brother
Chapter 10: Penny
The weekend couldn’t come fast enough.
It’s not even noon yet and already, I’m stretched ton thin, my nerves wired too tight, my brain buzzing in a dozen different directions that all feel equally impossible to catch
The week had been… interesting.
Tiring, more than anything.
I gave Tyler the cold shoulder for most of it–not because I wanted to punish him, exactly, but because every time I thought about the way he’d disappeared at dinner, the way he’d left me standing awkward and alone in a house full of strangers, it stirred up something inside me that didn’t feel small enough to ignore.
I didn’t yell.
I didn’t start a fight.
I just… stopped answering as quickly.
Stopped smiling as easily.
And them, because life has a truly dark sense of humor, I saw the pictures.
Tyler at some house party, arm slung around Zoe’s chair, laughing too loud, tossing ping pong balls into plastic cups while half the girls in the photo leaned in closer than necessary.
It wasn’t the beer pong that got me.
It wasn’t even Zoe’s sharp little smile, curled like a secret.
It was the fact that he looked so at ease.
Like nothing about the night felt wrong.
I’d stared at
at the pictures too long, long enough that the image burned behind my eyelids even when I closed them, and for a few days after that, Tyler didn’t push.
ive me space.
He gave
Apologized. Texted things like I’m an idiot and I miss you and let me make it up to you in the kind of rapid–fire succession that only made me more tired.
Or close enough.
It’s not like I can afford to waste more headspace on it.
Tomorrow is the Gala audation.
The biggest shot I’ve ever had.
The thing I’ve been grinding toward for the past year.
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Chapter 10: Penny
And I need my head clear.
I should be thinking about placement and breathing and flmr,
try I should be visualizing my routine until it clicks into place without me having to
Instead, I spent the better part of this morning sitting cross–legged on my bed, my laptop balanced on my knees, typing Asher Hayes into every search bar could find like an idiot.
Nothing.
No Facebook. No Instagram. No smiling military headshots.
The only thing that came up was a blany local news clip from three years ago about a group of new Navy recruits, the names listed in a tiny scrolling credit at the bottom of the screen.
I should stop thinking about him.
About the way his voice sounded like gravel when he said nothing at all.
About the way he stared, steady and cold, like he could see things in me I didn’t even know were there,
I should stop thinking about all of it–Tyler, Zoe, Rebecca, Asher, the weight of that night–but it’s like my brain refuses to cooperate.
I shake myself out of it and head downstairs, stretching my arms over my head until my shoulders crack, trying to force the tension out of my body before it sinks too deep.
The kitchen smells like coffee and toast.
“Morning,” I say, pulling my cardigan tighter around me as I step into the room.
My parents look up from where they’re sitting at the island, twin mags of coffee steaming between their hands.
They share a glance.
A small, weighted glance.
I know that look.
It’s the look they wear before they tell me something I’m not going to like.
My stomach knots, small and tight
“What’s up?” I ask, trying for lightness”
My mom sets her mug down with a quiet click. “Sweetheart, we need to tell you something.
I slide onto a stool, heart sinking before they epen start.
“We have to leave for a conference,” my dad says. “Last minute. Today.”
I blink at them.
“Today?” I repeal.
They nod, twin grimaces twisting their faces.
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Chapter 10: Penny
The
↑ wwallow around the lamp Hring in my throat,
They’ve always uppited me, in their way
if this in joportant. in c a big rop
1 nod, forcing a small smile. It’s okay I get in
“You’ll be fine,” my dad says, reaching mer to squeeze my hand.
ready. You don’t need in to hold your hand theag
1 I bite the inside of my cheek hand enough to taste copper but not again.
“You can ask Tyler to drive
coffers. “Or you can take the bus if you’d rather, It’s not for
I don’t say anything.
I don’t know what to say.
“We’ll be gone about a week,” my dad says. “It’s out of state.”
A week.
In this house that already feels too big when it’s full, let alone when it’s empty
“You can have Tyler over,” my mom adds, smiling, “Or any of your friends. Make it a little less lonely.”
“Sure,” I say, my voice sounding too small to my own ears,
She squeezes my shoulder gently. “We’ll call you after your audition. Promise.”
1 nod again, the movement mechanical, and watch as they both stand, bustling around the kitchen gathering bags and travel mugs and papers, already halfway out the door before I can really register it.
Within minutes, the front door slams shut behind them, and I’m left standing in the kitchen, the smell of coffee lingering like a ghost.
I wrap my arms around myself and lean back against the counter, staring at the empty
doorway.
It’s not a big deal
I’m used to it.
They travel all the time.
I’m old enough to be on my own.
It’s line.
But when I close my eyes, all I can see is tomorrow.
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Chapter 10: Penny
The cavernous audition hall.
The long, polished floors.
The rows of judges.
The hundreds of other dancers.
And nie.
Alone
I breathe out slowly, forcing the tightness in my chest to loosen.
It doesn’t matter.
I have bigger things to worry about than feeling sorry for myself.
Tomorrow is what matters.
Tomorrow is everything.
I push off the counter and head upstairs, already mentally running through my routine, the music, the counts, the breaths.
Focus, Penny
Focus.
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