Excerpt
Excerpt
A Brutal Tenderness
I crack my knuckles, shift my weight, scuff a worn black combat boot against the highly polished gym floor. When the music fills the auditorium, I know it’s for Jewell.
I can see the change come over her face as she hears the first notes of Moonlight Sonata. It transforms her, and for the first time since I’ve been watching her, Jess Mackey’s careful cover slips, and Jewell bursts her skin. I stand up straighter, the crowd in the packed auditorium becoming still, silent, and watchful. I could hear a pin drop, with just the minor notes of the classic Beethoven piece filling the space as it echoes and comes back to her. It feeds her energy and mastery over the music, over her body.
I watch like everyone else, mesmerized, my heart speeding, her talent a raw and wild thing, captured by the music. Her hair winks like linked gold as her leg snaps parallel to her face. Jewell drives it against herself as she spins across the stage, her moves at once as fierce as they are graceful. All I see is Jewell as she comes nearer, like a mirage I can’t shake. The urge to close my eyes takes hold and I force them to stay open, to watch Jewell dance.
Her arms flutter by her sides as she floats across the stage. The judges’ are eyes glued to a dancer whose steps are whisper soft as the final notes of the music swell into a crescendo and then halt abruptly. There’s a beat of silence, and then the notes swell once again as Jewell holds her leg beside her face, her toe pointed at the ceiling.
She spins once more, landing in spiral of whirling color. Her hands fall to cup slightly at her sides as her face stays turned and away, the long column of her neck like a swan’s.
For a moment after the music has died, there is no sound, like a vacuum has stolen the breath from everyone, the very air. Then like a bubble that pops, people stand, clapping and cheering.
Jewell scans the crowd. Unnervingly, she looks straight at me and I feel a jolt. I remember why I’m here and return her dead-on stare, holding her gaze captive for a moment. Her face is an open book, and I’m pleased to see she takes a half step backward, as if slapped by the intensity of my stare.
The reaction I’d hoped for. She won’t forget me now.
Just then her, fellow sophomore Carlie Stanton crashes into her with a congratulatory squeal, blocking me from her line of sight.
Jewell never sees me leave.
We’ll meet again now that the introductions are out of the way.
A Brutal Tenderness
(A Terrible Love and A Brutal Tenderness #2)
