Lie Until You Laugh

42- Bad Days

“I think this is a bad idea,” Stella tells me.

“It’s not a bad idea,” I inform her with a slight roll of my eyes. “We have a practice slot so we have to practice.”

“Yeah, we can totally practice,” She agrees. “But maybe we can just practice without Penn. At least until you guys stop arguing.”

“We’re not going to argue during practice, Stell,” I deny as I get dressed in gym shorts and a tank top because it’s Tuesday, which is when we’re scheduled with our one on one practice session with Penn. I know that it’s really going to suck because we haven’t spoken in over twenty-four hours, not since he left my room when I kind of kicked him out. So Stella doesn’t want to go to practice but I won’t let that happen.

“It’ll be so weird, Sienna,” Mason agrees with Stella. “Me and Stella can just go tell Penn that we won’t be at practice and then we’ll go practice on our own.”

“No,” I say. “I am not letting my relationship issues get in the way of our practice time, okay? Just because he’s being an absolute asshole as a boyfriend doesn’t mean that he’s a bad instructor and we need the time with him. I promise that I won’t let it be weird, okay?”

“Whatever you say,” Stella sings, slipping on her tennis shoes as I do the same and then I pull my dark hair into a tight pony tail and grab my icy bottle of water. I really don’t want to do this but like I just said, I’m not going to let the group suffer just because Penn is being a jerk.

We walk together as a group across the campus towards the studio and I try to calm myself down so that I’m not worked up about seeing Penn. I’m not sure if he’s mad at me about our fight or if he didn’t talk to me yesterday because he was too busy working. I know that I’m still pretty mad at him for all of the Lacy stuff so that’s why I didn’t call him at all and that’s why I’m dreading this practice.

“Seriously though, if you want to call it quits during practice, just let us know and we’ll totally back you up,” Stella informs me as we reach the door to the studio at exactly 3:30 which is when our practice is scheduled to start.

I take a deep breath and Mason jokingly pats me on the back. “It’ll be fine.”

I open the door and step inside with Stella and Mason following behind me. For some reason, I feel like I’m about to go to battle or something and somehow, I don’t doubt that that’s true but I really don’t want to start fighting with Penn during practice because that really isn’t fair for Stella and Mason because we deserve this practice time.

When we all walk through the door, my eyes immediately land on Penn, who is with another group of students. Their group is of five kids and I recognize them but I don’t remember their names because I never really talked to any of them at all. They’re in the middle of a routine so we stay as quiet as possible as we go to the back of the studio and put our stuff down to prepare for our session.

“Okay guys,” Penn says to the other group. “You’re done for today so yeah… get out.”

He’s obviously grumpy today and by the exhausted looks on all of the students’ faces, I’d say that he’s having no problem taking out that grumpiness on the dancers. That makes me feel kinda bad but it’s his fault for feeling the need to take out his anger by being a super dick to innocent people.

They all eagerly make a run for the door, barely even stopping to get their bags, because they are obviously ecstatic for their time with Penn the Petrifying to be over for today. I remember a simpler time when I was incredibly terrified of him but now, I’m the reason why he’s so irritated and terrifying. I’m not as afraid of him this time but I can’t help but be just a bit intimidated by that scowl.