Dance Academy - Heart To Heart

Chapter 1

Tara

The cold night air hit her face like a hard slap as she ran out of the opera house. It was dark, but the lights had come on and she had a good vantage point as her eyes searched the area frantically. Finally, in the distance, she saw him and began running down the steps as she shouted, "Christian! Christian, wait!" When he didn't stop, she ran faster and shouted louder, "Christian, please stop!" He stopped, but she could tell he was torn between whether he should wait for her or keep walking. He turned hesitantly, as though he was unsure of what he should do.

"What do you want Tara?" He wasn't angry exactly, but she could hear the exasperation in his voice. She could feel his eyes on her as she took a moment to catch her breath, trying to think about what she would say so it wouldn't come out wrong. She didn't want to make things worse, but after the conversation they had in the dressing room, he owed her an explanation. She had let him walk away so many times before, but not this time. This time, he was going to talk to her. She stared straight into his eyes with determination.

"You know what I want. I want to talk to you. We need to talk for real this time, without any interruptions. How could you just leave like that? We weren't done with Sammy's dance! Didn't you even want to see if I had won?" As she spoke these last words, she couldn't keep the pain out of her voice. Couldn't he see how much she still loved him? That despite everything that had happened this year, she missed him so much and wanted nothing more than to be with him?

During their conversation before, she had wanted to tell him how she really felt, but she was afraid. That he didn't feel the same way. That he would reject her again. That he would say something hurtful and make her feel stupid for expecting anything from him anymore. If she waited until she knew how he felt, then she would be able to go on believing that they could be together, that there was a possibility that everything would go back to normal, the way it was supposed to be. But as she had stood in the dressing room holding her breath, waiting for him to say what she was so sure he wanted to say, Abigail had come back and interrupted them, shooing Christian away, causing the moment to be lost. Sure, they had been on better terms towards the end of the year, but it wasn't the same, not like before. There was still a slight awkwardness between them that wouldn't go away, and then he and Kat had broken up... and then Sammy had died... and it seemed like all the progress they had made, all the effort it had taken to get back to some semblance of friendship, had evaporated quicker than she could fathom, and they were back to not knowing how to act around each other.

Standing there now, waiting for him to say something, she suddenly realized how close he was. She could smell him, a scent she couldn't forget if she tried. Natural and clean, it swirled around her and made it hard to concentrate. And his brown eyes were deep and troubled, searching for something he could never find. She could see the hurt behind them, a hurt she knew all too well since Sammy's accident. She wanted to comfort him, hold him, wrap her arms around him and tell him it was going to be okay. But not yet. Not until he explained what was going on. They were all hurting. Losing Sammy had broken all of them, but that didn't mean he could just leave. It didn't mean that he could shut her out without any explanation. No, he was going to talk to her, whether he wanted to or not. She needed to know what he was thinking.

"Please Christian, talk to me. I know we haven't exactly been best friends lately, but I hate to see you in pain. You can't keep it all bottled up, you need to talk about it. I'm here for you, no matter what. You can talk to me." She stopped because she didn't know what else she could say. So she left it at that and hoped it was enough to get him to open up, to trust her again. Before she knew what she was doing, she reached out, took his hand in hers and squeezed gently. As she looked down to enjoy the sight of something that she had been missing for so long- the feeling of his skin on hers, the steady warmth of his hand- she couldn't help but smile. After everything that had happened, everything they had been through, it still felt right, natural, perfect.