Page 16 of Wicked Dance
I burst into giggles. “It still looked good!”
Another staircase sparkles red in the light. “I remember this!” I say and jump from the stool, running up the glittery steps. “Be a star where you are, be a star!” I sing out loud.
“Hey, you’re not half bad!” he says. He jumps from the malt shop counter and follows me up the steps. He kisses my cheek, then turns and slides down the rail to the floor.
I gasp, then remember that he did it on the show. “No mat at the bottom or anything?” I ask.
“Nope,” he says. “I perform all my own stunts.”
He holds his hands up to me. I descend a few of the steps, then leap over the last few. He catches me neatly and slides me down his body. “It’s way more fun on these props with you,” he says.
“You just had to audition a lot of dancers before you got to me,” I say against his cheek. He smells divine, like pine woods and diner food and leather.
“I knew you would love seeing all this,” he says.
“So sad to think it will all go away.”
“Other shows will use it. I think half these things came from previous dance productions.”
I turn around, and then freeze. Blitz feels me go still. “What is it?” he asks.
In the corner, almost hidden by a volcano, is the red satin bed.
I walk toward it. It’s still made up, as if somebody rolled it over and forgot about it. I smack my hand against the bedding, expecting an explosion of dust, but it’s fine.
“Yeah, that,” Blitz says. He runs a hand nervously through his hair. “They fixed it up again for the finale, in case I picked Giselle, but it just got shoved in the corner when we decided to go with the tropical theme.”
I sit on it. It’s an actual mattress, and it gives a little. “This was one of the firstDance Blitznumbers I ever saw,” I tell him.
“Really, that one? It definitely pushed the ratings into the stratosphere, starting off season two with a scandal and censored episode.”
“I saw the audience photos. She got naked!”
Blitz lets out a rush of air. “She did. I don’t know what she thought she was doing. They didn’t let her back on the show after that.”
“Did you want her back?”
He shakes his head. “No, she wasn’t professional. And they were already planning on a live finale, and you can’t let somebody like that be a part of it, even if there is a delay in the broadcast.”
“Really, there’s a delay?”
“Oh, yeah. The station can get shut down if something really bad goes on the air. FCC rules. There are engineers whose sole job is to bleep out anything not allowed, cuss words, or certain types of promotion. And nudity, of course.”
“You seemed really…attracted to her in the shots,” I say.
“I couldn’t believe she had done it,” Blitz says. “What you were seeing was utter disbelief.”
My hands run along the silky bedspread. “I was super jealous of that girl when I saw it.”
Blitz lies down on his side, his head propped on his hands. “At what point did you go looking up this gem?”
“After the first class with the wheelchair ballerinas. The second day I knew you.”
“Ah. So you were stalking me already?”
I punch him lightly on the chest. “No!” Then, “Okay, maybe.”
He grabs me around the waist and pulls me down on the bed. In a flash, I’m trapped beneath him, his knees on either side of my hips and his face looming over mine in the low light.
