Being Imperfect

Chapter-6

Streaks of sunlight entering from the window wall illuminate the vast studio, revealing the barres on the two sides of the room and the walls covered with mirrors.

I walk over to an empty spot near the barre and take my place there. As I look around me, I feel the corners of my mouth turning up into a smirk.

I can't believe that I made it this far.

"Beautiful, isn't it?", Louise's voice comes from my right.

I sigh, "Yeah."

"You should see the other room.", a voice speaks up, startling me.

I whip my head around to see a familiar blonde smiling at me.

"Charlotte", I reciprocate her smile.

"Is Nicole in the other class?", she asks me.

I nod at her. I don't know why but it bothers me that Nicole is our competition.

Charlotte hums, "That's good."

I'm about to ask why but a voice booming from the center of the room diverts my attention.

A tall middle-aged man with brown hair and brown eyes is standing in the middle of the room, staring at us with an unreadable expression on his face.

"As there are international students among us, I'll be speaking in English.", he states."I'm Raphael Lambert. I'll be your instructor, mentor, and teacher for this semester."

I quickly move my eyes around to see that the entire class has their attention on him. He has captured the whole class with his presence.

"Let me make one thing very clear, I do not train people who fail me. I do not train losers. If I'm going to train you, you will have to produce results. You have to defeat the other team, no matter what the cost."

That doesn't seem very healthy.

He finishes his speech and instructs us to take our positions near the barre.

"To master anything, you have to master its basics. And that's what we are going to do this week", his eyes scan the room."Start with a Grand Plié."

I take a deep breath and do as he instructed.

Even though I stopped going to ballet classes years ago, I never gave it up. I practiced almost every day. I signed up for classes online and danced with my friends in different videos.

Dance was my love. I couldn't give it up because my mother thought I needed to concentrate on more important things in life.

"What are you doing? I hear Raphael raise his voice at someone. Suddenly, I realize that he was shouting at me.

"Fix your knee. Bend it more." He instructs. "You shouldn't be here if you can't even bend your knees."

Ouch.

I do as he says and bend my knees completely. He examines my posture and then walks over to Charlotte.

The next excruciatingly long 5 hours pass with us practicing all of the basic postures and Raphael correcting us with his equally excruciating words.

We exit the studio with our entire body hurting and without an ounce of self-respect.

"I can't believe he did that to us." Charlotte stomps her feet and complains.

"He ripped us of any bit of self-respect.", a guy with red hair walks over to us. His blue eyes stare at my equally blue ones.

"Alex Monet.", he states his name to me.

Monet?

"Alex? What are you doing in this class? , confusion takes over Louise's face.

"I'm upset that you didn't notice me in there, sis."

"Sis?"

"Alex is my twin.", Louise replies to me through gritted teeth.

Charlotte and I exchange confused looks with each other while Louise whispers something to her brother, making him snort.

"You guys wanna get a drink tonight?" Alex asks us while rubbing his palm behind his neck.

"Yes, ple--" Charlotte stops mid-way when she realizes that's probably not the best decision.

It doesn't seem like a good idea because we don't know the deal between Louise and Alex.

Louise glares at her brother and then mutters something under her breath.

"We will meet you at 8 in Neon Nights.", she says to him and gives him a forced smile.

"Great. I'll see you all there then." Alex gives her an identical smile and walks out the door.

Louise lets out a sigh and rubs her forehead for a few seconds.

"I'm sorry that you had to see that."

"Don't worry about it.", Charlotte and I say at the same time.

"Come on, let's go.", Louise says while a smirk plays on her lips.

Reaching our floor, Charlotte heads over to her room while Louise and I enter our room to find Nicole sitting on the bed typing on her phone.

"Hey, Nicole. How was your class?" I ask her.

"Fine.", she mumbles.

Louise looks at me, shrugs, and heads toward the bathroom. I decide not to bother Nicole by talking. She is not in the mood to talk.

I run my fingertips through my hair one more time before I grab my purse.

"Damn, you look beautiful." Louise comments from behind me.

I giggle, "Thank you. You look beautiful too."

I walk to the door and turn around. "Nicole, you sure you don't wanna come with us? I ask her once again.

It feels weird to leave her like this.

"I'll be fine here."

"Okay.", I wave at her with an awkward smile and step out of the room.

The club is packed tonight. People are dancing on the dance floor opposite from the bar. The blasting music makes me feel a rush of adrenaline.

Louise, Charlotte and I sit on the stools at the bar. I whip my head around to see if Josh had arrived yet.

I asked Louise if anyone would have a problem with Josh coming here to meet me. She said if anyone had a problem then they could shove a stick up their ass.

I took that as a no.

As there was no sign of Josh or Alex anywhere so I brought my attention back to the bar. There was only one girl behind the bar attending to the customers. She was moving swiftly to take the orders but she still couldn't manage to get to anyone on time.

She needs help.

I wonder if they are hiring.

All of a sudden, two arms wrap around me making me shriek. I push the body off me and turn around to meet with emerald green eyes.

"Oh my god." I jump on Josh. He catches me with a wide grin on his face.

"Hey, trouble.", he whispers in my ear while caressing my hair.

"Jerk."

Josh and I separate when we hear someone clearing their throat. Charlotte and Louise are looking at us with wide eyes and a playful smirk on their face.

"Guys, this is Josh.", I introduce him.

He greets them with his charming smile which used to make girls back home go crazy for him. He wraps his arm around me while talking to them about what he studies. I smile at his words and lean my head on his arm.

I missed this. I missed having my best friend near me.

It's strange how comfortable we are around each other even though we haven't met for 3 years.

Alex and a few of his friends join us within a few minutes. I step away from them and lean on the table on the bar with my elbows, waiting to order our drinks. The bartender finally notices me and makes her way over to me.

"I'm so sorry. We are packed today." she smiles at me.

"That's okay.", I assure her.

She takes my order and scurries away to the other side of the bar to make the drinks.

I should ask her if they are hiring.

I open my mouth to call her over when all of a sudden my eyes fall on him.

His stubbled jaw clenches as he stares at the table and plays with the rim of his whiskey glass. Frowning, he brings the glass to his plump lips and takes a sip. He sets down the glass on the table with a silent thud and runs a hand through his ruffled jet black hair. The little strands falling on top of his eyebrows but never reaching his eyes. It's messy yet perfect.

And then, he raises his gaze from the table and looks over at me.

Shit. He caught me staring.

I should have immediately diverted my eyes. But I couldn't.

Goosebumps erupt through every single part of my body as I feel the intensity of his gaze. A rush of heat flows through me and settles in my stomach as he keeps staring at me.

My entire body reacts to him as if he is right here near me, touching me when in fact he is at least 8 feet away from me.

"Here are your drinks.", the bartender's voice makes me jump.

"I'm sorry. Yes, thanks." She gives me an amusing look and goes back to her work.

I immediately find myself looking over at the previous direction but he is gone.

His glass of whiskey being the only proof of his presence.