I don't want to feel

Chapter 20

Coach went easy on us that afternoon.

After a quick warm up consisting of a thirty-minutes run followed by a short push-ups and sit-ups session, fifty of each, he divided us into four teams and organized a small volleyball tournament.

After that, he had us swim for forty minutes at the school pool and we then all made our ways to our chosen elective.

Mine being surfing, and thus exclusively graded through the many competitions I attended throughout the year, I had opted to join the school dancing squad practice sessions.

I had always taken dancing lessons and really loved to let my body be controlled by music. I went to the changing room and put on my usual sweats with a grey tight tank top and my black high-top sneakers. The dancing teacher wasn’t there so I sat down and stretched my legs.

It had been an exhausting day, and I couldn’t wait to go surfing later on. I had checked the webcam and had been ecstatic when I saw that there were one-meter high waves on Culver Parade today. Hopefully, Brad and Becca would be there.

“Hey, Sam.” Cheyenne called out.

I looked up to find her studying my face with a strange expression.

“Hey.” I answered with a small voice as I still felt guilty about her seeing Adam and me holding hands that morning.

She sat down next to me and started stretching one of her legs. It soon became clear, from the way she kept fidgeting, that something was on her mind and that she was looking for the right words to say it.

“What’s up, Cheyenne?” I ended up asking her after a few minutes of stressful silence. She took a deep breath and looked at me straight in the eyes.

“Hmm… Well, I’d like to know what’s going on between you and Adam…” She asked shyly. I was so surprised that I didn’t answer straight away.

Cheyenne didn’t do shy!

She was a tall girl with a slim body perfectly toned up thanks to years of dancing, who always kept her chin high even when some jealous wannabes made racist comments about her beautiful milk chocolate-colored skin, in an attempt to hurt her.

They always failed, though, as each time, Cheyenne would stop before them with a huge smile showing her straight white teeth and she would just stare at them with her big green eyes until the girls couldn’t take it anymore and ended up leaving the scene shamefully.

Most people at school respected her. She was our school best dancer and yet, she had always remained down to earth.

We had always got on rather well throughout the years as we seemed to share the same dedication toward perfection when dancing was concerned, and never complained when the teacher made us come back on a Saturday morning to improve a phase of the choreography we were working on. 

After a minute of awkward silence I finally overcome my initial shock and replied.

“He’s just been helping me deal with shitty things happening in my life at the moment. But I should be the one asking the question. Weren’t you supposed to come to Josh’s party on Saturday?”

She blushed.

She never lost her cool! What was up with her?!

“I was supposed to… I actually got ready and everything but freaked out at the last minute.”

She looked at the floor, probably to avoid my questioning frown.

I was about to ask her to explain herself when our dance teacher arrived in the studio with her usual stern “In position, everyone!”