Pas de Deux?

Group Rehearsal One Week Later

“Has anyone seen my girl?” Kris asked, wondering where his Violet could be. “I wanted to take her for lunch but she said she needed to get in an extra rehearsal for her solo. I was supposed to meet her here with you guys.”

Kitty and Rhea looked at each other grimly. He hadn’t heard the news yet, and from the looks of it, he was going to be crushed when he found out.

“Uh, she’s unavailable at the moment,” Rhea said carefully.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, she’s in the trainer’s room right now, just go and see her will you?”

“Don’t look at me like that Tanger, I didn’t do it this time!” Talbot declared, pushing Kris towards the door.

Kris had no idea what to expect as he ran down to Jasper’s room, the very place where he had first laid eyes on Violet. Obviously she was still alive, or they wouldn’t be keeping her in the trainer’s room. Maybe she had broken something, or maybe she had a really bad hangnail. His imagination was ripe with possibilities and as he reached the door, Kris laughed lightly, reveling in his own stupidity.

He slowly opened the door and there was Violet, propped up on a table with her ankle hidden beneath a giant ice pack. Kris sat on the edge of her table and sighed when he realized she’d been crying.

“That’s a pretty big ice pack for such a little girl, what happened ma belle?” he asked, brushing a fresh stream of tears from her face.

“Well, I was working on this new jump Eric gave me, but it’s really hard and I should have stopped when I got tired, but I really wanted to get it and I just landed really funny on my ankle” she choked out, realizing she hadn’t taken a single breath during the entire sentence.

“Is it broken?”

“No, just a minor sprain, but the show’s next week and...hey why are you laughing?”

“It’s just that I’m relieved. I thought you’d been attacked by wild dogs and left to drown in a two inch puddle or something.”

“It would have been better that this” she replied sadly.

“What do you mean?” Kris asked, lifting her chin so that she would look at him.

“Ok, don’t get mad, but I don’t know if I’m going to be able to do the show…Jasper said that if I’m good and rest up, that I might be alright to get through my solo, but he doesn’t want me dancing in heels” she said, watching for Kris’ reaction.

“Hey, does that mean I get to miss it too?” he said with a wink. Truthfully, he was not crazy about doing this performance, even if it was with Violet. He just knew he was going to make a fool of himself.

“You wish you were that lucky” she smiled, drawing small circles on the back of his hand.

“They’ve got somebody to do it with you. She knows the steps already” Violet said with an edge in her voice.

“So like a replacement?”

“Yes.”

“Then that’s all she’ll be.”

Violet smiled at Kris, knowing that he meant what he had said. She knew that she could trust him, even though they’d only been dating a week. And truth be told, it was the best week of her life. It was like she was the only girl in the room when Kris was around, but she wondered what would happen after he met Ashley. After all, they didn’t call her the “Space Whore” for nothing.

“Let’s go back up and you can watch me make a fool out of myself” Kris said, bending down so that Violet could hop on his back. She climbed on, wrapping her legs around his waist. She put her arms around his strong shoulders and nuzzled her face into the crook of his neck, taking in the smell of his freshly washed hair.

“What would I do without you?” she asked.

Kris only turned his head, giving her a small peck on the lips. The real question was what was he going to do without her?