SPELLBOUND

𝚎𝚙𝚒𝚜𝚘𝚍𝚎 𝚎𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝

The final day of practice was growing near, and we were making significant progress in perfecting the choreography. Yet, the concept of "perfecting" seemed oddly elusive when put into practice. At Valentino's clumsy attempts at dancing, I couldn't help but laugh which made me realize how naive I had been to think that we could dance together. Seeing how far behind he was, I knew I owed him several more hours of teaching. And so, today was just like the previous ones—I found myself once again focused on perfecting our routine, a task that had consumed nearly five days of the week. It even forced me to beg for Mrs. Hyzer to teach the rest of them and bestow me a break for once.

    "Good job today!" I informed Valentino, taking a long sip of water from my steel bottle to ease the sweat off my forehead.
    "You don't need to lie to me. I suck." The dissatisfaction laced in his face caused me to slowly lower my bottle to the side of me. I had a premonition that he was becoming someone else. Throughout our time together, what occurred was something that showed another side of him I frankly hated and wasn't ready to see. Specifically, Valentino was a self-criticizer, and I had an infinite number of questions.
    "Are you okay?" I asked overly sincerely. Valentino then sighed, sitting on the bench where we put our stuff before taking a long sip of his own. "Like genuinely? Because it doesn't seem like you are."
    "Well, I don't know," he confessed.
    "Well, I'm right here, a good listener." The impact of Valentino's sudden movement jolted me, as he stood up quickly, his facial expression filled with rage. My eyes widened, and I flinched as he bared his teeth and clenched his fists tightly.
    "Look, I don't care that you're right here for me! What I want is..." His face suddenly registered a look of dawning realization, as if he had been struck head-on by a revelation. I stood frozen in place, utterly bewildered by the scene unfolding before me. "Fuck, I'm sorry." His demeanor had quickly shifted, and his noticeable stress took the form of placing a hand on his forehead.
    "I'll take that as a no," I uttered, relaxing my face and taking a deep breath. "And it's fine if you don't want to talk, but I'd prefer you not to have these mental breakdowns in front of me. It's already a pain in the ass having to teach someone who 'sucks.'" I imitated Valentino's voice with air quotes, resulting in an undeniable smile to show up on his face while removing his hand. "Just so you know, you don't suck. You're simply unknowledgeable and not skilled in this specific department. Plus, with a little more than a week of practice, you could be on your way to evolving into a pro."
    Valentino nodded, crossing his arms which told me he had physically reverted to his normal self. "I'm sorry once again."
    "Don't be." I set my bottle on the bench near my duffle bag, bending down to retrieve the jacket and sweatpants I packed. "Whatever's going on with you is completely normal, and it's none of my business so I'm not the one who's going to force it out of you. But if you want to talk, then I can definitely do that." After hastily slipping into the extra layer of clothes, Valentino considered that as his time to move and change as well. In spite of the strange silence in the air today that caused me to want to release an ashamed noise of sorts, I persevered and waited patiently at the front door, watching Valentino change in an admittedly creepy way. Somehow he didn't catch me which only drove me to want to continue. Once he was ready, I opened the door for us and immediately locked it before I forgot because of the emotions I felt a second ago. Weirdly enough, they were completely unlike what I felt from the crushes I experienced prior to this—they gave me peace of mind and high hopes I'd get him.
"Did you have a place in mind we could go to for the break?" Valentino wondered, stretching his shoulders while heading toward the car.
I hummed upon sitting in the driver's seat. "Sure, probably that café in the middle of town unless you hate it, but we're certainly not coming back to the studio."
"Why?"
I turned on the ignition and put my hands on the wheel. "You're clearly on edge, and I don't want to feed into that. Someone like you is pretty scary when they're angry."
"S—"
"Don't you dare say it," I teased, shaking my finger at him comically. Valentino just tsked, smiling and staring out the window as I put my foot on the gas.