The Football Player And His Ballerina

Photos

Lara POV

I arrived at the photo shoot location. I couldn't even eat breakfast properly. I'm nervous.

The studio is huge. I see people running, and numerous pieces of equipment associated with photography.

I look around and panic. I'm petrified for a few minutes waiting for someone to tell me something. I think at this point I've even forgotten how to speak.

I tried to focus on my breathing, trying to control it to lower my anxiety, in a biofeedback strategy.

Nobody approaches me. It seems that this morning I woke up invisible...

"Lara, honey. I didn't see you coming." Yas said while coming to me with a megawatt smile. I blinked my eyes several times to check if I'm seeing right.

"Yes?" I asked, afraid she'll tell me it was a dream and that I'm still here alone, not knowing anyone.

"Surprised?" She hugs me affectionately.

"Yes. What are you doing here?" I am very curious but I confess that seeing someone I know is relieving the weight I was feeling.

"I'm your photographer". Now yes, I was shocked by the information and super happy.

"Oh, Yas. I'm so glad! This is my first session like this...professional. I'm scared to death" I confessed my fears and showed how happy I was that she was the one to photograph us.

"Uhuru afraid of me? I don't bite anyone! I mean, only Tolga sometimes". Her light teasing made me smile genuinely. Good to have her here, I think to myself.

"Look, Kyle just got here." I turned around and my body started to get hot. Kyle still comes with your eyes of the sun. Light blue jeans, tight and torn. A tight dark blue t-shirt that allows you to see the muscles that are slightly noticeable, making anyone drool. His hair is mussed but in a way that looks like it was done on purpose, sexy as hell.

"Hey, Yas! Hey, Lara! How are you?" His raspy voice, from someone who just woke up, provoke the sort of shiver running to throw my body.

"Good. Hope you too!" I managed to answer, without showing my internal reaction. Proud of myself for keeping such emotions locked in my mind, I smirk at him.

"Let's go guys. We have a lot of work to do". Yas moves on, with us trailing behind.

We practically traversed the entire studio. We're almost at the other end of the studio. Along the way, my arm bumped against Kyle's. This little act always creates something that looked like electricity flowing, but without the shocking part. Whenever our arms touched I would look at Kyle, using my peripheral vision, and it was as if he didn't feel the same way I did. This attraction is driving me crazy, I think. She finally stopped by two doors, one for men and the other for women.

"These are the doors to the dressing rooms. In this room, where you will find some specialists who will help you with clothes, make-up, and hair. We will start first with clothes associated with your professions, then formal clothes and finally casual clothes. Then we'll see how we're going to develop the rest of the session." Yas informed us calmly and always with a happy smirk on her face. You can even see that she vibrates with her profession.

I prepared myself almost as if I were going to dance. The similarity with my life made me feel more relaxed. I landed and made the expressions Yas asked for. I did arabesque, attitude, and relevé as poses. Kyle would have to try to touch my hands, grab my waist, or pretend to pass me the ball.

I'm not going to say it was easy, whenever he touched me, my deconcentration made me lose my expression or gain a totally different one. I was feeling frustrated and I believe Yas was too because she kept asking me to repeat it over and over again.

"Lara, Kyle, now I want you to put your true faces on. The ones who belonged to yourselves"

We repeated and repeated. I was already getting desperate. Kyle didn't look too pleased either. He just sighed.

Sometimes our eyes would meet and he would give me an encouraging smile or a grimace, which wasn't meant for me, but for Yas's constant repetitions and commands.

Other times he rolled his eyes when Yas wasn't watching or grimaced mimicking her. This side of Kyle was more relaxed, and funny and somehow made him even more attractive.

"Kyle try to shoot the ball slowly with your foot. Lara tries to catch the ball while doing an attitude or an arabesque. Ok?" the photographer asked us, and we both nodded.

"Ouch," I said throwing my hands in my face. The ball hit me squarely in the forehead. It didn't hurt much, the wounded pride hurt more. Why do the most embarrassing situations always happen to me?

"Are you ok?" They ask almost in unison with shock written on their faces.

"I am". And at that moment I looked intently at their faces. They were in panic and worry and I couldn´t keep it... I started to laugh. Kyle, seeing me laugh, was surprised at first, but then joined in too.

"Oh my God. I really am a wreck," I said as I laugh at my own bad luck.

"Sorry. It was my fault." Kyle says trying to stay serious, but failing at it.

I point my finger at him, "Don't laugh at me!"

"I'm not laughing at you. I'm laughing with you," he says crossing his arms and pretending to sulk.

"You are a baby," I called him in a tease, laughing even harder.

Then Kyle comes towards me and starts tickling. "Who is the baby now?" He asks me as he launches another tickle attack. I tried to control myself, but anyone who knows me knows how I am ticklish.

I started doing it too, in an attempt to make Kyle stop it. We both ended up falling to the ground, I don't know how my pointe shoes didn't cripple him, or his sneakers. We were laughing next to each other, still on the floor, just like children in an amusement park when we heard Yas asking her helper to change the light. My face turned serious all of a sudden.

"This is unprofessional, Kyle," I mutter. I started to feel the blush on my face.

Kyle, still laughing, gets up and helps me up too.

Kyle leans close to my ear and says, "sometimes the best pictures are the real ones and the unplanned ones. Relax."

I look to Yas for a lecture. maybe she will fire us. However, she was attentive to her camera, and to the pc, reviewing the photos. I bite my lip in anxiety.

"Perfect. That's what I expect from you. Be yourself. See!". My jaw dropped to the floor with surprise.

In the first photo that Yas showed, I was laughing, and it felt like I was laughing as Kyle hugged me from behind. A sweet photo.

The second photo was of us on the floor, side by side, looking at each other and laughing. We seemed like a couple, enjoying themselves

The other picture was of Kyle helping me up, but the picture seemed to convey so much emotion on his part. Like he was helping and protecting me with his arms.

The last two were when Kyle whispered in my ear. It looked like a seduction scene out of a book or movie.

"Now look at the ones before these." Yas rolled his eyes and flipped through dozens of photos. Really the photos were beautiful but there was no synchronization in emotions or honesty.

"Are you saying you want me to tickle her more often?" Kyle says teasingly, furrowing his brows.

"If it has to be!" Yas responds winking at us.

Then we wear gala clothes.

We took several pictures until Yas suggested we dance with each other. She even put on a song Patience, by Take That. In years that I didn't listen to this song.

We started dancing, our feet stepped on each other's feet a few times. Kyle looked at me and shrugged his shoulders, and apologized. In fact, there came a time when we laughed every time it happened because it was really often. Kyle said he had two left feet in the dance. He twirled me around, wrapped my body in his arm, and let it unfold afterward, pulling me to him, and pressing our chests together. I turned my back to him, without moving my hand from his, and he kept me like that while we danced. Our bodies moved in sync with his chest pressed against my back lightly.

There were times when the heat of his body made me want to stay there. I felt something like goosebumps that went up and through my body. A strange feeling that made me yearn for closeness. When the song was ending he turned my body to face his, with the help of his two hands on my waist now. When he turned me, his gaze stayed focused on mine. Our bodies moving in sync. His chest pressed against my back lightly. My arm lifted and the palm of my hand rested on his shoulder, opposite, with my palm pressing lightly. He grabbed my waist with one hand and went to my face, with the other hand. He caressed my face with his thumb, never looking away from my eyes. His blue eyes caught mine in such a way that it was as if only we existed like I was lost in them. Unfortunately, the music ended and we woke up to reality.

"So beautiful! I´ll show it later." Yas voice congratulated us. "Now, I want you barefoot with casual outfits".

Now I was terrified. I can not!

I have to find a way to avoid these photos. I have the feet of a ballerina, imperfect, ugly.

Whenever I buy shoes or sandals, I'm careful to choose the right features to hide imperfections. If there's one thing I don't like about my body, anatomically, it's the feet. Every imperfection is a mark of a dream as a dancer that came true, I know, but as a woman showing my ugly deformed feet is something that intimidates me.

"Yas, can you come to the changing rooms, please?"

"Sure, honey".

"Yas, barefoot? My feet are horrible, please don't do that to me." I pleaded with puppy eyes.

"Lara, can I confess something? Kyle's feet are ugly too. Veryyyyyyy... Don't worry about it, please. I'm not actually going to photograph your feet, I just need the barefoot effect."

Oh gosh...

I entered the photo area again, after wearing the casual outfit, jeans and t-shirts, and, of course, barefoot.

Kyle was already waiting in the photo area. He was speaking with Yas, and his back to me. I took the opportunity and headed towards him. I got as close as I could without it looking like a violation of personal space. The closer, the harder it is for you to see my feet, I thought to myself.

I did everything they asked but I always tried to stay close. I no longer knew what bothered me more, the possibility that he would see my feet or the sensations that proximity was causing me. Kyle didn't look uncomfortable, even though he took advantage of the closeness to pose, he even picked me up and swung me around, as if I were a child teasing me with his childish behavior.

My heart was beating so fast as if I had run a marathon.

Luckily I heard Yas screaming and clapping. "So perfect! The photos are magnificent."