A MEETING AT THE BARRE

CHAPTER 2.

The Glamorous Life by Shiela E. echoes throughout the conservatory.

"Alright gentlemen! Remember, this is a jazz-contemporary routine, so I need you men to be fierce! I want to see some passion but overall, technique gentlemen," Le'Fue shouts.

"Five, Six, Five, Six, Seven, Eight..."

Rodney stands on the back wall and observes fervently as the men practice the routine they had learned a while back. He is seeing beautiful arabesques, grand jetes, pas de bourrees all with a fierce intensity and power he had never seen come from a male ballet dancer ever. The conservatory was very well rounded, he noticed, and at the forefront of the routine was Trevante.

The conversation between him and the captain echoed in his mind all night long, searching for the right words to say he was genuinely sorry and meant it. The music is drowning out his thoughts, and right now, he's trying to pick up on the concept of the dance as well as remember as many moves as he can before someone has to help him.

"Tighten that core and close that rib cage," Le'Fue shouts. The dancers follow suit. This troupe of dancers was amazing being an all male revue is difficult because ballet is catered toward women. Something this troupe aimed to do was expose young men to different styles of dance, and also break gender constructs in the public eye with men and dancing. Last year 400 young men auditioned to be on this troup and only a select 12 were picked. Rodney, being the 12th pick of this year due to one of the dancers getting a career ending injury, had to prove himself to these men.

"Alright," Le'Fue stops the music. "Now I need you all to partner up so we can do some partner work."

The boys look around at each other, and each are pairing off and going to the barre. Several men are standing in front of the Captain, vying to be his partner, so that crosses him out. Another young man in the troop approaches Rodney.

"Hey crab," one of the dancers said. Crab is what they called the new dancers. "What's your name cutie?"

Rodney is slightly put off by the "cutie" comment but responds, "I'm Rodney, what's your name?"

"Tyler," he responds. The man is definitely attractive to Rodney. Other than Trevante, Tyler was another person that caught his eye the other day, but he couldn't quite catch his attention because he was talking to two other dancers. "Do you want to partner up?"

"Sure," Rodney said, not wanting the perils of last night to affect his dancing.

The men strike up a small conversation but through the people surrounding him, Trevante witnesses the entire interaction, and he has that feeling again, except this time, he feels like beating himself up... along with Tyler. He originally wanted to ask Rodney to be his partner, but given what happened last night, he didn't want to make Rodney's experience unpleasant. However, at the same time, it wasn't the fact that he was talking to another guy that was making him anxious, it was the guy he was talking to that was stirring his feelings up.

Tyler is a very handsome man with rippling muscles, although he comes nowhere close to Trevante, his body was absolutely gorgeous to look at as well. His tattoos are what set him apart from everyone in the company because he was the only one with him, which masked him in an aura of rebelliousness that guys and girls would drop their pants for. He had a full beard, a sleeve of tattoos down both his massive arms and a tattoo on his right pec. His bronzed skin complimented his dark low cut and his full beard with glistening white teeth hiding behind those pink plush lips.

Trevante did not feel threatened in the slightest, these feelings were stirring up because he wanted to protect Rodney. He knows the type of person Tyler is and some things some people have said about him in the past. Although last night was awkward between the two of them, the last thing he wants to do is see Rodney get hurt. He has no other choice but to intervene. Trevante stands up and walks over to the two of them.