Page 5 of A Dark Duet

What an asshole. I don’t know what Brie saw in him. I want to climb over the table and claw both their eyes out, the bastards. My intention is short lived because everyone laughs at us. I look at Brie and her eyes are brimming with unshed tears, and I give Jace and Jason a murderous glare.

“Fuck you! Both of you pieces of shit!” I yell at them with rage. Everyone stops laughing, wondering what they will say next, but to everyone’s surprise, they stay stunned at my reaction. The good girl has a mouth, to their utter shock.

I grab Brie’s hand, “Let’s go, Brie. Don’t get upset, it was a bad idea coming here and ruining our girls’ night out, watching the evidence of a regretful mistake you just want to forget. They’re not worth it,” I say out loud.

I see both Jace and Jason’s faces turn serious, not expecting me to throw it back in their faces. Shocked with their mouths hanging open, we leave, and I vow to never allow them over at my house again.

“So, how about it? Go out with me later?”

I shake my head. “What?” I ask, looking at Dean. I totally forgot what he asked me. He brought back memories from the past, vivid and surreal. I swore to myself that I wouldn’t date or trust anyone with my feelings. Look what happened last time. “I-I don’t think that’s a great idea, Dean.”

I hated letting him down. He seems nice, but I remember Jason kissed me and acted the same way.

Dean’s face looks so sad, but he shakes it off in understanding. “I get it. I know you have a goal here. No distractions, right?”

I smile as he understands.“Exactly!” I just want to be friends and I hope he understands and doesn’t go acting all weird on me because I turned him down.

“Okay, can we still hang out as friends around campus?” he asks.

“Of course,” I say. I walk toward my dorm room as I feel my phone vibrate with an incoming call from a weird number I don’t recognize. I answer the phone. “Hello?”

“Yes. Is this Giselle Monroe, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Monroe?”

“Yes.”

“Hello, I know you are in New York, but you must come back home. My name is Officer Chandler. I hate to say this to you, Miss Monroe, but there has been a car accident on the interstate and your parents didn’t make it.”

All I hear is a strong ringing in my ears as I drop my phone and fall to my knees. I don’t see or hear anything except a loud scream that I think is coming from my mouth.

Everything goes black and all I feel are powerful arms trying to hold me up. I think it’s Dean trying not to let me fall and hurt myself. I stay there on my knees, not knowing for how long, and all I can hear is ringing and the deep thump of my heartbeat. I hear footsteps as the staff helps me up and assists me back to my dorm room.

Dean has my phone, and he is speaking into it. I still can’t get the ringing and thumping from my ears to go away as he lays me down on my dorm room bed.

Giselle

Imake it back home and I have to sell everything; the farm, the house, animals… everything. I am left with five thousand dollars to my name, just enough to find a place and get a job. I can’t go back to New York.

When I finished settling my parents’ debts, they had already replaced my spot in the dance company. I, at least, graduated from Juilliard because—thank God—my performance was good enough. There was no dream job waiting for me back there. My dream died the same day my parents did. It has left me with nothing and no family; I don’t have a brother or a sister. The only friends that came through were Brie and Dean to make sure I held up.

Brie came to pick me up, so I could move in with her temporarily until I could find a decent apartment. She even pulled some strings at a local diner so I could have a job to support myself. I couldn’t thank her enough. I haven’t practiced dance for almost two months, and honestly, mourning both my mother's and father’s death is hard enough.

Hearing the blaring of a horn, I look into my childhood home for the very last time as tears threaten to fall down my cheeks. I breathe in deeply and close the door with a thud.I grab my only suitcase with all my possessions and walk toward Brie’s car with the windows down.

“You need help with that?” she asks.

“I got it, but thanks for asking.” I place it in the back seat of her old, beat-up Ford. I open the passenger door and slide in. I turn to her and give her a tight hug, holding back the tears once more before I cry for the millionth time.

“It’s okay, Giselle,” she says, rubbing my back. I hug her just as fiercely, needing someone’s support and love.

I close my eyes shut, hoping this is just a bad dream, and when I open them, everything will be back to normal.

When I open my eyes, of course, the nightmare is still here, and my parents are no longer with me. I can’t call my mom or dad and tell them how my day went or if I met a guy. I’m so heartbroken and alone, all my dreams lost, feeling empty inside with just despair and utter loneliness.

“Alright, let’s get to Sioux Falls,” she says.

Brie has been living there for the past three years now, only twenty miles from my parents’ home. She works at the diner during the day, and at night she describes how she dances at a strip /dance club that a hotshot developer from Las Vegas built with state-of-the-art lighting and a sound system, the stage has three dance poles and a handful of dancers. Some strip and others wear skimpy outfits, but don’t really take their clothes off.

“Hey, I was thinking. You should be our choreographer and teach us some new routines to bring in new clients. The clients lately are all rich and mostly sports celebrities. We need one more girl who doesn’t strip. It’s a spot that hasn’t hit the mainstream media yet, and the people that hang out there spend enough money to not want the publicity.”

---