Collette turned away. “Just go away, Ethan. I don’t want to see you right now.”
I stared at her, my mouth still open as I tried to come up with something to say to make this right.
Nothing. I couldn’t think of anything.
Her shoulders were hunched as she picked up her discarded hoodie, her back still to me.
“I’ll call you,” I said.
She never responded, not even as I walked out the door.
FOURTEEN
COLLETTE
Shock. I was definitely in a state of shock. That had to be why my heart was pounding like this—like it wanted to escape. That had to be why I could hear my own breath and why it was coming too quick, like I was about to hyperventilate or?—
“I swear, Collette, if you throw up on the dance floor, I will kill you.”
I whipped around to face Bianca. I’d almost forgotten she was there. I’d thought maybe she’d have left when Ethan did, but nope. There she stood in all her tall, slim glory looking like the evil harbinger of doom that she was.
“What are you still doing here?” I snapped.
Couldn’t a girl wallow in private? Tears were already threatening and I needed to make sense of everything that had just happened. Everything he’d said.
He expected me to dance. In public. For Juilliard.
In front of my mother.
Was heinsane?
I should have clued him in on the state of the studio but after our chat, Mom swore me to secrecy and I had no problem keeping it quiet. There was no need to panic all the dancers. Especially since Juilliard was going to pick someone from our studio and the donors would start taking us seriously again.
Going against my wishes and signing me up for a slot didn’t help my resolve to put dancing in the past. But neither did dancing with Ethan until all the walls I’d built up came crashing down.
I was still so confused by everything that was happening and everything I felt that I needed to sit down. Or a good ole’ slap across the face to wake me up.
“Seriously, have you lost your mind?” Bianca said. I had a feeling she’d been talking nonstop for a while now and I was only now tuning in. “What were you guys even doing in here?”
I shook my head, gathering up my stuff so I could go back to my house, away from Bianca, and away from this space. The studio used to bring me so much happiness, but now? It held too many memories. My breathing grew even faster as I remembered the way Ethan held me. The way he’d touched me. The way he’d made me feel so exquisitely beautiful, so…soperfect.
For a second there I’d actually felt like I was perfect. Like I wasbeautiful and graceful and like…
Like a freakin’ princess in a fairytale.
That’s exactly what it had been. A fairytale.
All it took was one look for me to throw my resolve out the window. I was weak and I hated that I felt that way.
“So?” Bianca’s voice was insistent. She had the kind of personality that refused to be ignored. If she wasn’t the center of attention, her world would implode. Right now there’d be no getting away from here without giving her what she wanted.
“What?” I snapped, my bag over my shoulder as I got ready to flee. “What do you want to know? Was I dancing?” I slapped a hand over my chest as I feigned shock. “Yes. I, Collette Boucher, actually had the nerve to dance. For fun. In private.” I gave her what I hoped was a withering stare as I approached. “Now, can I leave?”
“Can yourun away, you mean?” she taunted, not shifting from where she stood in the doorway, blocking my path. “I suppose. It’s what you do best, right?”
I stopped in my tracks and stared at her. Anger was almost a relief compared to all the other emotions that were brewing under the surface.
Anger I understood. Anger was actionable.
