Chapter 4
"Can you believe him?" Tiffanie asked as she stared out of the window of Daphne's brand new Alero.
"He's a no-good, Pento drivin' fool..... you can do so much better," Daphne said, turning into the parking lot of Shake Somethin', the teen club where everyone hung out on weekends. It was possibly the only fun place that existed in North Alabama.
A small smile crossed Tiffanie's lips. She knew Daphne was right, but she was still upset. She looked down at the outfit she had reluctantly put on after her friends told her that she was going to go out if they had to drag her. She was wearing black strappy, high-heeled sandals, and a short, deep purple, glittery, spaghetti strap dress. Her hair was flat ironed and slightly curled under. She looked great, she just didn't feel that way. She sighed and looked out of the window as Daphne pulled into a parking space. Daphne pulled the key out of the ignition and looked at Tiffanie. She felt sorry for her. She knew how much Devan had meant to her.
"He didn't even deserve someone like her," thought Daphne to herself.
"Hey," she said. Tiffanie snapped back to reality as she turned to Daphne. "He was no Justin Timberlake. Forget him."
Tiffanie smiled at the mention of Justin's name. She adored Justin.
The girls entered the doors of the club and immediately met up with Dee, Jeanine, and Kim.
"I'm ready to get my groove on!" said Jeanine heading to the dance floor. Dee and Kim followed as the remix to "It's Gonna Be Me" blasted throughout the club.
Daphne looked at Tiffanie. "Are you gonna dance?"
"Maybe later. I'm thirsty, but you go ahead," answered Tiffanie.
"Are you sure?" asked Daphne skeptically.
"Yeah," lied Tiffanie, flashing a fake smile. She truly wanted to go home and cry while listening to love songs and eating ice cream.
Daphne hit the dance floor and Tiffanie took a seat at the non-alcoholic bar and ordered a fruit smoothie. After a short wait her smoothie arrived. She tried to retrace where she and Devan's piece-of-relationship had went wrong as she slowly sipped her smoothie.
"You know, you're much too pretty to wear that sad face," said a voice. Tiffanie looked up from her smoothie. The voice seemed so familiar to her.
"Hi," she managed to say as she tried to see her company's face. Brown curls highlighted with blonde spilled out from under the frayed khaki fisherman's hat on his head. He was wearing wire framed glasses and half of his face was buried in a magazine. He put the magazine down and smiled at her.
"My name is Tiffanie," she said. She couldn't take her eyes off his deep, piercing blue eyes. They were amazing, yet so familiar. She felt as if she'd looked into those eyes millions of times before.
"I'm Ju- I mean.. Dusty." he said with a smile.
"Have I met you before? You seem so familiar," Tiffanie said trying to keep eye contact and get a better look at his face at the same time. Dusty turned away from her and looked at the dance floor.
"Don't you dance?" he asked, ignoring her question.
"Oh, yeah! I love to dance," said Tiffanie. Her new companion seemed to be avoiding any more eye contact with her. She knew that if she could look into those eyes one more time, she'd know who he was. It was just so dark in the club that she couldn't make out features.
"Ever think about taking classes? You know.. just for fun?" he asked, still looking away.
"Yeah, definitely," replied Tiffanie. She had dreamed of being a dancer when she was younger. It was always something that she'd loved to do. "There aren't many dance classes around here, though. You know... not the kind of dancing that I'd like to do."
"Yeah, I understand," said Dusty.
Tiffanie took a long sip of her smoothie and glanced at her watch. Two more hours of this "fun" girls' night out to go. She sighed and turned to Dusty only to find that he had disappeared as suddenly as he'd appeared. There was a light blue folded up peice of paper in his seat. She picked up the paper and looked around for Dusty. He was nowhere to be found. She was about to unfold the small folded paper when Jeanine grabbed her arm and pulled her onto the dance floor. Tiffanie quickly shoved the paper into her purse and began to dance. With all that was going on in her life, the last thing she wanted to do was dance, but somehow, talking to Dusty made her feel better. She danced and had fun with her friends until it was time to go.
* * * * * * * * * *
That night Tiffanie thought about how much fun she'd reluctantly had as she lie in her bed, trying to get to sleep. She rolled over on her side and smiled at the wall that was now before her. It was her Justin Wall. She fell asleep gazing into his piercing blue eyes.
Chapter 5
Tiffanie plopped down in front of Carson Daly on her TV screen and began searching through her purse for a piece of gum. She came across the folded paper left by her unexpected company at the Smoothie Bar the night before. She unfolded the paper. It was a flyer to attend a dance school near Virginia Beach for six weeks that summer. The audition was to be held in exactly a week. Tiffanie started to throw the flyer away, but something made her keep it.
"This is just what I need to get my mind off Devan for a while," she thought.
After discussing it with her mom, she decided to give it a try. Practice for the auditions were to begin Monday and since it was Saturday.
Tiffanie decided to go shopping for some clothes suitable for dance class. She called Daphne and told her about her summer plans.
"Are you sure you want to go up there all alone?" asked Daphne. "That's a pretty long time to spend without friends."
Tiffanie thought for a moment, then spoke. "I think it's better this way. I can sort things out in my mind and maybe meet some new people... make some new friends. That is IF I make it."
"Of course, you'll make it," Daphne said. She didn't really understand why Tiffanie wanted to do something like this so suddenly, but she would support her. She knew that Tiffanie was having a hard time getting over Devan. Although she couldn't understand why. Sure Devan had started off as a sweetheart, but he ended up to be a major jerk and she was happy that Tiff had dropped him.
"I could stomp his behind," Daphne thought to herself.
"Well, can you go shopping with me?" Tiffanie asked.
"Yeah," answered Daphne, "meet ya in Sears in 15 minutes, okay?"
"Great," replied Tiffanie, "bye, bye, bye!"
She hung up the phone and grabbed her keys and purse.
"I'm gone!" she yelled as she sprinted out of the side door.
* * * * * * * * * *
Tiffanie looked through a rack of dance clothes as she told Daphne about the stranger she'd met at the club.
"What if this whole thing is a set up?" asked Daphne. "There are a lot of psychos out there, ya know."
"Yeah, I know," she said, rolling her eyes, "I'm best friends with one!"
"Shut up!" said Daphne laughing. "You'll be sorry if that Dusty guy turns out to be some serial killer."
"Yeah, I'll remember that when he's slashing my head off," replied Tiffanie walking off with an armload of workout clothes. Daphne shook her head as she followed her friend to the checkout counter.
Chapter 6
Tiffanie hopped out of her mom's 4-RUNNER in full dance gear.
"Pick me up in two hours," Tiffanie said before she shut the door. Her mom drove off and she was surrounded by people, mostly in their early 20's making their way to the door. She sighed and entered the building. There was no turning back now.
* * * * * * * * * *
"I couldn't believe it!" Tiffanie exclaimed to Daphne over the phone that night, "there was NO ONE there my age! They were all at least 21 and most have been dancing since, like, BIRTH!"
Daphne laughed as a vision of a dancing newborn came into her head.
"I'm not kidding!" said Tiffanie. "I don't know... I should probably give up. I'll never make it!"
"Yes, you will," said Daphne, "do it for Justin!"
Tiffanie laughed as she turned to her Justin Wall.
"Okay," she said seriously, "anything for Justin."
* * * * * * * * * *
Saturday had come much too fast for Tiffanie. Here she was, in a completely different state, trying out for a spot at a famous dance school that she was certain that she wasn't going to get. Tryouts were much different than the practices had been. There were only 20 to 30 people at practices. To Tiffanie there seemed to be thousands of people at tryouts.
She was standing in the hallway mentally going over the dance moves. The judges were watching five dancers at a time. She had lucked out in getting an early number. She would be with the third group to go in.
"I can go in here, embarass myself, and get it over with," she thought to herself.
The second group came out and Tiffanie's group began to file through the door. She was the last number in her group. She hesitated at the door and let out a huge sigh.
"Here goes nothing," she said as she went through the door.
Once she was inside, her group was placed in one straight line in front of five judges. Tiffanie felt as if she might pass out for a moment, but when the music started her mind cleared, the judges, her professional peers, and even Devan disappeared from her mind. She began to do the thing that she loved. Dance.
* * * * * * * * * *
One week later
"I still can't believe I made it!" screamed Tiffanie.
It was the night before she was to leave for her six weeks of dance school and she and Daphne were having one of their all-famous *NSYNC nights. Full of *NSYNC CDs, videos, magazines, and posters all night long. They were now sitting back to back on Tiffanie's bed, each staring at pictures of their favorite *NSYNC member.
"I told you that you would!" said Daphne, gazing at a picture of JC on the wall. "His abs are so perfect."
"Not like Justin's though," said Tiffanie smiling at her new poster of Justin. They often had arguments about Justin and JC.
"JC's eyes are sooo blue," said Daphne.
"Not as blue as Justin's," Tiffanie replied.
Daphne turned around and looked at the poster of Justin that Tiffanie was gushing over.
"JC's hair is better. Justin looks like a sheep!"
"Oh, I know you're not crackin' on the angel curls!" screamed Tiffanie. "JC looks like Butthead!"
They both burst into laughter because they knew that in a way they were both right.
"I'm gonna miss this," Tiffanie managed to say between laughs.
"Then don't go," pleaded Daphne. She'd be going to Vanderbilt in August, so this summer was the last time she'd hang out with Tiffanie for a while.
Tiffanie looked at her best friend. She'd miss her when she went back to high school without her, but they'd still have three weeks left when she got back.
She sighed. "I can't explain it. I just have this feeling... it's something that I have to do. I need to get away and..." she drifted off there, but Daphne nodded. She knew how much this meant to her friend.
Chapters 7-9
Back to Get *N... or get OUT
Email: ShawnsTiffyBear@aol.com
