Pas de Trois

Chapter 13: "Will you please sit down?"

Slade came back from getting ice for his knee one afternoon to find Danny and Chloe sitting away from the other dancers. December was already half over and only one and a half weeks stood between them and Christmas break. It was a Saturday which meant they had two shows to perform that day. They'd already done one and were resting before the evening show.

"Are you sure he hasn't said anything?" Danny was asking as Slade got closer. It didn't take much thinking to figure out by "he" Danny meant Slade.

"No, nothing," Chloe said. "He doesn't talk to me like he talks to you so if you don't know then no one does."

"Come on, that can't be true," Danny laughed.

"It is," Chloe said. "I don't know how to get him to talk to me. I've started telling him everything, like maybe if he knew I was telling him all that was going on in my life he would see he could trust me, you know?"

"Slade's not like that," Danny shook his head.

"Well it didn't work," Chloe shrugged. "You know it took him weeks to tell me what happened with his mom?"

"Wait, what?" Danny looked horrified, like that was the worst thing he'd ever heard. Slade almost jumped in to defend himself but he wanted to hear the rest of their conversation. The truth was he thought he'd already told Chloe about his mom. He never meant to keep it from her.

"Yeah, I had to ask him at Thanksgiving," Chloe said. "He probably wasn't going to tell me."

"That doesn't make any sense," Danny said. "I thought he told you the night he came back. Before he told me."

"No, I'm telling you," Chloe shook her head. "He doesn't talk to me."

"I'm so sorry," Danny put his arm around Chloe. "I had no idea. I wish I knew what changed. He used to tell me everything."

"There's nothing to tell," Slade couldn't keep quiet anymore. Danny and Chloe both jumped, turning to look at him with guilty expressions. "Why do you think I'm keeping secrets from you?"

"Because you're obviously upset and you won't tell either of us what's going on!" Danny snapped. He stood up. "You just keep telling me you're fine and you're not."

"I think I would know if something's bothering me, okay?" Slade crossed his arms.

"Stop lying!" Danny accused. "I can tell you're not sleeping. You've been pushing me around for weeks. You're even mean to Mama."

"I'm not mean to her," Slade insisted. He would never be mean to Carol, not after she'd offered to adopt him.

"You are too, you've been snapping at both of us," Danny said.

"I don't know why you think that," Slade tried to stay calm so he wouldn't accidently prove Danny right.

"Okay, can we not?" Chloe interrupted. "I don't have the energy for this right now."

"This doesn't have anything to do with you!" Slade wished he could swallow those words as soon as he heard them leave his mouth. Chloe blinked and then she backed away from him.

"Alright, bye then," she said.

"Wait," Slade tried to chase her but Chloe went into the girls' dressing room where he couldn't follow. For a second he thought about going anyway but a hand landed on his shoulder.

"I don't think so, Slade," one of the teachers had caught him. "You're supposed to be icing that knee."

"I know," Slade shrugged her hand off. He went back to where Danny was sitting and flopped down.