Star Struck

What would you do to achieve your lifelong dream? I, personally, have worked my whole life to become a professional singer and dancer. Top lead in every choir performance, every school musical, countless dance classes, all of which carried on into college. Today I start the next chapter of my life as a teacher of a dance school, which will include choreography for some pretty prestigious groups. I’m also set up to record an EP this month, of which I couldn’t be more excited for. I sit up in bed and stretch, my bedroom dimly lit by the “Sara” sign in the center of my room. Someday I’ll see my name in much bigger, brighter lights. I’m only 21, after all, and I’m making great progress in all my plans. I get out of bed and begin my morning routine. First, to the kitchen for a glass of water and then off to my dance studio, which, if I’m honest, is really just a spare room. But I had huge mirrors, barres, and hardwood installed. So, it works. A quick workout and some new choreography to start the day. After exercise, it’s time for a shower. I let my long hair down and brush through it. My hair is one of my favorite things about me. It reminds me of my mother, I have the exact same long, auburn locks that she had. My other favorite trait is my eyes, even though I have flawed vision. I have my fathers bright blue eyes. Sometimes, I feel like a perfect combination of the two of them. I didn’t always feel this way though, in my Sophomore year of high school, I lost both my parents in a tragic car accident. For about a year, I basically refused to look myself in the eye because I would think of my parents and be sad. Of course, I still miss them every single day, but it’s easier now. I went to live with my Aunt Megan and she really helped me become happier, and return to the confident, driven woman I am today. After my shower, I wrap my towel around my body and begin getting ready for the day. I turn on some music and head over to my closet. I think to myself, what to wear for my first day at the new dance studio? I finally land on some slim cut black leggings, a grey PINK sports bra, and my lucky dance shirt- a light blue tank with an open back and a crisscross at the bottom. It’s so cute, makes me look flawless, and I’ve worn it before every successful audition through college. Seems fitting for my first day of work. After getting dressed, I dry my hair and throw it up into a neat high ponytail. Lastly, I put on some natural makeup and I’m ready to go. I grab the keys to my BMW and I’m ready to go. Now, I’m by no means wealthy, but my parents left everything to me. Aunt Megan continued paying the mortgage on their house and when I graduated from college, she handed the deed over to me. My parents came from old money families and when they died, they left enough money to pay for my education in full and a big chunk to get me by. I bought my car as a graduation present to myself, it’s not brand new but it’s a beautiful white BMW 5 series. I hop in my car and get going. I’m barely out of my neighborhood when my best friend Anna calls, and I answer on the cars hands free. “Hey Anna.” She squeals into the phone, “SARA! Ohmygosh, I’m SO excited for your first day! Are you excited?!” “Oh I’m over the moon but I may be a little less excited than you.” I laugh. Anna has been my best friend since junior high. She’s a tiny ball of energy but the best friend a girl could ask for. She giggles, “maybe a little, but this is the next big step towards your big dream and I’m so happy and proud of you!” “Thanks, babes. It means a lot to hear you say that.” “Anytime. Hey, so could I take you out for lunch today? My treat!” “Well, I would love that but let me see how today goes. I don’t even know what the schedule it supposed to be like. But I’ll promise you this, if we can’t do lunch, we can do dinner and drinks tonight.” “You know, that actually sounds better!” Anna laughs, “let’s plan for that.” “Okay. Sounds great! I’ll call you when I’m off later and you can come get ready with me.” “Can’t wait! Love you!” “I love you too, lady.” I hang up the phone and continue my drive to work. I arrive and I’m greeted by my boss, and the owner, Michael. He’s a tall, incredibly handsome man in his late 20s, with short brown hair, hazel eyes, and a whole lot of definition to those muscles. Too bad he’s gay, or I’d be all over it. “Good morning, Miss Rose.” He says politely. “Good morning, Mr. Kingsley.” I say, smiling sweetly at him. “I thought I told you to call me Michael.” He smiles back and puts his hands on his hips. “And I thought I told you to call me Sara.” I say, mimicking his pose. He laughs and pulls me in for a hug. “Ahh yes, my apologies, Sara. I can tell that we’re gonna be great friends.” “I think so too!” I say with energy and think Hey, maybe he has some single straight friends. “So how does everything work around here?” He lets me go and claps his hands, “walk with me! So down this hall are our studios.” He walks me into the hall and through the first door into a large open room. “This is our main dance studio, for large groups, and big dances classes.” Then he leads me into the room across the hall, which is about the same size but it’s got slightly padded rubber floors, rather than hardwood. “This is our stretching room, we like to start every dance class with some very thorough guided stretching and this room is more comfortable to stretch in. Oh, and sometimes we’ll host yoga classes in here.” “Awesome. I love yoga!” I say, smiling. “Of course you do, because you’re perfect!” He smiles and pretends to throw long hair over his shoulder, laughing. I laugh too, this guy’s a character. He leads me back into and further down the hall to a room that says ‘Staff Only’. “You’re gonna love this.” He grabs his key card and opens the door to a beautiful, cushy room with carpets, couches, pretty much a full kitchen, and a private bathroom. “This is the employee break room!” “Wow, Michael, this is amazing!!” I stare at it, wandering slowly through it. “It’s my pride and joy.” He puts a hand on his chest, “I always thought a relaxed and happy staff ensures the best performances and happy customers.” “I think you’re onto something.” I say, pointing a finger at him. “Come on, just a few rooms left.” He leads me out, reluctantly, and across the hall from the break room is two smaller rooms. “These are for private classes. We almost always do wedding classes in here, because it’s a little more intimate, but some couples want a big choreo number, where the large dance room may be more suitable. But the other clients we use these private rooms for are people who want a more one-on-one experience.” I think to myself, that’s interesting...got any guys who want a one-on-one experience? Ugh, I need a boyfriend. “When you come back to earth, we’ll move on to the next room.” I shake my head and look over at Michael, who’s got a sly, half smile on. “Sorry! I was just thinking about how cool this is!” “Mmmmhm, sure.” He laughs, “come on, last room is at the very end of the hall.” He takes me into the last room and it’s a massive locker room. There is two doors, one to the women’s locker room and one to the men’s. There’s bathrooms, showers, lockers, even lighted vanities. “Wow. This place is absolutely incredible.” I marvel at its size and ornate design. I’ve never seen anything like this before. “Yes, ma’am, we’re one of a kind.” He looks around proudly, before putting an arm around my shoulder and leading me back into the lobby. “And here,” he pauses and pulls out a key card, “is your key to the kingdom. This will let you in the front door and all the rooms. Employees are permitted to come after hours to dance, but if you bring company, you have to clear it with me, okay?” “You got it!” I take the key, grinning ear to ear. Michael gestures over to a blonde lady sitting at the counter, setting things up and tidying up the counter, “Wendy will get you set up with your new hire paperwork and with security.” I wave and smile at Wendy, “thanks so much for hiring me, Michael. I’m so excited to start working!” “We’re excited to have you. I have a pretty easy day scheduled for you, you’ll co-host two big classes with our current school lead, Donna, and then you have one private lesson in the afternoon.” “Excellent. Thanks again!” “My pleasure. I’ll be in the break room doing some paperwork if you need me.” I nod and as he walks away, Wendy gestures me over. “Hi, Wendy.” “Hello, here are the forms I need you to fill out,” she places a small stack of paperwork in front of me, “and here is the number for the security company.” She hands me a business card, “give their office a call, they’re expecting you. They’ll email you a form to print out and sign then they’ll handle setting you up from there.” “Great, thanks!” I smile and sit next to her, and busy myself with the paperwork. As I’m finishing up, a beautiful woman walks in, with shoulder length black hair. Wendy waves at her. “Morning, ladies. You must be the new girl.” She walks up to the counter, making me realize suddenly she’s pretty short, maybe a little over 5 feet tall. “Nice to meet you, I’m Donna.” “Oh, hi! I’m working with you today!” I smile and hold my hand out. She smiles and shakes my hand, “you sure are. I’m gonna go say hi to Michael, when you’re done with your paperwork, come stretch with me. I wanna run you though the music and routine for today, just so we’re on the same page.” I nod, “okay, great!” She walks down the hall. I quickly finish my paperwork and call the security company. They email me the form and I fill it out. Wendy shows me how to use their scanner and then we send the form back to them. After that’s all done, I meet Donna in the stretching room. We run though a bunch of great stretches, all of which I know well. Then she walks me through the routines and choreography for the two dance classes. “Wow you are as great as they say.” She tells me as we’re getting ready for the first class to arrive. “They say?” I reply, and my eyes meet hers. “Oh yeah. I’ve heard a lot of people say when we hired you, we got a real pro. I can see they’re right.” “Wow, well thank you so much, that’s really flattering.” I smile at her and she smiles back. People begin coming in and the first class goes great. By the middle of the second class, Donna and I are really connecting. We’re great partners and our personalities click so well. We smile and teach the second class and when it’s over and all the students are gone, she looks at me. “Hey, Sara, you wanna grab some lunch? There’s a DIY salad place a few doors down that’s awesome.” I glance at my phone and think about Anna for a second, but then think to myself well, Anna will have me all night. “Yeah sure! I’d love to! A nice light lunch sounds great.” We grab our purses and tell Michael we’ll be back and then run to the salad bar. We laugh and talk through lunch and by the time we walk back to the studio, we’re good friends. We walk through the doors and Michael is pacing in the lobby. “Hey, Michael...something wrong?” I ask him. “Yeah. Sara, I’m sorry but your private class cancelled.” He looks really anxious, maybe even a little annoyed. “Oh no, I’m sorry. Was it something about me?” “Oh! No, no, nothing like that. It’s the client, she’s a bit of a diva, I guess and she told her manager to cancel the class because,” he paused to do air quotes, “she got mad at her boyfriend and he left, so she can’t work under that emotional trauma. Psh, if I didn’t work every time I fought with my boyfriend, I wouldn’t have a job.” He shakes his head. “Jeez. Who is this lady?” I furrow my brows, whoever she is, sounds like a b***h. Wendy chimes in, “she’s Kylie Conner! The model.” Donna and I gape at her, and then whip our heads back over to Michael, who’s nodding. “Yep. Kylie freakin’ Conner. Her manager had told me she wanted to dance so she came to us. She described a style of dance that sounded like your main style, Sara, so I assigned her to you. But divas will be divas I suppose.” Donna laughs, “I don’t even think her boyfriend is real, he never goes to any events with her! All we know about her boyfriend is his name is Jake or Josh, or something like that, and he’s some kind of actor.” “Yeah, but no last name and she won’t talk about what he acts in! I never thought of that!” Wendy says. “Well, regardless of Kylie’s emotional trauma with her maybe fake boyfriend, Sara, I’m so sorry, I’ve got nothing else planned for you today.” Michael says, looking apologetic. “It’s okay, I actually had plans for tonight so maybe I could use this opportunity to get a head start on that?” I ask, smiling politely. “Of course!” Michael says and claps his hands together, “just make sure you’re here at 8am tomorrow morning! You’ll have a busy day tomorrow!” “I’ll be here! Thanks, Michael! See you ladies tomorrow!” I wave and rush out the door. I get in my car and think as I start driving, what a day! I think it went pretty well, all things considered. Oh! I should call Anna and see when she wants to meet up. I call Anna up through my car. “Hello!” She answers in her usual singsong voice. “Hey lady, guess who had an early day?” “Ohmygosh YES!” She cheers, “I can be at your house in an hour to start getting ready if you want?” “Sounds fantastic.” “Okay great!! I’ll see you in a bit!” She hangs up the phone. I laugh, she’s such a spaz. But she’s my spaz. After a short drive, I pull up to my house. I run inside and shower real quick, to wash the sweat from work off. I get out and put on shorts and a T-Shirt just as Anna comes running in. With several bags. “Hey, uhm,” I point to the bags, “what’s all that?” She looks into my eyes, “it’s options, babes.” She sets them on my bed and pulls several dresses out of one, lingerie out of another, and shoes out of the last one. I laugh, “you know I have clothes right?” “Well, duh. You’re the whole package. I need you to help me chose. And I mean, you’re obviously welcome but I,” she points to herself and leans against a wall, “need to get some tonight. I know tonight is to celebrate you, but I figured, you know, doesn’t mean we have to go home alone.” I shake my head, and smile, “actually, I was kinda thinking the same. My new boss, Michael,” I pause and she grins, “he’s like, way hot, but also way gay, so not someone I could ever hope to have, you know?” She scoffs, “all the really nice hot guys are gay. It’s like super unfair.” We both laugh. “No but I totally get it. Maybe after dinner we could hit a bar or two?” I suggest. “Deal! But first, help me pick!!” She gestures to the clothing she brought. I pick out a black lacy lingerie, a sleek black dress, and shiny grey heels for her. Then I move over to my closet to look for an outfit for me. I pick out a red cocktail dress, a set of matching lacy bra and underwear, and some small black heels. Being as tall as I am, any heels over three inches make me 6 foot tall and I am not about that. So I typically stick with around a 1-2 inch heel. Then we move onto hair and make up. Anna does an intricate updo, and I chose the classic curled hair. I trade my earlier natural makeup for a more adventurous Smokey eye look, and so does Anna. About an hour later, we’re ready. We call for a taxi and when he arrives we go to dinner at this neat little restaurant that we’ve frequented since we were kids. Dinner goes well and perfectly normal, we laugh and converse and when the check comes, I try to convince Anna to let us at least split it but she insists on paying to congratulate me on the new job. Then we call another taxi and head to the bar. It’s a Wednesday night, so naturally it’s pretty slow. There’s some kind of rock playing and there are a few people on the dance floor, but most other people are either drinking at the bar or sitting at the tables. Anna and I walk up to the bar and open a tab. She orders her usual vodka cranberry and I order a jack and coke. We get our drinks and survey the crowd. A few more people come in, but no one of interest catches our eye. “Well maybe later we’ll find some cuties to converse with.” Anna says. Then she looks up and she hits my arm, “oh. my. god. DIBS.” I turn and see a very attractive man walking up to the bar, he’s tall, tan, muscular, with longer black hair. “I know tonight is to celebrate you but, oh he looks like my type!” “He sure does.” I reply and smirk. Anna seems to have a sixth sense for finding adventurous guys. And this guy looks down. For what, I’m not sure I even want to know. “Well, go get him, tiger.” She smiles and skips over to him, she talks to him for a minute, he smiles and gestures to a table, then follows him over, flashing me a thumbs up. I shake my head. As I’m turning, I see a man that Anna’s dude was blocking. Whoa. I hadn’t seen him before. He’s absolutely gorgeous. He has fair skin and short brown hair, including some tasteful facial hair. He’s actually built similarly to Michael, not a big guy but a lot of definition. He looks over and catches my eye, so I smile at him. He smiles back, a brilliant smile, he has excellent teeth! Suddenly his phone goes off, he looks at it and his smile fades. He silences it and puts it face down, and orders another drink. Then he doesn’t look back to me. I frown, he looks troubled, I think. I walk over and sit down next to him. “Hi.” Wow, Sara, great line. “Hello.” He responds and looks over, smiling at me again. He has an accent, maybe British? “I couldn’t help but notice, you looked like you might need some company.” I gestured toward his phone and smiled softly. “Ahh. Yes. I mean, you don’t need to. I’m afraid I wouldn’t be much fun tonight.” He keeps on a wry smile. The more he speaks, the more his accent shows. Irish, definitely. “Well, who needs fun anyways?” I lean against the bar, “If you don’t want to, I completely understand, but I’m more than willing to listen. I may even have advice to share.” He looks away for a moment, then back to me, “well, if ya really insist. It’s, em...girl problems. You see, I had a girlfriend but she’s not so good in the mental state. Twice now she’s gone crazy and called the whole thing off, and twice I sat patiently waiting for her to come crying for me back.” He paused, glancing at his phone and then shooting back the rest of his drink, “this instance would be thrice. And I said to myself, ‘now to hell with me if I sit and wait for her to come round again!’ Now here she is,” he flipped his phone over to reveal a call from unstable woman, “like always, callin’ for me back. But I don’t know if I should go, you know?” “I’m so sorry, that’s not fair that she puts you through that. You absolutely shouldn’t go back! Especially if this is a pattern for her, she’ll obviously do it again.” I say, trying to be as sincere as possible. Even though I’m actually pretty angry at ‘unstable woman’. “I agree.” He catches the bartender, “excuse me lad, could I get another whiskey? And also another,” he looks over at me and pauses. “Jack and Coke.” “And a Jack and Coke please.” The bartender nods and walks off. The handsome man turns back and says, “good taste in spirits. I’ve just made a terrible realization.” “Oh no, what?” My heart dropped into my stomach. “I’ve not even asked your name yet. I ought to be ashamed.” He smiled big and winked. “Sara. Sara Rose.” I returned a warm smile. “Pleasure to meet you, Sara Rose. My name is Sam MacHale.” He tipped his head and shook my hand. “Likewise!” I replied. “So tell me, Sara, what’s a sweet gal like you doin’ in a bar tonight? Don’t tell me a man’s done you wrong.” “Oh no, I’m actually here celebrating a new job with my friend Anna.” “I see. She invisible, is she?” He laughed at his joke. I look over to Anna, whose face has fused together with the guy she met, “you know, you’re right.” He followed my gaze and laughed. “Well she’s got along well tonight! What job did you get?” “A dance teacher at the SoCal Barre studio.” “A dancer! You’d have your work cut out with me. I’m a fairly awful dancer.” The bartender returns with our drinks and Sam puts some cash down on the bar for him. “Well, Sam, anyone can dance.” “I’d love to learn.” “I could teach you? I actually have a small dance studio set up in my house if you’d like to learn a bit?” He choked on a sip of whiskey and then laughed, “I like you, Sara, you’re a bold one.” At first I was confused, and then I realized I just invited him to come home with me after all of ten minutes of knowing him. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean-” “It’s alright, actually, I’m feelin’ rather bold myself right now. If you’re willing to give my two left feet a chance, I’m willing to dance with you.” My heart starts beating faster. He actually wants to leave with me? I scan the bar for Anna, but I can’t find her. Then I hear Sam speak again. “Ah, the friend does have a face.” He laughs. I turn to see Anna, coming from behind me, with the man still holding her waist. “There you are!” “Oh yeah, I was just coming to see if you wanted to leave with John and I?” Anna says, giggling as John tickles her. “Oh, uh, well actually-” “We were just on our way out after these drinks. Our lovely Sara has agreed to try to teach me how to dance.” Sam says to her. I smile at him and turn to her, “go on, have fun. Be safe! And call me in the morning.” “I will!” She detaches from John to hug me and whispers in my ear, “ohmygosh he is SO cute. Tell me everything in the morning.” “Goodnight, Anna.” I say in a singsong voice and wink. Sam and I finish our drinks and then call a taxi to my house. About halfway to my house his phone rings, it’s her again. He groans and hands me his phone, “if you wouldn’t mind, would you answer that and tell her I’m not interested.” I look at his phone in my hands, stunned, and before I realize what I’m doing, I’ve answered the phone. “Hi there, this is Sam’s phone. He’s a bit, um, preoccupied at the moment so I’ve you’re a crazy EX-girlfriend, please do not leave a message.” Then I hung up the phone. Sam starts cracking up, “that was hilarious! Thank you! I’m so proud!” He puts an arm around me and pulls me close against his side for a moment. Holy god he smells amazing, I think. Just then we pull up to my house. I walk him inside and he looks around. “Wow, nice home. If I admit I’m extremely nervous, do you think you could conjure up some liquid courage for me?” I smile, “I ALWAYS have a bottle of whiskey in my home. You drink it neat?” “Correct!” I quickly walk to the kitchen and grab a couple of drinks. I return to Sam, and hand him his drink. “Well, follow me. Let’s get our dance on.”