🚨Trigger Warning: A particularly bad message is sent to Eve. Don't worry, she claps back (which you will see after the second siren. Take care bbs 🚨

I took off, twirling as soon as my body allowed me. The poster above Dad's head became my focus point, but not for long. The next twirl sent me a couple of feet away in a split second, where a crack by the door became my focus. 

I was working on the famous twirls from the ballet, hoping that I could get it down in a couple of weeks. Miss Sophie didn't know I worked on this outside of class, and I sure as hell didn't want to tell her until opening night. The only people that knew were the people on stage- so they could move out of the way.

Dad helped me rent out this studio space and told me that the band would be coming here every few days to have "meetings". I appreciated the effort of keeping this a secret. 

About halfway around the room, I couldn't find a focus spot and got dizzy. As soon as I felt myself falling, I twisted so I would land on my hip. I groaned in pain, mentally taking in the damage.

"You okay kid?" Dad asked.

"I will be," I mumbled. Pain radiated from my hip, reaching between my armpit and my knee. Sweat coated my body- it covered my forehead in a thick sheen, and left stains on my shirt.

The famous pirouettes were in Act 1, which meant I needed to be able to do them and still have some energy to keep going. If I continued to work on them, surely then I could do it by the time the production rolled around.

Right?

"How's Pete doing?" I breathlessly asked. Sun filtered in through the windows, and the music continued to play.

"Still in China, still discovering himself," Dad said.

"How about that band you were supposed to play with last month?" I rolled my head over to look at Dad.

He put his phone down, "They got to play with All American Rejects."

"Noice," I mumbled, running a hand down my face.

I rolled myself over, pushing up gently. My hip protested, and I winced. 

"Start it over," I said, walking over to my starting position. The music restarted, and I took off.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

crankycrewd: Why isn't Eve posting about the ballet anymore?

hufflepufpuffpass: Maybe she got let go from the ballet?

constantlyscreaming: Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I groaned in frustration, reading the Reddit comments. I had just been scrolling when I saw the thread.

Ana wrapped her arms around my waist and rested her head on my chin, "You okay baby?"

I just turned my phone to Ana. She read through it, and sighed as well. "They were bound to notice eventually."

"Notice what?" Sam asked over the noise of the mall. We had come for a de-stressing shopping spree.

"They've noticed that Eve stopped posting about the ballet, they're wondering what happened," Ana explained.

He nodded, "They'll get over it."

"I hope so," I mumbled. We walked into the Hot Topic, beginning to browse the shelves.

Sam stood, "Come on, let's get some cool stuff."

I nodded, turning and pulling Ana through the aisles. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ana and I got home that night and- while she was watching a movie, I exercised on the ground. I pulled myself into a split, leaning over and grabbing my foot. I couldn't bend so that I laid flat on my leg, but that's what we were working towards.

"Babe, take a break. You're gonna overwork yourself," Ana chastized from the bed.

I sighed, slowly pulling out of the stretch. "Fiiiiine," I stood and crawled in bed next to her. She immediately wrapped her arms around me, pulling me close to her.

I inhaled, tucking my head into her shoulder. I could feel the exhaustion setting in. I shut my eyes, listening to the movie. 

It would be fine.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two days before the ballet, people had started making articles. My DMs were being flooded with messages. I had my finger on the power button to turn it off when I received a particularly bad message.

🚨

fknwaterboi: Why aren't you posting about the ballet anymore? Did your dance instructor finally realize just how bad you are at dancing? How fat you are? I hope you lost your part faggot.

🚨

I groaned, clicking the message.

stumpyeve: First, my director actually supports Ana and I. Second, I didn't lose my part. I found out recently that she put me in the part because it was a cash grab for her. I'm going to be leaving this particular studio after this season. Feel free to screenshot this- might as well. My director already knows. And, by the way, I've been basically starving myself because of said director, and if it weren't for the fact that I am so tired that I don't care, you could have triggered me. Don't do shit like that anymore.

And with that, I turned my phone off. 

And before you ask, yes, people went bat-shit crazy.