Mile High

Chapter 5

"I'm telling you, girl, he was just all types of weird." I shuddered a little to be even mentioning Derek again. It had already been 2 months since that dinner and I had been seeing him around everywhere I went now. I didn't tell Dallas, he was already still so unraveled about it and I didn't want him to think I felt uncomfortable about his family all of a sudden. I would go over to their house every weekend now, even just call his mother on be phone to see how she was doing. She didn't have many females around the house to talk to and I knew she was dying of boredom of Omar and Dallas weren't at the house with her.

"Wait, what do you mean by weird? He can't be that bad, the rest of D's family seems so cool!" We sat on the deep red tartan track and began to stretch before we ran. I squatted down into froggy style and looked around as if someone was watching us before I spoke.

"I don't know, he was looking at me like he just wanted to lick on every part of me. Plus, I've been seeing him around all the time now! It's just a creepy feeling!" I spoke quietly and quickly.

Jenny laughed, "Lick every part of you? You doing porn now?" She shook her head and stood up. "Sara, stop sweatin' about this guy. Dallas got your back, that's not gonna change just 'cause it's his weird ass brother this time." She put her hand on my shoulder and tried to relax me. I looked up at her in time to see her smiling down at me, she made me feel a little better about the situation. While we ran I let other things cross my mind so that I wouldn't be so jumpy anymore. I loved when the warm air hit me and blew through my lungs. Even though I had a major dance performance coming up tonight I still couldn't completely shake the thought of someone watching me lately.

I couldn't remember ever being this angry with Dallas before tonight. He had already blew me off about 5 times just this month and now he was saying he couldn't come to my performance. I slumped down on my bed wondering if I was making a bigger deal out of it than I should have been but I couldn't hide my feelings, I was truly angry and hurt. I didn't know why he had become so distant lately because he definitely wasn't talking to me about any of it. I would be on stage in less than 2 hours and my emotions were an absolute mess. I even asked if I could at least call him before I went on but he said he was out handling something and wouldn't be done until later on.

I paced back and forth backstage, how was I supposed to do my performance now that I knew Dallas wouldn't be in the audience? I tried to shake my nerves. I wanted to drink water so my throat wouldn't be too dry, but I couldn't drink too much or else I would feel bloated on stage. I wanted to hear one of my favorite songs so I could relax myself, but I didn't want to distract myself from my original routine. I sat in the nearest chair and buried my face in my hands.

"You've been doing this before him, you can do this after him..." I whispered to myself realizing I was the only coach I had right now. Peeking from behind the curtain, I saw my mom, Bernie, Jenny and Aidan were all in the audience looking more excited than they had in a while. I walked over to my locker in the far right corner of the room and took my black skirt off of the hanger. I pulled it over my body and let it fall around my waist, feeling all of my stress and anxiety melt away from me as if it were a cape. I took 3 giant breaths and glanced at the full length mirror one more time. I heard the music start up as my teacher walked in, beaming and lightly walking over to me.

"You ready, girl!?" She had one of the biggest smiles I had ever seen but knowing her for almost 12 years now, I knew she was just as human as the rest of us. Smiled a big game but her life wasn't perfect. I was going to tell her about how Dallas wasn't going to be watching my first performance since we started dating but I didn't even want to start thinking about it all over again. I had been trying not to hold grudges against the people I cared for anymore and I know if I let all the anger back inside of me I would mess up on stage. I thought back to all of the times my father would come and annoy the rest of the audience by standing in the walkway in the auditorium and videotape every single performance I had. I exhaled one more time and looked back at her.