A Love as Hard as This

Chapter 6

Noah's Perspective:

Walking into Studio B, the first thing I notice is that Richelle's not there. That's odd, from what I've seen and heard, she never misses rehearsals. Apparently, one time, she came in with the stomach flu and threw up in the bathroom, but she still did stretches by the ballet bar. So why's she not here?

"Miss Kate?" I ask, coming up to her. "Do you know where Richelle is?"

"Unfortunately, she called in sick today." she answers.

For some really weird reason, I think Richelle's lying. She didn't seem sick at all yesterday. The only thing that happened was the fact that she ran out crying. Oh.

That must be the reason. She didn't want to come in, because she didn't want to see me. I've got to make this right.

"Miss Kate?" I ask, getting her attention once again. "Could you please give me Richelle's address? I'd like to go and see if she's okay after rehearsals, if that's okay."

"Noah, I think that's really nice of you." she says. She wrote down Richelle's address on a little piece of paper from her clipboard and passed it to me.

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I'm so nervous. I'm standing outside of Richelle's house right now, and I have no idea how she's going to react to me being here. She doesn't even like me at dance, so she probably won't be fond of the idea of me a her house.

But I need to make sure she's okay. So I'm here. And I'm not going to leave until I know that she's alright.

I take a deep breath. And I knock on the door once, twice, three times. It opens.

Richelle's face is tear-stained, she's in baggy clothing, and she's shaking. It looks like she's barely keeping it together.

I did this?

I must've. She was completely fine before she started crying. I think it was saying Riche. But why did that make her so sad? All I want to do is make her feel better.

"Richelle?" I say, stuttering a little. I'm having a hard time believing this is her. She seemed so tough before and now she's just...sad.

"Noah, why are you here?" she asks. Her voice is raw, like she just woke up. But I'm willing to bet she hasn't gotten any sleep.

"I'm here because I wanted to make sure you're okay."

She sighs, and stays quiet for another moment. "Fine. Just come in." she mutters.

I follow her into her house, and the first thing I notice is that it's drab. There's no pictures, there's no personal decorations, there's not anything to suggest that people live here at all.

Richelle's Perspective:

I think that it is really nice that Noah came just to see if I was okay, even though I'll never admit that to him.