by Amy DeMeritt
Jaime sits down facing me with her hip touching mine and her legs crossed straight out in front of her so they’re in line with my head. I look over at her legs and rub the pad of my thumb over the mesh on the side of her thigh.
“I like these.”
“Thank you. Do you want a pair?” I laugh hard and fall onto my back. “You’re funny.” She smiles and playfully tugs the waist of my thin knee length sweatpants, making the elastic band snap against my hip. “They’re much more comfortable to dance in than these. You should try it.”
“Are you trying to get Kayla to wear leggings?”
Sara and the others are back and sit down around us. Symone sits closest to my other side and looks pissed off at how close Jaime and I are to each other. Her eyes are staring at Jaime’s legs and I follow her eyes and quickly lift my arm. I didn’t realize it was resting on her legs with my hand on her knee.
“I’m not wearing leggings. Get over it.”
“What are you going to do when you get a gig with a girly costume requirement? What if you have to wear booty shorts and a tube top?”
“Uh, no. I’ll have to quit.”
“You can’t quit because of costume requirements, unless it’s just totally degrading or something. I think you should let us start easing you into the possibility by letting us dress you up.” I look at Keira like she has to be insane. I roll over and look around. “Where’s my babies? I need protection from you crazy women.”
They laugh and my girls stand up from the sidelines to come over to sit with us. They sit behind us and I lift up and scoot back to lay my head in Awenasa’s lap, making her smile. She gently caresses my cheek and then rests her hand on the top of my chest.
“Honestly, you better get used to the idea of wearing something out of your comfort zone. We have no idea what this R&B music video is going to be like. And historically speaking, girls in hip-hop and R&B videos usually are a bit more exposed than you’re used to dressing.”
I groan and cover my face with my arms.
“What are you afraid of? You’re beautiful and your body is fucking hot. It’s not like you’d have to be embarrassed by how you look.” I put my arms down and look at Symone. She grins and runs her hand up my thigh, stopping just a few inches below my center. “You really should show off these legs, baby.” I blush and shake my head. “I would look weird. That’s not me.”
“You might feel weird, but you wouldn’t look weird.”
“Whatever. Can we change the subject? All of you trying to dress me like a pretty girl is freaking me out.” They laugh and Awenasa bends down to kiss my lips. “But you are a pretty girl, puppy.” I smile and nip her bottom lip. “You’re beautiful.”
“Thank you.”
“What time do you need us out of here?” Jaime smiles at me for a few moments before looking up at the clock on the wall. “I have a class in an hour. If you don’t want them to swarm all of you, I’d suggest leaving at least twenty minutes before that. I have a few girls that like to get here early to get a little extra practice in before class starts.”
She adjusts her legs to cross them with the other leg on top and my eyes involuntarily look back down at her legs. I grab her ankle and tilt it some.
“How’d you get this scar on your ankle?” Jaime smiles and sits forward some to look at the spot that I’m tracing with my thumb. “I stepped on a horseshoe crab in the bay at Cape Henlopen Beach. Its tail cut me as it swam away.”
“Did that hurt?”
“Not really. I was more startled that anything.”
“How old were you?” Jaime’s widens and she looks down at her ankle again, making me suddenly realize that I’m still tracing the scar with my thumb. I slowly release her ankle and rest my hand on my stomach. “I was there with my science class my junior year of high school, so I guess I was seventeen.”
Symone stands up and starts walking towards the front of the studio. I sit up to see what she’s doing and she’s walking straight for the exit. I jump up to try to stop her. I grab her hand just as she’s stepping outside, but instead of stopping, she grips my hand and pulls me outside with her.
As the door closes behind me, she turns and pins my back against the glass door and presses in close to me, with only a couple inches between us. There’s pain and sadness in her eyes. I don’t like seeing that on her. I’d rather see the annoying hungry lust that used to be there.
“Why did you walk out?”
“Why are you so affectionate with her?”
“Symone, there is nothing between me and Jaime. I promise. My girls trust me. Why can’t you?”
She looks down and steps closer to me, making our bodies touch. She places her hands on my hips and slowly looks up in my eyes.
“Hold me”
I wrap my arms around her and pull her head down to rest on my shoulder. She slides her hands off of my hips and wraps her arms around my waist, pressing her body harder against mine. I run my fingertips up the back of her neck into her hair, gently scratching my nails into her scalp. She releases a small moan and turns her head some, giving me better access to repeat the comforting touch.
She gently kisses the side of my neck a few times and pulls back some to look at me.
“Are we ok, again?”
“Do you want to know more about me?”
“Well, that’s usually how friendships work – you share things about yourselves and get to know each other.” She smiles and laughs a little. “And you’re just friends with her, right?”
“Yes. Can you please trust me and relax about my friendship with Jaime?”
“I’ll try, but you have to give me more. We need to talk like friends more, not just dance partners. I want to have more of your affectionate side too and not just when we’re dancing. If she gets those sides of you, then I should too.”
“Ok, I can do that, but you have to promise that nothing like what happened in New York will ever happen again. If I drop my guards with you, then you have to respect the invisible boundaries that will never disappear.”
“I promise to never touch or kiss you in your sleep. And I promise to do my best never to do those things when you’re awake either.”
“And if you slip up and I tell you to stop?” She smiles and her chocolate milk cheeks blush in a beautiful way. “I’ll listen.”
“I know you don’t like her, but can you try to get along with Jaime?” She groans and rests her head on my shoulder. “Fine. I’ll try.”
“Thank you. Are you ready to go back inside?”
“No. I want to stay in your arms and keep you to myself.” I laugh and rub the side of her face and lift her head off of my shoulder to look at me. “Come on, let’s get back in there.”
“Fine. Can we look for a couple’s dance to do together later when we leave here?”
“Yeah, I’d like that.”
She smiles and slowly releases her arms around my waist, but takes one of my hands. I smile and turn to open the door for us, but she tugs my hand back.
“Wait. Kayla, are you only trying to be my friend to make sure I don’t ruin the gigs in California? Are we really still going to have this after we leave California and I go back home to Philly and you come back to this cute college town where you’re like a hero?”
I turn back to look at her full on and take both of her hands in mine.
“Honestly?” Her face drops for a moment and then she looks up with pain in her eyes and nods once. “Part of the urgency to transition our relationship was to protect the jobs we worked so hard for. I couldn’t bear the thought of all of you losing out on a job so important to the success of your careers. Sara has been dreaming of getting a big job like this her whole life and Keira had to quit her good hospital job to do these music videos. I couldn’t be the reason this fell through. But I am sincere in wanting this friendship and wanting you as my dance partner. I don’t typically speak the desire to have someone as my friend, because its typically not necessary, but our situation is di
fferent. I had to speak up so you knew what I wanted from you and so I didn’t lose you.”
“You were worried about losing me?” I smile and step closer to her, making her lips curl into a cute small smile. “Yes. Are you going to stick around when we leave California?”
“As long as I continue to see a sincere effort from you and I don’t feel like it’s being forced just to keep the peace.”
“Do you feel like I’m being sincere right now?” She smiles and closes the last couple inches between us, making our bodies touch again. “Yes, and I really like this side of you.”
“Good, because I prefer us being like this than having to play defense against a wild sexy seductress.” She laughs hard and presses in closer, pushing my back against the door, making it bang loudly in the doorframe. “I’ll try to contain her, but you make it very hard to keep that side of me locked up.”
“We better retreat back to the safety of the pack because I think you’re losing that battle right now.” She smirks and leans forward so her nose is touching mine. “Thank you for being real with me.” I smile and gently kiss her lips, making her eyes and smile get really big. “You’re welcome. Now, let’s go back inside.”
Without another word, Symone allows me to open the door and follows me back inside, with her hand firmly holding onto mine. Everyone watches us walk back over with nervous expressions on every one of their faces. Sara is staring straight at our hands clasped together and I can tell she doesn’t like it, but I don’t release Symone’s hand till we reach the group and we take a seat. Symone sits back in her original seat, but I decide to sit between Awenasa and Madison instead of laying back down in the center of the group like I was before Symone walked out. Sara’s eyes meet mine and she looks tense.
“All good?”
“Yeah. We should probably discuss a rehearsal schedule before we need to leave here.” Sara nods and looks at Jaime. “What’s your schedule like? When can we come back? Are you free tonight?” Jaime stands up. “Let me get my tablet to look at my schedule. Tonight, should be fine.”
After Jaime leaves, Sara looks at Symone and her eyes narrow some. Symone just stares back, looking completely indifferent and unaffected by Sara’s frustration with her.
“Ok, tonight after seven will work. Tomorrow, we can regroup from 9am to 11am.” Jaime sits down and scrolls through her screen for a minute and then looks up at me. “Kayla, I’m just going to text this to you because it’s going to be all over the place for the rest of the week.”
“Ok, that works.” While Jaime is still looking at her tablet, she holds out an envelope to me. “Before I forget, that’s from your tank top sales. You need to restock as well, the last box you brought is almost sold out.”
I take the envelope and look at it confused.
“But, you’ve already sold like three hundred of those things. That’s almost double what was in the classes.” Jaime smiles and looks up. “A lot of moms have been buying them for themselves and people have been coming in off the street to buy them as well. Fall is coming, so you should change up your merch to include some long sleeves. People are already asking when new merch will be in, so you should have it ready for when you come back from California. A lot of people want a light zip up hoodie with matching sweats like you’re wearing right now.”
I glance inside the envelope and nearly choke. The check is for six thousand dollars. Jaime sold the first box of fifty in less than one day and we had to quickly order more with a rush delivery. I told her to wait till she was out completely to give me the money from the sales, but this check obviously includes even the unsold tank tops. She must not have many left to sell.
“Holy shit.” I hand the check to Madison and she smiles and laughs a little bit when she looks at the amount. “Ok, I’ll get to work on updating the merchandise.”
“I still haven’t seen this tank top in person.” We look at Sara and she has an amused smirk on her face. Jaime smiles and stands up. “I’ll get one. Kayla, I just sent you a text with the schedule.”
“Ok, thanks.”
Jaime comes back within a minute and hands the tank top to Sara and the dance group leans in to look at it together. They smile really big and look at me with approving smiles.
“I want one.” I look at Keira and laugh. “Yeah, right, shut up.” Keira laughs and shakes her head. “I’m serious. I want this. How much is it?”
“Twenty dollars.” Keira looks at Jaime and nods once. “I’ll take it.”
She jumps up and takes the tank top from Sara, pulls Jaime back up from the floor, and follows her back to the front of the studio. Sara looks at me with a big grin and laughs a little.
“Damn, baby sister. Working on creating an empire? At twenty dollars each, and three hundred tank top sales in just a couple weeks, that’s a shit ton of money. How’s the website coming along? When you get it up, you should have wholesale price options for studios like this to buy bulk amounts to sell directly to their students. Especially with all the hype you have right now with the choreography classes.”
I look to Madison to answer, because she’s primarily the one working on the website stuff with the woman who made my logos.
“The website should be ready to go live before you get back from California. I’ll make sure there’s several different merchandise options on there and include the bulk pricing option as well. Would it be ok if I include a business contact option for the group as well for people interested in booking all of you for gigs?” Sara smiles and runs her fingers through her hair. “That would be awesome, but if we’re going to remain a group after California, we need a real name. We’ll need to video chat with Jade and work out those details.”
Keira plops back down with a big smile and tosses tank tops at Symone, Tonya, and Sara, while holding a small bundle of them in her hands.
“Did you buy every last tank top?” Keira laughs and kisses Sara’s lips. “Almost, but no. We should all have one and I know my nieces will love this, so I’m going to ship some home.”
Madison leans behind me to tap Awenasa’s arm, saying “Hey, did you bring it with you?” I look behind myself at both of them. Awenasa smiles and nods. “I did. I’ll grab it.”
“What are you two up to?”
They just smile and kiss my cheeks. Awenasa hops up and goes over to where their bags are. She come back over with a long black jewelry box that I recognize as coming from her Uncle Elsu’s collection. She sits down and hands me the box with a big smile.
“What is this?”
“Open it and find out.”
I look around and everyone is watching me with big amused smiles and it makes me blush. I open the box and emotion wells up inside my chest and stings my eyes. It’s a braided black, white, and gray cord necklace with a silver charm that perfectly matches the dancing wolf that Madison had designed for me, with three silver beads on either side of the charm on the cord. It’s incredible. I lift the necklace out of the box and I just can’t believe how he was able to get the details down so perfectly when the charm is no more than an inch long.
“This is amazing. When did you do this?” I look at Awenasa and she’s smiling really big. “Before Madison showed you the tank top, she asked me if Uncle Elsu would be able to make these for you. She was inspired by the necklace I made you and she wanted something similar. The plan is to have him make these for your online store, if you like it.”
“I love it. Is he going to be able to produce a lot of these though?”
“Yes, he was able to make a perfect mold to easily replicate the charm. This is the original he did by hand, but he said the replica looks identical.”
“This is really cool. I really like this.” I look up and hold it out to Sara. “What do you think?” Sara takes the necklace and smiles and nods in an approving way. “I this this is awesome and your girls must really love you to do all of this for you.”
I smile really big and look at my girls. They’re all smiling and blushing. I laugh a litt
le and tackle all of them, pulling them down to the floor and kissing them all over their faces and lips. A foot kicks mine and I look behind myself at Sara.
“You’re making me uncomfortable. Knock it off.” She smirks and I laugh hard. I release my babies and we sit up to face them again. “Is Uncle Elsu going to be able to have these ready before you launch the website?” Sara hands the necklace back while looking at Awenasa. “Yeah, he said he could have a hundred made in a few weeks once he had our approval to start making them.”
“That’s good, because you’ll probably sell a lot of these. Kayla, are you sure you want to switch your college major to psychology? Maybe you should go for a business major since you guys are turning your dancing career into such a big business.”
“No, I’m going to stick with psychology. My babies are really smart with the business stuff already and you’re always really helpful with that too. I think we’ll be able to figure it out as we go along.”
“Well, you definitely have a really good start so far because of them.” She looks up at the clock and starts to stand up. “We should get out of here so Jaime can get ready for her class.”
Jaime walks all of us back to the front, and before we leave, I give her a tight hug and she smiles and gently kisses my cheek.
“Thanks for taking care of the tank top sales. I really wish you would keep a percentage.”
“You’re welcome. We’ll work something out for the next batch of merchandise.”
“Ok. We’ll see you later.”
Chapter Eighteen
Today is my last day with all of my girls before Awenasa and I leave with the group to fly to California tomorrow. Shannon scheduled a personal day off of work today so she can be with us before we leave tomorrow. But I’m still awake at the time I normally wake up with Shannon to have breakfast with her before she leaves for work in the mornings.