I continue looking at him...
Troyos looks to the left, then towards the studio, then suddenly moves and meets his mouth to mine. With his hands still on my face he kisses me very slowly, very directly so that there is no mistaking what kind of kiss it is. I usually know just what to do when someone kisses me but I�ve never been kissed quite this way before. Suddenly I can feel both my both body and mind coming together, focusing solely on this moment.
He pulls away.
"You remember what I said." He says as he suddenly turns away and runs down the stairs.
Whoever it really is standing where I�m standing right now thinks that he will never forget this moment in a zillion years.
I hear a muffled "Ah fuck!" as Troyos trips on something at the bottom of the stairs causing a loud metallic ruckus.
For once, I don�t laugh.
* * * * *
"Connors?"
I whip around to find Clark standing in the shadow of the doorway. Suddenly, I�m fully back.
"Are you all right?"
At first, I think it�s a strange question, but I realize my hair is all messed up, I have tears on my face and
I�m probably wearing an expression even my own mother has never seen.
"Yeah, I�m fine. Is Katia ready?
"She had to leave. Are you sure you�re O.K.?
"Yeah."
I can�t help but wonder just how long he�s been there and what, if anything, he saw...
"We watched the video a couple of times together ad then I ran through it with her."
"Oh that�s nice. Trying to steal my partner huh?"
"You can have her, she�s too tall for me."
"Clark, yer five-five. Everyone is too tall for you."
"Geez, just shoot me and put me outta my misery why don�t �ya?"
He�s barely any taller than when I first met him two years ago at a swim meet my sophomore year in high school. (I didn�t compete of course. Non-jock performing geek that I am I just held the stopwatches and handed out towels.) Shortly after we met, Clark mentioned that he took tap and gymnastics as a kid so I invited him to come to Madsen to watch one of my ballet classes. The next day he traded in his Speedo for tights. The swimming coach literally came storming over here, furious that he was losing one of his top swimmers but after Troyos got through with him we never saw him again.
Clark has developed his technique so quickly it�s scary. Sometimes he actually intimidates me although they�ll serve ice cubes in the drinks in the cocktail lounge in hell before I�ll ever let on. I guess that�s why I always give him such shit. Besides, it�s such a refreshing change to have someone around whose actually smaller than me to pick on instead of always being the abused one.
We walk back into the studio and he turns to me looking like a kid on Christmas morning.
"Hey Connors, if you still want to rehearse, I can do the pas-de-deux with you. I know it."
"You want to do it with ME?"
"Well, yeah. I mean you want to rehearse it don�t you?"
"Well... yeah... I mean, if you really know it... I guess you can walk through it with me, or whatever." I mumble.
Clark sits down by the mirror and proceeds to put on his pointe shoes. I should mention that guys generally don�t dance on toe. We use pointe shoes as a tool to help stretch our feet, improve the curve of the arch and our sense of balance. There are a few exceptions however like the ballet that we�re rehearsing now. I play a guy that has been changed into a donkey and to further the illusion the choreographer chose to put the guy on pointe to create more of an animal look, like dancing on your hooves if you had any.
"You�re gonna do it on pointe?" I say in amazement. Then I check myself. "I mean, I thought you forgot your shoes."
"They were in studio one."
