“Come on,” the woman on the television said in an out-of-breath voice, “lift those legs, pump those muscles, three more before we spice up this exercise.”

On the other side of the screen, Teri counted breathlessly along, “three, two, one,” before dropping to the floor like a puddle, “why is it so hard?”

“You just need to learn to be more disciplined, Teri,” her roommate, Shelley, said, and strangely, even though they both have been doing the same exercises, Shelley wasn’t out-of-breath. “So what if you got fired after that failed performance, boo hoo, I’m sure every famous person out there has at least one failed performance.”

“But I got fired, Shelley,” Teri collapsed onto the sofa, “I froze on stage and now, nobody will ever hire me again,” she said as she started to break into a sob for the umpteenth time in the last few times.

Shelley hit play on the exercise video and shaking her arms to warm up, “Come on, Teri,” Shelley said and pulled her friend off the floor, “I’m sure you’ll get another job soon, if you don’t, you can already come and work with me, we’re hiring, now, ready to spice up?”

Written for Six Sentence Story. The prompt is “Spice”.