Brave Enough

Chapter Eight: Emotions

Willow's POV
My mom stopped us in front of the Dunkin Dounts and put a twenty dollar bill in hand, "I'm going to run some errands. See you guys later." "Bye, Mom," I say getting out of the car. "Bye, Mrs. Jackson, Lindsey said. We walked into the Dunkin Dounts. The air smelled of doughnut and bacon. The store was empty like it usual is around this time. "Hey Jonah! I got a surprise here for you," I yelled while banging on the counter. Jonah walked out from one of the back rooms, He's tall with black hair smoothed foreword and a smile that could kill. He goes to one of the local high schools and I see him at the YMCA sometimes.  "Oh hey, Willow, you came earlier than you-," he stopped in his tracks and he put his hands over his mouth. "Oh my God, oh my god..., " he mumbled to himself. "Hi and seems like you already know who I am and I'm guessing you're Jonah," Lindsey said. Jonah takes a deep breath, "Yeah, I'm Jonah. I'm actually a really big fan of yours. "Aw thank you," Lindsey said. "But why are you here with Willow," he says. We tell him the whole story about the essay and the prize. "Anywho," I said slowly shuffling into their conversation, "I'm still here for my usual." "Whoops," he said, "I almost forgot I was at work. Lindsey, do you want anything?" "You know what, I deserve to treat myself today. I'll have a boston creme doughnut and a french vanilla iced coffee." Jonah packs our stuff in two paper bags. "How much is it," I say handing him the twenty dollar bill. He shakes his head, "Don't worry, it's on the house." "Jonah, I can't just-," he cuts me off. "Don't worry about, okay," he says, "I'll see you around." Before leaving, I leave the money on the table. I could never take something free without giving something back.
We sprinted as across the street to a building with a bar at the bottom with the smell of beer and alcohol drifting from the door. The looked at the railroad as the train screeched to a halt. We didn't have much time. I dragged Lindsey as I ran up the stairs to the top floor of the building.

Lindsey's POV
Willow pulled me into what looked a waiting room. "Welcome to Silvie's Dance School. One of the few dance school that have earned awards and recognition internationally. This was what i wanted to show you,"  Willow said hanging up her jacket in closet. She takes mine too and hangs it up. I look around the room. On one wall, there was shelf had various types of dance shoes on it. Tap, ballet, hip hop, pointe, and so much more. There were trophies, certificates, and awards all in different languages. We both turn towards the door, where the sound of footsteps were coming from. Willow pulled me into a dance room. She opened up a closet and pointed to the bottom, "You need to get in there." I looked up at her utterly confused. "Please," she begged. My heart melted and I crawled into the small space. She closed the door behind as I heard another door open. I don't know why I did what she asked. My brain says to not trust her but my heart says otherwise. I've known her for a few hours so there is still a possibility for something to happen to me. For all I know, she could have at person out there come and kidnap me. But something inside of me tells me to trust her, so I do.

"Hey, how was the train ride," I heard Willow's voice from outside and more footsteps. "It was crowded like usual," the person said. Her voice sounded very familiar but I couldn't tell from where. "Wait..." There was long pause. "Your hiding something..." the footsteps sounded like they were heading towards me and butterflies flew around like crazy in my stomach. And door opened and light started fill my little space. When I saw the face, I remembered who she was, "Oh my gosh, it's Gwen from room 137! I haven't seen you in forever!" She stretch out her arm and helped me up, "Lindsey from room 123, it been a long time indeed." Back in college, when I used to put on my mediocre performances rarely anyone noticed. But one day when they showed up, they came every to most of my little shows and, she and her sister were there to cheer me on. "Ahem," Willow said catching both of our attentions, "You didn't tell me you knew Lindsey," Gwen dropped her bags in closet, "Well, you never asked." Willow sighed, "I'll save the rest of the discussion for another time. But we're losing precious practice time." She ran to the closet plugged a wire into her phone and pulled out a pair of sneakers from her dance bag.she put them on and began to stretch. "I almost forgot," she said. She went to the closet and plugged something into her phone and music started playing from the speaker in the room. It was a song I've never heard before. It was very upbeat and also not in English, but Willow seemed to enjoy it since she was singing and humming along.
"Just be friends, all we gotta do is just be friends..."
After the song was over, she got up again, "Ms. Gwen do you have the final cut for the music?" Gwen plugged  a cord into her phone, "Yeah I got it over the weekend." She took a CD out of her bag and handed it over to Willow. Willow stared at it for while. I came in to get a closer look. Written on the case was "Talent show 2017: Swag Melody". "I guess there's no going back now," Willow whispered to herself.  She put the CD in the player and went to the dance floor, "We can start with a quick run through, I guess." Gwen glanced up digging through her bag, "Yeah that seems like a good place to start."

Willow's POV
She hits play. I close my eyes and feel the music. The music started to sink in as I waited for the right downbeat. I started to dance, trying to do every move accurately and on time, being as energetic as possible. But that's when it happened."You really decided to try out." I tried stay focus. "You really shouldn't have." I really did. "You're gonna make a fool of yourself in front of the whole student body." But, my mind became clouded with thoughts and bad memories I've tried to forget. I completely lose focus and I trip and fall, hitting the floor hard. And all of my anger welled up inside of me. I slam my fist against the floor, "Dammit!" I got angry at him for lowering my self esteem. And I got angry at myself for not being strong enough to fight against it.

After many months I FINALLY got the chance to finish this chapter, and trust me a lot can happen within a few months. Anyway this chapter is shorter than the others but I tried my best I'm gonna try to make chapter 9 better than this one, meanwhile fighting against the our fourth Nor'easter. I also posted something else out of sheer boredom.

Freezing cold,
CJ

P.S.: Okay so the song I just realized how emo the song sounds but it was the only song I could think of and I really had to trust my gut on this one. And here's the link for Just Be Friends, it's currently one of my favorite songs...

Japanese: https://youtu.be/mRnxUE2v9Jg
English: THEY ALL SOUND TERRIBLE