Finding Paris

Stuck with Each Other.

Finding Paris

Chapter Ten: Stuck with Each Other. Literally.

The venue of this year's Dance Camp is an intimidating building, obviously new but designed to match the older buildings in Paris. The building was annexed to an old theatre where great ballets were once held.  Practices, choreography, and lessons would be held at a studio, probably, but rehearsals were going to be up on the theatre where the big performance at the end of the program will be taking place. I was just so excited to go see the inside of the theatre and to go up on stage where thousands of prima ballerinas had made their debuts all those decades ago.

However, my view of the theatre facade was blocked by the sight of the back and the ginormous ego of Jared Xavier West.

Abruptly, Jared stopped in his tracks, causing me to run straight right into him and making a weird little noise.

"Watch where you're going," he said icily, shooting me a glare.

Ugh! I resisted the urge to scream at him.

Now, he had the audacity and the guts to be mean and snooty? What the hell is his problem? I mean, I'm supposed to be the angry one! Who does he think he is showing up here and ignoring me after that little stunt he pulled at the station? For crying out loud, this guy must have some anger-management issues or something!

Unable to show some restraint, I pushed past him and headed for the entrance to the beautiful theatre that was going to be my home for the next few days. Because of my heavy baggage, I still ended up trailing behind his arrogant back.

Unfortunately, just as I was hauling my things, I only realized why Jared had said what he did. Quick as a flash, a figure dark as a shadow even in the dim light of the almost evening bumped into me. Our collision was brief but the moment I got away from him and regained my balance, I realized that the man had taken my things.

"Jared!" I shrieked in such a shrill voice I barely recognized.

Jared skidded to a stop in his tracks and whirled around to face me. I was speechless as though my shriek had consumed all the power of my vocal cords. I simply pointed helplessly at the direction the robber had gone.

Jared huffed out a string of curse words that would have had my mother label him right away as bad influence, and probably triggered a coronary from Madame Devereux.

"I told you to watch out!" he shouted dropping his things with me.

He did a double take, ran back towards me, past me, and round the alley the robber had taken. Jared ran fast, like really fast. I barely saw him fly past me. I just kind of felt him run past with the wind and everything.

I stood standing there on the side walk under the sole lit lamppost. Admittedly, I am not one of those super tough chicks in the novels and the movies. I wasn't brave. I wasn't agile. I wasn't even that alert. A robber went running with my bag, and what do I do? I don't go chase him down with some unbelievable adrenaline rush. Nope, nu-uh. Instead, I froze and screamed for Jared to run after the guy.

Suddenly, it occured to me that I was alone in the sidewalk with Jared's bags. It was so quiet and so deserted that I could hear the defeaning sound of utter silence. Can it truly be this quiet in any part of Paris? I got scared the moment I realized how dark it was. My overactive imagination conjured a gang of bad guys rushing out at me out of nowhere. 

So, I did the most sensible thing I thought of at the moment, meaning the stupidest thing a sane person could do at the situation.

I took off after Jared.