I felt tears rushing to my eyes and leaned back against a wall.

Tina turned towards me completely looking worried, "what’s wrong? Did I say something…"

"No," I said. "It’s just…you understand." I stood up straight off the wall and rose up to the ballet en pointe. "When I dance," I said lifting my leg gracefully, "all the pain, worry, and stress in my life, goes away."

I turned bending my knee then kicking it out to turn again and again then landing gracefully with my right arm up past my head, and my left arm back with my left leg.

"When I’m dancing I’m not Bette Porter the poor little disowned 18 year old welder and bar dancer," I said running forward and leaping into the air with my one leg straight in front and the other straight back.

"I feel like an actual ballerina and not some delusional girl with impossible dreams," I said rolling gracefully on the floor and laying on my back.

"I feel like a star who gets a bouquet of roses after her dance and a roomful of men in suits and women in gowns standing up and clapping." I arched my back and lifted my hands to the ceiling.

"I can hear them yelling, ‘bravo! Bravo!’ And ‘encore!’" I rolled my body up like a snake then did a series of fast turns that slowed down until I once again with my back against the wall.

"When I dance," I said more softly as tears spilled from my eyes, "I disappear."

Tina had tears in her eyes as she walked towards me slowly. She put her hand gently on my face and with her thumb wiped away my tears. I looked into her eyes and saw the understanding in them.

I grabbed her hand and slowly slipped it inside my shirt until it was covering my breast. I wasn’t wearing a bra so she gasped and my nipple immediately hardened against her palm.

She gripped the breast and stepped forward capturing my lips with hers. I moaned and wrapped my arms around her neck. Her body melded into mine, pressing firmly against the wall and I jumped off the ground with the grace of a dancer, wrapping my legs around her waist.