Imagination: The True Magic Carpet

Be Careful

"Be careful who you let in, only some people care the rest are just curious."

MickeySlater

"Hey, you okay?" Nyle said as he walked into practice Thursday morning.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Sharna nodded as she brushed off Nyle's concern. It was switch up week and Sharna need to focus on her current partner. She needed to make certain that he continued to do as well as he was with Peta. He was her focus this week and to be honest, she was glad to be away from Antonio.

"Sure? Because it doesn't feel like it." He pressed watching her. With being deaf he had quickly learned to adapt and read people's actions and facial expressions. Sharna he could clearly see looked slightly defeated and just not her usual happy self.

"I promise. Come on, I want to make sure this is perfect for you. I can't be letting you or P down." She said with a smirk. He decided to not press the issue any further and let her brush off his concern. He knew by his own standards that sometimes you just needed to brood for a while and feel whatever you were feeling.

"You could never let me down girl." He said nudging her shoulder as he moved into position in front of her. She gave him a soft grin as he saw a faint blush on her cheeks. He felt slightly proud for being able to get her to give him that look. They spent the next 3 hours working the routine over and over. Peta stopped in to show Sharna some of the ticks she used for Nyle in the dance. Since he couldn't hear, they had to use subtle cues so that Nyle knew if something was wrong. Sharna had easily picked up on what her bestie had set up and they were able to incorporate them easily.

"Let's take a break." Sharna said eventually as she could feel the sweat dripping down her back. For some reason it was extra hot in the studio today. Nyle nodded and moved to sit on the steps with his water and phone. Sharna hesitated for a second before dropping down on the steps with him as well however she picked a lower step sitting right below him. She began to scroll through her social media accounts trying to get her mind to stop spinning on everything.

"Looks like they are having fun." Nyle said as he saw Sharna looking at Antonio's InstaStory.

"Yeah, whatever." Sharna said brushing him off immediately. It clicked in Nyle's mind that this was the root of her irritation for the day.

"So that's what is bugging you huh?" He asked as he moved down a step and sat next to her.

"What, no?" She said as she pulled away from him and stood up.

"Sharna, you're lying. The fact that he is having fun with her may not be the root of the problem, however it's something with Antonio that's bothering you. Talk to me. The cameras aren't here right now. It's just me and Ramon." He pushed gently.

"Nyle, we have to practice." Sharna said folding her arms across her chest trying to convey that she wasn't budging on this.

"I refuse, until you talk to me. What's going on with him?" Nyle said holding his hand out for her. Sharna sighed realizing the man wasn't going to give up. She let him grasp her fingers and pulled her down next to him.

"He hates me. And I can't figure out why. I've never had a partner hate me like this." She said as her body slumped in defeat. It was true, her and Antonio butted heads almost 20 times a day. He didn't want to practice, he was putting other things first, or he wasn't pleased with his scores, just whatever. It was always Sharna's fault or Sharna's nit picking.

"He doesn't hate you. He's just, well he's his own person." Nyle said after some thought.

"Why would you sign up to do something like this if you weren't going to actually put in the time and commitment? We can't even say it was for money because he's not acting like it matters. I just want him to do well and enjoy this. And instead, we're tanking, his attitude is that he hates me, and we're both miserable." Sharna said getting more and more irritated by the sentence.

"Whoa, spitfire." Nyle said grabbing for her hand. He immediately seen that the second she let the wall crumble, it was like a waterfall of emotion.

"I'm sorry, it's just this is my heart, my soul. I put my all into this be it someone who is horrible or someone who is doing amazing. I connect with them and I want this to be something amazing for them. And with him, I just feel like he doesn't care. And he's blowing it off and somehow blaming it on me."

"Okay, I get that. And I admire it. And you wouldn't be you if you didn't put 110% into this show. However, there's something that my mom used to tell me all the time especially when I was little. Being deaf meant that some people wanted to be my friends just because they were curious and so I got hurt a lot. My mom would tell me, 'be careful who you let in, only some people care, the rest are just curious.' It sounds to me like, he's sort of falling into this category of sorts. I understand that this is your job and this is your passion, but you can't control if he wants to be a jerk. And it's not your fault. It's his. You do all you can do on your end of things and just leave it at that."

"But that's not me Nyle, it's not." She said softly looking at the man with this exhausted expression.

"And neither is this. You're not the sad, defeated girl either."

"I...but..." She trailed off as her head fell into her hands. He sighed and slipped closer as he wrapped an arm around her. He pulled her into him and held her for a minute as he felt her tears start to fall. He had known it from the moment he entered the studio that something was wrong and he was glad that he finally got it out of her. However, the tears, he wanted to fix. Once she seemed to calm down, he reached for her hand and laid it flat on his leg. He slowly began tracing letters on it.

"Don't let him win." He eventually spelled out making her look up at him.

"I can't stop him from winning. It's my job to help him win, Nyle. But the thought has crossed my mind." She said sheepishly.

"I don't mean that. I mean this." He said as he reached forward and tapped a finger to her heart. She bit her lip understanding what he meant. Her head nodded slowly as he pulled her back into him, just letting her rest and know that at least for this week, he was someone she could let in and trust and he hoped that would be enough to help.

**I'm slowly coming back loves. I promise to get to everyone's comments on Begin Again soon! Love you all. :) Enjoy. (Ps. I have some of these stocked up.)