The house felt too quiet to Violet. Jeremy was at work, Nathan was at school, and even Kaleb had finally come out of his funk enough to socialize practically 24/7. Her parents had finally gone on their belated anniversary trip so she was all alone with the cats on a Friday morning.

She tried watching one of her favorite cheesy holiday romance flicks to cheer herself up but it didn't work. She had felt so off lately.

Her difficulty focusing continued into her performance that night. Despite practicing a hundred times, she landed one of her jumps wrong and felt a horrible popping sensation in her knee.

Tears of pain swam in her eyes but she couldn't stop dancing mid performance. It would be unprofessional and she was the lead dancer.

Unfortunately for her, this happened in the middle of Act I. She still had more than an hour before she could go get it checked out.

Violet blacked out momentarily several times as she continued to dance but she managed to carry on by muscle memory alone. During the intermission when it was time to change costumes she massaged her knee with a grimace.

"Do you hurt yourself?" Paul asked with concern. He had been standing nearby when the 'pop' happened and probably heard it.

"Yes," she said miserably.

"Violet, you need to tell the director! Don't strain yourself."

She shook her head. The understudy for Clara was out sick with the stomach flu. Nobody else knew the part.

A lot of the second act involved sitting in a carriage with the Nutcracker. Making it through a handful of dance scenes wouldn't be the end of the world. The show must go on.

Nina, the understudy, said she would be back tomorrow no matter what. Violet had to make it through this one show and things would be fine.

That was what she said but trying to dance without wincing was incredibly difficult. She didn't want to ruin the magic of the show for the people who had paid to see it so she gritted her teeth and smiled as best she could.

After the final bow, she gracefully made her way off stage and promptly collapsed from the pain. A few of her fellow dancers who had seen rushed to her immediately.

"Violet!"

"What happened?"

"Are you alright?"

She came to quickly and tried to reassure them that she was fine. Abigail hurried off to fetch her phone.

"You can't drive home like this," she insisted. "Call someone to come get you."

Nobody else could take her because there was still the meet and greet with the dancers following the show and the director insisted everyone else make up for the fact that Clara wouldn't be there. Violet dialed Jeremy's number first and was dismayed that it went straight to voicemail. His phone was either off or on airplane mode.

Kaleb didn't answer after calling him twice and Nathan's phone was off since he was in class. Tears looked in her eyes. There was no one else she could call.

Noah wouldn't answer. She knew he wouldn't. It had been two weeks and he hadn't even bothered to see her show for the first time ever. It was stupid to even try and yet...

The familiar dial tone rang in her ears for over a minute but he did pick up.

"What is it, Violet?"

Violet, not Vi. That wasn't encouraging. Noah had been calling her Vi for most of her life.

Though she was tempted to simply hang up and deal with the humiliation of being carted off in an ambulance for something that wasn't that big of a deal she pressed forward in a small voice. "I got hurt during my show and can't drive to the hospital by myself. Nobody else is picking up their phones."

"Not even your boyfriend?" he asked flatly.

"His phone is off."

Noah sighed heavily. "I'll be there in twenty minutes. Wait for me."

"Thank you," she replied softly before he made a sound of affirmation and hung up.

Violet leaned her head against the wall and shut her eyes. She couldn't think about how serious the injury might be or how her career might be over. Help was coming. She would be okay.

===

Avoiding his best friend so Noah wouldn't have to hear about her boyfriend was working. The forgetting about her so he could move on part…not so much. He hadn't seen her since the day he had been too thrown off by her sudden appearance to know what to say and she ran out a minute later.

Why bother coming if she wasn't even going to say anything? What was even the point of that? All it did was make him miss the way things used to be even more.

He was playing that plague epidemic game with Kristen and her boyfriend Scott when his phone rang. He considered letting it go until Kristen, who had briefly taken off her headset to get a drink, said it was Violet calling.

Violet was a texter; she didn't call unless it was urgent or there were too many words to type out. That, coupled with the fact that neither of them had contacted each other since that day in the dojo made him nearly panic. He dove for his phone.

"What is it, Violet?" Noah asked, trying to keep his cool.

Her response was nervous and that cut him to the core. She never sounded nervous when she talked to him. "I got hurt during my show and can't drive to the hospital by myself. Nobody else is picking up their phones."

So she was calling him as a last resort. Before Jeremy came along and ruined everything he would have been the first person she called. He wasn't entirely to blame though. She still might have called him first if he hadn't been trying to avoid her to get over his stupid, pointless feelings.

Hang on though…if nobody else was picking up, that meant Jeremy wasn't either. "Not even your boyfriend?"

"His phone is off," Violet said with a hint of sadness.

Noah sighed. Ditching his friends mid-game wouldn't be cool but duty called. His favorite person needed him.

"I'll be there in twenty minutes. Wait for me."

"Thank you," she said so quietly and vulnerably that he could have kicked himself. All he could do was say 'mm' in response before hanging up. He never should have avoided her. That was a stupid idea.

He was about to explain himself to Kristen and Scott but she seemed to get the gist of what was going on from hearing his half of the conversation. She waved him out the door with a half-smile on her face.

"Go get her."

Needing no further encouragement, Noah barely managed to put on his jacket as he raced out the door. His heart pounded with anxiety. Exactly how badly had she been hurt? This wouldn't affect her dancing career, would it?

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