Unexpected Darkness

Gut Feeling

~~~

Two weeks passed since my mother's unwanted phone call and my subsequent meltdown.

I recovered well. The hectic schedule of finals and work kept me occupied. Diane started spending more and more time with Lyla and Atticus. I realized the more I was worried the more selfish my own motives were.

Diane had sacrificed so much for me for so many years. She'd broken up with her boyfriend back in high school to help me with the situation with my parents. We'd moved in together immediately after our freshman year of college to be closer and so that she could look after me. I might've been independent, but not to the fullest of my abilities. Even Altair was proof of my dependency on needing someone around.

I didn't want to be a clingy burden and so when Diane said she wanted me to meet Atticus I agreed, because it made her happy.

Which was why on a sweltering summer day I joined the two of them in Hell's Kitchen at a local pizza place for some exchanges of the get-to-know-you game with someone I didn't know.

Atticus was handsome, charming, and made Diane laugh which made me happy, but I just couldn't settle down.

"Have you seen his jawline?" Altair whispered to me while Atticus taught Diane how to eat New York style pizza. "It's like someone carved a piece of marble; it started talking, and they just went with it."

"Yeah..." was all I could say. I noticed how Atticus' arm had draped around Diane's casually and she hadn't said or done anything about it. She was really smitten with this guy, so I summoned up the courage to find out more about him.

"So, um, Atticus are you a hip-hop dancer?" I asked shoving a massive slice of pizza into my mouth. If there was one thing I was grateful about it was that he was paying.

"Uh, yeah, how'd you know?" He chuckled.

"Well, I noticed your tattoos and Diane's told me the strict policy of body ink in the ballet world."

"Aww, you actually remember the things I blab about?" Diane laughed.

"Of course."

"In my time he most definitely would've had all the ladies following him everywhere he went." Altair's commentary hadn't stopped.

"So Cynthia," Atticus said in a voice that caught my attention and made my heart backtrack quickly, "Diane's told me that you and her are childhood friends."

"Yup, known each other since the fourth grade," I said with a timid smile.

"It was pure chance that we met," Diane said with a golden smile, "We were supposed to do a book report and I was supposed to be paired with this one girl, Katie, who I was supposedly friends with, but she already had chosen a partner so I ended up with quiet, shy Cynthia who turned out to be the better option in the long run."

"I just really liked book reports," I shrugged nonchalantly.

"Ah, the bookish type, I like it." Atticus winked at me and I didn't know how to feel.

"I'm gonna get some napkins," Diane declared as she got up.

"Ah, okay," I watched helplessly as she left me alone with her friend.

"So you're in Terpsichore?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm friends with Rory, he's the one who founded it, and we've been looking for the greatest talent to share our name with the world. Diane's got talent and I'm glad Layla pointed her out to me. She'll be perfect." His smile was warm and all but I still didn't feel at ease.