I leaned forward to cover them up again, but his hands were already on my jeans. He unrolled the cuff back down to my ankle slowly, carefully. His fingertips only brushed my calf once. When they did, a shiver traveled up my body.

Finally, he stood up. “It aches a lot,” I said quickly. Because maybe if I answered his question like a normal person, he’d forget I’d shown him my scars. “And it’s stiff, especially in the cold. It’s hard to loosen it up sometimes. There’s um, metal in it. Stainless steel.” Oh my God. Why had I done that? Shown him?

“Like Wolverine,” he said.

“I—what?”

“You don’t know Wolverine?” Jude smiled faintly. I could see all the different shades of brown in his eyes. We were standing so close.

As soon as I thought it, he took a small step back. He fiddled with the zipper on his hoodie. “We’ll go down another YouTube rabbit hole, superheroes next time,” he said.

My stomach did a confusing flip at the words “next time.”

“And hey.” He opened the door for me. “That must have been so… painful, all that stuff.” He nodded to my leg. “And I swear I won’t say anything more about it after this, but scars and steel don’t decide if you’re a dancer or not.”

I bit back the curses this time. He’d been honest with me, so I’d be honest with him. “They do, though. In my case, they do.” I slung my bag over my shoulder and left.

CHAPTER TEN

WHEN I WALKED INTO the auditorium for rehearsal the next day, I cast my eyes around for Jude, unsure if I wanted to see him or not.

He wasn’t there. My shoulders relaxed, and I decided I was going to avoid him for a while. I clearly couldn’t be trusted to not do ridiculous things around him. And considering I’d flipped him off and showed him my scarred-up leg within the span of a week, I was sure he’d enjoy the break from me as well.

I looked for Margot then, but of course she wouldn’t be here, either. Today we were learning the dance portion of “Beautiful Girl,” where the girls in the chorus waltzed around as showgirls while Harrison objectified us in song. I hadn’t really thought about how since Margot had a lead role, she wouldn’t be in chorus rehearsals with me. Damn.

“Semicircle around Harrison! Go!” Ms. Langford shouted in her deep voice as a blur of girls in colorful dancewear surrounded Harrison, who stood rigidly in the middle.

“First eight counts!” Ms. Langford called, and proceeded to go through the first eight without too much downtime, which I liked. It was a simple combination, but there was a flow to it, so that each movement carried into the next.