Beyond the Point(40)

“This guy,” Locke whispered, rolling his eyes. He and Dani had sidled up to them, looking confident with their arms wrapped around each other. “And you said this is six weeks?”

“Yes, and you’re going to love it,” Dani ordered.

“Is she always this bossy?” Tim asked Hannah.

“Sometimes worse,” Hannah whispered in his ear.

“Let’s start with a basic box step,” the instructor announced. “Gentlemen, face your ladies. It’s just three steps. That’s it. Toes pointed toward toes, please!”

Hannah and Tim both looked down at their toes at the same time, and their heads crashed together.

“Sorry!” said Tim, rubbing his head.

“First, gentlemen, we’re going to start with our feet together. Forward with your left foot, to the side with your right foot, and then close your feet together. Left, side, close. Got it? Then you do the same thing with your right foot. Right, side, close. Right now, just focus on moving forward! Ladies, same thing, only you’re going backward, and mirroring the gentleman’s moves. Now give it a shot!”

Tim and Hannah took the first steps together perfectly. Soon, all around the classroom, couples were waltz-stepping like pros.

“Good. One, two, three! One, two, three!” the instructor shouted. “Keep moving!”

“Wait,” Tim said, looking down at their mismatched feet, “I think I—”

“This way,” Hannah laughed, pulling him back.

“And that is the waltz!” The instructor smiled, looking at all his progeny. “Wonderful, just wonderful! Linda! The music!”

The song started with long slow notes, filling the ballroom with orchestral formality. Meanwhile, the instructor moved from couple to couple, eyeing them with disdain and pride, depending on their performance.

“No, no, no! Stop,” the instructor barked once he’d reached Hannah and Tim.

He grabbed Tim by the hips and Tim’s eyes bulged. Moving them like a unit, the instructor pushed and pulled Tim’s hips until they’d completed one perfect waltz step. All the while, Hannah tried hard not to break into hysterics. As soon as the instructor moved away, Tim’s foot landed hard on top of Hannah’s.

“Oh—God. Are you okay?” He winced, as if it were his foot that had been crunched.

“I’m okay,” Hannah said, rubbing her foot. “I think he meant your other left.”

Looking over Tim’s shoulder, Hannah watched Dani and Locke, already twirling and box-stepping around the room like pros. Tim looked at her with big, puppy-dog eyes, then looked toward the exit door.

“I guess I suck at this, huh?”

They didn’t move for a while, just stood there, looking at each other. His eyes were a hazel color, Hannah realized. Brown with flecks of gold scattered throughout.

“You know,” he said, “I keep looking at you and wondering how I didn’t notice you last year. How is that possible? Dani said we were in a class together . . . but for the life of me . . .”

“I didn’t talk much in class,” Hannah said. “You, on the other hand . . .”

“Yeah, I’ve never been one to shut up.” He laughed. “Well. It’s possible I’m sucking so bad because I’m so distracted. I wish we’d met a long time ago.”

The compliment came out of nowhere. Equally genuine and playful, it sent blood rushing to Hannah’s cheeks.

“It’s hard to focus on my feet, when I’d rather look at this beautiful girl I just met.”

“No, no, no,” Hannah said with a smile, feeling her insides ache with joy. “You’re not getting off that easy. We’ve got six weeks of this, mister, and flirting won’t get you out of it.”

“Oh, you thought I was talking about you?” he said. “I was talking about Linda.”

They both turned to look at the pink-lipped woman in the back of the room, who was bobbing her head along with the music. They broke into laugher, then spent the rest of the class stepping on each other’s feet and smiling uncontrollably. Hannah loved the pressure of his hand on her back, the brightness of his smile, the jokes he kept throwing out to distract her from how bad he was at dancing. She felt the muscles underneath his shirt flex and move with the music. Then she felt the pang of something else—something invisible taking root in her heart.

Love starts in the body. It starts with the tingling of toes and the rushing of blood and the lightness in the head. It feels a lot like pain, Hannah would realize later that week, as she and Tim shared slices of pizza in Grant Hall, and three weeks later, when they took a five-mile run together up Bear Mountain. There are convulsions, nausea, heartburn, and breathlessness. There is a physical ache you feel when you’re falling in love. It’s your heart making room for someone else, like a gardener is there, digging out a hole for a new plant. There is pain, and there is fear. The fear that the hole might stay forever.





10


Spring 2002 // West Point, New York

Fourteen days, D. Fourteen days and we’re out of here.”

A barbell loaded with two fifty-pound plates dropped from Locke Coleman’s hands to the gymnasium floor with a loud crash. In the mirror, Dani watched him slide the large weights off and move two forty-five-pound plates onto the sides.