Lie Until You Laugh

21- Tangos

I don’t like to lie. I’m not too bad at it, I just don’t like to do it. However, when Stella asks me the next morning where I was last night, I still decide that lying will be better than telling her the truth.

“I just went out for a while. You were asleep when I got back though. I didn’t wake you up when I came in?”

She shakes her head. “Nope. I was afraid you’d get lost in the city if you went off by yourself. Did you?”

I shake my head and brush through my hair. “I didn’t. I just went out to eat for some alone time and then I found a pier to sit at for a while.”

“Okay,” She chirps, having no problem believing what I just told her. I kind of feel bad for lying to her, but I just don’t want to tell her the truth just yet because I know how serious she’ll take it. It is a serious thing, I’ll admit that, but I just want to worry about it on my own for right now.

We walk out of the room in our work out outfits for practice that I’m seriously dreading. I mean, I don’t think that the actual practice will be too bad, but after practice, when Penn lets out everybody except for Stella, Mason, and me for an independent practice for the competition this Friday, which just so happens to be the day before the Fourth of July. Mason and Brian are already in the room and Mason looks a lot less stressed than she did the day before.

“Why are you in such a good mood?” Stella asks her with a laugh.

“Brian is the best boyfriend ever,” She says in response. “Gavin or Garret or whatever his roommate’s name is, he’s moving rooms. I don’t know why or how, but he’s moving and that means that under the table, I can move into Brian’s dorm and away from that freaking troll. Gosh, I hate her so much.”

She is about to dive into a story about why she hates Ada so much (although she doesn’t have to explain- we all hate her) but Penn walks in from his mysterious back room. He doesn’t look at me and so I advert my eyes and return the favor as he demands that we all start our ten minute stretch.

I look down at my feet and start to flex my shoulders over the back of my head. It is so silent in the studio that I can hear Penn’s footsteps as he walks through the room and I can tell that they’re getting louder. I know that he’s getting closer to me, so I instinctively look up just as he approaches me, giving me his best Penn the Petrifying stare. It’s not as scary as I used to think it was, but it’s still pretty scary. It’s so scary that I’m actually unable to look at him, so I return my gaze to my feet.

“I need to talk to you,” He says in a quiet voice, but the rest of the room is so silent that everybody can still hear him.

“No talking during stretches,” I remind him, looking up at him through my eyelashes.

“It’s my rule, Red,” He tells me. “I can break it if I want to.”

I don’t say anything and switch to my other shoulder.

“I can talk louder if you’d like,” He suggests in a voice that is so quiet and so close to my ear that I’m the only one who can hear despite the excruciating silence.

I glance over at Stella and then sigh with exasperation. “What do you want to talk about?”

“We can’t talk right now,” He tells me as if he didn’t just walk over here just to talk to me and then now he’s telling me that we can’t talk right now. If that’s not a contradiction, I don’t know what is. “After practice, yes?”

I shrug and he walks away.

“We’re going to start couples dancing today,” Penn announces after our ten minute stretch period is over. “Pick a partner and then we’ll get started. I don’t mean to sound homophobic here, but partners have to be a guy and a girl.”