Breaking Away

by Toni Aleo

  “Harper’s sister. She owns a dance studio and asked me to train there. I’m on some probation or something. Harper seems pretty excited for me, and I guess it’s cool.”

  It was the most she had talked to him without yelling since she had been with him. He ignored his need to fall to his knees and thank the Lord above, saying, “That’s right, I knew that, and yeah, it is cool. Reese is really awesome from what I hear. I didn’t know you liked to dance.”

  A small smile pulled at her lips as she looked down at the ground. . “Yeah, I do. A lot.”

  “Wow, that’s cool, Claire. Have you always danced?”

  He could see the smart remark in her eyes but, to his surprise, she didn’t say it. Instead, she said, “Yeah, since I was like seven. Mom had me in it for a while. Then she couldn’t afford it anymore and stopped paying. I used to do things around the studio to pay for my classes.”

  Phillip looked down, feeling completely guilty. She had to work to dance? She was a child. What the fuck was his sister’s problem?

  “You must really enjoy it.”

  “Yeah,” she said offhandedly.

  Phillip could tell that this meant a lot to her, and it killed him for not knowing this. He used to know everything, and now it was like he was with a stranger. It scared him how much he wanted her to love him and to know that he loved her. Never in his life had he cared about someone as much as he cared about Claire. He never told anyone he loved them. With Claire, he was basically screaming it at her. He usually wasn’t so emotional, but he felt like he had to hold onto her like a vice grip because he was so scared she would turn out like her mother and grandmother. He wanted her healthy, and he wanted her to succeed in her life.

  Looking down, he took in the beauty of her. She was filling out since she came to him, and actually looked like a normal teenager. Things were still a little rocky, but he felt good about them. He felt like things were going to work—she just needed time.

  “Do you need to get anything for it?”

  She looked up at him shyly as she asked, “Can we go by a dance store? I’d like to pick up some stuff.”

  With a grin, he nodded as he said, “Sure, let’s go.”

  After spending an hour in Spell Dance and Theater shop, they walked out with bags of things, and Phillip could see the smile that Claire was trying to hide. Getting into the roadster, Phillip started the car before pulling out and heading home. He was dog-tired, and he was ready to get home.

  “I’m going to take a nap when we get home. You can pack and get ready to go to Harpers,” he said, turning onto West End.

  Claire nodded as she looked down at her phone.

  “Okay.”

  “You like it there, right? Everything is good?”

  She shrugged her shoulders. “It’s okay. Harper is really nice, and Ally is cute. She likes to dance with me.”

  “Good, let me know if things change.”

  “I will.”

  “I don’t doubt that. I don’t even know why I said it,” he said with a chuckle. He flashed her a quick smile and saw that she was smiling, too.

  Feeling good about himself, he looked out at the road as she said, “Thanks for today, Phillip.”

  His heart went into his throat, and he took in a deep breath before saying, “Anytime.”

  “Only you have sex with some guy at the gym.”

  Reese laughed as she bent over, stretching her thighs. Her phone lay in front of her on speakerphone so she could hear Piper.

  “Not a big deal,” she said, reaching for her left foot.

  “It is too! You didn’t even know him!”

  “Sure I do, he comes in every other day and has delicious arms. I’ve wanted him for weeks. I got lucky today when he asked me how much I could handle. He was talking about the weights, but I answered that I could handle all of him. Let me just say, there was a lot to handle. The man was mouthwatering.”

  Piper’s giggles ran over the line.

  “You’re so bad.”

  “Maybe, but it was fun.”

  “Eh, I wouldn’t doubt it, but come on, Reese; you are sleeping around too much.”

  “With complete strangers that no one knows.”

  “Oh goodness.” She laughed. “And you’re okay with that?”

  “Ah, for now I am.”

  Piper let out a long breath.

  “I just worry.”

  “I know, but it’s all good. I use protection.”

  “Okay.”

  Reese knew that in her sister’s eyes, it was far from okay, but she let it go. Her way of life for the last couple of years worked for her. She had no one to answer to, no one to worry about, no one to hurt her. It was her and her only. A few orgasms here and there, and then work. It was the life she was starting to love. Moving to her belly, she pushed up, reaching up with her legs, touching her head to her toes to stretch her back.

  Claire was going to be there soon, and Reese was itching to get her hands on her. She knew it was going to take some time for Claire to trust her but, once she did, the attitude would dissolve and Reese would be left with a potential star dancer. That had her giddy with excitement.

  “We found a house, we think,” Piper said. Reese was more than thankful for the conversation change. The awkward silence was driving her insane.

  “Really? Where?”

  “In the neighborhood behind Harper.”

  “Awesome!”

  “Yeah, Harper and I were joking that we need you to get a husband, so you can move over there, too.”

  Reese laughed before saying, “No way, I love my condo. Husband or not, I’m not leaving.”

  “We know, we were just teasing,” she said with a laugh. Reese smiled as she reached for her foot, moving it in a circle to work it out as Piper said, “So, what are you doing?”

  “Stretching as I wait for my dancer.”

  “It’s Claire, right? Phillip’s niece.”

  “Yeah, Harper tell you?”

  “Yup, she said that it’s gonna be fun watching you two work together,” she added with a laugh.

  Reese laughed, nodding even though Piper couldn’t see her.

  “Yeah, she has an attitude, but I’ll dance that attitude out the door. She has raw, amazing talent, Pipe. Seriously. I haven’t been this excited to get my hands on a dancer in a long time.”

  “Cool, I’m excited to see what happens. She needs this. Things have been really shitty for her, from what Erik said.”

  “Really? I figured they must have been if she is living with her uncle,” she said as she stood up, bending down to touch her toes.

  “Yeah, her mom was killed and was really bad into drugs and stuff before her death. Claire had it rough.”

  No wonder there was so much pain in the girl’s eyes. Poor thing.

  “Damn, that’s horrible,” she replied, feeling such pain for Claire. Then she smiled as she said, “Dance will help… it helped me.”

  “You had a broken heart, Reese. I don’t doubt that dance is therapeutic, but don’t expect this girl to come in there, all sunshine and roses.”

  “Hey,” Reese said, offended by her sister’s statement. “A broken heart sucks.”

  “I know, but just be patient. I know how you are. You always expect so much out of your dancers, and it’s tough being a kid.”

  “Why do I talk to you? You’re always nagging me,” Reese teased, “but really, I know what I’m doing. Successful dance teacher, remember?”

  “You’re right,” Piper agreed.

  “I know, now you go do what you’re made to do, and I will make Claire a dancing star.”

  Piper’s laugh rang over the line, causing Reese to smile.

  “Okay, I’ll take a hint and butt out.”

  “Great idea,” Reese agreed, receiving more laughter from her sister.

  “Talk to you later.”

  “Bye,” Reese said, hitting the end button and leaning back to push up into a bridge. She had always been flexible. Not on
ly did other choreographers love that, but so did a lot of the guys she slept with. Letting herself fall onto the cold floor, she rolled over and stood up, shaking out her stretched muscles. As she placed her phone down and went to turn on the music, the door opened. She turned to see Claire with Harper behind her. Ally was on Harper’s hip, grinning as she waved.

  “Reese Pieces!”

  “Hey, sweetie,” she said, coming over to kiss Ally’s cheek. “How are you?”

  “Good! Claire gonna dance!”

  Reese smiled over at Claire and nodded.

  “I know! I’m so excited!”

  Out the corner of her eye, Reese saw Claire cross her legs, looking very uncomfortable. Ally started to bounce, wanting to get down, but Harper shook her head.

  “No ma’am,” Harper said to her before looking over at Reese. “How long do you need?”

  “Um, probably an hour.”

  Harper nodded. “Ok, I’m going to go to the grocery. If you get done early, call me.”

  “Will do,” Reese said with a bright smile, but Claire wasn’t smiling.

  “You okay, Claire?” Harper asked. Claire looked over and shrugged.

  “Yeah.”

  “Okay, y’all have fun.”

  With that, her sister left. The room was dead silent as Claire looked down at the ground, her bag falling from her shoulder. She wore black sweatpants and hoodie, with her hair pulled up in a bun, and she was working her lip with her teeth.

  She was nervous.

  “Let’s get started,” Reese said, turning to go to the stereo. When she looked back, Claire was dropping her bag and undressing to normal dancer clothes: tight, black booty shorts and a green tank. The green made her hair brighter and her eyes shine. She really was a beautiful girl. She watched as Claire stretched before crossing her legs. Looking up at her, Reese smiled before saying, “I downloaded that song you were dancing to the other day. I want to see what you can do.”

  She shrugged her shoulders, crossing her hands over her stomach.

  “Okay.”

  “Okay,” Reese said, finding the Boyce Avenue song she downloaded. When she hit play, she turned to find Claire standing in the middle of the dance floor, looking back at her. The music played for only a couple seconds before Claire started dancing. Leaning against the wall, she watched as she sailed through the air, moving her body as if it were the words to the song. She had the flexibly, the talent, and the musicality. She was stunning and breathtaking. When she crumbled to the ground as the end of the song talked about being young, Reese came off the wall and restarted it.

  “Again.”

  “Again?” she asked, taking in deep breaths.

  “Yes, this time I’m gonna call out what you can do to make it better, so don’t get startled when I yell, okay?”

  She nodded, moving a stray piece of hair out of her eyes before going back to the middle of the floor. Reese reached for the play button and again, Claire started moving. Reese was in awe watching her. When she yelled out her first correction, Claire didn’t even flinch, and when the trick came up again, she nailed it like a pro, showing Reese that she took direction great. She only had to yell out a few more before the song ended with her crumbling to the ground again. Stopping the music, Reese looked back at Claire, and crossed her arms under her breast.

  “Who choreographed that dance for you?”

  Claire shook her head, folding her own arms across her stomach.

  “No one.”

  Shocked, Reese asked, “So it’s your piece?”

  Claire only nodded as she flexed her toes against the floor.

  “Do you do that a lot?”

  She looked up at Reese.

  “All the time.”

  Reese smiled, hoping Claire would smile back, but she didn’t. Holding her gaze, Reese asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

  She asked the question of all her probation kids. She loved the answers she got. One would think that it would always be a dancer, but it wasn’t. One time a girl told her that she wanted to be a princess. That had Reese laughing her butt off, but she wrote it on her file. When the kid graduated from her studio, she gave them the file so they could keep it forever. She wrote little notes of encouragement and, last year, when one of her seniors graduated, she said that her favorite thing was the file from Reese.

  With a smile still on her face, she looked back over at Claire.

  Claire said, “It doesn’t matter what I want.”

  Reese’s brows came together as she took a step closer.

  “Why?”

  “Because it won’t happen. I’ll more than likely end up a drug addict like my mom.”

  The fuck she would!

  Shocked, Reese shook her head before saying, “No, that’s not true at all. You can change that; you can be what you want.”

  She slowly shook her head, defiantly, but Reese saw her eyes filling with tears. Never had she felt for a child more than at that moment. Usually the kids she worked with were rich kids, ones with good parents that worked hard to give their children everything they wanted. Even in New York, she worked with seriously gifted children. She loved those children, still talked to their parents, but her heart went out to the redhead that stood in front of her. The girl that was scared she would be like her mother. Reese was very passionate about her work and always strived for excellence but, looking at Claire, she not only wanted to make her the best dancer in the world, she wanted to give her the confidence that she was going to be something more than a drug addict.

  “What do you want to be?” Reese asked again, her eyes set on Claire’s light blue eyes.

  Claire shook her head, looking away as she shrugged her shoulders.

  “I don’t know.”

  Reese smiled and said, “Well, I’ll be here until you figure it out and then, when you do, we’ll work to get you there.”

  Claire looked up and said, “You don’t even know me.”

  Reese smiled as she said, “I know, but we will get to know each other, and I will help you.”

  “What if I don’t want that?” she asked, her voice a tad sharper than it was before.

  Reese’s eyes narrowed as she looked up at her with defiance in her eyes. The scared girl from before was gone, and now was the angry one that Reese was warned about. Pointing to the door, Reese said sharply, “There is the door. Don’t let it hit you on the ass.”

  But Claire didn’t move, and Reese went on, saying, “But if you want to stay, then we can work together to make you an even better dancer than you already are. You are spectacular, Claire, but I can make you ten times better.”

  Claire looked at the door and then back to Reese before shrugging her shoulders.

  “Fine, what are we doing next?”

  Reese rocked back on her heels, knowing she had won as she said, “Let’s practice your turns.”

  “CAN I show you something?”

  Reese looked up from the iHome and nodded. After three classes together, Claire still didn’t say much. The only thing she really wanted to do was dance, which was good, but Reese felt like she needed more from her. She didn’t know what it was, but she honestly wanted to help this girl. She felt like if Claire let go, trusted her, it would not only help her as a person, but she would be a thousand times better dancer.

  Reese loved that she liked to show her different dances she thought up, and Reese was blown away by her talent. Claire was amazing, a sight to behold. They had been working a lot of strength training and cleaning up her technique, because it was part of the probation process. Since Reese did it with every child that came through her doors, she was going to do it with Claire, even if she didn’t need it.

  “Sure, but don’t think you can keep me from making you stretch that leg today. I want a straight line, Claire. I know you can do it.”

  Claire came towards Reese, her iPod in hand.

  “I know, I’ve been practicing. I even put it in this dance.”

  “Awesome,
let’s see it then.”

  After setting up the iPod, grungy music filled the studio. As Claire moved her body to it, Reese took her in while listening to the music. The lyrics were as hard hitting as the music was and soon took Reese back to a time that she usually tried to ignore.

  "I have ADHD," Kevin said with a cheeky grin.

  "No you don’t, you're a spaz." Reese laughed as she stretched her leg up into the air.

  “No, really,” he said, bumping his shoulder into hers. “I really do, that’s why I’m always bouncing.”

  “Whatever,” she said offhandedly, as she tried to control her breathing even though her shoulder was tingling from the carefree touch.

  Since coming to Thomas Merry Dance Company, Reese had been on the fast track to the top—the only thing standing in her way was Kevin Eads. Director Merry had paired them to see if Reese meshed well with Kevin since most girls didn’t last long with him. His partner had graduated the month before Reese had come to TMDC, and Director Merry was convinced that Reese was the dancer to withstand him, since Kevin was a hard person to partner. From the moment she was told this, she knew she could handle him. She was ready for the challenge, but then she met him and her confidence went to hell, especially when she saw him dance. She knew she was in love.

  Her crush on Kevin was disgusting, and being in the room with him had her belly in knots. Because of this, she tried to distract herself, practicing the main leg stretch for the performance. It didn’t work though. He was still staring at her, and he was stunning. Big brown eyes that could stop a girl in her tracks, long, blond hair that dusted his shoulders in a rebel way, which told her he didn’t give a shit if people told him to cut it. His body was a thing of the Gods. Toned arms and legs, with an eight pack that could make a girl come at just the sight of it. He was a dream, but when he danced, breathing wasn’t optional. He glided along the floor, his body strong, and his movement fluid. He was mesmerizing, but being a senior dancer meant one thing.

  Hands off, especially when she was a freshman.