What You Mean to Me

Lena.

We pulled up to school as usual, and waked in together. We had out sunglasses on, Frank's arm was around my shoulder, my arm around his waist, and we walked in there like we owned the place. Our little group was outside under our oak tree, and we sauntered over as usual.

When we approached them, Frank and I broke apart, he going to his right, I going to my left, where out "significant others" stood on opposite sides. We would split like we barely knew each other, going to them, kissing and hugging.

This always bothered me a bit, but I couldn't do anything about it. Frank and me were friends, and Frank needed to go to his girlfriend to kiss her good morning. And I needed to go say hi to Jordan.

"Hey babe," he grinned pulling me against him. "You look sexy."

"Hi Jordan," I smiled as he kissed me.

"Okay, okay, get a room for that," Mikey joked walking over.

I heard Jordan groan in annoyance, removing his tongue from my mouth and pulling away slightly, but not too much, so he could still have his arm draped over my shoulders.

"Hey Lena," Mikey smiled giving me a quick hug.

"Hey Milkey Way," I smiled, calling him by his nickname, and my favorite candy bar.

"Hey Frank!" He waved to him.

Frank gave him a single nod before he continued to stick his tongue down Nora's throat. I turned my face away trying to hide the pain. Luckily, and I never thought I would ever say this, but the bell rang, and I was so damn happy.

"I'll see you guys later," I moved away from Jordan. "Bye Mikes."

"Bye baby girl!" He waved energetically.

I gave a small wave to him before waving to Frank. "Bye Frank!"

"I'll see you in second!" He yelled back.

"That's only if you don't cut!"

"I won't!" He promised.

I took a sip from my water bottle, laying down on the wood floor, trying to catch my breath. I had been at the dance studio practicing my solo for the past few hours, trying to perfect it.

"Lena, honestly, you're being too hard on yourself," Frank said from the chair he was in off to the side. "The dance looks great."

"Yeah, but I don't want it to be great," I complained. "It has to be… amazing… fantastic… brilliant." I turned my head sideways so I could look at him, my chest rising and falling more smoothly now. "It's not any of those things as yet."

Frank just stared at me, like he wanted to say something. I suddenly felt warm, almost feverish, like someone does when they first go out into the scorching heat of summer. But this burning feeling was coming from within.

It was an internal heat, not external.

And it was strange.

I quickly looked away from Frank's penetrating gaze, standing up. "I'm just gonna run through it one more time, then we can leave-- promise."

He nodded, still not saying anything, leaning back in the chair.

I glanced over at my director who was in charge of the music for me, and gave her a nod, cuing the music. From the speakers started Timbaland's "Throw It On Me", and so I started into my routine.

My routine was great-- I really liked what I had choreographed. It was mostly hip-hop, with a few modern moves thrown in, and I did dance with props, including a fedora, and a chair for one part.

I had the moves down, but as said before, I had to perfect them. Dancing with props is a difficult thing to do if done correctly, so I had to make sure I was sharp with my movements, so they would look good. And dancing with a chair can sometimes be dangerous, especially when you're jumping off of them, balancing on them, etc.

I was going through one of the parts with the chair as I had done so many time before, when suddenly, the chair gave out from beneath me, tipping, causing me to fall over. I landed on my ankle, and screamed out in pain. The music quickly cut, and Frank was beside me in an instant, with my director rushing over to me.

"Are you okay?" Frank asked, his arm around me.

"My ankle," I gritted my teeth in pain.

"Let me see," my director inspected my ankle, pushing down slightly on certain points, watching my reactions. "You'll be fine," she concluded. "You just rolled it. Ice it, stay off it for a little, and you'll be fine."

I nodded, trying to ignore the pain in my ankle. "Thanks."

"Let's get you home," Frank said picking me up.

He grabbed my dance bag, carrying me to my car, placing me in the passenger side before he took my keys from me and got in the driver's seat.

"I'll stay and take care of you tonight," he told me as we drove back to my place.

"You really don't have to," I assured him. "I mean, I don't want to ruin your Friday night… you already spent the past few hours with me watching me practice… and I'm sure you already have plans with Nora." I tried not to sound bitter with the last part.

I think Frank noticed because he looked over at me.

"What?" I asked.

He just shook his head and smiled, returning his eyes to the road in front of him. "You won't ruin my night. I like watching you practice, and with your mom not here, you need someone to look after you."

"Thanks Frank," I said quietly.

He smiled again. "And I'll just call Nora and tell her I can't meet her tonight."

I swallowed hard finding out that he really did have plans to go out with Nora, feeling my jealousy rising. But I just sighed, settling back into my seat, fiddling with the radio to find something to listen to.