Downfall [h.s]

↞ Chapter 31 ↠

It had been a month since Toby's accident. The doctor said the break was healing nicely but that didn't seem to matter much to him. He was miserable sitting on the sidelines of games, watching his team go to the playoffs where he couldn't follow. He was doing his best not to show it but I knew better than to believe the facade he was putting up. It was hurting him to not be able to be out on the field, leading his team to the very end.

Meanwhile, I played the role of the dotting girlfriend and did everything I could to make things easier on him. I went with him to doctor appointments and physical therapy twice a week. I made sure he was taking his medication and that he wasn't pushing himself too hard. And I was there to comfort him when he got frustrated at his lack of movement.

From the outside I probably looked like a great, dedicated girlfriend. In reality, I was pining after someone else. The whole time I was with Toby, I couldn't stop thinking about Harry.

We had no idea what we were going to do. Would we hold things off until Toby got better? But by then would it be too difficult to break things off? Would we continue to sneak around despite the fact that it was an awful thing to do? Just getting Harry to admit what he wanted felt like a step in the right direction, but this was like a leap backwards.

The more my feelings developed for him the more difficult things became.

The only solace I could find away from the confusion of everything was in dance. We were only a month away from our Nutcracker performance, and two days away from our recital. Practice took up all of my free time, which left me without a free moment to really think about things. Not only did I have to practice my own routine, a pas de deux with one of my classmates, I also had to prepare my own dancers for their routines.

"Levi, straighten out your back so your neck isn't carrying all of her weight, it'll make it easier to carry her around."

We were currently in the middle of practice, trying to perfect our pas de deux. Evan had chosen the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet for us. He thought that it was a great way to show off our ability to execute lifts perfectly, as well as our ability to create chemistry on stage. Levi and I had been partners for years, and even dated for a short period of time at one point, so faking the chemistry between us was easy. We had done it thousands of times before.

For now though, we had to make sure that everything was perfect. It was our turn to stay late after class tonight so that Evan could go through our routine a few more times to make sure that everything was perfect. The balcony scene was romantic and sweet, with a kiss between the characters to end it. But it was also about longing for someone you couldn't have, which I was all too familiar with. It wouldn't be too hard to get the right emotion across when it was already what I was feeling. That didn't mean we still didn't have to practice though, everything had to be perfect.

According to Evan there were a few dance school recruiters that were going to attend the recital. If I was lucky, someone important would be here and it would get me one step closer to Juilliard. Every move I made had to be incredible. If I messed up, it could ruin my chances of getting in.

"From the top," Evan called, restarting the music as we got back to our starting positions, "and don't forget to adjust your posture so that her weight is distributed across your back."

↞ ↠

Two days went by so quickly that it made my head spin. The recital was today, and despite all the practice, I felt grossly under prepared. It was an odd feeling. I was usually calm and collected when it came to competitions or recitals, but given all that was going on, I constantly felt frazzled. Toby was getting better, but things between Harry and I were getting more intense.