly what to say.