Dancing, Love, and tutoring?

Chapter 4

I pull up in front of Icy’s around 4:30 and get out of the car, locking the door behind me. Without knocking, I open Icy’s front door and shout, “Hello? Icy I’m here!” Not even five seconds later, Icy comes flying down the stairs, already in her pink pajama pants and tank top.

“Hey Lydie girl!” Icy says, practically squeezing the life out of me.

I laugh and squeeze her back. “Hey Icinator, A Cinderella Story on yet?”

She smiles and says, “Yup, I just popped it into the DVD player, but before we watch the movie, tell me how the tutoring with Asher went!”

I feel the blood rush to my cheeks and start explaining the whole escapade, not missing a single detail. Icy is completely stunned that I slapped and screamed at Asher.

“Oh my god, I could never picture you actually slapping someone, Lydie. Especially a boy as hot as Asher!” Icy says with her “Omg” face.

I start blushing when she says Asher was hot. I mean sure I think he is pretty cute, but the fact that he is keeping me from dancing makes me not like him as much. There is no way I could ever be interested in Ash. We are both so different. I’m a dancer. He is an artist. I care about my grades. He doesn’t give a shit about his. Ugh, I could go on forever.

Icy and I watch the first A Cinderella Story and then watch half of the second one, until we agree that it wisn’t as good as the first and shut it off. It is almost 8:00 and I don’t have any pajamas, so I ask Icy if I can borrow a pair of hers. She agrees as always and we go upstairs to her room.

Icy’s room is huge and extremely pink with white trim and white furniture. Her canopy bed has to be at least a king size and she has a huge flat screen hanging on her wall. Icy fishes through her drawers for what seems like forever until she finally pulls out a pair of light blue pajama shorts and a white T-shirt. I thank her for the clothes and walk into her master bathroom to change. After I change out of my clothes into the pajamas, I throw my hair up into a high ponytail and exit the bathroom. When I come out, Icy is lying on her bed kicking her legs in the air like the crazy girl she is. With a running start, I leap on to the bed landing on top of Icy, laughing my head off. Icy starts laughing too and then gently pushes me off of her.

We staye up until about 3 in the morning talking about anything we canthink of.  Finally, we decide to go to bed and Icy shuts off her lamp on the nightstand. I start dreaming about Asher’s ice blue eyes and how the green flecks in them make them twinkle in the light. I also dream about his muscles and start thinking about what they looked liked. Then my dream starts to get strange when I start thinking about what his lips feel like if he kissed me.

 Instantly, I shoot up out of bed and run into Icy’s bathroom. I turn the sink on till the water is freezing cold and start splashing my face with it, trying to wash out the images of Asher from my head. Once I am satisfied and pretty damp, I walke back into Icy’s room and pick up my phone to check the phone.  12:25. Damn, that dream felt so short and yet I was sleeping for 9 hours. I wake Icy up and tell her I'm leaving because I have to get ready to go to the Library to tutor Asher. She simply nods her head and then waves me away so she could go back to sleep.

Still in pajamas, I walk downstairs to the front door and open it, walking outside into the nippy February air in fricken shorts. I get into my car and drive for 15 minutes, until I am at my house.

Once inside, I run upstairs to my room and go into my closet, picking out an off the shoulder black sweater and some ripped jeans. I pickup my outfit, along with some clean undies, and walk to the bathroom to take a shower. After I am clean and dressed, I blow driy my hair and brush it out so it is silky and straight. I put on my sneakers and grab my keys from my bed, leaving my room and heading out the door.  I startd up my car, turning the heater on to warm me up and pull out of my driveway.

Soon, I arrive at the large city Library and climb up the massive stairs. This library is definitely bigger than the school’s library since it has 3 floors and millions of books. I look around and don’t see Ashton so I take out my phone and check the time. 1:50. He’ll be here soon, but for now I’ll just look around. So I start walking through the labyrinth of shelves, quickly picking up one book and skimming through it, then putting it back. I continue wandering around the library until I reach the shelves that are way in the back.

These shelves are in the darkest part of the Library to fit in with the sections “Horror-Thriller” theme.  It seems as though there is no sign of life in this part of the library, giving me the creeps. I turn my attention to the books and pick up one called “The Kidnapping”.  Just as I am opening the book, a strong arm violently wraps around my waist.  I try to scream, but my mouth is quickly blocked by a hand. Is this how my life is going to end?! Being possibly raped and murder in the back of a Library?!  I freeze when I feel a warm breath in my ear that turns into a whisper.

“Are you ready to meet your doom, Lydia Cooper?”

My body relaxes and I sigh,” Why yes I am, Ash.”

He lets me go and drops to his knees, dying of laughter. I wante to be mad at him, but I can’t help but laugh myself.

“You should have seen the look on your face!” laughs Ash.

“Shut up! Sorry I wasn’t expecting being practically jumped.” I whine.

He finally stops laughing and says, “Yeah, okay. Have you been back here this whole time? I’ve been waiting for almost a half hour.”

Oh snap! I must’ve lost track of time.

“Sorry, I couldn’t find you so I started browsing through the books.” I apologize.

“It’s cool, but we should probably get started. I don’t want to be here all day.”  Ash says, beginning to walk away.

“Me either.” I say, catching up with him.

For an hour, I help Ash finish his history research paper on the Creek Indians. Surprisingly, he has most of it done already and it followed the guidelines of the assignment. Eventually, Ash and I finishall of the work on the tutoring schedule for that day. We decide to go get some hot chocolate at the coffee shop across the street and just hangout.

Ash comes back over to the table with a hot chocolate in each hand. I grab mine and take a small sip, trying not to burn myself. For a few minutes, we sit in awkward silence, quietly drinking our hot chocolates until Ash begins to speak.

“So, why is dancing so important to you?”

“Dancing has been a part of my life since I could remember. There is so much more depth into it that people think. It’s full of passion, grace, and beauty. When I dance, it feels like the world just disappears and all my emotions come out through my movements. If it was possible to fall in love with dancing then I have been for a long time.” I say, looking up at Ash.

He is looking at me with a serious expression, like he can relate to what I was saying.

 “So, why is art so important to you?” I say, taking a sip of my hot chocolate.

“I’ve always loved to draw. In middle school, I used it as an escape to get away from all the stress at home. My parents argued a lot, so much that it seemed they forgot about me. No matter how much I just wanted to curl up into a ball and cry, I wouldn’t. One day, I just started drawing a picture in my notebook. It started out kind of horrible, but as I blocked out everything around me and started focusing on the picture, it got better. Now, I moved out of my parent’s house, got a studio apartment, and have all the time in the world to draw.” Asher says, downing the rest of his hot chocolate in one sip.

I can’t speak at that moment. I am shocked that Ash has had such a rough life. I always thought he was one of the rich boys who gets everything they want from their parents and live a cushy life style.

I will never look at this boy the same way again.