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I run my fingers through my hair, trying to decide what crawled up her butt?
Well...maybe she’s just busy. She’s not usually like this but sometimes she can get a bit titchy if I interrupt her while she’s working elsewhere. I’ve probably overstepped. I’ll back off until I’ve got her alone.
Deciding to head into my dressing room, I start unpacking my instruments for a warm up. I need to get nice and warm before I go up so I don’t give my sister any excuse to shame me for another bad performance. She’s been on my case lately about impressing the managers.
As if my solid talent wasn’t enough to impress them, pfft. I’m a musical genius. Part of me is half-kidding just to keep my mind off things but part of me is trying to reassure myself that despite the slip-up the other night, I’ve been doing well.
I breathe in and out deeply before playing one of the instruments—my corno. I run through a few scales and arpeggios just to ease myself into it.
Just as I’m feeling nice and warm, there’s a knock at the door and Sienna slips inside. “I’m here,” she says.
“Finally,” I grin. “Sorry for bothering you when you were busy out there.”
“It’s fine,” she waves me off. “Water under the bridge. Let’s get you ready.” She comes forward to help powder my face and brush through my hair but I capture her by the wrists.
“Hey,” I tilt my head and give her my best impish grin. “Don’t tell me you’re starstruck by me now, little pavo.”
Sienna has her lips pressed tightly together and her body tenses up again when I touch her. I drop her hands immediately, afraid I’ve hurt her. “Are you alright?”
“It’s fine,” she says, voice coming across a little bit snappish. I tilt my head, trying to figure out what’s going on.
“Are you sure?” I ask. “You’re acting like a bug crawled up your ass.”
“I just haven’t been feeling good,” Sienna says, brushing aside my concern. “I’ve been sick.”
“Oh. I’m sorry. Rho said you weren’t feeling good but I thought maybe she had said something to you that upset you. She can be a bit bossy like that.”
“No, nothing like that,” Sienna reassures me. “Just been under the weather.” I stare at her, the hunger crawling down my spine as I watch her brush her hair out of her eyes. Gods, she’s so beautiful. There’s almost a glow to her, honestly.
“But you’re feeling better now,” I say, slipping out of my seat and coming up behind her. I move her hair from the back of her neck and lean in to give her a kiss.
But before I can, she scurries away and grabs a poof. “We have to get you ready,” she says quickly. “We shouldn’t. Not before the show.”
My heart stings and I find myself dropping back into the chair wordlessly. I thought things were going so well between us. I thought we were making progress.
I wanted to talk to her about taking our relationship to the next level. I wanted to see if she wanted to start being together outside of the club—I wanted to take her on dates and show her off.
But now it seems like everything is going back to how it was before the sex—all stiff and formal and hands-off with too much unspoken tension. Only this time the tension isn’t leading to something good.
“Are you sure that you’re alright?” I ask, pressing her. She bites her lip and looks away for a moment before turning back to me and shrugging one shoulder.
“Let’s get you ready,” she says, powdering my face so it’s less shiny on stage. I sit back and sigh, knowing I don’t have time to pry for more information before I have to go out.
But I’m not about to let this drop. I have to find out what’s going on with Sienna and if I have to wait until after the show, I’ll wait.
While playing my set, my eyes keep seeking hers out as I always do but she won’t look at me. And the one time that I catch her, she doesn’t smile. She looks like a dae caught in a trap and ends up almost bumping into one of the other girls trying to leave.
It’s unsettling. Why is she acting this way? What could have happened in the few days we were apart to cause her to freak out so badly at the sight of me?
By the time I’m done, I’ve only done a marginally better job than the last time I was on stage. I know I’m going to get an earful from Rho. I don’t want to deal with her though, so I simply slip into my dressing room and start rubbing down with a towel.
Sienna brings my instruments in from the stage and sets them in their cases, making sure to wipe them all off. I try to catch her eye again but she’s still avoiding me. When she finishes, I reach out to grab her wrist but she darts away.
“Alright,” she says, straightening her dress. “I’ll be off then. Goodnight,” she curtsies and grabs her coat from the hook, turning to leave.
My eyes can’t grow any bigger. What in the world is this? Why is she taking off so suddenly? Why is it that she’s not interested in talking to me? What did I do to offend her so much?
As my thoughts race around my head, I’m too busy trying to sort them out to realize that Sienna has already left the building through the back.
