Tears of Queens

3 - Leo

When Zoe and I returned from rehearsal, I quickly took off my sneakers and followed Tala back into the studio. She had put her hair into a ponytail and changed into a sports bra and bike shorts while I was in rehearsal, but she didn't look very comfortable. She was hugging herself with her hands crossed over her stomach, and she was awkwardly looking around the room.

"Are you okay?" I didn't want to touch her and make her more uncomfortable.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she shrugged. My attention was drawn away from her when our choreographer walked into the room. Her long, blonde hair was down over her shoulders, and she wore a beige tank top and brown leggings, with matching socks. She came up to me and shook my hand.

"I'm Emmy, you must be Leo," she introduced herself. I nodded. "Great! I am gonna let you know that you two are gonna be doing a lot of partnering and lifting, so if you're uncomfortable with that, we can maybe change some things around."

"Oh, I love partnering!"

"Good! Let's get started then!" She approached Tala and asked her something, quietly enough that I couldn't hear, to which Tala shook her head and said something in response. Emmy then connected her phone to the speakers, and played us our song that Tala had apparently helped her pick back in spring.

~

Emmy was definitely right. There was a lot of partnering in our dance, more than I was really used to. It was mostly Tala holding on to me for dear life while I spun her around or flipped her or lifted her. I thought it was really fun, but I wasn't too sure that Tala enjoyed it as much as I did. Emmy pulled me out of my thoughts, though, by sticking her head out the studio door and asking Wyatt, who was stretching in the hallway for his next rehearsal, to record our routine.

He took Emmy's phone, which she was holding out to him, and came into the studio. He stood in the doorway and held the phone in front of his face.

"Can we watch too?" Zoe, Anna, and another girl I didn't recognize, asked Emmy, who said yes. They came in to sit against the mirror as Tala and I ran to the left side of the room. I grabbed her hand and whispered to her something funny, to make her (and myself) less nervous, as the music started.

In the middle of the dance, as I set Tala down from a lift, she stumbled her landing. I brushed it off and kept dancing, but I stopped when I saw her knees give out and she started to fall.

I rushed over and caught her head before it hit the floor. She was unconscious.