You know when you are happy and everything is great it's like nothing could go wrong right?
But you have to realize that when things are too good the universe has to balance out.
It took one meeting to ruin the fucking mood, it's like god is secretly having it out for me or something.
Amara walks over to Maribel she wore a face that told her whatever she was going to say was not good.
"Thanks for meeting me." she tells her and she takes a sit.
"Yea sure anytime, what's this about?" She asks as she takes the drink in front of her to her lips.
"Syd." Amara's answer is simple.
"What about him?"
"I know that you have been keeping Syd in line since I been gone and thank you. But I think it's for you to distance yourself before the ball. We don't want people to get the right idea do we" She gives her a simple but knowing look.
"I don't know what you mean, but-?" Maribel is shocked and taken aback.
"Bel, you know I'm not blind?" Amara said cutting her off.
A silence is brought over them, she looks at the clock across the room and then back to him
"What do you want me to do." She asks because she is over this as her shocked state starts to fade.
"I want you to make him look good, that's what you are here for, and start dating again it's good for both you and his image." She tells her with a fake smile that Maribel can see right through.
*
"Syd don't start we are at practice, we are in a professional setting. So act like it." Maribel said this in an "I'm not doing this with you right now" tone, but Syd is tired of Maribel dismissing him in every way she could think of.
The band wasn't there; it was a hot afternoon, and Maribel and Syd were in the dance studio cleaning up the Solo routine.
Syd grabs her hips and puts her front into him and looks her in the eyes as he steps out and she does the same. "Mari don't give me that we are the only ones here."
He footed back to the original spot it was. "Why do we have to talk about this now, we need to focus on this you said yourself this is big for us." She said, while extending her body forward, then she came back. Syd grabbed her again and they dipped.
"Syd after the dip you pull me up, then you let me go, and we walk away from each other. Maybe six or seven steps from each other and I do my own routine and we join together in the end but I run to you and you lift me like a bird okay." Syd looks at her and pulls her up, but he doesn't let go.
So many things unsaid
But at first, Maribel let him hold her; she was fighting with her inner demons. She tries to move his hand from her, but Syd doesn't move; he holds on to her for dear life, like she would disappear if he let go. "Syd let me go."
"Tell me why and I'll let you go."
"Why What."
"Damn it, Maribel, what's wrong we were good and now it's like we are back at square one."
Maribel scoffs at him and said
"Well I'm sorry if I'm making your life so hard, but let's remember one thing, you do the same thing to me. How does it feel to be dragged along and don't know what the other feelings are? How does it feel to be twisting in the wind?" She said this her voice getting slightly louder, her body figure shaking slightly. Maribel knows it's wrong to pour all this out at once, but now it's done she can't take it back, she does what she always does self-sabotage.
"So you are shutting me out for some type of cruel punishment? when he said this she push away, but he knows she won't walk away, they already started once they do they don't stop.
"Cruel, you haven't seen cruel Syd, you don't know what cruel is. Cruel is you abandoned me and come back anytime you like or making me feel like this is all in my head that fucking cruel and making look like a damn fool."
Syd is taken back for a second, but he quickly recovers "Mari you know what you were getting into before you did it." Now that fucking hurt to hear that from him, even though her mom had already said it to her multiple times before.
"Yea go ahead and throw it in the mistress's face, being you can't own up to your shit." When the word mistress passes her lips. Syd starts walking toward her; he doesn't like it when she said that word, she was more than that. "You not my mistress Mari."
"Oh let me make it clear for you, what about a dirty little secret? You wanted to talk, let's not sugar-coated things." She said this while being backed up against the near wall away from Syd.
"Why do you have to put it that way." Syd looks her in the eyes when he said this; they were a least four feet from each other.
"Because you make me look and feel like a fool, I can't go around as your public whore." She tells him tears in her eyes.
Syd closes the distance between them; she fights him for a second or two before she gives in, and the reason for her surrender is because of his hand running through her hair, and he knows the spot behind her ear makes her weak for him every time.
"I know." he breathes against her, he says breathlessly.
But even though she has surrendered this battle to him, she is fighting the one that is coming up next. "Maribel answer me what's wrong?" Her face is unreadable like his face is most days.
So he takes a different approach. He cups her face and kisses her lips softly and continues to kiss her jawline; as he kisses her; he is demanding to know why, she moves around in the space she has, trying to fight back the moans and groans that are coming along.
This was her understanding of Cruel; the moment she got lost in it, he would pull away from her. He would ask her again, but even though she was fighting, she had nothing to lose at this moment.
So she clears her throat, now they were only a few inches from each other again she has caught her breathe and she said in a cold tone " I need you to be the best drum major I know you can be even if not by your side, I'm always here. You can do great things in this world, I believe in you. So don't be under for what I have to do." Maribel tells him with tears falling drop her cheek.
Syd looks at her clueless like he doesn't understand, but then it hits him like a whirlwind.