"Her or me?" A tear rolled down Michelle's puffy cheek, "You have to make a decision."
For Michelle, life has always been about control-control in the studio, in her friendships, and even in the secrets she hides. But with an unexpected pregnancy...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
When I walk into the studio, I meet eyes with Michelle immediately. She stares over at me as I put away my dance bag in my cubby, almost like she's questioning whether to talk to me.
Things still feel quite awkward between us. Although we had a quick conversation before Richelle and I performed our duet, and I did my best to apologise, I still feel like there's a lot that we need to talk about.
I just keep reminding myself that Internationals is coming up soon and I need to stay focused. My mom keeps drilling it into my head that I have to be chosen for the solo this year.
Suddenly, I hear Michelle's voice: "Summer, can I speak to you?"
Everyone in the room looks over, curious to know what she could possibly want to talk to me about.
"Uh... yeah, sure."
"Follow me." She tells me as she leads me into the office.
I take a seat at the desk, watching Michelle's every move. She then takes a seat in front of me and gives me a quick smile.
"So... I just wanted to say how proud I am of you after winning the duet competition." She begins.
"Oh, it's okay. Actually, it was a joint effort."
She chuckles, "Don't be silly. There was only one person that everyone was watching, and that was you..."
I'm flattered, but I don't want to take all of the credit. "Thank you, but I think Richelle won us that trophy just as much as I did."
"So... did you just want to congratulate me or is there something else?" I ask her as I'm quite curious to know why she's brought me in here.
"No, there's actually something that I need to talk to you about." She reveals.
"Oh... uhm, what is it?"
I watch as a cunning smile appears on her face as she enthusiastically says, "Congratulations, you're going to be dancing the solo at Internationals this year...!"
Wait, what?!
"What?!" The look on my face shows how shocked I am.
She looks confused at the fact that I'm not crying tears of joy right now. "Summer, I just told you that you have the solo. You should be happy!"
I am happy, I really am, but I can't help but feel sad when I think about Richelle and I remember how she'd always tell me that dancing a solo at Internationals was her dream since she was a little girl. I know that she wants this way more than I do.
