Free Abigail: Nice Girls Finish Last by Bruno Bouchet

maintaining his own unique style. It is the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen him do. It’s not just good. It’s magical.
    As we walk home, Sammy’s on a complete high. I’ve already told him it’s good but he can’t get enough positive reinforcement.
    â€˜I can still change it,’ he says.
    â€˜Lieberman, you’re not seriously still fishing for compliments.’
    â€˜It’s good isn’t it,’ he says, picks me up and spins me around. He’s so happy, so excited, it’s impossible not to get caught up. I never thought he could be a great dancer, but he could. He is.
    Suddenly we’re face to face. He tries to kiss me. I turn away but then before I know it, we’re kissing.Like we used to. For a second nothing else matters. No Prix, no Wendy, just the two of us. I stop. It’s weird. Nice, but weird.
    â€˜I better … rehearsal in the morning.’
    â€˜Me too. Competition, not rehearsal obviously,’ he says.
    It must have been his performance that moved me, his confidence, his excitement. Whatever it was, I can still feel it as I lie in bed. My Sammy, the world-conquering hero.
    Â 
    Next day in rehearsal, Zach’s got nothing but praise. I’ve found Wendy’s sweet side. The rehearsal carries on and I know why I’m there. I want to dance. I want this. I really do. I haven’t just found the character, I’ve found my reason for being here, my love for dance. And I have Sammy to thank for it.
    When I first see Miss Raine enter, I feel annoyed. I don’t want this rehearsal to be interrupted. I don’t want this feeling to end, but it does. I realise straight away something’s wrong. Miss Raine isn’t the happiest of people but her face is so pale it’s almost grey and one hand is holding her other arm, trying to stop it from shaking. Something’s happened.I watch her neck as she swallows hard and raises a finger to make the music stop.
    â€˜I need to interrupt rehearsal Zach,’ she says. The rest becomes a blur. I can see her mouth move and I can hear words, but they don’t make any sense.
    My head pulses, the sweat from dancing turns to ice, freezing over my skin as I make out the words, ‘Awful news’, ‘a terrible road accident’ and ‘dead’. She says a name, but I don’t want to hear it. She has to be wrong, lying, mistaken, confused, anything but right. She can’t be right, she can’t have said Sammy Lieberman. Sammy can’t be dead. Not my Sammy.
    But there is no correction, no confusion, no waking up and discovering this is a dream. She said it, she really said it. Sammy’s been killed in a road accident.
    All the air’s sucked from the room as everyone stands frozen by the news. Except for me, I can’t stay here or I’ll suffocate. As I run for the door, I can feel a hand on my arm. Miss Raine trying to stop me, calling my name but I can’t stay, I won’t stay. I run, I don’t know where or why but I will not stay in that room where I heard that news.
    The next thing I sense, it’s hours later and I’m sitting somewhere, feeling cold. I’m wet and my teeth are chattering. I look up to see Tara and Kat with their hands outstretched, reaching to pull me up.

CHAPTER 12
    Sammy’s funeral doesn’t make sense. It’s not that the service is in Hebrew. It could be in any language and I wouldn’t understand it. All we can do is go through it, observe the ritual, hoping that something at some point will make sense. But I can’t imagine any event less like Sammy, dark, formal, structured … on time. It’s like he isn’t even there. But he has to be. He has to be somewhere. There can’t be a world without him.
    Afterward we are at the Academy in the dance studio. I can’t remember the number of times he’s dropped me, fumbled a hold, mistimed a turn in that room. We’re