Shades of White

Backwards

Shaun's POV

I ran off, hoping Bobby was following. I looked back and saw her shrug her shoulders and sigh, pick up her bag and start following me. I smiled and slowed down a bit so that she could catch up with me. When she did, I looked at her and grinned. She rolled her eyes and smiled. I led her to the longest people movers in the airport, where I had spent so much time with Jesse and Kari when we were kids. Bobby and I did all the obnoxious things that I remembered doing when I was younger. We ran down them, sensing that crazy feeling when you rush past the wall faster than humanly possible. We tried to walk across them in the wrong direction where you either have to walk really fast or take really big steps. I was able to get all the way from one end to the other, and I stood waiting for Bobby, who stood at the other end.

"Come on, Bobby! I'm waiting for you!"

"Okay, here I come!" She laughed and started walking. She was walking fast and taking what to her were really big steps, but she was so petite that she ended up going backwards anyways. It was adorable how she just kept trying. I stood there chuckling at her, and when she finally got about 80 of the way to me, she saw me laughing at her, and she just cracked up. She doubled over in laughter and stopped walking. There she was, standing there moving away from me. I stepped on and walked up to her.

"Come on! You were almost there!"

"Okay, I'm actually going to go all the way this time!" She took off in a sprint and when she got to the end, she turned back and looked at me expectantly. As I walked toward her, she said "Shaun, we really should go to baggage claim."

"Alright, it's down this way." I lead her off toward the area of ten or so conveyor belts, some empty and not moving, some full of bags and surrounded by people. I looked up at the screens and found the one that was for our plane. We walked over and saw that it was still moving, even though we didn't see our bags. Finally, after staring at the black hole where the bags should have been coming from, I saw a large black and green suitcase emerge. "Is that yours?" I asked.

"Ummm, yep, that's it." I grabbed the handle and pulled it off the belt and placed it on the ground next to us. "I have one more, it's the same colors, but it's smaller."

"Two suitcases? How much crap do you need?"

"Shaun, apparently you forgot. I'm moving here for an entire year. I needed to bring a lot."

"Oh, I guess that's true."

"Yeah...sorta, huh?" she said jokingly. "Oh! There it is." She pulled it off and looked at me. "Do you have a bag?"

"Yeah, it's a duffel bag." Just as I said that, I spotted my blue bag come out. Once I had it in my hand, I looked at her. "Where to now?"

"I dunno, what do you want to do?"

"Let's go eat." I put my duffel over the handle on her small bag and gave her the handle. "You get that, and I'll get the big one."

"Thanks, Shaun. Where should we eat? I think I saw a little coffee shop, and they had some amazing looking pastries."

"That sounds good. Let's go." After a pause, I asked her "So, do you actually eat pastries? I mean, not that you shouldn't, but it's just that you're a ballerina, so I would think that you would be really careful about what you eat."

"Well, I am careful, and you know, I don't eat a lot of junk food, but mostly I eat what I want. I've never had an issue with weight, which plenty of dancers are jealous of, but ya know, I just eat healthy food. But if I really want a bowl of ice cream, I'll have one. I just think that it's healthier to eat what you want than to always be in a panic about food. Besides, even though dancers are careful about what they eat, and they do diet, the whole 'dancers can't eat anything but salad' thing is a lie. Honestly, a lot of dancers eat a lot, mostly because we burn so many calories during classes and rehearsals, so we're always hungry."