What Are You Doing?

"No, Zac." Samantha sighed again, placing a hand on her hip. "I said bend your knees."

"Sorry," he muttered, his cheeks pink as he steadied himself on his feet again.

"Now," she grabbed his hand and rested it on the bar across the mirror, her fingers lingering on his for a few seconds.

"Slowly lower yourself down." She faced him, bending her knees and lowering herself over her feet. Zac tried again, feeling his ankles wobbling on the way down. But this time he got it without loosing his feet and nearly falling, unlike the previous attempt.

"That's great!" Samantha smiled at him.

"Are my feet supposed to wobble this much?" Releasing his grip on the bar, he pointed to them, practically quivering under the pressure of his body a few inches above them.

"Zac!" She scolded him as he lost his balance and pitched forward. "Don't let go of the bar."

"Umm.. too late." Zac apologized as he knocked into her, sending her onto the floor with him.

At least she fell onto her backside, unlike me on my stomach, he realized as he looked over at her. Sitting upright, he felt a tiny twinge in one of his ribs, surely to be bruised from landing on it.

"Are you ok?" He asked her, his face flushing bright red at his lack of coordination. She opened her mouth to speak in frustration, her face scrunched into a frown, but caught sight of them in the mirror, spead out onto the floor and had to smile.

She also had to admit that her hard efforts getting ready for their lesson today had paid off- she looked outstanding in her tight black leotard and matching toe shoes. An old practice uniform of hers, it barely fit but served her purpose: the neckline stretched much lower than normal, revealing the tiniest hint of cleavage in her chest. Her blonde locks had been pulled into a casual bun at the nape of her neck, showing a tender outline in her small, bare shoulders.

"Yeah." She giggled. "You're going to need some serious help though."

"I'm really sorry." He apologized again as he stood up and offered his hand to her. She smiled and placed hers softly into his, noticing how her heart beat a bit faster as he pulled her closer to him.

"Don't worry about it." Lowering her eyelashes and speaking in a hushed voice, she breathed in his scent. "What cologne are you wearing Zac? You smell good."

"Ummm.." He stared down at her, releasing her hand and taking a small step back. With a little laugh, he admitted,

"I'm not wearing any. Must be my deodorant then."

"Oh," was all she replied with a wave of her hand.

"Ready to try again?" Zac sighed as she pointed at the bar.

"Sure," he replied unenthusiastically.

"Come on, is spending time with me that horrible?" She asked in a pouty voice.

"It's not you, just the whole dancing idea."

"Look around, Zac!" She opened her hands to the empty studio. "There isn't anything to be embarrassed about. No one else is here besides us."

"True.. but this isn't exactly something I'd do for fun on a rainy day." He laughed quietly, nevertheless taking a place at the bar again. Samantha followed and stood in front of him, a smile on her face as she stared into his eyes. They were fascinating to her, a mixture of light hazel and deep brown.

"By the way," he shifted nervously under her gaze. "How much do I owe you for lessons?"

"Owe me?" She echoed, snapping out of her trance.

"Yeah.. Like money?"

"Silly," she giggled, walking over and placing his hand on the bar. This time she stepped closely to him, waiting for him to take that usual tentative step away from her. But this time he didn't, just stood looking down at her, so she figured she'd try the next step and left her hand on his.

"You don't have to pay me." She took another step toward Zac and placed her other hand on his shoulder, feeling his muscles immediately tighten up at her touch. Running her fingers around the collar of his shirt, she whispered softly:

"I think you know what I want."

"What are you doing?" Heidi asked me, standing in the doorway to my bedroom.

"Sit-ups." I huffed from the floor. "Why?"

"Sorry, it just looked like a form of exercise. Scared me, that's all." She laughed.

".. Very... funny."

"I thought so." She smiled.

"I noticed," I couldn't help but smile back as I continued to ignore the pain in my stomach and finish my set of one hundred and fifty. According to Mom, that was the amount I needed to do each day to tone my stomach muscles. Funny enough, the first time I'd tried them wasn't too horrible. It'd been better than the second at least, when I was still a little sore from the first set. I still wasn't able to do all of them in one sitting, often taking a little break in between sets of twenty-five.

"One-forty-eight.... urgh, one-forty-nine." I gasped and lowered myself down to the floor again .".. One-fifty."

"Not bad," Heidi noted, leaning against the door frame.

"Thanks," I sat up quickly, feeling a little rush to my head, making me a little dizzy. "I'm sure you didn't come here to watch me exhaust myself, so what's up?"

"I forgot to tell you that Zac called a few days ago for you." She replied.

"Zac called?" I echoed, frowning at the little argument we'd had at the rec. center. "Are you sure?"

"Like you'd get anyone else calling you." She snorted and walked away, leaving me puzzled.

Was that before or after he yelled at me? I wondered.

Hopefully afterwards. Curiousity overcoming me, I stood up and grabbed my phone. My fingers hesitantly pushed the buttons to the number practically engrained into the back of my mind, and I held my breathe while the phone rang over at the Hansons.

"Hello?" I immediately recognized his mother's voice.

"Hi, Mrs. Hanson. This is Lindsey." I replied.

"Lindsey," she greeted me cheerfully. "We haven't seen much of you around here."

"Yeah, I've been pretty busy." Was all I replied. "Is.. Zac there?"

"Actually, he's not." She told me.

"Oh, ok." I replied, feeling a little dissappointed.

"He's over at the rec. center right now, for his ballet lessons."

"Ballet lessons?" I echoes, disbelieving the words.

"Mmm-hmm." I heard the amusement in her voice as she replied, "He needs to take them for hockey. At least that's what I I think he said."

"How weird," I muttered, chewing a little on my lower lip.

"Would you like me to leave him a message?" I could just picture Diana with a pen in her hand, poised above a set of sticky notes. She always left those kind of messages for her boys on the bathroom mirror. I always saw it as rather odd, but it seemed to work.

"Oh.. nah." I thought for a moment. "I'll just try to get ahold of him another time. Thanks."

" 'Bye Lindsey." She replied pleasantly. "Don't be a stranger."

"I won't." I lied before hanging up the phone.

"Hmm..." I glanced over at the clock above my desk.

It's not that late out yet, I could have time to take a little bike ride, I thought, mulling over the idea. Truth was, I'd felt terrible about what had happened between us. The image of his face, enraged eyes piercing through me, had flashed into my head every night before I went to sleep, causing me to toss and turn before giving into my usual sense of exhaustion.

Don't be stupid, I scolded myself, running my fingers distracted over my unruly red curls, bound behind my head in its usual bun. You have nothing to be sorry about. Zac brought this upon himself.

Sighing, I leaned forward onto my desk and rested my chin across my forearms. As my arms slid across the wood surface, my fingers brushed against something cool and metallic. Reaching underneath a stack of papers, I pulled out the only picture I ever laid across my desk.

In my disorganized past couple of weeks, I must've buried it under here, I thought, glancing down at the picture with guilt-ridden eyes.

It wasn't even a posed picture, one my mom had taken spur-of-the-moment. It's existence was probably brought about because she'd wanted to use up the last pictures on the roll anyway. Two widely-grinning faces gleamed upward at me with halos of childlike innocence, me and Zac two summers ago. He'd acted for three weeks like he'd forgotten my birthday, only to surprise me with a roller skating party five minutes before we got to the place.

Tears glistened in the corners of my eyes as I outlined Zac's face with my thumb, the adornment of a flourescent blue party hat making his ears stick out. The two of us slouched in a booth behind an enormous birthday cake, our inner arms linked around each other. Noticing a few specs of dust in a thin, powdery layer over the glass, I carefully rested the picture down on my desk and rubbed it clean with the corner of my sleeve. I smiled as I cleared a place for it on my desk and propped it back up again, noting the time on my clock again.

"Why the hell not." I muttered, grabbing my shoes on the floor near my feet.

At least Zac can't say I'm not trying anymore.

"Sam.." He started, but she silenced him by placing her hand over his mouth.

"Zac, we've known each other for a long time." She started in a low voice, edging her body a few inches closer to his.

"But I don't actually know you that well." He interrupted, feeling a little defensive at how close she now was to him, her breasts lightly brushing up against his chest, her soft fingers lightly outlining the bone across his shoulders and neck.

"Then get to know me." She released his hand and slid both of hers over his shoulder, staring intently into his eyes. Looking down at her, Zac swallowed. Here was a beautiful girl, giving herself completely to him. It was flattering, but more importantly it was attention. He suddenly found his arms had a mind of their own, circling themselves around her tiny waist and pulling her closer to him.

"Rec. Center, sweet Rec. Center." I smiled as I pushed the front tire of my bike into the rack near the door.

This place is starting to become my second home, I thought as I pushed my way through the doors, surprised at how deserted the building was. Normally, there would be children everywhere, playing basketball or pool or watching television in the main room, but there wasn't anyone else here at the moment. Combined with the darkness of late evening, it was an eerie feeling.

"Dance studios.." I mumbled, coming over to the map of the building. My eyes darting around the map, my finger traced its was around the ice rink to the second floor, where it landed on the studio.

"Bingo." I smiled and headed for the stairs. Upon reaching the second floor, I walked down a dark, wide hallway past an exerising room toward a stream of light in front of me, figuring it to be the dance studios.

".. get to know me." I heard a familiar voice say softly as I reached the door.

Is that Samantha? I'd forgotten that she taught lessons here. Sticking my head around the corner, my heart leaped down my throat as I took in the sight of Zac's arms around her. Tears welled up in my eyes, blurring the sight of them coming together in a kiss. Covering my hand over my mouth not to gasp out loud, I turned and ran as quietly as I could out of the building. It was nauseating.