HeartBLOOD

Chapter thirty-seven

Alec was collecting all his dirty laundry in a basket to get it to a laundry place in the afternoon- it has been a long time since he last did his laundry. Especially now, that he hasn't trained in weeks, there was relatively few dirty clothes. Yesterday, his stuff from his NYABM dorm room has been delivered to him. Luckily, the fire was mainly downstairs and the dorm rooms were barely affected. Now, all the smoke-soaked clothes needed to be washed, and it was time to switch out his sweatpants. After a short vibration, he pulled out his phone only to see that he has gotten a new email. To his surprise, it was from the NYABM board. Before he even had a chance to open the email, an incoming call from Maia reached him. "Hey.", he said, picking it up, "Have you gotten that new email?". "Yep.", she said, "It's crazy, isn't it?" "I haven't have had the chance to read it yet, you called the second I got it.", Alec replied truthfully. "Basically, they are saying they'll need another month at least to organize some sort of training opportunity. Because of the fire, they were unable to send our sed-cards to any castings, so instead of that we should try to get dance-related jobs ourselves. The idea is for us to stay in shape and gain experience to try to figure out what we might do in our dance career or after we are done performing." "That doesn't sound too bad, though. At least I will not completely lose all the form I have trained for.", he replied, though he was slightly surprised. Somehow, despite he had no reason to believe so, some part of him had still hoped that everything was going to go back to normal rather sooner than later. "Do you have any ideas yet?", Maia asked. Alec swallowed hard- this was the part he wasn't prepared for. He had always prepared to dance, to be on stage, doing jumps and turns and lifts- now somehow, he had skipped that part and was facing what every dancer needed to face at some point in their careers: alternatives. It could be due to injury, for pecuniary reasons or simply because of age, but at some point every dancer needed to leave the performing stage and find something new. He had just never expected to find himself in this position before his performing career had even started. Obviously he had worried about a situation like this before, but he had always assumed the reason would lie within himself, more precisely within his leg. But NYABM being the one to put him into a position like this truly came as a surprise. "I'm clueless.", he sighed. "Same.", Maia sighed, "It's been weird lately, I just don't know where I'm heading with all of this." "I guess most of us feel the same way.", Alec replied, "It hasn't been easy on any one of us." "About that- there was some other thing in the email. Apparently, the board organized some sort of therapist as a support option, as they call it. Apparently, one meeting is mandatory for everyone.", Maia said, her tone not suggesting any assumptions about her personal point of view on that. "Okay, now they're getting a bit too invasive- don't you think they're overdoing it a bit?", Alec asked bluntly. "Honestly, no. We could have died. Right on the spot.", she hissed, "How can you be so relaxed about this?" Shocked by Maia's wave of agony, Alec frowned:" I'm not relaxed- do you even know me? When have I ever been relaxed?", he chuckled, trying to loosen things with a joke. "That's what I mean! How can you make jokes? Alec, again, we could have died! Doesn't that freak you out? I mean it was the scariest thing!" "I know, Maia, in case you forgot- I was there. And it wasn't any less scary for me than it was for you. I just chose not to think about all the times I could have died, I'm rather grateful that I didn't.", he tried calming her down, but she just seemed to be in the mood to flip out. "I would have expected a bit more softness from you.", she scoffed. "Why should I be soft about this?", he asked, "Why is it not okay for me to deal with it the way it's best for me? I've seen enough people go down the drain, Raph is basically drowning in self pity, Magnus is barely holding on- all I do is try to keep it together. And all I was saying is that I don't need a therapist looking over me- I don't want one. I think it's out of place, but if you're comfortable, go ahead- no one is stopping you." "Oh thanks for the permission, dad.", she hissed- what was the deal with her? "Maia, is this about something else? Because I feel like there is some sort of issue that needs figuring out. So if you'd be kind enough to share, that'd be great." After that, he heard nothing. Looking back on his phone, he saw she hasn't left the call. Maybe she just had a bad day and needed to blow off some steam? But his initial thought turned out to be right. "Can we talk sometime? In person?", she asked. "Sure.", he stuttered, "But now you're worrying me- is everything alright? Are you okay?" "Yep. A lot has happened and I'm sorry for lashing out- we'll speak then?" "Alright.", Alec whispered and hung up. This was fairly weird, he had to admit- the bursts of anger and all those unreasonable arguments were so unlike her! Opening the email and reading through it for himself, he came to the conclusion that there was nothing new in it. Maia had summarized all the important parts, leaving out all the unnecessary condolences and emotional speeches. It was crazy how well she actually knew him- all over a few stupid dances.