“And you remembered everything?” Danielle asked. “All the dances?”

Eva curled onto her side on her hotel room bed. “Yeah. I almost messed up at one point but that’s about it.”

“That’s amazing. I still can’t believe you learned all of it in two days.”

Eva yawned and moved the phone to her other ear. “Me neither actually. I don’t think I’ve ever learned that many dances so fast.”

“So you guys all just came back to the hotel?”

“No. There was this big after party at some club. Everyone’s at that.”

“Why didn’t you go?”

“I don’t know. I really don’t know any of the other dancers. I’d just feel out of place.”

“Well why aren’t you getting to know them? I mean, you’re spending the next five months with these people, Diva. You might as well be friends with them. They aren’t assholes, are they?”

“No. Everyone’s really nice.”

“Then you should do things with them. If you block them all out, it’s going to be a really long tour.”

“Yeah I know.” Eva stretched out on her back and yawned. “I don’t think I’ve ever been so sore in my life. I haven’t done this much constant dancing in so long.”

“Is it always going to be like that?”

“No. There’s practice before every concert. There was just so much practice because it was the first concert and we lost a dancer.”

“So that girl went home?”

“Yeah, her flight was this morning. The replacement girl is here tomorrow and then she’s going to have to learn all of the dances.” Eva yawned again. “Have you seen James at all in the past couple days?”

“We work together so it’s hard not to see him,” Danielle replied. “You haven’t talked to him?”

“I’ve been so busy the past couple days with all the extra practice that I haven’t had a chance. His line was busy when I tried him tonight.”

“Oh. Well, he’s James. Been going to clubs from what I’ve heard.”

“Oh. I guess I expected that. I never want to go with him to clubs so I figured he’d go out more that I’m not there.”

“Mm hmm.”

“Why don’t you like him, Dani?”

“I’ve already told you, Eva. I’ve known him way longer than you and he’s always just been an ass. He uses people.”

Eva was quiet for a minute. “But you don’t know him like I do.”

“Yeah I guess I don’t.” Danielle paused. “I should go, Diva. I have to work in the morning.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty tired too.”

“Call me tomorrow okay? I’ll be home by six.”

“I will as long as the time differences don’t mess me up when we drive to the next city.”

“Yeah, you’re going to have fun with all the time changes.”

Eva rolled her eyes. “Yeah, a lot of fun.”

Danielle laughed. “Okay, well hopefully I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

“Okay. Bye.”

“Bye.”

Eva shut her cell phone and set it on the table beside her bed. She was already in her pajamas so she simply got out of bed and turned off the lights and then crawled back into bed, laying down in the dark. With a sigh, she stared up at the ceiling.

She was already homesick and she hadn’t even been away for a week yet. She knew Danielle was right about needing to make friends with the other dancers but it was hard. She was shy by nature and all the other dancers were so outgoing. She didn’t know how she could fit in with them.

Although her brain was still working overtime on how she was feeling, the exhaustion from the past few days was too much to ignore and after laying there for a couple more minutes, she was asleep.

* * *

Eva was just about to leave her hotel room the next morning when there was a knock on the door. Grabbing her purse, she went over and opened it, surprised when she found Justin standing on the other side of it.

“Oh hey,” he said, also looking a little surprised. “I didn’t know you shared a room with Olivia.”

She nodded. “Yeah we do.”

He held up a jacket. “She left this last night. Is she still sleeping?”

“Yeah.” She took it from him. “I’ll put it with her stuff.” She went across the dark room and set the jacket on top of Olivia’s suitcase. Justin was still standing there when she went back to the doorway.

“Where are you going?” he asked, looking at her purse.

“Downstairs to the restaurant to get breakfast.”

“Cool. I’ll come with you.” He paused. “That’s okay?”

She shrugged. “Okay,” she said, stepping out of the room and closing the door behind her.

“So where were you last night?” Justin asked as they walked down the hallway. “I never saw you at the party.”

“I came back to the hotel after the concert.”

He pushed the button for the elevator. “Why?”

“I was kind of tired.”

“Oh. Well you missed a fun party. It’s a good thing there’s no concert tonight.”

“Yeah. Olivia seemed pretty drunk when she came into the room.”

“You were awake?”

“She woke me up.” They stepped into the elevator. “Why are you up? Did you not stay out as late as the rest of them? Shouldn’t you be sleeping it off like the rest of them?”

“I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep. I didn’t really drink last night either.”

“Oh.”

The elevator arrived on the lobby floor and they stepped out and walked to the hotel restaurant. After being seated at a table, Justin excused himself to go to the bathroom. Eva leaned back in her chair and sighed as he walked away. She had kind of wanted to be alone and Justin always seemed to ask so many questions. She had a feeling this was going to be a very long breakfast.

* * *

Taking a drink of his coffee, Justin watched as Eva took a bite of her toast and chewed it. They had been sitting there for probably almost forty five minutes and he was surprised by her lack of talking. He had never really talked to her but that was because they were always practicing and he didn’t get a chance. He had thought she would open up over breakfast but she hadn’t really. She answered every question but didn’t offer up any extra information and half of her answers seemed like there was a lot more to them that she wasn’t willing to disclose.

So far he had found out that she did have a boyfriend who worked with her best friend in an accounting firm. She had done ballet for fifteen years, starting at age four, and she had taken piano lessons for ten years. He was most surprised that she was an English major in university. She was using the money from the tour to help pay for her tuition for the next year.

“So what about your family?” he asked once she had stopped chewing. “You said you had two brothers, right?”

She nodded and fiddled with her napkin. “Yeah.”

“So the one who’s married, do they have any kids or anything?”

Eva’s face lit up. “A little girl, Lacey. She’s three.” She reached down for her purse. “I have a picture of her.

Well here’s something she likes talking about, he thought to himself as he watched her open her wallet. She pulled out a picture and handed it to him.

“She’s cute,” he said, looking at the image of the girl. “She’s three?”

“Just turned three last month.”

He looked up at Eva and then back at the picture. “She kind of looks like you too.”

Eva shrugged. “Me and my brother look alike and Lacey takes after our side of the family.”

Justin handed her the picture back. “She’s really cute. Is she old enough to know where you are?”

“She just knows I’m going away for a bit .The concept of dancing on a tour would probably go over her head.”

He laughed. “Yeah, probably.” The fell silent again and he tried to think of something else to say. He was just about to ask her more about university when the ringing of a cell phone cut through the air and Eva reached down to her purse. He tried not to eavesdrop on her conversation but he couldn’t help but catch parts of it.

“…Jessica Wallace? No, I don’t know her…I’m sure she is, James…Yeah, I know…No, I’m eating breakfast…No…uh, Justin...uh huh.” He watched her roll her eyes. “Like I would ever do that…I know…Okay, I will…Okay…You too. Bye.” She shut her cell phone and put it back in her purse. “Sorry.”

“No problem,” he said. “Boyfriend?”

“Yeah.”

“You know, you guys are allowed to have boyfriends or girlfriends or whatever come and visit for a couple days.”

“I know. Michelle already told us.”

“Oh. Okay.” It was quiet again and just as he decided to ask her about school, Olivia appeared with a coffee cup in one hand and a bagel in the other.

“Hey guys,” she said, sitting down in an empty chair.

“You’re up early,” he said. “I thought you’d be sleeping off a hangover.”

“I don’t have a hangover. Actually, I think I’m still a little drunk.”

He laughed and took a drink of his juice. His eyes moved to Eva as she pushed back her chair. “Where are you going?”

“I’m going to go shower.”

His eyes followed her as she walked away. That was a quick exit. “Hey, Olivia, can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Have you ever really talked to Eva? What’s her story?”

Olivia shrugged. “Hell if I know. I’ve barely ever talked to her. She doesn’t talk in case you haven’t noticed. She’s a bit stuck up.”

“I think she might just be shy.”

“It’s not like we haven’t all been around each other all the time for the past two months. She has nothing to be shy about. It’s getting annoying.”

“You’re sharing a room with her right? And you’ve never even talked to her?”

Olivia shrugged. “Small talk. She doesn’t seem to be big on making any new friends. I really don’t know how she’s going to survive this tour. From what I understand, she’s never done anything like this before. And if she’s going to refuse to make friends? It’s going to be a tough five months for her.”

Justin scratched his chin. “You should be her friend.”

“She doesn’t like to talk and I do. Somehow I feel like we aren’t the most compatible people in the world.”

“But you and her are roommates for the whole tour. You might as well be her friend.”

“Maybe. Why are you so insistent that she has a friend anyways? What does it matter to you?”

He shrugged. “It doesn’t really. It was just an idea.” He leaned back in his chair as Olivia began to talk about the party the night before. His mind wandered back to Eva after a few moments. That girl was just a huge mystery. With almost everything she said, it felt like there were underlying things that she wasn’t saying. And he wanted someone to become her friend so he could figure out more about her. She interested him and he could always use some mystery to uncover in his life.