Page 103 of A Dark Duet

The door opens and the inner-city kids that train in the gym from the foster program waltz in. “Hey, Champ. I passed to say hi to Miss Giselle and I saw my future girlfriend dancing on that tall metal pole, and it was amaaazing. The way she can twist her body like that is pure art,” Joey says with excitement.

He started here a year ago. He is fifteen years old with shitty parents and an ego as big as mine.

Brian snorts as the kid makes his way over. “Get in line, kid. That girl is spoken for,” Brian tells him.

“Really? By whom?” He looks around and tries to see if there are any new fighters. “The only girl I know is spoken for is Miss Giselle, Nate’s future wife.”

Nate proposed six months before my breakup with Brie. They are waiting for the right time to get married and I think they have put off the wedding because of Brie and me.

Jake walks up, having listened to the conversation. “By the Champ,” Jake says.

“You? Nah. You don’t have a girlfriend. Last fight you were banging that ring bunny, or did you forget I was told to tag along by the social worker to handle my ‘anger issues,’” he makes silent quotes with his fingers.

Shit. I forgot about that. “That was before I found her again. We used to be together,” I tell Joey.

He shakes his finger at me. “That means I still have a chance because Giselle told me she was visiting her and helping her out with some new moves.” He wiggles his eyebrows.

Jesus fucking Christ. Teenage hormones. Before I shut Joey’s wild imagination down, Charlie walks up after he hears about Brie dancing. He slaps me on the shoulder.

“Brie is dancing and I’m going to go see what new moves she is teaching Giselle. The woman has talent just like Giselle and if that young man is impressed then I have to take a look. She dances like its art not like those cheesy places. Brie is like a daughter to me,” Charles says.

Joey looks nervous and says, “Yeah, but when I left, she was dancing a little different. It was… distinctive. Like dark but in sync with the music. I’m not sure you want to see that. I liked it but you look like you're more into the classical stuff Miss Giselle teaches.”

Walking after Charles, the guys follow behind me out the gym and toward Giselle’s studio. I don’t care if Jake, Nick, and Brian see her dance. They have seen her at the club and right now I only care for the woman that is in that studio dancing God knows how. The kid looked mesmerized by what he saw and now I’m curious.

When we all walk inside the studio, Giselle has tears streaming down her face as she watches her best friend dancing dressed in a black bodysuit with glittery fishnet tights, black platform heels and black wings attached to her back. She is flapping like a dark angel as she moves upside down in aVlike she is weightless.

“Giselle?” I ask softly.

She sniffs but her eyes are trained on her friend as silent tears stream down like rivers over her ballerina slippers. “It’s a beautiful darkness,” she whispers. “Ultraviolence,” by Lana del Ray plays through the speakers in the studio. She dances like she can’t see. Like it’s dark and no one is watching. No eye contact with anyone. No glances to acknowledge all of us standing here watching her. It is haunting. Like we are watching a ghost that decided to appear. “Dark Side” by Bishop Briggs plays and Giselle gasps at the choice of her songs, knowing what they mean, what Briana feels.

Charles gives me a sad expression. He empathizes with her pain. I think we all do. To see her like this breaks me. She slides upside down without her hands, only her legs keeping her suspended in the air as the wings open like a creature in a dark fantasy.

Nate walks in and hugs Giselle wiping her tears. He glances my way after he sees Brie and he closes his eyes. Brie is in a dark pain, sinister and insidious.

Goose bumps travel over my flesh at how she dances like a creature trapped in a gilded cage after being hunted. She dances on the floor-to-ceiling pole, pushing the limit. Defying fucking gravity. It’s like watching a show from Circus de Solei. I bet she could give them all a run for their money. Just like that night on the motorcycle. Pushing and pushing. Stretching the limit.

When she finally places her heels on the ground, the song changes to “Hurts Like Hell” by Fleurie. It’s the last song because she always does three songs and I’ve always watched her when she dances. Always three songs and the words of these songs are painful and heartbreaking. Makes you wonder how she can cope with the pain and the darkness of whatever memory is haunting her. It must replay in her head like a movie.

How did I not see it? But I know the answer, it was because she loved me and it was all she had. Then I did the unthinkable, I broke what was left. Told her to leave like she didn’t matter.

The song picks up and she climbs all the way to the top, everyone’s head following her every movement. She glides on the pole and it’s a beautiful darkness. Ethan’s words creep inside my mind. Hating him for acknowledging her, for wanting her, for falling for her.

Envying him because I have never experienced love or what love should feel like. I have never loved a woman. Not even my own mother. The only woman I’ve felt something for or even cared for is Briana. When he told her about her dancing and how beautiful it was and her darkness. It is no wonder why they call her Coco, the queen of darkness at Equinox. She is my queen of darkness.

The music ends and she walks over, taking off the wings and sliding her arms around Giselle, hugging her tight. “I love you. Don’t cry. I was trying to show you how I danced at Equinox is all,” she says to her.

“It’s just so beautifully dark and I miss you so much,” Giselle says to Briana, leaving out the elephant in the room. The pain. She doesn’t tell her everyone feels her pain.

Briana grins. “I miss you, too. My ballerina of light.”

Briana looks at Nate, quirking a perfectly arched brow. “When are you going to marry my best friend? I’ve been waiting,” she says, tapping her platform heel with her hands on her hips.

She glances my way, feeling my eyes boring into her body, slowly caressing her curves. When my eyes reach her face. I silently call her over with my finger, but she looks back up at Nate, waiting for her answer.

“We were waiting until you came back,” he tells her.

“I’m here. It’s not like I left for another planet,” she says, teasing him.

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