The Opposite of Us

Morning Coffee Down Memory Lane

Izzy's POV

Curling up under a light blanket with my hot cup of coffee on a morning off is nearly as good as living with my best friend... nearly. He's away at the moment, teaching a dance workshop in Montreal. Heath is living his dream life teaching dance during the cooler months and then touring with AIM (Artists in Motion) during the summer. Meanwhile, I'm just working to make ends meet and studying to become a Spanish teacher. Boring, I know.

I look around at the pictures on the wall of all our friends, some we haven't seen in a couple of years, some we saw only last week. I miss all the TNS crew, especially Richelle, I haven't seen most of them since I left the Next Step. 

Richelle took me under her wing after Dance Mania and really helped me improve in my dancing and taught me a couple sick tricks as a thank you for teaching her Spanish. She was sad she didn't get to use it in Barcelona with Absolute Dance, but it definitely came in handy when she ended up getting a contract with Compañía Nacional de Danza in Madrid. 

I'm so glad she's gotten her chance to dance professionally and show the world just how amazing she is. Ozzy is happy for her too, but I know it's hard on him seeing her happy over there with whatever guy she's currently dating. I thought my brother would get over her after she left, but I could tell there would always be a little flame in his heart for her, even though nothing happened between them. But I get it.

I kept looking over the photos until I reached a group shot of B-Troupe while we were training for Nationals the first time. I was lucky to have such a close group of friends from dance when I left high school. 

I didn't really keep in touch with people from school, so I was very glad when Winnie, Maya and Grace were around for me when Heath was away on different tours for a couple years. I still kept in touch with him while he was on tour, but it was mostly through very sporadic video calls or just random memes sent between us. 

The girls were there for me to give advice about boys and encouraged me to let go of my feelings for Heath. Yes, cliche, I know. But I did have feelings for my best friend when I was in high school. 

The girls told me it was probably just the appeal of him being my brother's nemesis, but even after Heath and Ozzy became good friends, I could feel myself growing closer to him because of his witty and fun personality, his competitive spirit (which pushes me to be better) and how he would always take care of me. 

Even if it was just cheering me up with weird movies and turkey jerky, or taking time out to just spend time with me or come up with killer duets. I always found myself smiling at the end of the day knowing that I had someone close to me that I could rely on, someone who got me.

But having space from him while he was away helped me to move on and then I met Brandon in my second year of studying at university. Brandon was in his third year and was studying management sciences, which is just a fancy name for a business degree. When I met him, he was broody and mysterious and there was something about his charm that made me want to know more, made me want to open up the box of mysteries and find out what was really inside. 

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Brandon and I started dating about a month later and had a lot of fun hanging out with his friends, going to parties and going for random skates throughout the city. We really bonded over late-night skates, just cruising around the city and stopping by the waterfront, having long deep chats about the future and really resonating with each other over the struggle it is to have an overprotective sibling that also has a bit of an ego complex.

At the end of my second year, Heath had moved back to Toronto and I was so happy to have him back in my life. It really helped life feel more stable, especially since my brother moved to Vancouver for an internship at an architecture firm and my parents were planning to move to Detroit in the fall for our dad's new job, so Heath was the closest thing I had to family that were still around.