Page 54 of True Sight (Nat. 20, #4)
HENRY
“ A nd bring it, down, low,” I call out like a metronome following the beat of the music.
Alex and I are midway through our ‘Real Strong Women’ class where the songs we play are some of music’s biggest females.
Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Billie Ellish. A mix of weights and dancing—it’s one of my favorite classes to teach.
“Shake dat ass, hey! Shake dat ass, hey!” Alex turns to the camera to shake her ass and flaunt what she’s got, freestyling the dance at the end of the song.
She bounced into the studio this morning, smiling wider than she has since I met her.
The energy she’s exuding is magnetic and makes class that much better.
“Oh my god, you’re a hot mess today.” I wave a hand and smile at her before checking the chat in our virtual classroom. People are raving about how much fun they are having while they work out and how happy we seem today.
“What can I say, it’s that Wednesday high,” she pants behind me, adjusting her headset since it nearly flew off her head after she did a hair flip that rivaled that of Beyoncé .
“Girl, goodbye,” I snap, rolling my eyes at her and beginning our cool down song.
I lead the two of us and our participants through the entire four minute song and say goodbye to everyone before closing down the room.
It’s one of our last solely virtual classes with the studio opening the Monday after the New Year which is shockingly only two weeks away.
I can’t believe Christmas is next week already.
“Gah, that was so fun,” Alex sings behind me. I turn to see her tossing herself onto the floor of our main classroom and wiping the sweat off her forehead with her shirt. Her core flexes as she works to dry herself off before she pulls her dark ponytail out from under her sweaty back.
“You’re in quite the mood today.” My voice is light and inquisitive, egging her on to tell me more.
“That’s what an orgasm will do for ya.” She peeks at me through a squinted eye and flashes me a smirk. I lean over and playfully slap her thigh.
“Uhm, okay girl, get it. Please tell me all the dirty, disgusting details.” She laughs and I let her happiness continue to fill me up. Without her, I don’t think I would feel as good as I do.
“Puh-lease, a girl never reveals her secrets,” she coys, wiggling her shoulders a little against the floor.
“What?” I cry out, she can’t be serious. “I’ve told you all of my dirty, disgusting details before.”
“But you’re a boy, and boys have that primal need to boast about their conquests. I’m not the same. Especially with my lips.” When she peeks at me again and subsequently blushes, we both fall into a fit of laughter.
“Oh my god, you’re ridiculous. At least tell me if it was male, female, or personal pleasure device.
” I lay down next to her on my back and look up at the ceiling.
The room we’re in has come together beautifully and is exactly what I hoped it to be.
The thought of having real students dancing and working out in it with me in just a few short weeks doesn’t seem real.
“I guess you’re just going to have to wait and find out in the next story,” she teases before sitting and redoing her ponytail. “What about you, you seem a little brighter today than when I saw you Monday. Did you work it out with your boy?”
I sigh and hammock my hands together before resting them behind my head as a type of pillow. “Not yet but I’m taking your advice. I waited forty-eight hours and haven’t heard from him so I’m just going to go over there tonight when I know he’s done working for the day so we can talk.”
I decided this last night as I tossed and turned, failing to find sleep, and wondered if he was doing the same.
Worried that he had a nightmare and couldn’t sleep.
Worried even more that he did and felt like he couldn’t reach out to talk about it.
I knew that I shouldn’t have run away but past experiences had spooked me when he didn’t say it back right away.
He was a processor and needed time to make any kind of decision, it wasn’t right of me to expect him to live at my speed.
So I’m going to go to his place tonight and lay it all out on the table.
Tell him that I love him even if he isn’t ready to say it back and that I’m willing to wait for him if that’s what he needs me to do.
“Henry, that’s amazing.” Alex’s voice pulls me out of my thoughts and brings me back to the present with the help of her hands on my arm, shaking me. “Don’t wait till tonight though, go now and surprise him.”
“I thought about that but then I thought about him and what he would want. He’s busy wrapping up the final details for the studio and all the other work he does.
I’m going to give him the day to get his work done and then just steal his night from him,” I finish with a smirk.
I know he has his standing Wednesday game night with his friends but my hope is that I can catch him before he leaves and then we can meet up once he’s done.
“Naughty boy.” She swats her hand at me.
“I hope it goes how you want it to. You’re a fucking catch and if he doesn’t see that, that’s his own damn fault.
” She stands from the floor and goes to grab the cleaning supplies to wipe down where we had taken class.
I stand to help her and once we’ve cleaned up and put things away, we grab our stuff and head towards the door.
“I have a good feeling about it. I don’t know what it is, I just feel this wave of change coming.” I pause for a beat and smile to myself. “It feels nice, feels right.”
“Well whatever your juju is telling you, I’m all for it. I have to get going but I’ll see you tomorrow? Last set of classes until after Christmas?”
“You know it. I’ll see you tomorrow,” I call out to her as she walks towards her car.
“Don’t stay up too late. I love you and don’t forget to practice safe sex,” she waves and yells back.
After waiting ten minutes for my Uber to arrive because it’s simply too cold for my pretty little legs to carry me home, I lock the front door and trot out to the car, opening the door and taking a seat behind the front passenger seat.
I say hello to my driver like I normally do and make a mental note to myself to commit to purchasing my own car once the studio is opened in the new year.
The driver and I chat as we drive home with the low buzz of the local radio station playing in the background.
He’s telling me about his wife and kids as I’m looking at the launch party schedule for the studio to make sure everything is in place.
After tonight and classes tomorrow, I want to shut my brain off, relax, and spend the holiday with my boyfriend. That is, so long as he wants me too.
My brain is trying to remember if I’ve ordered enough food for the party when the screaming sound of a car horn cuts through my thoughts.
My eyes look towards the sound and go wide for a fraction of a second, just long enough to see another car coming speeding towards my side of the vehicle.
I feel my seat belt tighten around me like a serpent as the four-door I’m in goes into an endless barrel roll.
The screeching sound of metal against cement fills my ears before we come to a stop hanging upside down.
I blink my eyes and see shattered glass on the ground beneath me and can hear screams coming from the distance.
My head pounds as warm blood drips from my forehead, staining the concrete that’s just a few inches from my head.
A euphoric lightness that I’ve never experienced before fills me. I take a breath to experience it on a deeper level and close my eyes to let it consume me.
Then, I can’t feel anything at all.