CHAPTER 2: An old Acquaintance

Skyler woke up the next morning with a huge headache but the headache did not make her forget about the events of the night before. She got up with some difficulty as her whole body felt very heavy. She tried to sit up straight on the sofa despite the fact that every single part of her body was screaming for her to lie down again. She tried to power through everything that she was feeling, she was even seeing little white stars in front of her. She tried getting rid of them by rubbing her eyes but that made things worse.

"I think that I need to go for a run," she decided. She slowly got up to walk towards her room, completely forgetting about the broken bottle wine on the floor. She accidentally kicked one half of the bottle with her left toe.

"Ouch!" Skyler exclaimed out loud. She quickly put her foot to check on her toe, luckily there was no bruise or cut. "I guess i need to clean this mess up before I go." She carefully picked up the two pieces of the bottle and put them in her rubbish bin.

"Oof, I think you really need to take a cold shower before attempting to go for a run Skyler! Ugh why am I speaking so loud to myself," she almost groaned as she rubbed both sides of her temple. Making her way to the bathroom she slowly brushed her teeth, turned out that it hurt to do that as well, then she took a quick cold shower to help her feel more awake.

"Yeah, i think I feel better... Maybe I should have some coffee before leaving?" Skyler decided on not having coffee, she had gone jogging on an empty stomach before and nothing had happened to her. She was sure that a little hangover wouldn't affect her at all, at least, she hoped.

Twenty minutes later she found herself out of the building and was greeted by a sour smell that burnt her nostrils and made her empty stomach turn upside down. Jogging didn't seem like a good idea anymore so she decided to go for a walk instead, as she was still feeling light headed and exhausted from the events of the night before. Skyler needed to clear her head from all her negative thoughts so that she could look forward to her next project. Was she heartbroken that Shiloh wanted nothing to do with her? Of course she was but she couldn't put her whole life and career on hold just to please her sister. For the past year she had been living her dream and while doing so she tried to keep the legacy of her parents alive and despite all of Shiloh's accusations, Skyler had never forgotten what her parents had taught her since she was a little girl. Soon Skyler's mind drifted to the past as she walked down the busy pathway, completely ignoring the people aound her.

********

"Listen Mija, you can do anything you want, all you need to do is believe in yourself," Mr Ortega told Skyler at the dinner table.

"Your father and I will always be here to support you sweetie. It's true the life of a dancer is very hard and a lot of sacrifices need to be made but we are convinced that you'll succeed and become the best in the world," Mrs Ortega said in a joyful tone.

"Thanks mum and dad, with your support, failure will never be an option," a confident Skyler replied as she took a gulp of her water.

"Yes," Mr Ortega continued as he chewed his food, "hardwork and resiliance will always be the key to success. Remember that Skyler, never giving up is they key to everything!" Skyler nodded happily as she ate her food, she loved the fact that she was the topic of conversation at the dinner table.

"So nobody wants to hear about my day?" Shiloh timidly asked. It was very hard for her to interject herself in any conversation at the breakfast or dinner table, especially when the topic of conversation was her older sister.

"Of course we do sweetie! What did you do today?" Mrs Ortega asked.

"Well, I figured out what i want to do and I did something that will make you guys proud of me for sure," Shiloh replied as her eyes sparkled with happiness.

"Oh really?" Mr Ortega asked, "what could you have possibly done to make us proud?" Shiloh stopped eating and placed both her hands on the table.

"I applied to go to the Police Academy dad. I want to be a police officer just like you!" Mr Ortega looked at his daughter with great surprise but a feeling of pride travelled through his veins.

"Oh I am so proud of you mija, so so proud!" he exclaimed as he left his chair to hug Shiloh.

"So am I sweetie," Mrs Ortega said with a warm smile. "Aren't you happy for your sister Skyler?"

"Mhmm," Skyler muttered under her breath, Shiloh had once again taken the attention away from her and that made her blood boil all the time.

"Both my daughter's are gonna make me proud, yeah Skyler you will be the best dancer in the world and..."

********

"Hey watch where you're going!" a man shouted out. Skyler was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't notice that she walked into a homeless man's cart.

"I'm really sorry, I didn't notice you," she apologised.

"Course you wouldn't! The privileged never see the poor," he said coldly. Skyler did not know what to tell the man.

"Now that you have realized that I'm no ghost you should just go away! Go on! Go!" he yelled. Skyler quickly sped off; she didn't want anybody thinking that she was harassing the man.

She decided to make her way to an abandoned factory not so far away from her apartment and stopped at the fencing. Skyler looked at the building, it wasn't completely in ruins, but she could smell the abandonment from afar. She closed her eyes for a short while and thought about the times she and her sister would come to the factory. Skyler was part of a dance crew at the time and this is where they would come and practice, Shiloh always came to watch their rehearsals.

"I guess it wouldn't hurt to go check the place out again," Skyler said to herself. She easily climbed over the gate, completely ignoring the "DO NOT ENTER" sign. As she entered the yard, memories of her childhood flooded her mind. When she and Shiloh were kids, they lived just outside the city in a small house. She and Shiloh had to share a room, but they never lacked anything, there was always food on the table and they always had clothes and shoes. Their parents were kindhearted and hard working and they made sure to always make time for Skyler and Shiloh. Her father was a policeman and she was sure that it was through him that Shiloh got her inspiration while her mother was a stay at home mum, so she was always there for them no matter what.

Skyler entered a room in the factory where she and her sister would sit down to just talk about their lives. She closed her eyes trying to remember what they would talk about, but her thoughts were interrupted by a familiar voice.

"Skyler Ortega! What brings you here?" Skyler whirled around in shock to see a familiar face glaring at her.

"Emily?" she said.

"Wow, you remember my name," Emily told her sarcastically. Skyler was at a loss of words. She didn't expect to see an old acquaintance. She and Emily were in the same dance crew in the past, in fact the crew was still together, the only person who had left the group was Skyler. Emily was her best friend but Skyler had lost her friendship the day she decided to leave the crew.

"You didn't answer my question Ortega! What are you doing here?" Emily asked again.

"I'm in town, I was passing by here, so I decided to come check the place out again," Skyler told her.

"Well it's good that you are in town and all but you are not allowed to be here! This place is sacred!" Emily said with anger.

"This is an abandoned factory that doesn't belong to you Emily! I have just as much right to be here..."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah! If you've forgotten, we used to dance here with the others and my little sister used to come and watch us. I have just as many memories of this place as you so you have no right to tell me to go away!" Skyler retorted.

Emily bit her lip after hearing Skyler's words; she could feel a volcano of emotions in her body and all she wanted to do was punch Skyler, but she kept her calm.

"You have some nerve telling me all that," she told Skyler in a quiet voice.

"And why is that?"

"Why? You even have the audacity to ask why! Skyler our crew had qualified for the National Dance Championship. The winner of that competition would've competed in The Worlds! That was the most important thing to our crew and especially to me. I needed to win not only for the crew but for myself too. My future depended on it and you knew that! You were the only one who knew the stakes involved. But what did you do? Tell me Skyler what did you do?"

Skyler remained silent; her eyes couldn't even meet Emily's.

"Oh so now the cat's got your tongue so I'll have remind you of what you did to us, to me! You left us on the day of the finals. You totally screwed us! You accepted a contract in secret and told us about it just before we were supposed to go out there and give it our all. All you said was 'I'm sorry guys but an opportunity like this won't come again'; you left us high and dry. You betrayed us... BETRAYED ME! I was supposed to be your best friend, but you didn't care! The only person you ever cared about is yourself. So no, you are not allowed here. We've erased you from our lives, so you can't just come here and paint yourself back into the picture!" Emily was breathing heavily after she spoke, Skyler could see that she was still hurting.

Of course Skyler hadn't forgotten what she had done to her friends in the past; she knew that she was no saint.

"Emily listen..."

"No, no I don't wanna hear what you gotta say. You're a big shot now, every company wants you, so you just go on and live your life the way you always have... You really need to go now, the others will get here soon and if Lea sees you, she will not hesitate to destroy you and I won't do anything to stop her."

Skyler had no choice but to walk away, she gave Emily one last look and made her way out of the factory. She was now doubled with guilt, after the conversation she had the night before with Shiloh and with everything that Emily had just told her, Skyler just felt like she should just dig a hole and bury herself in it.

"Maybe I should just leave and never come back," Skyler thought to herself.