Chapter 4: Blue

Velma had always found it very easy to lose herself when she was dancing, and today was no different. When she was danced, the world looked different somehow, almost as though she was looking at it through rose-tinted glasses. Everything that made her toss in her sleep at night was still there, but it was all like the many small cuts and scrapes she used to pick up playing with the boys as a child. She was aware of them, but it didn't hurt.

She was also very much aware of Roxie beside her. She was tuned into her every move, and the rhythms of their bodies moved in perfect unison. She felt the blond girl relax beside her just as her own worry lines began to ebb away. After all, she wasn't Velma Kelly anymore, at least not for now. She was just the clicking of their tap shoes, the wailing of the trumpet, and the breathing of her partner beside her.

It took her a while to realize it when the music stopped and even longer for her to remember who and where she was. She was shocked by how much time had gone by; she hadn't noticed it at all.

She hadn't even noticed how hungry she was, not that she normally did. That was Roxie's job, and she had never failed at it. For such a half-pint, Roxie could sure put away an alarming amount of food.

"I'm gonna go grab us something to eat before the next gig. Don't miss me too much!" Roxie teasingly turned and blew a kiss at the stage door.

"Oh, don't flatter yourself, hon. I'll go just because I know you'll miss me much more." Velma awarded her a rare vampish smile, glad that dancing had wiped away enough of the morning's tension for them to act like complete dumb Doras together again.

Roxie gave her a skeptical look, one pale eyebrow raised. Normally, Velma just snapped at her for interrupting their rehearsal for something as trivial as her stomach. "What are you smoking?" she said but not as like she was irritated. There was laughter in her high, soft voice.

"Whatever it is, you can't have any of it!" laughed Velma, and without further preamble, she was out the door and onto the streets.

Rain was coming down hard now, but Velma didn't mind. She'd always liked the rain, and she wasn't about to waste a thought worrying about getting her old training dress wet. As she walked, the heels of her shoes made music against the wet pavement, and everything she passed swam and blurred before with yet another memory.

She wasn't sure what had possessed her to walk through the streets of her past in the pouring rain, because she was quite sure the memories that came to her now were not ones she wanted to revisit, but somehow they called to her. She wasn't going to run and hide from them. She wanted to be able to look her past in the eye and say, I'm not afraid of you. And what Velma Kelly wanted was normally what she did.

She kept walking. She watched her past unfold before her as if it were someone else's story. A black-haired woman looked down upon her, face full of love and pain, held her, and sang a raspy lullaby.

The woman's soft voice turned harsh. There was another voice there, too, a man's voice. He was shouting at the woman and she was shouting back. The cruel sound of a slap rent the air, and the shouting redoubled. She closed her eyes and pretended not to hear them.

Velma tried to get a grip on herself, but it was as if her feet had a mind of their own, dragging her into a small old nightclub she knew too well. The place was in disrepair, and a faded sign reading, "Closed," was nailed above the doorway. She ignored the sign and pushed through the door.

Her every step echoed on the old broken tile, as she walked closer to the small stage, with its velvet curtains hanging askew. She saw two raven- haired girls, arm-in-arm, bowing and smiling for the enthusiastic crowd. They looked as though there was nowhere else they'd rather be, and that was probably true. They bowed as one.

"I've always wanted to hear people clapping like that for me," said one of the performers. Velma could see her beaming face and hear her voice above the noise of the crowd as clearly as if it had been yesterday.

"Not for you," quipped the other, "for us!"

"You're right," she agreed. "For us..."

Their voices faded away as Velma turned and saw a petite girl standing beside her in the vivid crowd with the smile of a lioness who has just trapped her prey. Velma blinked and she was all alone in the faded speakeasy.

She walked a little further, drawing closer to the memory she dreaded the most. She stared up at the barely-standing apartment building. Somewhere in her head, there were two shots, two screams, and a dark-haired girl in a black dress sat all alone in an alleyway in the pouring rain.

Velma blinked and found that that was exactly where she was, in her soaking black training dress, staring out into the distance with a single tear in her eye. She brushed it away, suddenly remembering the reason she had left the theater in the first place. She ducked into a café, dried off, and made a run for the theater with a bag in her hand. She slowed her pace as she drew nearer to the stage door.

Roxie was there to meet her, dressed for the show, and looking frazzled as Velma casually strolled in through the door.

"What kept you, goddamnit? We're on in five minutes!" Roxie demanded, running nervous fingers through her wavy hair.

"I got lost."

It wasn't a lie.

Thank you for all your reviews! They made me feel so light inside, I started doing a happy dance until I stubbed my toe on the computer desk and started swearing. My cat found the whole thing very amusing; you could tell!

Well, that's not the point. The point is, you are truly very kind, and if this authoress is ever famous with more novels poppin' out of her than Danielle Steele (Thanks KitKat, that one really made me laugh!) it'll be because of lovely readers like you!

For those of you who are wondering if there will be any romance in this story, cruel as I am, you're going to just have to wait and see. ;) And Sweet775, it's funny you should mention Les Miz, because I was actually kind of thinking of "I Dreamed a Dream" when I started writing this story. It was my solo for Chorale this year, and the last line, "Now life has killed the dream I dreamed," just kept echoing in my head for some reason when I started writing this story. Now, that's a weird coinkidink...Well anywho, hugs and kisses to all my readers, and there's an update coming real soon!