Taken and Misused.

“Elisabeth, you’re quite early today” Mr. Dellmonte said as I walked into his dance studio. I noticed there were four other dancers in the studio as well, they were dancing and Mr. Dellmonte motioned for them to stop as I came in. One of the two girls flashed me a bright smile, her hair was short, bright blonde and was spiked up in a fo-hawk. It fit her very well. I smiled back and she sat down on the floor, laughing at something one of the two men said.

“There was no traffic today” I said, usually there were so many people going to their jobs in the morning it was hard to get through the streets.

“Well, get started with your stretches and when Stephen arrives I will explain what today’s lesson will be, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it” he said with that cryptic tone that held more than enough humor. It always felt like he was thinking about some sort of inside joke.

“I do love surprises” I said, turning away to go sit down and stretch.

“That’s the spirit Elisabeth” he said, a chuckle twining through his words. I smiled slightly, as confusing as he was, Mr. Dellmonte was a very good teacher and a nice one as well.

I sat down near one of the large floor to ceiling windows taking up the outer side of the room and stretched my legs out and bent foreword to grab my toes, touching my forehead to the wooden floor.

“Hey, so how’s being Stephen’s partner going?” came an upbeat voice, I knew before I even looked up the girl talking would be smiling. And of course, when my crystalline eyes met her dark brown ones a smile was spread across her lips.

“You know him?” I asked, spreading my legs apart and reaching over to each side and twisting my body to stretch my back and legs at the same time.

“We all know him,” she said gesturing to the other three dancers messing around in the middle of the floor. “And we all know why he scares away partners” she said, sitting down across from me and crossing her legs Indian style.

“It couldn’t be his lovely social skills could it?” I muttered, sounding slightly bitter. Stephen’s attitude had not let up at all the past few days, if anything it had gotten worse now that we were not focusing on ballet. It seemed that he as well as I had come from a school who taught only ballet, and this school taught ballroom, ballet, tap, and jazz. But Mr. Dellmonte said everything he was teaching us would benefit how we dance as partners and our ballet skills, also, he had mentioned a recital coming up for ballroom dancing and informed us that he would like us to take part in it. When we had mentioned declining he had just chuckled and told us he had already signed us up. Such a considerate man.

“I’m pretty sure that’s not the reason” she said with a sincere laugh. “I’m Tabytha by the way, I go by Taby though” she said, holding out her hand for me.

“I’m Elisabeth” I replied, reaching out and shaking her hand with a smile. “What are you guys doing here?” I asked pleasantly. I was actually glad I had gotten the chance to meet Tabytha, she seemed really nice.

“Mr. Dellmonte just wanted us to show you what he’s been teaching us, I don’t know why he wants to show you what a tango looks like, I thought you guys would be doing ballet since Stephen does” she said, messing with the small buckle on her shoe.

“I thought so too” I answered, maybe a little on the bitter side.

“He’s like that kung fu master guy from that one movie,” she said, speaking softly so her voice didn’t carry. When I just furrowed my eye brows and tilted my head to the side in a confused expression she seemed slightly surprised. “Don’t they have The Karate Kid in France?” she asked, leaning forward towards me. I laughed and shook my head; Tabytha seemed really young, even though I was just twenty one so she couldn’t be that much younger than I was.

“I’ve never been a very movie watching type” I said, shrugging my shoulders when I brought my arms back down from stretching them. After stretching I always loved how my body felt, all loose yet still tense with the prospect of dancing. Any dance, as long as I could put my lean muscles to use. I guess I was warming up to other dances; I used to be a ballerina and only a ballerina, now I considered myself a dancer. No specifics anymore.

“I’ll have to show you the one part that reminds me of Mr. Dellmonte though” Tabytha insisted, standing up with me and doing a little stretch of her arms.

“So-“ but I was cut off by Stephen walking into class, exactly on time. Talk about being precise, I thought wryly. Stephen’s dark hair looked slightly messy today, as if he hadn’t had the time to sleek it down into its perfect style. It made me curious to know what had been preoccupying him, but I thought better of it and decided to keep my nose out of his business.

“Nice of you to join us Stephen, and right on time too” Mr. Dellmonte said, in his always chipper voice, although sometimes it hid sarcasm.

“Good morning” he said, beginning his stretches without being told and without starting up a conversation with any of the other dancers. He was always closed off and private, no wonder he didn’t have any friends. That thought made me feel bad, I may not like him much but everyone needs a friend no matter how childish that sounded.

I turned away from him and placed my palms on my bare back, twisting my shoulders back to pop them. At my school in France there was a set in stone uniform of a black, white, or nude leotard with black, white, or nude tights. My old school had also been a strict ballet school, no other forms of dance. So being able to come here and learn a few more things and be able to wear my comfortable dance clothes such as what I wore now, with my open back nude tank top and a flowy black skirt with the unspokenly mandatory tights (because no one wanted to flash someone while dancing).

I was warming up to learning new dances, but Stephen was definitely not. I glanced over at Tabytha’s pixy like form and wondered if she knew why he was so annoyed about not focusing on ballet, I’d have to remember to ask I mentally noted.

“So Elisabeth, Stephen, as you can see we have a few more dancers with us today-“ Mr. Dellmonte started, but a small mutter from Stephen made him pause for a moment. I had only caught Stephen saying, “not only are we not learning ballet but we must share our lessons” before Mr. Dellmonte continued. “And they are going to show you what you will be performing at the ballroom dance recital, the tango” he finished, clapping his hands together in excitement.

My cheeks heated up for a moment remembering what me and Vaughn had been doing just this morning, the tango always seemed like such a personal dance, something to be shared between two people who were at least friends. And here I was about to perform it with Mister anti-social-I don’t-want-to-be-your-friend.

Just great.