Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 48146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 241(@200wpm)___ 193(@250wpm)___ 160(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 48146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 241(@200wpm)___ 193(@250wpm)___ 160(@300wpm)
That was why I’d left the party—to give him room to breathe.
“What’s going on with you?” Lark asked, picking at his salad. “You seem distracted lately.”
“Do I?” I supposed I was. The fact that Lark noticed wasn’t exactly good. “I can’t tell you, even if I want to…”
“I’d totally keep your confidence.” He tapped my wrist. “You kept mine.”
Last year, I’d guessed that Lark and Henry were hooking up on the regular, but Henry hadn’t been out, so I’d kept my mouth shut and watched from a distance as they grew closer. They were cute together, and I was happy for them.
But this situation was different, and I was dying to talk to someone about it. Even in general terms. “Okay, well… I hooked up with a jock who’s never been with a guy before. It was mostly kissing. Really awesome kissing. But now it feels awkward seeing him around.”
“Oooh, I think I know where you’re going with this. But is it uncomfortable because you want more—or maybe he does?”
“Oh God, I have no idea. There hasn’t been a follow-up discussion. It only happened once, and I’m pretty sure that’s the end of it.”
“You dodged my question,” he said, and I huffed out a laugh. “Do you want more?”
“More orgasms, maybe, but nothing else. I don’t have time for anything else.”
“Those were my famous last words,” he joked.
I gulped down my uneasiness. “Probably not a good idea to get involved with another athlete who’s only experimenting. That didn’t turn out so well in high school.”
“Been there.” He frowned. “But sometimes it’s harder than it seems. Especially if the experience was that good.”
I sighed dreamily. “Tell me about it.”
“Well, I’m here for you. We might need to establish an after-jock support group.”
“You won’t be needing one anytime soon,” I replied.
“I sure hope not.”
“Henry is madly in love with you. That much is obvious.”
A blush crawled across his cheeks. “It’s definitely mutual.”
“Ugh, stop with the sappy heart eyes,” I teased as I stood to throw out my trash. “Let’s get to class.”
We changed in the locker room located in the Performing Arts building, then headed to ballet class. I was excited for the upcoming autumn recital because last year’s was a blast, and this time, I was also in a modern-dance number taught by a different professor.
We took our places in front of the mirror, gripping the bar as we warmed up with butterfly stretches, shoulder rolls, and barre rises.
The professor was pulled into the hall by another teacher while they discussed something on the sheet of paper they were both pointing at.
She frowned as she came back inside the classroom. “Attention, class. Since we’ve had a couple of students drop out, we no longer have enough female dancers to partner with the male dancers. So I’m going to rethink the Romeo and Juliet performance for the fall recital.”
A few students groaned. We’d been consistently practicing the past couple of weeks, and the choreography was rigorous but kickass.
“Can’t we just have two guys pair up?” I asked.
“It involves lifts, but…I suppose I can ask students from the evening class if we can rearrange—”
“I’ll do it,” Lark’s voice rang out.
“Do what?”
“Take one of the female roles. I’ve always wanted to wear a tutu,” he said, and some students chuckled.
She huffed out a frustrated breath. “No, you couldn’t—”
“Why not? It’ll be all the rage if we pull it off. Plus, why does gender matter?”
“Right?” a male student said. “Back in Shakespeare’s time, men would play both roles.”
“That’s because women didn’t have rights,” a female student argued, and the other female students concurred. “But I agree, gender doesn’t really matter nowadays.”
“I’m willing to be paired with a male dancer too,” the first student said.
Lark bit his lip as he waited for the professor to make a decision. I could tell how much he wanted this. There was a light in his eyes I hadn’t seen before.
“What does the rest of the class think?” she asked.
There was rousing applause in favor of the idea.
“Okay…we can try it,” she said, then told Lark, “Partner up with Emil, and we’ll see how it goes.”
She took us through the steps, and then we practiced with the music. Every time there was a misstep, she would start us all over again.
When it came to a lift, it wasn’t much different to do it with Lark, except maybe for the weight distribution. He was really lovely as he expanded his arms and moved from a dead lift to a deep bend, then to an assisted lift, where he got a running start.
“You’re loving this, aren’t you?”
“Hell yeah,” he replied as I set him down. “Can’t wait to tell Henry.”
After my afternoon class, I begrudgingly changed for band. I was feeling achy and tired, so either lifting Lark was more challenging than I thought, or I was taking on too much. But I’d had the same schedule last year and fared just fine. Maybe it was more about spending too many late nights watching anime and having long conversations with my roommate. Which led to a make-out session.