Epilogue

Elliot came out of the jump quickly, and smoothly moved into an arabesque, left foot on demi-pointe, right leg raised in the air a little higher than a ninety degree angle, with her arms extended gracefully away from her body. At this point in the performance, her partner was supposed to raise her up and help guide her through her leaps. At the moment however Erik was busy showing off Carter, his current steady boyfriend, to want to take time to practice with her.

Not that she blamed him, they’d been practicing almost non-stop for the past two weeks but she had to get it perfect. She still didn’t know what had possessed her to agree to dance a pas de deux at the wedding.

Probably the same thing that had made me agree to be one of Sasha’s two maids of honours.

Pushing a curly strand of her from her face she rolled her shoulders before collapsing gracefully onto the grass. She really should go inside and play her role in the rehearsal dinner instead of leaving poor Irish to deal with her Bridezilla cousin but she wanted to get away from her boisterous family for a little while. Not to mention Bryce who would know doubt want to know how the dace was coming along. She never would’ve guessed, even after the six odd years that he’d been dating her cousin that he was such a worrier.

Closing her eyes she rolled over so that she was on her back. This was the first time in months that she’d been able to do anything that looked even remotely like relaxing. She’d just come back from touring with The National Ballet of Canada, and even though she was already a Second Soloist she wanted to be a Principal. Absently she ran her competition through her mind, frowning a bit at some of the people who came up.

One of the hardest parts of going back into dance after what had been a two year hiatus thanks to treatment was the fact that she’d had to try even harder than before to make it look effortless and that she was no longer the best. Not that she hadn’t risen to the challenge, last month she’d been in remission for five years, and was now officially ‘cured’, not that she’d let anything stop even when she had to go in for regular screenings.

After chemo she had struggled to catch up with others in her age group, namely Erik. While she was fighting to get into Julliard he’d been accepted into The National Ballet of Canada. While she was finishing up at Julliard he’d been raising rapidly through the ranks of The National Ballet of Canada and was already a Principal dancer.

That didn’t mean his life had gotten any easier, there’d been a moment of estrangement with his siblings due to the fact that his stepfather had learned about his orientation and had done everything in his power to keep him away from them. Add in a messy break up with John and his life had been a huge mess for a while.

“What are you doing?” A voice asked from above her. She opened one eye and gazed up at the shadowy figure looking down at her. She hadn’t seen him in over six months, random photo filled messaged not counted, but instead of attacking him like she wanted too, she closed her eye instead, thinking of an answer to his question, took note of the fact that he settled himself comfortably beside her, then decided to answer truthfully.

“Hiding.”

“Aww, from your psychopath cousin?”

“Yup, she scares me. You’d think that as a psychiatrist in training she’d be more in tune to what people are feeling right now but she’s on a rampage.”

“Everyone’s looking for you by the way, Sasha wants you to do the dance for her. I was informed that I had to bring you back on the threat of unpleasantness if I didn’t.”

“I know. I’m not going too though, Bryce wants it to be a surprise. And everyone’s looking for me? You’d think by now they’d know I’d be at the park,” she mused aloud.

“Yeah you’d think. Anyways, I was the one who found you though, you know what that means?” She opened my eyes and sat up at his tone of voice. Thanks to the streetlights, she found herself staring into the amused brown eyes of Adrian.

He looked, at twenty-four, almost identical to the way he had at eighteen, except more toned, less adorable and more handsome. Absently Elliot pushed a stray blonde curl behind his ear, wondering why he didn’t get it trimmed down just a bit more.

They’d broken up five times since high school, dating but for some reason, they were always drawn back to each other. At the moment they were currently ‘broken up’, but from the way her heart sped up just from touching his face, and the way the look in his eyes changed she had the feeling they’d be getting back together soon.

Not that she’d make the first move, she’d done it last time, it was his turn now And it was always more fun when he was the one doing the wooing, he had more patience then she did and was surprisingly a lot more romantic then her.

He had apparently felt that the pause had gone on for too long since he pulled her into his arms, before answering his own question.

“Finder’s Keepers.”

She let out a startled laugh at the smug tone in his voice and at how childish he sounded in that moment. Impulsively she moved so that she was straddling, not really caring that she was in a dress and kissed him gently yet fiercely, breaking off only when she felt something wet land on her shoulder.

“I take that to mean there are no objections?” He was grinning at her, skin a bit flushed, and breathing just a bit faster and she nodded smiling just as widely. Then there was another drop, then another.

Groaning she got to her feet, pulled him to his and then started to run towards where she had parked her car.

“Which one should we take, the corvette or the jeep?” Adrian asked as they reached their respective vehicles.

“Why don’t we just each drive our own cars and meet up at the reception hall?”

“Because, it’s going to be difficult to talk if we’re in two separate cars Sunshine,” Adrian pointed out as if it was obvious.

“Don’t you mean difficult to make out if we’re driving two different cars Mr. Suave?”

“Hey, I actually do want to talk, we haven’t spoken in what? Two weeks? The kissing will just be a pleasant accompaniment.”

“Adrian we are way too old to be making out in the backseat of a car. And I emailed you last week.”

“Come on, don’t you want to relive our teenage years? And Sasha emailed me with you adding on a paragraph that I should get my ass home, that doesn’t count. Here, get in.”

“We’ve never made out in the back of a car when we were teenagers Pretty Boy. And aren’t you afraid of Sasha making good on her threat if you don’t bring me back there? Not to mention my dad’s been hinting about when we’re going to follow in Sasha and Bryce’s footsteps. When did they become the respectable couple in this friendship?” Elliot asked even as she climbed into the backseat of the jeep. Not that she was doing this so she could make out with him mind you, just that his car was blocking the driver’s side door of her car and she didn’t want to end up soaked.

“Well then, you missed out on a fundamental part of growing up, we’ll definitely have to fix that. And don’t worry about,” climbing in after her he leaned over and gave her a kiss even as he shut the door behind him, “I’m not afraid of anything.”

THE END

Hopefully I wrapped everything up without making it too picture perfect. In case you can’t tell their story sort of went back full circle, if you re-read the prologue you’ll see the parallels. In the rewrite I probably won’t have the prologue or the epilogue but I figured it might be nice for you guys to see it on here.

Hearts to all my reviewers, I can’t believe it’s actually finished –tear- it’s been a long time coming.