The Unexpected Partner (JULY 2021 MULTI-CHAP UPDATE)

Chapter 6 - Annoyance

(A/N: Just realised that I've passed 100 reads and got all warm inside❤ Thanks to the readers sticking it out with me. Inspiration is slowly but surely coming back. I wrote these next chapters on a laptop this time round to try and get into the habit, the rest were on my phone lol. HAPPY READING!!!)

*

Aliana felt herself flush slightly at the memory and the evocative thoughts that blurred her mind. He seemed interested; so interested that he was even going to kiss her.

Welp! That's the last time I put myself out there; Aliana had no time to agonise over it, she was no longer as peeved with the whole ordeal as she was back then. The first time she was interested in a guy and she didn't ask for his name, not even to the guy at the door who seemed to know exactly who he was. She had hoped he would call-

She immediately shut down her pitiful wallowing.

It was better this way.

She always ended up at this conclusion, no matter the scenario. She used to believe that she worked better alone, thought better alone, forgot about others easier when alone. She had reached a point in her life where she couldn't deal with people anymore. They suffocated her.

Grief made it worse. It buried her alive.

It consistently mocked and jeered at her from within; her mind wasn't strong enough to ignore it, her arms weren't long enough to claw her way out of the mental entrapment, her voice wasn't loud enough to scream for help from-

Who was even left?

That was the true cost of her isolation.

Who could she call for help when the last person she ever felt she could truly rely on, who always went above and beyond for her, was no longer there?

The first time she let loose and just lived in the moment, since her dad's untimely death, was when she finally put herself forward for the writing competition and got the chance to dance in front of the people whose opinion she thought highly of on the dance scene. Writing was more of a guilty pleasure of her's, but when writing about her love of dance, she felt the magic that came alongside interweaving her passion into words. She thrived on the freedom and enjoyment she got from dancing; she could feel all the energy and time she used up isolating herself from others wasting away.

Sade was the only person she ended up trusting after the loss of her dad, the only one who was still there. She made a promise the day they met back up after graduating; she would always have her back as Sade had her's, always be there for Sade as Sade is for her, as she could no longer hide the effects that came with isolating herself. She didn't wish that indiscernible pain that came with it on anyone she knew and loved. As much as she cherished the silence on the outside, it further exacerbated the pain from the ferocious slashing of self-deprecating shouting within. It alienated her from the image of herself that was raised and grown by a proud Caribbean man, who had the world stacked against him and still managed to raise a headstrong daughter.

The distractions weren't as effective when you were on your own.

*

"Who here has danced bachata before?" Xiomara asked the crowd, after the quick warm-up orchestrated by her and her partner, the 'rolling-eye-extraordinaire' Danté. Nearly half the class raised their hands, Aliana included. She was brimming with energy after the warm-up and she, alongside everyone else, eventually drifted into partnerships with others in the studio.

"Wonderful! Well, for those who are beginners, don't even worry, we always start these classes with the basic moves, working our way slowly into a routine that can be polished and ready to perform." Xiomara, being a relatively petite woman, spoke in an airy, almost whimsical tone, that had you second-guessing if she actually spoke. She became a household name recently, alongside Danté. She exuded good vibes and joy and it was an energy that Aliana immediately fed off when she started watching some of her choreography breakdown videos.