A\N – Soooooo, I think by now you should all know that I send my love to everyone who reviews, follows, favorites this thing! You are my motivation and inspiration! Keep your wonderful words coming, I'm thrilled to know what you think!
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I heard the noise of someone approaching before there was a voice.
"Harper? What are you still doing here? I thought you went home…" Jonathan said as I saw his figure in the wall-mirror. I was dressed in my dancing attire with my hair in a tight bun on the back of my head.
"Dance with me."
"You…you want to go through the routine again?" He looked up slightly confused from the papers in his hands, his piercing blue eyes scanning me like X-rays.
I moved from the wall and slowly made my way through the floor and to the place where he was standing. I gently took the papers from his hands, his eyes following me all the time, gaze comprehending.
"No, I don't want routine. I want you to dance with me." It wasn't a question, I told him what I was expecting with simple determination.
Papers in hand I stepped behind Jonathan to the table with the stereo system and pressed the 'play' button. Leaving the documents on the table I turned to my partner and taking his hands in both mine guided him to the center of the floor as the first accords of Ottis Redding's "Ain't no sunshine when she's gone" started playing.
Before I knew what to do Jonathan turned me around so my back was slightly touching him.
"Your shoulders are like stone. In order for this to work, you need to relax." He whispered, his hands firmly on my shoulders applying the slightest pressure. "Close your eyes."
I did as he said.
"Now…breath."
Inhale. Exhale. Once again. And again.
I felt the muscles on by back, the ones attached to the spinal cord, started to relax as the beats of the song replaced one another. Shoulders fell slightly under Jonathan's arms and my neck felt as if it was feeling up with water. I think I even felt my head spinning a little. Only then did I realize just how much stressed out I really was, how much my emotions affected me physically.
I felt Jonathan take my left hand with his left one and gradually guide it behind his head similar to the first move of Johnny and Baby's final dance from 'Dirty Dancing', one of my favorite 80's movies. My lips twitched in a small smile, I kept my eyes shut and let the dance and my partner take control finally relaxing into my own body and forgetting for just a little moment that there existed another world outside the dance floor.
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Kelly didn't feel like going home. Neither did he consider going for the night to his and Shay's apartment. So he opted for the bar. To his fortune (or likely the opposite) Matt was there. Kelly really hoped for Lesley's company but instead he got Matt. No heart to heart then.
"Hey, man." Casey greeted him when Kelly took a seat next to him at the bar.
"Hey." Kelly nodded and turned to the bartender. "Hey, Jerry. Beer."
"You alone?" Matt took a sip from his own bottle of beer.
"Yep." Kelly nodded again at Jerry who handed him the bottle. "Why are you here? I thought you headed home after the shift."
"Yeah…I just…don't feel like going home right now." Casey gulped the drink.
Kelly nodded hoping that the conversation would be left at that – polite remarks, head nods and stereotypical questions about weather. But the Lady Luck just seemed not to be at his side.
"It's just ever since I found out about your and Harper's engagement, congrats by the way, I can't help thinking that Hallie and I…well, it's like we should have already gotten married…"
"You do realize that this is not a contest, right?" To this Casey huffed into his bottle.
The last thing Kelly wanted was to play a shrink but Matt seemed distressed and there was no one else to hear him out…and frankly Kelly found it to be a small destruction from his own growing pains and problems.
"So why haven't you? Gotten married, I mean." He finally asked.
"It's her. I've proposed not once but she wants to complete her residency…" Matt was slightly agitated telling the story. It was apparent that he'd rather talk to Andy or no one at all but the situation was that he needed to pour what was on his mind and Kelly was a friend, a good one and he was there to listen.
Kelly came into the bar to run away from the complications in his relationships but it turned out that filled with his own troubles he was still able if not help but listen to his friend in need and strangely enough it brought him the sense of tranquility he's craved so much at the moment.
The sharpest uneasiness was looming over his head after his unfinished talk with Harper and Kelly didn't kid himself. He knew that as soon as he stepped out of the bar all the worries, anxiety and dilemmas would fly right back but for the time he could just start with -ing Casey.
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"God…I feel so much better." I was sitting on the floor, my back to the wall, massaging the slightly-unfrozen muscles of my right shoulder.
"You need to stop doing it, Harper." Jonathan answered as he turned to collect the papers from the table.
"Doing what?" Looking up at him I started to pull myself up back on my feet.
"You've always done that. Ever since you started dancing. You have problems. You come to the studio. You try to dance them out. But the trick is – you don't solve them here. You can't solve them here."
My confused eyes glared daggers at his back:
"What are you talking about? I come here because I'm frustrated everywhere else…"
Jonathan turned to look at me and his icy eyes softened just a little bit as they met mine.
"You were seventeen probably and we were then practicing for the Hamlet at the Academy. I was late one night from the meeting with the Director and when I was passing the classrooms I heard music. I neared the room but didn't enter. That night you danced Ophelia's dance at least a dozen times. The next day you didn't even try for Ophelia."
I opened my mouth to answer but it simply swam away from me so Jonathan went on.
"It's very good that you have this haven. A place you feel comfortable in. That you don't go destructive. But…sometimes you have to face your demons."
"What if I don't know how to do it…at all?"
"You know, the thing about your demons and everybody else's: you confront them, then you confront them and then…you confront them some more."
We were standing in the dim studio face to face and I could feel the tones of energy being thrown back and force.
"And what if I'm afraid that if I confront those demons everything is gonna fall apart?" I asked finally, my voice low and tired.
"Before you do anything you have to decide what you want yourself. In the end it's all about the questions you ask yourself. Do you want to do something? Do you want to stay? Do you want to leave?"
"Just like that?"
"Usually life is not as complicated as we paint it to be."
I sighed. Jonathan edged closer and swiftly kissed my forehead, using his right hand free of documents to give a slight hug. I closed my eyes but could still feel the bitterness of the simple act.
"Stop running from your problems, Harper. You've had a too long marathon now."
