Page 5 of Set the Moment
“Dude, Momma bear just got his ballsbustedby a dance teacher.” Blake snickers, leaning in close to tell me.
I raise a brow over his head at Derek, who’s on his phone, watching the video of Delilah I’d sent into our group chat.
“A dance teacher?” I question, eyeing the two of them.
“Yep! She was hot as hell, pink hair and everything.”
Charlie leans forwards between Blake and I’s seats and chuckles. “Dere-bear got his balls busted? No way.”
“Way! And she washot!”
I ignore Blake as he proceeds to inform the rest of our team about what had happened in the hall between Derek and Delilah’s dance teacher.
I’m about to tell him not to send a text to the group chat about it when all of the lights in the theater go out.
My knee bounces as my mind recounts my favorite dancer—the Alice who’d once escaped my Wonderland. I silently reminisce about the summers and mild winters the two of us shared as children when a spotlight shines over a figure on the stage.
The woman is hunched into a ball, her body contorted to look small as she breathes heavily.
I’m immediately brought back down to Earth and all air evaporates from my lungs as light pink hair shines brightly under the stage lights. I don’t notice the rest of the audience’s gasps as the woman rises from her spot before dramatically falling to the ground as a piano key thuds loudly in the background.
My heart rackets as my eyes lock on the woman in front of me.
Smooth mahogany skin, light pink hair, and eyes the color of the Earth shine bright under the lights of the stage.
Sienna Jones is right in front of me.
My chest tightens as she rises from the ashes of my heart, her movements slow and magnetic as an instrumental song begins to play.
Sienna wears a black leotard with a flowy, sheer, black skirt that’s languid with her body as she lets the music encompass her.
I watch in astonishment as she tells a story of feeling alone and confused in a world that was not made for her. I sit up in my seat, goosebumps kissing my flesh as I lean in to get a better look at her as she dances her heart out. My cheekswarm as she does a leap that seems to be impossible and my brain catalogs every. Single. Moment.
Sienna is captivating as she dances.
She’s a lone star in a room full of darkness, shining brighter than anything else. Her eyes catch mine for a short second, and it’s all my body needs to have a knee-jerk reaction.
I’ve been in awe of Sienna since I first watched her dance in her uncle's backyard at eight-years-old, but to see her growth as a dancer does something to me. I want to run up there and tell her how proud I am of her. Yet, another part of me wants to pick her up and run away, whisk her off to a forgotten place where she’s the only star in the universe and I’m her moon.
Sienna bows, pleased with herself as the audience jumps and claps for her. She knows she’s in control, and she loves it—I can see it. I can also see something else. Something much more sinister.
Is that anger, angel?
I can see it in the way her jaw clenches slightly and how her eye twitches faintly.
Sienna’s livid, and I’m going to know exactly why.
I’ve lost my angel once before—I fell from the sky and landed in Wonderland without her. I see my shot to get her back, and if I don’t take it now, I won’t get the chance to do it again.
I have to have her, even if it’s the last thing that I do.
two
Jace
Idon’twasteanytime as I run out of the theater when Sienna exits the stage. Christmas came early in the form of a pink haired ballerina. It’s been years since I’ve seen Sienna, let alone watched her dance. A normal, much more sane man would stop and think about the fact that he hasn’t seen his childhood crush and best friend's cousin in nearly two years.
Except I never said that I was normal.
