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“Sometimes, it’s hard to slow down your mind enough to connect with your body,” she acknowledged. Maybe jumping right in with these four wasn’t the best approach. She needed to build a rapport with them. Yoga had done so much for her—helping her manage anxiety, giving her an outlet to connect her body, spirit, and mind. Maybethey would find it beneficial too, but only if she helped them see the benefits. She paused the music. “Why don’t we all take a seat on the mats for a few minutes?” She lowered herself and struck a butterfly pose with the soles of her feet together and her knees bent out wide.
Looking at one another hesitantly, the girls all followed suit.
“Ow.” Elina straightened her legs out instead of bending her knees. “That hurts.”
“That’s because your muscles are tight.” In fact, none of them was able to get too close to a real butterfly pose. “Yoga is all about flexibility and strength, control and finesse. And I promise, if you try what I’m asking, your bodies will all feel better by the end of our sessions.”
But first they needed to start at the very beginning.
Lyric spent the next half hour walking them through some gentle lower-body stretches on the mat. The girls groaned and complained and sometimes giggled when one of them let out an expletive, and she let them do all those things freely, not correcting their words or behavior. Just letting them feel what they felt and be where they were. During some of her own teenage struggles, that had been her mother’s approach, and it seemed to have worked.
“I think that’s enough for tonight,” she said after Tallie swore her hamstring muscle had torn in half. “We still have some time, though. I don’t have any other plans this evening. So we can just chat and get to know each other a little better.”
Four pairs of heavily made-up eyes blinked at her.
Yeah, they probably didn’t get too excited about chatting with a thirty-year-old adult. “Or we could watch amovie?” she suggested. “If you don’t have to rush off, I can hook up the projector in here. Oh! And we can order takeout from the café.” If all other efforts to make them like her failed, she could resort to bribery.
“That might be fun,” Cheyenne said.
“Yeah. Especially if there’s free food,” Skye added.
Lyric held back a cheer. They actually wanted to spend extra time hanging out with her? That was a win.
“I can’t stay.” Elina pushed to her feet, wincing the whole way. “My boyfriend is picking me up in a minute.” She hurried to the shelves and steadied one hand against the wall while she put on her shoes.
“Are you sure?” Lyric approached her. “Can’t he pick you up later? A movie would probably be over by nine.” This could be her chance to bond with all of them.
“I said I can’t stay.” The girl lowered her eyes away from Lyric’s. Her movements were suddenly shielded, guarded. “I already told him I’d be ready. He’ll be here any minute and won’t want to come back and pick me up later. I can’t let him down.”
“Oh.” Concern prickled under her skin. She’d felt that same way once. Afraid to let a man down. “Okay,” she said gently. “Well, maybe next time then.”
“Maybe. See ya.” Elina shot out the door without looking back.
A heaviness draped over her shoulders as Lyric set up the projector screen and called Minnie to put in their take-out order. Twenty minutes later, they had their food and they were all settled on their mats getting ready to start a true classic from her generation—How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days.
But Lyric couldn’t shake the feeling she’d gotten whenElina had left. “So who’s Elina’s boyfriend?” she casually asked before pushing play.
“He’s a senior.” Cheyenne popped a fry into her mouth. “His name is Franco.”
“He’s kind of a jerk if you ask me.” Tallie sipped on her milkshake. “They argue a ton and she never hangs out with us anymore.”
“We hardly ever get to see her since they started dating,” Skye added.
The trickle of concern she’d felt earlier gained momentum. “Have you talked to her about that?”
“Sure. But she’s inlove.” Tallie drew out the word and fluttered her eyelashes while the rest of them laughed.
“People aren’t rational when they’re in love,” Skye said wisely.
That had been Lyric’s experience. Love had blinded her to so many things. It had made her weak and vulnerable, and her ex had taken advantage of that. Before long she’d lost herself somewhere in the middle of all those emotions. “What do Elina’s parents think about Franco?”
The girls all wore varying degrees of sardonic expressions.
“Her dad took off a while ago, and her mom’s a mess,” Cheyenne said. “I don’t think her mom cares what she does.”
“I’m sure that’s not true.” Rather than allowing the gossip to continue, Lyric started the movie. But the romantic comedy didn’t make her laugh the way it usually did. The girls laughed and ate and seemed like they really enjoyed the story. She tried too, but worry weighted her heart. Elina’s story was a little too similar to her own. Lyric’s own father had left her mom when she’d only been a baby andshe’d never had the chance to know the man. Her mom hadn’t been a mess, though. She’d always given Lyric a sense of love and security. After her mom had remarried, Lyric had a wonderful relationship with her stepfather until he passed away a few years ago.
But like Elina, she’d been all too obsessed with making a man happy—tiptoeing around so she didn’t upset him. She’d learned how unhealthy that kind of relationship dynamic could be.
