Chapter 25

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Mila's POV

"I absolutely hate you, nasty old piece of wet sock dumbass shithead," Lena swore, hitting me with a rolled up magazine.

"Stop it!" I scowled, shoving her arm away from me. She fumed as she glared up at me, her eyes blazing.

"Why didn't you pick up any of my calls?" she huffed, steering me towards her car.

"Yeah, sorry about that," I chuckled sheepishly.

"Care to explain?"

"I've been busy working on choreography. We still have a third dance to do, assuming we make it to the third round of Nationals," I explained, watching the snow blend into a blur of white.

"You're doing all of it by yourself?" she asked in surprise and I nodded. 

"Mind telling me why Adam was lecturing Ajax yesterday?" she questioned after a moments silence. 

"What?" I turned to look at her in confusion. 

"Yeah, he was pretty mad. Did you guys mess up a lift or something?"

"Well, sort of. I don't know what happened. He just faltered and I lost my balance, but he caught me in time."

"Adam was really mad, he went off on Ajax. I didn't hear much, but he was yelling at Ajax. Something about Anna not being his partner and how she can't control him. Then he called Anna's parents and Ajax into Oskar's office. I don't know what happened after that," Lena explained. 

"Oh," was all I could say. 

"You guys didn't use the folding mats?" Lena asked, her brow raising in question.

"No, we've already run through that routine hundreds of times. There's no way it could've gone that badly. Plus when we're performing there won't be a mat."

After a few moments she asked the question I had been thinking all night. 

"Do you think he did it on purpose?"

We shared a look as I shrugged my shoulders, biting my lip apprehensively. 

"Whatever, let's forget about it," I sighed. Lena nodded, launching into a list of things she wanted for Christmas as we pulled up to the studio. I could always count on her to get my mind off things. 

Tomorrow we would be taking the train to Dresden for the competition, and I couldn't help but feel completely unprepared.

Lena continued to ramble as I walked beside her, but I was too focused on seeing Ajax again. The look of anger on Adams face had me worried. He never got mad.

"Great," I mumbled, pulling open the door to the studio.

A thought crossed my mind as I vaguely remembered the conversation I'd overheard at Ajax's house. The one about dropping someone.

Holy shit.

My eyes widened at the revelation and I quickly waved bye to Lena. 

"Good luck, I'll see you at lunch," Lena spoke, offering a sympathetic smile.

I turned the corner towards the room when I bumped into someone. A scoff left the persons lips as I began to apologize. My eyes clashed with the cold blue of Anna's eyes as I looked up.

"Watch where you're going," she snapped, her face in a permanent scowl. I scoffed, shaking my head. My gaze drifted to her neck and my eyes widened as I noticed her necklace.

My necklace.

My red heart necklace. The one my parent's gifted me.

On Anna's neck.

It only confirmed what I'd just come to suspect. Everything was slowly clicking into place. The phone call, the incident yesterday, the necklace. 

That night, Anna had called Ajax and planned something. Something that had to do with the "accident" earlier. Only it was no accident.

For a moment I felt completely betrayed. It was like a wave of emotions crashed over me. It didn't help that I'd started my period yesterday either. That was to blame for my headache and mad mood yesterday. 

Anger coursed through my veins as I stormed towards the dance room.

I'm going to kill him. I could strangle him with the blindfolds. Or beat him with a hydroflask. Or I could shove him out the window. 

I took a deep breath, pushing open the door to our room. As usual, Ajax was there waiting for me. He looked up from his phone as I dropped my bag onto the floor.

I am very uncomfortable with the energy we've created in the studio today.

"I'm sorry," he said. I immediately rolled my eyes without thinking. 

I was mad, and there was no way he was going to escape my wrath. Too late for that.

"Sorry about the little "accident" that Anna planned to get rid of me so she could be your partner again? Or about the fact that you called me annoying? Or are you sorry that you gave Anna my necklace?" I snapped, feeling my cheeks flush in anger.

"What?" was all he blurted, staring at me dumbfounded. 

"Don't act stupid."

"Mila, I would never do that. I'm sorry about what happened, I should've been more careful. I wasn't focus-"

"This isn't about focusing Ajax. Again, I'm not stupid. I can connect the dots. Adam wouldn't be that mad for no reason. I know you did it on purpose. I have no clue what Anna said to you, or what she did to you. I can't believe you would willingly do that," I stressed. 

"How did you know?" he mumbled and my head almost exploded. I had to take a deep breath and think about how I was too broke to pay bail or I would've strangled him. 

Is he seriously asking me that?

"We've done that dance so many times, it's automatic by now. You would have to think to make such a big mistake like that. From what I heard, Adam gave both of you quite a lecture. So much for "I promise I won't let you fall," I mocked and he winced. 

A pained expression crossed his face as he looked down.

"Look, I never meant to do anything to hurt you. I was never going to let you fall."

"But you considered it," I spoke quietly making him look away. 

"You were going to do it. Until the last second. I felt it Ajax. You hesitated. You could've easily caught me, but held off until something clicked and you grabbed me."

"I couldn't. I couldn't do that to you."

I stayed silent, trying to calm myself down.

"I'll make it up to you, I promise. Please, just give me a chance."

I let out a sigh, rubbing my temples and pulled out my water bottle. 

Did I want to forgive him was the question. 

If he hadn't changed his mind an caught me, I could've gotten seriously injured. The fact that he even considered it had me shocked. 

"I'll forgive you. If we win nationals with no more roadblocks. And for goodness sake, stop talking to that witch Anna," I groaned, shaking my head.

"Deal, I won't let you down," he stated firmly, a look of hope on his face.

I had to keep myself from saying 'too bad, you already did.'

"And we're changing that lift," I muttered, throwing my water bottle into my bag. 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Lena and I sat in the back of the studio, watching Adam go over a choreography. It was always funny to me how he didn't know the words and ended up making some random sounds.

"5,6,7,8! Hit, hit, boom, snap. Snap, hit, boom, and turn!"

We burst into a fit of laughter at the random sounds he was making in place of the lyrics.

"Oh wait, look at this bruise I got," Lena spoke up, raising her leggings to show me.

An ugly fist sized green mark covered her shin.

"Ew, that looks like it hurt," I cringed.

"I am definitely so sore today after that ballet session. Like my ass hurts, when does that ever happen? I tried to get up after lunch and I almost fell over" she sighed, leaning her head against the wall.

Lena started taking Neoclassical Ballet class twice a week. I had a feeling she regretted it. 

"I tell myself I'll stretch everyday for 20 minutes. Guess what? I never do it," I shrugged and we chuckled.

"I only stretch before dance, or if I'm bored while watching a movie. You know, just stick my leg up in the air or lay down on the floor and do the splits," Lena joked.

"Same! I'm going to have to stretch like crazy before competition," I groaned.

"Nooo, you're leaving me again," she whined dramatically, leaning her weight onto me.

"Alright, let's run the dance one more time. Then you can go," Adam said to the junior level class.

Lena and I shared a look, snickering because we knew Adam's "one more time" meant 10 more times. Poor kids. 

I found myself thinking about how lucky I was to have Lena as a friend. She was the only one who welcomed me to RDA and without her, I'd probably be a loner.

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