Forever and Always • cel

Chapter 16

"Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity."

                                                                                               ― Henry Van Dyke

All four of us are in the room, Maddie, Paige, Josh and I. An uncomfortable silence settles between us while we wait for Abby to return. Paige and I stand together and Maddie and Josh are far apart. When Abby walks in again, we gather around her and she starts to explain the dance. "'Shake It Out' is a song about getting through mistakes and bad days. In the song, the singer sings that her regrets keep returning to visit her and how she's decided to move past these regrets. Also, she she sings that she is ready to forgive herself and just shake it all off. I know there's been a lot of problems lately, especially boy problems." Abby pauses to give Josh a pointed stare, at which he squirms uncomfortably.

"I've decided to make this dance about shaking off all the regrets and mistakes of relationships. I don't want you girls to regret dating a certain boy, or letting him go even though you don't want to. I want you to understand that you shouldn't regret love. The girl in the song sings about how she regrets dating a boy who's mean to her. She remembers how he treated her so badly. The girl keeps all of this a secret though. She doesn't want to leave the boy as he is part of her already. But she finally decides to just leave him behind and shake him off. She realizes how he's a burden to her and is holding her back, so she needs to leave him. I know this dance is a little emotional and very applicable to your current feelings, but I want this to be fun. If it makes you feel any better, girls, you get to push Josh around." Abby reveals the last part, grinning. Us girls cheer wildly while Josh shakes his head in disbelief. "Let's get this started!" Paige whoops. 

Abby gets us all in our positions. The girls sit in the center of the stage at the beginning. All three of us start together. Then during the second verse, Maddie crawls towards me while I try to run away. Right when she is about to attack me, I do a cake roll away and she slowly dies. The three of us are now in a diagonal line. We dance together again, on our knees the whole time. Then at the last sentence, we roll over one by one and get up. Josh enters as the chorus starts. He does an aerial as we brush our shoulders off. Then he comes to me since I'm the first on the right. "Turn and push him away Chloe! Hard!" Abby commands. I put all my hatred towards Josh into that push. I smile when he stumbles backwards, before slowly walking over to the other two one by one. He dances around them as we do our moves in unison. 

Then the chorus comes again. This time, it's Maddie's turn to get back at Josh. He looks a little worried. Maddie is stronger than I am, so it will be worst. Abby gives Maddie the permission to slap Josh and she executes it with much strength. I want to gasp at the deafening smack, but we are not supposed to stop dancing no matter what happens, so I pretend I did not hear that. I wonder what Kelly is thinking now, watching her son get beaten up and pushed around by three girls. Josh and I's partner part comes and I dance with all my passion. It just feels so good to let loose and dance. I spin Josh away and towards Paige, who he catches in his arms. She pretends to want to shoot her, but she saves herself from him. 

Shake it off, Shake it off, Shake it off, Shake it off

We turn and dance around Josh, trapping him. Right at the end, we come closer and closer to him before pushing him down and throwing our arms up in triumph. I know Josh is claustrophobic, so it makes me feel a twinge of happiness seeing him trapped between us. It is amazing how Abby can convey messages through dance and teach us so much within 2-3 minutes. This dance just made me feel so good, pushing Josh away and out of my life. I really understood how it felt to be in that kind of dilemma and now I know, as well, how it feels to just let go and forgive everyone, including yourself.