Prima Ballerina *Jelena Ballerina Series* (Part 1)

Chapter 45: These Torturous Months

Justin's P.O.V.

Walking out the back door of The Key of Dance, I hang up my phone. That was the tenth called I received from my mom today. Each call consisted of an update on Clay and her wondering how things at the studio are running. For each time I was on the phone with her, I tried to make our conversation go fast, which was ridiculously hard since my mom wanted to tell me every last detail about Clay. I listened to everything she said and just hoped that Selena wouldn't call while I was on the phone with my mom.

Into my back pocket, I place my phone and continue to walk out to Triple M. Dance classes are in session right now, but one of the choreographers promised to lock the studio up so I wouldn't have to stick around. Most of the time, even though I'm the one who's supposed to be locking up, the choreographers let me leave my shift early. I feel like they're all doing this because of my mom. They're all concerned about how my mom's doing since she announced that she was only going to be gone for a month. Only, now it's been two months.

Every time a dancer walks into the studio, they make sure to say hello to me and ask how my mom is doing. Before I leave, the choreographers tell me to tell my mom that they miss her and they hope that she will be back soon. I always tell my mom about it and she smiles when I do. The truth is, my mom doesn't know when she's going to come back to the studio, but that doesn't make her any less concerned about the studio. She's just preoccupied with Clay. There's no telling when she's going to return to the studio.

Finally, I make it to Triple M and I board into the passenger seat. Fitch stops sipping on his water and places the bottle in the cup holder. As soon as I close the door, he tells Aria that he will talk to her soon and he hangs up his phone. Fitch is still sporting his sunglasses. The swelling of his eye isn't even noticeable at this point, he's just being extremely self-conscious about it. What caused his self-consciousness to rise is the fact that they have already hired the new girl for the Tampon Hero commercial, only they won't start filming yet. The reason behind this is disclosed. Fitch can only take this as his swollen eye.

"What did your mom have to say about Clay?" Fitch asks.

Confused how he knows, I question, "Wait, how did you know that---"

He interrupts, "You weren't smiling as much when you were on the phone. Plus, you're never on the phone at this time with Selena, so it had to be your mom."

I then tell, "Clay's still refusing medication, so it's hard to say exactly how long that this process is going to take."

To change the subject, Fitch then asks me where I would like to go. Most days, I would request to go to the apartment since I didn't feel the need to go out. I didn't want to risk being out and miss a phone call from Selena. However, today, I know that where I'm going and that I won't miss a call from Selena.

"Can you take me to Selena's apartment?" I ask, looking ahead.

Fitch whips his head in my direction with utter confusion. He doesn't understand why I would want to be dropped off there. Through my peripherals, I can tell by his expression that he doesn't believe it would be the best idea for me to do that. Sure, I miss Selena like crazy and her apartment is going to bring up thousands of memories, but this is something that I need to do.

"Uhm, sure, I can do that," he's hesitant, "would be okay if I asked you why?" Fitch questions in the process of checking over his shoulder and beginning to back Triple M out of the parking spot.

Once we are out of the back parking lot of The Key To Dance, I explain, "There's something that I need to discuss with Taylor. Already, I texted her this morning and she agreed to meet up with me." Fitch is assuming that I'm meeting up with her to discuss Clay, only instead we're going to be discussing Selena. In Taylor's case, we are going to be talking about Forrest. If anyone is understanding what I'm going through right now, it will be Taylor.