Chloe had been absent for days now, sometimes she could come in but it didn’t really seemed she was there. The teachers had excused her, her brother or her father would come time to time to the school and ask for assignments and she would take the tests at home, so her grades wouldn’t fall. She couldn’t handle things lately like she would normally. She couldn’t smile and fake it this time, she just didn’t know what to do with herself.
She parted herself from her friends, the one who struggled to make contact was Pablo, because he knew of her problems, she had confessed to him that night at his house. She needed to tell someone else, to ease the pain, he had given her a tight hug, but she didn’t cry. She had tightly smiled and reassured him and herself that she would be all right, but now it was hard to see. Chloe couldn’t go to the hospital anymore, she couldn’t look at her mother without wanting to cry, without being angry. Not with her mother but at God. She didn’t know what else to blame in the moment. Spending her time in her room, the door knocking out the world outside of the four white walls.
She had been like this after the argument with Duncan, her father had parked up into the house to find her crying on the curb, and her arms folded upon her knees, crying like a small child. He had kneeled down and asked her what was wrong, but she didn’t answer. He helped her get up and into bed. She hadn’t slept, she had cried into the pillow that night. She felt her heart feel this ache that she couldn’t define. She didn’t know what it was but it hurt so badly, it felt like it was breaking, as if it couldn’t take another beat.
It was as if someone had taken the life out her. That’s when in the following week, they would find Chloe gone from early afternoon until unstable nights in the evenings. She had gone to the only thing she could confide in, the only thing she could hide herself in, let out the pain without speaking. Dancing.
She would go into the empty classrooms before the classes were suppose to begin with permission and dancing in front the mirrored walls, dancing on your toes could be hurtful, the pain that it would cause sometimes from not dancing for such a long time but she ignored it. The piano playing on the tape recorder, she would dance for hours if they let it. This was the only thing she had left. No one ever took it away from her, she just didn’t know that she had it until she needed it. Through the steps, she showed the sadness she had. The teacher had asked her after the first two days to get back to the classes, Chloe had talent, and she shouldn’t waste it. She was young and a skilled dancer. At first Chloe wanted to take down the offer but accepted it. She wanted things to be good again, she wanted to be able to feel again, like she use to feel before. Alive.