Page 24 of The Paranormal Investigation Bureau
I already knew that was a lie. Marsden had made it pretty clear, when I went to his apartment, that he took the health of his dancers seriously. I knew it would be a problem if someone gained enough weight that it made partner work tricky, but even if I didn’t like Marsden, he didn’t strike me as the type to do that to his dancers.
Was this vampire fuck seriously passive-aggressively trying to give me an eating disorder? I shrugged and ordered a cheeseburger just to spite him. I had a healthy appetite and never said no to a burger, though usually ate junk food moderation… and never before rehearsal. The kale salad was only essential kale and a few limp cucumbers and tomatoes, if i ate that I’d pass out in rehearsals.
I would regret my lunch when rehearsal started, but Julian needed to know I wasn’t falling for his shit. If he still insisted on crashing my lunch, I’d have to be a little more direct with him than just passive-aggressively ordering a cheeseburger.
Oh, gods. He followed me to my table, which reminded me of the raccoon at Kaine’s. There was a feral colony of cats in his backyard that he took care of. I started feeding the cats and playing with the tamer ones. One day, a raccoon showed up and started eating the cat food and I didn’t shoo him away because I thought he was adorable.
I started leaving extra food out for the raccoon. It wouldn’t leave after that and got greedy. It even started knocking the garbage cans over to eat trash. Julian was a trash panda vampire, and it wasn’t like I could call animal control to trap him and release him elsewhere!
Julian wantedmeto eat that kale salad that wouldn’t have given me enough calories to last through rehearsals, but he went right ahead and ordered chili cheese fries with jalapeños!
“So, I Googled you, new girl. I can’t find anything about where you were before you got here. What’s the story? Why didn’t you attend the academy? What’s the scandalous story behind there being zero press releases about you before you got here and still somehow ended up Bellatrix’s understudy and one of Madame Lucinda’s favorites?”
I was about to shut this down right now, but someone else was crashing my lunch. Arden plopped down in an empty seat and glared at Julian.
“Take that nasty shit you are eating and get lost. Tell your master you mess with her, and you mess with me. Iwillbeat your ass, Julian, and Bellatrix knows full well I can make her look like a talentless hack on stage. Walk away, and tell your bitchy friends to lay off. That goes for Bevan, too. You so much as look at him funny, and I’ll break your face. Run along now.”
Julian grabbed his mess of fries and scurried off. What was with the male dancers in this company? I could have threatened to beat the shit out of Julian on my own, and had intended to do so before Arden involved himselfagain.What was his deal? I thought he was mad at me.
“Ignore anything he told you, and don’t tell him anything you don’t want to be spun into something dramatic and spread to everyone in the company.”
“I had that figured out on my own, and I could have handled that.”
“Do you have some personal motto against accepting help from anyone? I get you have this whole fiercely independent thing going… but I’ve been dancing here longer than you have, and I know how these people operate. Despite what I just said, Bellatrix will not back off. You’re going to need friends to watch your back.”
I let out a long sigh and dropped my burger. He was right. Kaine had made damn sure to teach me to be independent, and I probably took that way further than I needed to. The last time person I'd let in was Derrick… and that didn't end well. Arden was right. I was in way over my head here, and I was going to need help.
“I thought you were mad at me, you and Nyx were both pretty pissed when I got home from lunch.”
“Nyx just needs time to get over her shit. I’m already over mine.”
“What shit were you mad about? I know it wasn’t because you thought I slept with Marsden.”
“I don’t know exactly… Merlin and Nicolai have a reputation. They screw ballerinas for sport and make bets about it. They tried to pull that with Nyx, but she’s firmly in camp asexual. It was beautiful when she shrieked in Merlin’s face before class after he hit her with incubus vibes. Everyone was so mad at her, but Madame Lucinda had her back all the way. She kicked Merlin out of class for the day, not Nyx.”
I found myself laughing with Arden. Merlin was the definition of smooth when he sat down and pushed that at me, and he looked utterly shocked when I demanded he stop. It was hard not to get swept up in it, but I had formal training against that kind of thing. Nyx would be totally immune.
“I’m not asexual like Nyx, and I’m not a banshee who can shriek, but Merlin tried the same thing with me and seemed surprised when I told him to knock it off.”
“Whoareyou, Beyla? I tried looking you up online, and I can’t find where you danced before you came here. It had to be somewhere, or you wouldn’t have danced so well with Nicolai. I hate his fucking guts and wouldn’t piss on him if he was on fire, but what I caught was amazing.”
I changed the subject. I was really going to need to come up with a story about why there were no press releases about me dancing somewhere else before I came here.
“What is your deal with Nicolai and Merlin? If theyonlysleep with ballerinas, and you have a no-dancer policy, it’s not like you are competing for women. It sounds like Nyx handled them fine on her own.”
“Because it’s just gross. They try to seduce any new girl that shows up here, like this isn’t a professional ballet company. I feel the same about Marsden. We should be here to dance, and they should give roles out based on ability. Marsden is supposed to be responsible for all of us, and, while he’s anal about certain things, he doesn’t do a damn thing about the toxicity some of these people perpetuate!”
“Julian tried to scare me by telling me Marsden had a weight requirement and would fire me. I already know that’s a lie because Marsden got mad when he found out I hadn’t eaten breakfast when I met with him.”
“Fucking Julian,” Arden muttered. “That’s one of Marsden’s big things. He even benched Bellatrix for a year over it. She got shipped off to a clinic in Sweden when he found out she was puking. She’s the biggest name we have. It wasn’t the first time either. His other hard no is drugs, so she got benched again and shipped off to rehab when he found out about her cocaine problem. FYI, I happen to know she’s using again, and Julian is her supplier. If I have to use that to get them to back off you and Bevan, I will.”
Well, that explained that friendship. Yeah, I was definitely going to need help. I had about as much information aboutThe Sugar Skull Girlas I was going to get, unless Marsden suddenly decided to be honest. These crazy bitches had put broken glass in my pointe shoes, and Julian had tried to manipulate me into restricting my food, despite knowing that was a massive issue with dancers.
“We should get to rehearsal,” I said, picking up my tray.
Arden leaned in when I was throwing my garbage away.
“I’m tempted to use what I know to get Bellatrix shipped off again. I saw you dance with Nicolai, nowI want a turn. You should dance the lead inThe Sugar Skull Girl.”
