"Aw, c'mon! It'll be fun! I promise!" Hannah pleaded with her roommate, desperate to have her come with.
"I dunno, it sounds weird. I mean, 'Tantric Yoga'? That sounds like a sex thing. I've heard of 'Goat Yoga' before, but never this."
"Erika, pleeaaaase? I really want to try it out. You don't even have to do it if you don't want! You could just watch!" Hannah begged, trying to do her best puppy eyes back at her friend.
Erika could feel the look even though she couldn't see it. "Ugh, fine!" replying from behind her book, "But if it's some weird sex thing, I'm leaving!" She closed her paperback copy of Dracula, setting it down on the floor and sitting upright on the couch.
"How's your little island going?" Erika asked, watching Hannah continuing to play Animal Crossing on their TV.
"Great! I just designed a new flag!" Hannah exclaimed, bringing up the flag on screen. She looked back at her friend with pride but Erika just rolled her eyes.
"You're such a dork," Erika said with a laugh.
"Hey, at least I'm not a goth!" Hannah retorted, sticking her tongue out.
The two girls had met in college and almost instantly connected due to their interest is sub-cultures. They weren't into the "cool" things, whatever those were. They may have been best friends, but that didn't mean that their interests were 100% aligned. Hannah, with her video games, anime, and K-dramas; Erika, with her books, metal music, and internet forums.
Erika knew Hannah was only teasing her and calling her that because she knew it bugged her. "Hey, I thought you wanted me to come! But if you're gonna call me names..." Erika threatened, but her smile gave away she was only playing.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! You know I don't mean it!" Hannah played along. She shut off the Switch and hopped up from the floor. Hannah gathered up her yoga mat and started to put on her pink tennis shoes.
Erika threw on her favorite zip-up hoodie from the closet, tossing out her long dark hair from inside of it after putting it on. She stuffed her feet into her skate shoes and her hands into her hoodie pockets.
Hannah was busy putting her strawberry-blonde hair into a pony tail. She had already been lounging around in yoga pants and a Pokemon t-shirt and was ready to go.
"I see your ensemble is black, as usual," Hannah said, rolling her eyes at Erika. "You know, you might get more boys if you wore some COLORS for once!"
"Oh, shut up! It's not like you've gotten any for a while," Erika retorted.
"Fair point," admitted Hannah.
With that, the two headed out of their apartment, locking the door behind them. It was a short walk to the yoga studio, about eight blocks. They continued to tease each other about boys and their outfits. Sharing some laughter in the midday sun.
"Surprised a vampire like you doesn't burst into flames out here," Hannah teased. It's true that Erika was quite pale, but Hannah wasn't doing much better in that department.
"You're almost as white as I am!" Erika noted, credulity in her voice. "Oh! Hey! What do you want to do for your birthday? It's coming up sooooon!" she asked her friend. "What are you turning again, thirty-four?" again she teased, sticking out her tongue.
"Uh, excuse me! You know damn well that I'm turning TWENTY-four, not THIRTY-four!" Hannah balked. Erika burst out laughing. "I was thinking of going out for sushi. What do you think?" Hannah pondered.
"Hey man, it's your birthday; we can do whatever you want. Is this it?" Erika asked as they approached the office building numbered 2600.
"Yup, this is it. Huh...Not exactly what I was expecting, but, whatever," Hannah remarked, pulling open the glass door. The two entered and looked at the directory on the wall. "There it is, 'Yoga Studio' - 507. Guess it's up to the fifth floor then."
The pair of friends rode the elevator and eventually found the door to the studio. It was pretty nondescript and there weren't any windows into the room. Hannah shrugged at Erika as she pulled open the door.
"Yup! This is it!" Hannah proudly remarked to her friend.
The room wasn't very big; the far wall was a wall of windows, sunlight shining in from outside. The entryway was behind a little half-wall that ushered guests over to some cubbies. Beyond the half wall the rest of the floor was made up thin mats. There were already a few other patrons here, milling about, putting their shoes into the cubbies, rolling out their mats. Overall, there were five girls and three guys, including Hannah, Erika, and the female instructor. The instructor sat cross legged in front of the windows, smiling out at everyone.
"Ah, welcome, welcome! Namaste!" she called out to Erika and Hannah as they entered. "Please, come in!" she motioned for them to join.
Erika whispered under her breath to Hannah, "I think I'm gonna stay right here. You go have fun."
Hannah nodded and remove her shoes, putting them into a cubby. She bounded over to a free spot as expected of someone with such a bubbly personality. Hannah was excited, nervous, thrilled. She was always wanting to try new things and when she read about this on the Internet, she had to try it.
"Is your friend going to join us?" the instructor asked Hannah as she settled in. Hannah looked back at Erika and then the instructor, "Nah, she's just gonna watch."
"Ah, I see. Alright then," the instructor replied with a smile, "Not a problem."
It was clear that one of the guy-girl pairs were a couple with how close they had rolled out their mats to each other and the way they were talking.
The instructor glided past Erika and locked the door to the room. "Wouldn't want anyone disturbing our auras," she noted to Erika who was wondering what she was doing.
"Of course not," Erika replied with a smile. Once the instructor had moved out of earshot, Erika muttered to herself in a sarcastic tone, "Wouldn't want to mess with the feng-shui or chakras either." Erika had never thought much of any of this hippie, woo-woo crap. It was all just a bunch of weirdos trying to replace organized religion with something else. "Whatever, it's not doing me any harm," she thought to herself. She was trying to be better about being more open minded and accepting.
"Let's begin, shall we?" the instructor asked the class, once again sitting in the front of the room. Nods all around the room. Erika leaned forward against the half-wall and watched. The students were situated in two rows of three. Hannah was in the back row in the middle. The couple was off to the left, sitting closer to the front. One guy was in front of Hannah, another beside her, and finally the other girl was sitting to the right in the front row.
"Perhaps he's single," Hannah thought to herself, checking out the guy in front of her. "He's pretty good looking. Fit." Hannah thought to herself as the instructor talked them through some breathing exercises. "Who am I kidding. He'd never be interested in someone like me," Hannah thought to herself, a small frown forming on her face.
Hannah wasn't exactly the most fit person, but she certainly wasn't obese. She was 5'6", 170 lbs; maybe a tad overweight, but otherwise pretty average. She wasn't as thin as Erika, that was for sure. Erika was 5'3" and weighed only about 125 lbs. Hannah was always jealous of how great Erika's figure looked. On the other hand, Erika was always remarking how she wished she had Hannah's boobs. Since Hannah was more on the "plump" side, her breasts were a nice, hefty C-cup, leaning more towards D. Erica on the other hand was an A-cup, quite flat.
The instructor led the class through some basic stretches. "It's important to be limber," she informed the students. "Wouldn't want anyone getting injured!" The class stretched for a few more minutes, Erika watching from behind.
"Alright, I think we're all limbered up!" the instructor noted after a few more minutes of stretching. "Now, if everyone could find a partner," she instructed. The couple obviously chose each other. The guy to Hannah's right walked up to the mat of the girl in front of him. Hannah and the guy in front of her looked at each other and smiled.
"I guess that means we're partners," he remarked, laughing a bit at the awkwardness of the situation.
"I guess so!" Hannah said, laughing in turn.
"My name's Alex," he stated, holding out his hand to shake.
"Hannah."
"Nice to meet you, Hannah," Alex said with a smile.
"Likewise," she said, practically beaming.