Say Goodnight Before You Leave

37. Lone Queen

Past. Copenhagen, Denmark.

As soon as Lylia leaves, on the drive back from the airport, everything seems quieter.

Back at home, part of her mess is still in my room, her smell on my bed, strands of her hair on the floor, her gifts kept safe in my drawers. I wonder if having her over was a bad idea - homesickness came stronger over me and made it easy to miss the life I had before.

I decide to sleep in my room for the night - since I knew most of them would be spent in Mads' bed - while her memory was still fresh on the sheets, echoes of her laugh on the walls.

Lylia's easy to miss, the lack of her makes silence louder, her brightness turns everything colorless, her humor turns everything joke dull.

But Monday morning the magic ends and we're back at our schedules without the bright blonde thing. And being back at the academy meant that same old shit just a different day. Which also meant having Marceline back in my life.

And following last week's strangeness, she keeps on acting friendlier than normal towards me.

"You're tanned, Thomsen. Got that pretty face of yours under the sun?" She says after training while I'm sweating like a pig and not in the mood for chitchat.

No longer Don Quixote, we have entered the next piece, Giselle, where I'm one of the Wilis, maidens' ghosts with the only purpose of dancing men to their deaths, which isn't a big part but infinitely better than being Marceline's backup - that, as I predicted, never allowed me to present on stage.

I start walking to the locker room. "Been to Jutland on the weekend," I respond in an offer of politeness.

I don't want to be buddies with Marceline, but politeness, well, that I wish for. For us to coexist in any harmony or at least for her to leave me alone.

"I wanna ask you something."

My stomach goes cold. "What?"

"I wanna invite you to a party."

Reflexively, I laugh, pulling my bag out of the locker. Perhaps, today, I'll shower at home. "Yeah, okay."

She scowls. "What are you laughing about?"

I stop my laughing, surprised by her serious face. "You gotta be joking. You inviting me to a party? Very funny."

She rolls her eyes. "Shocking."

"Oh, I know this one. It's gonna be like in Carrie, right? Thanks, but I'll pass it."

"Stop being a cry baby, Maysilee. It's Irene's birthday, don't you wanna meet her?"

"How do I know you're not trying to screw me over?"

She sighs. "There's isn't a way, but if it pacifies you, you can put my head on the line with Helen. She has quite an ethical treatment towards us."

With my bag on my shoulder, her and I go back to the ballet room as if walking tp the principal's office.

Helen looks like a completely different person when she's not training us - in my mind I pretend the off-work Helen is her nicer twin sister. She's sweet and tender like a Kindergarten ballet teacher, lively and supportive. But as soon as rehearsal begins comes out the dictator.

"Helen, I'm taking Maysilee to meet Irene next weekend," Marceline tells her unceremoniously.

"Oh... how nice."

"She'll hold me accountable for you, in case I act naughty."

"You're not planning to act naughty, are you?"