“Yeah, well, neither did I.” He looked troubled, like it bothered him. “It wasn’t meant to happen the way it did but, fuck, she has me by the goddamn balls.” I stared at him wide-eyed, not sure what else was going to come out of his mouth. “Her name is Haisley.”
“Haisley?” That felt like the tenth surprise since he’d been here. I’d expected him to say Reign, a dancer from the club. They’d been close for years, but now he was talking about someone else entirely different. Everything around me was changing, and I felt stuck inside this house with no future in sight. My life was on pause, and I hated it.
“Yeah. She’s…different.” His gaze drifted away from me, a smile pulling at his lips. “She’s unlike anyone else I’ve ever met.”
“Well, shit, Jax. Sounds like you’re in love.”
“It does.” He sighed. “Fuck. This is some bullshit.” He growled as if he was frustrated with himself. “You should come to the club and meet her.”
“The club?” My heart raced for a different reason. There was no way I could go back to Pink Feather and take my clothes off for money. I couldn’t expose myself like that, not anymore. I opened my mouth, about to tell him that, but a knock on the front door rang out. A quick look at the clock on the wall told me it would be Leo.
“That’s probably your friend.”
“It is…wait…how did you know Leo was coming over?”
Jax tapped the side of his head with a grin on his face, then headed toward the front door. I didn’t move from my spot in the kitchen as I heard their voices, and a second later, Leo appeared with Jax behind him. “I’m gonna head out now that he’s here.” Jax beelined toward me, wrapped his arms around my shoulders, and I relished in his hold. “By the way,” he whispered. “You’re fired from Pink Feather.” He left with those words hanging in the air and a parting wink.
ELODIE
I stood in front of the window, staring out at my car sitting on the driveway. The tapping of my pencil against the windowsill echoed in the otherwise empty house, and my muscles ached with something I hadn’t felt for months: the need to dance.
I hadn’t wanted to put my emotions on display in the only way I knew how to, but something was niggling at me today. Something telling me to stretch my limbs and move to music that called to my soul. But there was one thing stopping me…
I hadn’t been out of the house on my own. I hadn’t driven my car for months. I hadn’t stepped foot in the studio for way too long.
But I couldn’t deny the soul-deep need.
It was only days until Christmas, and the last day Asher was working until after the holiday, so if I was going to take the plunge, now would be the time because, after today, I wouldn’t be alone again until my first day of school.
I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t leave the safety of the walls surrounding me. Or could I? My breaths quickened at the idea of my bare feet touching the dance studio floor, and I couldn’t push the feeling aside any longer.
“Fuck it.” I dropped the pencil on the coffee table, ran upstairs, grabbed my dance bag and keys, then shot back down them, and pulled the front door open before I changed my mind. The cold air whipped at my face, and I felt…okay. I wasn’t freaking out. I wasn’t finding it hard to breathe. If anything, it was easier now that I wasn’t cooped up inside.
It was time. Time I took more of my control back. Time I let out all of these feelings I’d kept locked up inside me.
Each step to my car felt like a marathon I’d run, but as I pulled the driver’s door open, I couldn’t deny the smile working its way on my face.
The engine spluttered, threatening not to start, but eventually, it came to life, and I backed out of the driveway, working on automatic and not overthinking anything as I headed toward the dance studio and Asher’s shop. The closer I got, the easier I could breathe. My body burned with the need to dance, and I could barely contain myself by the time I parked outside the studio. I chanted at myself to not look at the front of East Ink, afraid it would be my undoing. All I needed to do was keep my attention zoned in on the dance studio.
I spotted Aleste sitting in the front reception area as I turned the engine off. Her head turned, her eyes widening, and I couldn’t contain my excitement any longer. I grabbed my bag off the passenger seat and pushed out of the car, heading right toward her. A small bell went off as I entered the building, and my face nearly broke with how big I grinned.
“Hey.”
“Elodie,” she whispered, darting around the front desk. “I can’t believe you’re here.” She placed her hand on my arm, and that was all I needed from her to know she was here if I needed her. Sometimes the smallest of motions meant the most.
“Can I dance?” I asked, not able to keep the words in any longer. The smell of wooden floors and soft music called to me in a way nothing else ever did. It was the release I’d been craving for longer than I’d realized.
“It’s all yours.” She waved her arm at the studio doors, and I didn’t think twice about stepping toward them and into the studio. I still had on my jeans and T-shirt, so I walked across the wooden floor toward the changing room. I shucked off my clothes as fast as I could, pulled on my leotard and dance leggings, then headed back into the studio.
I could sense eyes on me, and a quick look over at the viewing window told me Aleste was watching with a grin on her face and her hands to her chest. I didn’t want to think too much into it, so I warmed up, stretched, then connected my cell to the sound system.
I strolled into the middle of the room, glanced at myself in the mirror, and waited for the first beats of the music. As soon as they vibrated around the studio, I lifted my hand, took a deep breath, and let my body speak the words my mouth wouldn’t.
ASHER
I wiped down my section as my second client of the day exited the shop and sighed at the sounds of the tattoo machines surrounding me. I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed the buzz of them until they weren’t around me. They calmed me but also made me itch to mark someone’s skin with artwork.
I pulled my black latex gloves off and threw them in the trash, then headed to the front of the shop. I didn’t have another client for at least an hour, so I’d have enough time to grab some lunch and—
The door whooshed open, and a red-faced Maverick slid to a stop in front of me. “I just…” He tried to pull in a breath. “I saw…” His took two huge gulps of air, then rushed out, “I just saw Elodie.”
“What?” I darted around the counter and grabbed ahold of his arms. “Where?”
He lifted his arm and pointed across the street. “She was going into the dance studio.”
I felt the blood drain from my face as I turned and saw her car parked in front of Aleste’s studio. She hadn’t been outside on her own since we’d come back from the lake house weeks ago. And she hadn’t told me she was going to the dance studio. Not that she needed to tell me, but fuck…what the hell was going on? She’d been stuck inside the house for weeks, and now she’d gone out on her own?
I pushed Mav aside and practically ran out of the shop and over the road, not stopping until I yanked the dance studio door open. Aleste snapped her head to the side, but when she saw it was me, she waved her hand to join her. “Come and watch her,” she whispered as if she didn’t want to talk too loudly to disturb Elodie.
My feet carried me forward and toward the window Aleste stood in front of. I wasn’t sure what I was going to see, wasn’t sure what I was going to be faced with, but it was so far from what I’d expected. My panic turned into wariness at the sight of her in the middle of the dance floor. She stretched her arms above her and let her head drop back, and I swallowed as she lifted onto her tiptoes, reaching as far as she could. You could see each movement of her chest with each breath she took, exactly on the beat of the music. She wasn’t just dancing.
She was the dance.
I’d watched Elodie dance at Pink Feather. I’d been mesmerized by the way her body flowed to the sexy music
, but it was nothing like this. The sad tone of the violins in the music playing gripped at my heart, and the pain etched on Elodie’s features threatened to tear me apart. She was bleeding. Opening the wound she’d tried to heal and leaving it on the wooden floor of the studio for all to see.
My breath caught in my throat as she leaped in the air, did the splits, then landed on one foot and twirled on the spot. Her body collapsed in on itself, and I took a step forward, feeling the need to save her, but the music was still playing, and she wasn’t done with letting it all out.
I could barely stand to watch as she told the story—her story. She exposed herself in ways I’d never seen before, and with one final leap, she crashed onto the floor, wrapped her arms around her legs, and bowed her back, letting the final beats of the music fade into the background.
“She’s…”
“Amazing,” Aleste finished for me. I wasn’t sure that was a strong enough word, not for what I’d just witnessed. The silence echoed around us, but neither Aleste nor I moved from the spot we were in for several seconds. But the longer time went by and the more Elodie didn’t move, the more I needed to get in there with her.
I stepped toward the door but was halted by Aleste’s hand on my arm. “Shoes off first.”
“Right,” I choked out, pushing my boots off my feet.
The door swung open, but Elodie didn’t look up, not until I was crouched down next to her. “Fuck, sweetheart.” Her gaze met mine, her eyes glassy with tears threatening to fall. “I’ve never seen anything like that before.” A lump formed in my throat, one I wasn’t sure would ever disappear. “You were…electric, fascinating, amazing.” I couldn’t help but reach for her, and as soon as my palm whispered over her cheek, a tear fell.
“I needed to let it all out,” she choked. “I had to get rid of it.”
“I get it,” I told her, letting my ass drop to the floor. I opened my legs, pulled her toward me, then cocooned her in my arms. Her hand grabbed my T-shirt, holding on as tight as she could. We sat there, in the middle of the floor for what felt like seconds…hours. I didn’t want to move an inch, scared I’d tilt the balance we’d created.
“I missed it,” she whispered. I tilted my head down as she looked up at me, the torment in her eyes replaced with fascination. “I missed dancing.”
“I could tell.” I ran the palm of my hand over her head, pushing some sweaty strands off her face. “This was the next step.” As I said the words, I realized how true they were. She still had more steps to take, but this one…this one was a huge leap she’d needed to do on her own.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
ELODIE
I stared down the mostly empty hallway as nerves thrashed through my body at high speed. I’d made it this far, but now I was frozen to the spot, too scared to take another step inside the school. It had been nearly three months since I’d last walked through these halls. Three months of pain. Three months of healing. Yet, I felt just as broken as I did back then.
I’d driven into school early, so I didn’t have to put up with the stares from the other students. I’d figured it would ease me back into it, which was why I’d forgone the ride Asher said he’d give me. I had to face this without him there for me to fall back on, and now I was regretting that decision. I should have just let him bring me to school and begged him to stay with me.
“Elodie,” a voice said from behind me, and I closed my eyes in relief. “I’ll walk you to your locker.”
I swallowed, opened my eyes back up, then turned to face Leo. I wasn’t alone here. I had my only real friend, and although he was several years younger than me, he provided a comfort I hadn’t known I’d needed. “Thank you,” I croaked out.
My legs were stiff as I walked beside him down the hallway. Students were starting to file inside the building, and I could feel their stares burning a hole in me. I couldn’t help but wonder what they thought about me. Did they believe the lies Knox was sure to have told them? Of course they did. He was the popular guy in school, the one who could do no wrong, not in their eyes anyway.
Whispers echoed the closer to my locker I got, and when I finally made it there, it felt like I’d run a marathon. “Thanks, Leo.”
He leaned against the locker next to mine as my shaky hands reached for the lock. I didn’t know why I was opening my locker because it wasn’t as if I was going to come back here throughout the day. But it felt like the right thing to do—the normal thing to do. Everyone else was gathering their things, so I was trying to follow suit, trying to mix in with the masses, but I wasn’t doing a very good job of it. I may as well have had a neon arrow above my head.
I pulled my backpack off and opened up the zip, staring inside it and wondering what the hell I was doing. I should have stayed home. I should have just settled for getting my GED and been done with it.
“You’re doing good,” Leo murmured, low enough so only I could hear him.
“Am I?” I asked, moving my gaze to meet his eyes. “Because it doesn’t feel like it.”
He smiled, the same smile all the Easton men did. “You’d never know.” His attention slid away from mine for a second and he stood to his full height. He’d had a growth spurt over the last few months and was now taller than me. “Come on, I’ll walk to your first class with you.”
“You don’t have to—”
“I want to,” he cut me off. “Besides, my first class is near yours anyway.” He shrugged as if it was no big deal, but it was. It was a big deal because I shouldn’t have been scared to simply walk to class. My life had changed so much in such a short amount of time, and I had no idea whether I was coming or going. I was caught in a whirlwind, holding on tight until I was spat back out to land on my feet.
I closed my locker, took a breath, and then walked through the now packed halls. Whispers and words I couldn’t make out surrounded me. I tried to ignore them the best I could, but the word “liar” was repeated over and over again. They didn’t believe what had happened, and I wasn’t surprised in the least. Knox was the big shot at this school, and now he wasn’t even allowed to attend. It was my fault he couldn’t be here. My fault he couldn’t run these halls the way he always had.
But it wasn’t my fault. It was his fault. He decided to break into the shop. He walked into my apartment that night. He took what he had no right to. This was all his fault. And the more I reminded myself of that, the more my shoulders pushed back, and my head lifted. I didn’t need to be ashamed. I hadn’t made any of the choices because they’d been ripped away from me. All I’d done was told the truth, and now the pieces were falling into place.
So, I didn’t care if they didn’t believe me. I didn’t care that in my first class a note was thrown across to me. I didn’t open it because I wasn’t going to give them the time of day. I was here to attend my classes and get my diploma. That was it.
My second class went much like my first, but by lunchtime, students weren’t whispering. Instead, they were talking about me at a normal level, tearing who I was to shreds with their words. But still, I didn’t let it get to me. Nothing they said or did could compare to what I had already been through. If anything, they were giving me the strength to continue on the path I’d started. They were making me realize how all too often things like this happened. Victims were made to feel ashamed—scared into silence. But not this time. This time I’d take the victim label and twist it, turning it.
I was a survivor.
I’d survived my life in a trailer. I’d survived each day with an addict for a mother. I’d survived my days where Knox would wear me down. I’d survived Knox raping me. I was a survivor. And not one person in this school was going to make me feel any less than that.
So, as the last bell of the day rang, and I packed up my books into my bag, I patted myself on the back for making it through my first day back. I’d done it on my own. I’d faced the people at this school and not given in.
Until I exited the school and tripped over someone�
�s foot. My hands came out to save me, my palms scraping against the rough ground of the top step, and my face missed smacking into it by mere centimeters.
Laughs echoed around me, jeers and applause mixing in with them. I could have kept my face down. I could have waited them out and scampered away. But I was done. I was done with letting people push me around and judge me without knowing me. Done with feeling like the scared little girl I used to be. So, I slowly stood, keeping my gaze fixated right in front of me.
“Is that all you’ve got?” I asked, feeling my blood pumping through my body. My hands stung from the grazes and I let it fuel me—let it push me forward. “You think tripping me up and calling me names will change anything?” My voice was louder now, carrying over the errant laughs until silence ensued.
“You’re a fucking liar!” a male voice shouted, followed by several jeers.
“Were you there?” My breaths came harder and faster, my head starting to spin.
“Elodie,” Leo said from behind me, but I ignored him. I wasn’t going to stand for this any longer. I wasn’t going to be scared every time I had to come to school. This should have been one of my safe spaces, not the place I dreaded coming to most.
“No.” I stepped forward and glanced out at the crowd of students. Their expressions ranged from anger to shock. “None of you were there.” My nostrils flared and my hands clenched at my sides. “You think he’d have been charged if he didn’t do it?” Silence rang out so loudly it almost hurt my ears. “I don’t have to answer to any of you.” I shook my head and took a step forward. “I don’t give a flying fuck if any of you believe me or not. Just leave me the hell alone.”
I didn’t say another word as I walked down the steps and through the crowd. They parted for me, the whispers starting again, but there was a different vibe to them this time. Shock and understanding.
Burned Duet: Asher & Elodie: Fast Burn & Deep Burn (Easton Family Duet Boxsets Book 4) Page 36