Stolen Virtue

The day of the show was finally here and I was not feeling as excited as the rest of the group. After the incident with Brianna, I started to keep more to myself. A few members of the dance group would avoid making eye contact with me, or they would be whispering and talking about me when they thought I wasn’t listening.

Clyde has been trying to talk to me all week, but I always made sure that we were never alone. Or I would make an excuse and leave. The Bs has left me alone too, they were back to pretending like I didn’t exist.

I was warming up in the girls changing room with Amy, waiting to be called out when it’s our turn to perform. Sanity was there too, trying very unsuccessfully to calm my nerves. I was scared and worry that I’d go out there and forget my steps. I’ve grown a lot more confident than when I first walked into the auditorium, but not so confident, that I’m not scared witless of making a complete fool out of myself.

Mrs Moore, the music teacher, poked her head into the room, to tell us we were on in 5. Ok, I was about ready to run for the nearest exit. My palms were sweating and I was shaking like a leaf.

Sanity noticed this and started to reassure me, “Hey Juliet, look at me.” I looked at her and she smiled, “You can do this. You’ve survived worse than this. I know you, you’re not a quitter. You’ve got this. So go out there and make me proud.”

I nodded, tears running down my face and hers. She chuckled swiping at the runaway tears. “Now, you’ve got me crying, and I hate crying.” We both laughed and hugged each other.

There was barely enough time to touch up my make-up after my crying session. It was my groups turn to go out and perform. Amy came to stand by me as I was watching the turnout of students and parents. I scan the crowd for my sister and saw her sitting in the front row of the auditorium, with Dillon and Sanity.

Clyde motioned us over to him, “It’s time to go guys.”

Amy smiled, “Let’s go show em how it’s done.” She ran out into the auditorium.

I blew out a nerves breath and started to follow the group. Clyde captured my hand as I was leaving, pulling me back into the shadows, startling me.

“Hey, you ok?”

The concern in his voice was very sweet. But why does he care? After the way I’ve been ignoring him, I’m the last person he should be worried about. Unless he’s afraid, I’ll screw up and mess up the whole show. Yep, that must be it.

I smiled my best confident smile, hoping to reassure him. “Yeah, I’m fine, you don’t have to worry about me screwing up the show. I’ve got this.”

Clyde looked at me hurt and confused for a few second, then it went just as fast as it came. He ran his hands through his beautiful brown locks then smiled.

“That’s not the reason I… Look, I just wanted to make sure you were ok and now that I know you are, I’ll leave you alone.” The way he said that and walked off sounded so final. Why did that bother me so much?

The crowd was cheering loud and a few of the students had banners, with words of encouragement. The music started and we danced and sing. Slowly first to a song from the 50s then we work our way through to the 20th century. The crowd cheered and shouted, there was even some whistling. I was tired and glad to be done. There was one last number to do, the closing number that involved Clyde dancing and singing with Brenda. Their closing duet.

I was back in the area of the gym that was cleared for us, grabbing my bags to go get changed to join my friends and family to watch the last number. I heard arguing when I was passing to get to the changing room. I stopped when I saw Amy and a few others listening in.

“What’s going on?” I whispered, coming to stand next to Amy.Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.

“Apparently, Brenda tripped over a shoe and hurt her ankle. Now she can’t dance with Clyde.” Amy whispered back, looking anything but sympathetic. A little too happy if you ask me.

I started to ask her what her smile was all about when I heard my name along with shouting.

“Hell no Clyde, take Brittany or Brianna, they know the steps. Miss I’m so perfect Juliet is out of the question!”

“Suck it up Brenda, we both know she could do those moves in her sleep. You’ve seen how hard she’s been working, can you guarantee that Brit or Bria will not miss a step?”

There was silence then came Brenda loud annoying voice again. “And this has nothing to do with the fact that you’ve got the hots for her? The way you’ve been watching her is pathetic.”

I gasped and everyone who was outside Brenda’s dressing room turned to look at me. My cheeks turned fire engine red. We all wanted to hear what Clyde would say, but no reply came. They started talking quietly so I decided it was my time to leave.

I had just finished wiggling into my black skinny jeans and was rifling through my bag for my summer green top, the one I didn’t need a bra to wear. That’s what my sister called it anyway. When the door to the dressing room came open. I paid it no heed. I’ve changed with the girls before, and we’ve all seen each other’s bits. I located my top and then removed my bra.

It was already on the floor when I heard someone cleared their throat. I turned around and almost fainted when I saw Clyde standing there. My hand came up so fast, covering my relatively small breast or my fun size breast as Sanity called them. We just stood there staring at each other. I felt slightly uncomfortable when his eyes started travelling up and down my body. I shift and cleared my throat, bring his eyes to my face.

He didn’t look in the least bit ashamed, to be caught ogling me. He smiled and gestured to the clothes in his hands, “You wanna put these on, we’ve got a duet to do.”

I stared wide-eyed at him. What the hell! No sorry for barging in on you while you were changing or sorry for picturing you spread out on a bed. Not even a please can you do this duet with me. Guys got big balls.

I ignored his clothes, turning my back on him, I grabbed my top and quickly pull it over my head. When I was certain I was decent enough, I turned back to face him.

“Nope, I think I’m done for the night. Get someone else to do it.” I grabbed my bag and pushed past him to leave.

His hand circled around my waist, pulling me to him. I gasped looking up at him. He gazed at my lips then into my eyes, “I don’t want anyone else, just you.” his words sounded like they had a double meaning.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and push a little on his chest to be let go. He held me a little tighter, then let go taking a step back.

“Look, Brenda has hurt her ankle, and no one knows the moves like you do and you can out-sing all of them combined. I need you… Please.” It was the please that did it for me. Well, and everything else he said wasn’t so bad either.

“Ok,” I sighed, then glared at the clothes, “But I’m not wearing that.”

The clothes Brenda had chosen to wear, was anything but clothes. The top was shorter than my bra and my panties covered a lot more than the skirt. Like hell, I was wearing that. I looked at the clothes again and snorted.

“You can’t even pay me to dress like a hooker, much less for free.”

Clyde laughed. “Wear whatever you want, as long as you wear something. Because from what I just saw, you’d cause a riot if you were to show all that skin.” He turned and walked away leaving me wondering about that, and yes, red with embarrassment.

I wanted to keep on what I was wearing already, but I knew that dancing would be difficult in tight jeans. I quickly change into my high waist, black wet look leggings and a cute white baggy belly top showing a bit of skin, but not too much. I sure didn’t wanna cause a riot.

I made my way to find Clyde, my black stiletto making everyone turn to see who was coming their way. Clyde turned when he heard the sound, giving me a once over before smiling.

“It’s hard to decide.”

I frowned at him. What’s he on about now? “What’s hard to decide?” I asked.

He looked me up and down again then smirked, “If I prefer you with or without clothes.” He didn’t wait for me to reply to him. Grabbing my hand, he pulled me with him. “Come on, it’s showtime.”