Lie Until You Laugh

37- Today Love

“You need to do it again,” Penn decides.

Three loud groans echo through the dance studio. “You’re seriously trying to kill us,” Stella decides as we get back into position.

“I’m making you stronger,” He informs us. “If you want to win, you have to work your asses off from now until August 24th.”

“Bossy,” She mumbles under her breath but I know Penn hears it. We’ve been practicing for about two hours so we have another hour to go in our one-on-one session thing with Penn for Tuesday. It’s our first practice for the competition and for the first hour, we finalized our choreography which was done mostly by Mason and Stella and Penn helped out some too but choreography really isn’t my strong suit. I can dance my ass off, but I can’t choreograph it for the most part. Penn is being all Petrifying because that’s how he is during practice but now it’s a lot less scary and a lot more… attractive.

Penn hears Stella’s mumble but he just laughs a little bit before pushing ‘play’ on the song and we go through the sequence again. Our dance routine for the competition is pretty insanely difficult but it’s doable- it’s just torturous to have to do it repetitively for so long and we still have an hour to go.

“It’s getting better,” He comments after we’ve done it another few times. My midsection is seriously burning through my tank top and I feel like if I do the sequence again, I’m going to snap in half or something. “Do it two more times and then you can go through the bridge again until the end of practice, which is at 6:20.”

“Two more times?” Stella wonders. “Okay. I can do that. Just two more times. Grand.”

Both me and Mason laugh at Stella’s sarcastic dramatics and get into place to restart the routine. After those two times, Penn lets us take a break, so we all just lay down on the slippery floor and drink our water, praying for these five minutes to last forever.

“Are you alive?” Penn wonders with a small laugh as he looks down at me. He’s apparently Boyfriend Penn now that we’re on break.

“No,” I sigh. “Not at all, actually.”

“That’s the spirit,” He teases. “So what are you doing tonight?”

“We’re going to go see Frozen,” I tell him, motioning to Stella and Mason who are leaning against the wall beside me. I’m laying down on my back though and Penn is still just crouching over me. “With Jo. But we should be back around nine, I think.”

“The sexual tension in this room is incredibly palpable,” Stella informs us with a giggle. “And it’s making me uncomfortable.”

“It’s time to go over the bridge anyway,” Penn announces, standing back up. “Let’s get started.”

“Please can we just not?” Stella whines and Mason elbows her in the side with a little laugh.

“Come on Stell, toughen up,” She teases as we all stand to our aching feet for another hour of torture. The last hour is a lot easier than the first two though, because the bridge of the song is really slow and soft and so was the choreography which is really nice. At the end of our session, the group of dancers after us enters the studio so Penn tells us that our practice is over.

“Hey,” Penn catches my wrist as I’m leaving the studio with Stella and Mason. I look up at him and wait for him to tell me what it is that he wants to tell me. “Do they know? About your mom and Jo?”

I shake my head and step closer to him so that Stella and Mason can’t hear me. “I told them that they’re just visiting.”

He nods and then leans forward, kissing my temple. “I’ll see you tonight?”