Life Pirouettes

FOUR

Before I can make it out the door of History, someone is stopping me.

"Celeste, wait up." Spencer's voice muffles in the loud hallway, so soft it could've been a delusion.

I keep walking.

"Seriously, why do you hate me?"

"It's not that," I turn around to him, now that the noise is drowning out I can understand his words. His eyebrows raise, "really it isn't. I just have somewhere to be and I hate being late." I continue walking.

"Whatever." He replies, and I give him a sad smile before we fall into silence. "The party." He breaks it.

"What are you talking about?" I ask, stopping again. If he makes me late to practice I'm going to be pissed. If there's one thing I won't take shit about, it's gymnastics.

"The one I texted you about this morning."

"Okay, get to the point." I say. Turning to face him once I reach the front doors of the school, so I don't have to freeze to death talking to Spencer outside.

"You have to come."

"Why?"

"Because, everyone is invited and I want you to come. You need it." He says. I just stare at his annoyingly beautiful face. "I'll text you the address."

"Do I really need to go?" I ask. "I have gymnastics practice." I say.

"Can't you skip it just once and live a little?"

"Who's house is it at?" I ask.

"Well it's at Jason's, but I wanted you to come over first and meet someone." He says. I scrunch up my nose in confusion.

"What? I have to go." I say, not giving an actual answer. He's so vague sometimes that it's hard to understand what he wants.

"I'll text you?"

"Sure." I say with a smile, leaving him at the door while I walk to my car.

"Dude, what took you so long?" Harper asks once I reach my pale blue vehicle that I'm absolutely obsessed with. So obsessed to the point where I've decorated the inside with fairy lights, a blanket, and snacks. She's been sitting in the car with Ace waiting for me, chomping on the jumbo goldfish I keep in the back.

"Remember Spencer's text this morning?" I ask as I hop in the car. "Yeah, he asked me about it again. And he wants me to go to his house first."

"What's that about?"

I shrug my shoulders. "He just said he wanted me to meet someone, I'm not sure."

"Well, now we're going to be like thirty minutes late because I still want to get food. We can skip." Says Harper, obviously joyful about that fact.

"Ugh." I put my face in my hands. "We have a competition next weekend. And I'm sure my mom will be coming home." Harper knows that if we miss practice a week before a competition, we have to have an incredibly amazing reason. A party won't cut it.   

"Well, are you going to go?" Harper asks. "I can drop you off at Spencer's."

I shake my head and pull out my phone.

C- Sry, there's no way I can
go to the party

S- why?

C- Gymnastics, like I told you earlier. I
have a competition next
Saturday and I can't miss practice
today. Next time?

S- yeah sure, see you around

C- K

"There's no way I can skip practice this close to a competition. I don't even know why I thought about it. Another time I'll go." I put down my phone.