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The hollow stairwell in the dance studio was silent, except for one noise. A noise that seemed all to familiar to Abby. As she slowly treaded up the white cement stair case she stopped dead in her tracks. Oh no, it couldn’t be, she thought to herself in a panic. Her heart jumped and she began to sweat a little but not because of the steep stairs she had been forced to climb. She recognized the sound coming from inside the studio only steps away. The door was closed so she couldn’t see inside, but that didn’t matter. She knew all to well who was beyond the door by the sound of his laughter booming from the other side. She couldn’t move. Her hands began to shake and her eyes were fixated on the door marked “Welcome.” The uncontrollable butterflies in her stomach were making her feel like she had to puke. She wanted to turn around and run straight out the door and forget everything.
“God, Abby what’s wrong? You look like you’ve just seen a ghost. Why aren’t you moving?” Laney’s voice was shaky with concern as she knew her friend had spells like this sometimes. They were caused by the abuse and she couldn’t stop them from coming. She hated to see her dearest friend in an unstable mental state but she could not do anything about it. Abby snapped out of her daze only to respond sharply to Laney.
“What?” she gasped as she quickly flung her head around to look at her best friend.
“I said are you all right? Are you having another one of your spells?”
“Oh no, not at all,” she fluttered. She could still hear the laughter which distracted her from Laney’s concern. Laney could see that Abby was becoming more and more stressed and did not know what to do.
“Abby, are you listening to me? Look at me!” she demanded, grabbing her friend by the arm forcing her to turn around and focus on what she was saying.
“What!” she shouted.
“Have you heard anything I’ve just said? I’m concerned for you. You just stopped suddenly and we’ve been standing on these stairs for a few minutes now with you starring off into space. That really scares me because I know that you have your bad spells sometimes. Are you sure you’re okay? Do you need to sit down or anything?” she choked out, holding back tears. She had let go of her strong grip on Abby’s arm and was now stroking it tenderly.
“Don’t worry I’m not having a spell. I just heard something that made me a little hesitant but I’m alright now,” she lied, trying to conceal her fear.
“Well what was it?”
“Umm…,” her voice trailed off as she quickly tried to come up with a good excuse. “I just thought I heard someone’s voice I knew.” She knew that it wasn’t a good lie but it was the best she could think of at the moment.
“Well who on earth would cause you to stop dead in your tracks and star at the door with horror?”
“Umm...,” she couldn’t think of anyone. Then she found herself blaring out the one name, and person, who she feared most. “I thought I heard Troy talking.” Oh God, where did that come from? Why did I think of him at a moment like this? Laney now displayed the same look of fear as Abby had seconds before.
“Oh my god, really?” said asked. She obviously hadn’t heard the laughter coming from the room before them. She couldn’t hear it now either because it had stopped.
“I don’t know. I thought I heard him talking. I was probably just imagining it you know? It just scared me a little because he is the last person I want to run into.” Abby felt even more fearful now because she was thinking about this horrible man from her past. She knew it wasn’t him she heard behind the door but it still scared her to death to recall his memory. He wasn’t in the studio but someone else was who she also did not want to face.
“Yeah, you would not want to run into him if your life depended on it. God hun, you scared me. I thought you were having one of your spells and I hate when that happens because I feel so helpless. I can’t do anything to pull you out of it. I hate having to see you go through that.” Tears were flowing from her eyes smugging her black eyeliner a little.
“You know I hate having to put you through them too. I’m sorry for scaring you,” she said as she reached out to grab Laney’s hand. “Do you realize this is the second time today we’ve had a crying moment in a public place,” she chuckled.
“We are such saps aren’t we?” she laughed back, feeling her heart ease once again.
“Yeah I guess we are.”
“Well we better get going before they start the lesson with out us. We can’t spend all evening on these steps can we?” Laney joked.
“Nope I guess not,” she fibbed, wishing with all her might that she could just turn around and walk out of the same door from which they had entered, never having to face what she knew would happen as soon as she walked into that dance studio. Her heart began to race once more as Laney walked in front of her. Oh god, only a few more steps of freedom, she thought. As Laney turned the brass doorknob, Abby swallowed a huge lump that had been building up in her throat. She felt it being painfully stretched. What am I doing here? I can’t face this. I can’t do this, she thought. It felt like a bad dream, a nightmare, and all she wanted to do was wakeup and find herself in the comfort of her own apartment away from the disaster that awaited her. But it wasn’t a dream and she suddenly found herself taking her first step into the bright studio, unaware that after this moment her life would never be the same again.