"Someone need not be perfect to be a great dancer - feeling
a soul is more important than what the body can do."
Marcia Haydée
One look at his calendar and Justin couldn't believe how long he had been training with the company. Four and a half months and New York City was made of pure fire during the month of July. All he wanted to do was spend time outdoors, maybe actually do the sightseeing he never had the chance to do, but just because it was summer didn't mean that they were on a break. Training had intensified, all the instructors preparing them for the mid-year performance that the school performed for local schools. Justin sighed as he thought of the ballet.
Kevin had choreographed it with Louis' help, a period piece that gave few solos and many corps dances. There had been a rumor going around that auditions for the solo pieces were being held the following week and Justin was determined to claim one of them as his own.
"Hey." Justin looked at who entered the bedroom door that he and Jordon always left open, just like most of the other apartments on their floor. Sasha, one of the younger dancers in training was standing there, twisting her hair up quickly. "They gave out the solos!"
"What?" Justin shot out of his chair. "What do you mean? When were auditions?"
She shook her head and grabbed his arm, pulling him with her to the stairs. "They made their decisions based on some classes they watched. NO ONE knew they were doing it, but they did and the lists are up in the studio lounge." Without another word, they raced down the stairs into the afternoon heat and ran down the block to the studios; by the time they reached the lounge, the other ten dancers were already there, staring at the list, some grinning and hugging, others sighing in disappointment.
He walked up to the list that was taped onto the door of the dancers lounge and ran his eyes down the short list of four names, his breath catching when he saw his name typed at the bottom of the list. "Oh thank you, thank you," he breathed out, his lips breaking out in a large smile. He looked at the other three names and grinned even wider when he saw his roommate's name along with Nicolette Demania and Jasmine Granero. He turned and looked around for Jordan and when he did, he went over to him and they hugged quickly in excitement. He was about to say something when Kevin walked through the crowd and held up his hand for silence.
"This was the best way to see who was capable of being a soloist. Will the four soloists go into Studio 2; Louis will be there waiting and I'll be there in a minute." He looked around. "Monique? Can I speak to you, please?" Justin looked at his dance partner for a second before he left with the other three to start what he soon found out was the first rigorous rehearsal for the solos. Twenty minutes into the rehearsal, Kevin walked in and motioned for the music to stop. "Justin, I need to speak to you, please." Feeling apprehensive, Justin followed him out into the hallway. "Justin, I just spoke to Monique." Justin nodded. "She's been let out of the program, so as of right now, you no longer have a partner. We'll see what we can do about that, but you needed to know."
"If you don't mind me asking, sir, why is she no longer with us?"
"Back to rehearsal, Justin," he said, ignoring the question. "You can't miss out on these things."
The rest of the rehearsal was a blur to Justin. It was intense, the dance pulling at every joint in his body and it pushed him harder than any other dance had before, but he welcomed the challenge with open arms. "Hey," he whispered to Jordan as they walked out of the smaller studio. "Monique's out."
"What? Seriously?"
"Yeah, Kevin told me because she was my partner. It's messed up, man."
"You can't tell me you're going to miss having her as your partner though." He saw Justin's face. "She wasn't a dancer, Justin. She couldn't do anything right and she never worked as hard as you did."
"Yeah, true," he agreed quietly. "Hey, we have the night off right? And tomorrow morning?" Jordan nodded. "Let's go grab a couple more people and go out dancing. Not ballet, just fun dancing. Let's grab Monique if she's still around." Monique declined, saying she had to pack, but half of the training dancers went to a club late that night after grabbing dinner at the pizza place at the corner.
The air had cooled somewhat considerably as they walked together to a nearby dance hall they had heard about. It was supposedly one of the hot spots in the area and you only got in if you were either gorgeous, had an incredibly nice body, or knew someone. Justin knew they wouldn't have any problems and they breezed in the doors, leaving behind comments from the bouncers about the way they looked.
The beat pulsed in the air and into Justin's body the minute they walked in and Justin immediately felt the heat of bodies stick to his bare arms, the black shirt he was wearing already starting to cling to his chest and torso in the trickling heat of the strobe lights. They immediately gravitated towards the dance floor, finding a place in the moving bodies and sliding against each other. Justin grabbed Nicolette and moved with her to the harsh beats coming from the speakers and laughed when Damien walked up behind him and began dancing with him too. The songs blended into each other and Justin lost track of time – they all did. Somewhere during a techno song, he motioned to his friends that he was getting a drink and they nodded, Nicolette grabbing him to follow him for her own drink.
"I'm glad we did this," she said when they were at the bar, trying to flag down one of the bartenders. "We never get to have fun like this."
"I know, right?" He finally managed to grab someone and asked for two bottles of water, which appeared in front of him within minutes. He dropped the bills on the bar and handed one to Nicolette. "I forgot what it was like to dance without counts." She laughed in agreement until someone caught her eye and she sputtered, almost spitting out water. "Are you okay?"
"Oh my God, and I thought he was just gorgeous on stage or in class." Justin turned his head and his eyes widened when they settled on JC at the other end of the bar, a bottle of beer in between his fingers and laughing with his own friends. "God, he's like, sinful in that outfit." Justin had to agree, but he shook his head.
"Come on, let's dance again." He led her back to where their friends were and as if they hadn't just gotten a drink, hadn't just seen Joshua Chasez, they picked up the beat. He was losing himself quickly and was shocked back into reality when a warm hand snaked over his hip to his stomach. His eyes shot open and saw Nicolette's shocked look and knew who was behind him. He was about to turn but JC pressed his hand against Justin's body to move him in tighter to his own body and leaned down to Justin's ear,
"Just dance." Justin closed his eyes and willed himself to calm down as he moved against the older man, his hips leading JC's into a burning desire of want. They twisted to the smooth vibes blaring out of the speakers and bouncing off the walls across the club and Justin thought that maybe JC had changed his mind, but before he could think of what he had changed his mind about, JC's mouth was by his ear again, lips touching the skin there as he spoke, "Thanks. You're a good dancer." The low chuckle that slid into Justin's ear and down to his groin burned a path of chilling ice through his body and just like that, Justin was left alone again with his friends.
Across the room, Kelliana smacked JC across the arm after what she just saw. "You are an evil man, Joshua Chasez."
"What?"
"You know that boy likes you and I swear, if I were him, I would have either thrown you right there on the dance floor to have my way with you or kicked your ASS." JC looked surprised. "Oh, please. Listen, I know about you and your stupid rule about dating within the company. But did you ever think that you made up that rule just so you wouldn't be tempted? Suck it up and go for it."
*