Strawberries & Cigarettes

Chapter Seven

            For the past two weeks, Moet had been training twice as hard and eating twice as little. Nobody noticed, though. Not even Leighton who’s taken to visiting her at her usual spot beside the big tree at the end of lunch every other day. Whenever asked, she’d simply reply, “I’ve eaten already” when in fact she skips lunch and dinner altogether. Her weight has dropped to a number even lower than her ideal one—ninety-nine—which was a fact she couldn’t stop smiling about as she carefully applied her makeup and checked her reflection in the brightly lit vanity mirror. Knots were doubling themselves in Moet’s stomach as usual—she always felt like this before a big performance. Smiling to herself, she checked over herself again before heading backstage to ready herself for her big solo act.

            Melanie was just finishing up with hers, and soon it would be Moet’s turn. As the last resounding chord of an energetic Mozart piece sounded, Moet could hear the roaring applause of the audience in response to Melanie’s undoubtedly perfect performance. She was proven right when the girl herself bounded off stage with a smug smile on her face.

            “Good luck,” she wished Moet in a semi-flat tone. It was easy to tell Melanie could hardly care less about how well the other dancer did. All she wanted was to get her moment in the spotlight.

            Right before heading onstage, Moet briefly wondered if Dakota was here. Shaking off such a ridiculous thought, she smiled a genuine smile and gracefully stepped onto the stage.

            The ride over to the theatre was extremely awkward. Moet’s parents insisted that he come ride along with him despite his vehement, but polite, protests against the notion, explaining that he had a perfectly functional car. However, Mr. and Mrs. Holmes claimed that it’d be such a waste of gas since Leighton was going alone and that they should carpool to save the environment. Needless to say, that was about the worst excuse Leighton’s ever heard in his life but in order to come off as a polite, yet slightly assertive gentlemen he had to cut the argument short before he raised his voice and gave off a bad impression.

            Now, sitting in the red velvet seats of the auditorium, he sees Moet coming out from behind the curtains.

            And, dear god, did she look amazing.

            Her corn-silk hair was coiled neatly into a bun high on her head and her pale skin seemed to be glowing against her white-as-snow, slightly sparkling attire. It was ethereal. However, the part that struck Leighton the most was when she started moving. A perfect expression of calm and tranquility graced her face as she seemed to glide across the floor and executed so many turns, Leighton thought he was going to get dizzy from watching her. And the way she held herself on one toe as if it was the easiest thing in the world was absolutely incredible. However, right before her solo ended, she stumbled. It was an extremely small loss of footing, and if you blinked you would completely miss it with the way that she recovered with movements as languid as flowing water. Leighton thought nothing of it and applauded generously loud along with the rest of the audiences but he noticed that Mrs. Holmes did not raise her hands to clap at all. She simply sat there with a tight-lipped grimace and a fearsome icy fire burning in her eyes.

            She messed up. She messed up, she messed up, she messed up! Oh, Mother is definitely going to kill me now, Moet thought, tears leaking from her perfectly made-up eyes. Wiping off the remaining makeup with a wet towel and some makeup remover, she quickly dressed, grabbed her things and made her way to the front entrance of the theatre because she knew lateness was something she could not afford when her mother was angry.

            Mrs. Holmes was a scary woman most of the time, but when she was angry, she turned into a monster. It was one of the reasons Dakota left. And Moet was too scared and too young to take off like her older sister had. Right now, it seemed like a considerable option. No, you’re being too rash about this, she probably didn’t even notice, Moet scolded herself. Straightening her shoulders, because Mother hated to see her slouch, she searched for her parents.

            She found them standing stoically near the entrance with her mother was talking to one of her student’s parents and her father with, surprisingly, Leighton standing awkwardly together. Leighton adjusted his glasses in nervousness and her father shuffled his feet in boredom. Moet knew he’d do anything to be either home sleeping or at the office working. Those seemed to be the only two things Mr. Holmes cared about.

            “Hi…” She trailed off at the end, looking tentatively at her parents and flinching at her mother’s barely-contained icy glare. She gave Leighton a small, timid smile though to which he responded gratefully. He was extremely glad to not be alone with the Holmes’s no matter how fake-pleasant they were. It was just plain awkward. After Mrs. Holmes exchanged more good-byes with other parents, the four retreated back to Mr. Holmes’s Beemer. After about twenty minutes of tensioned silence, Mrs. Holmes spoke up.

            “Moet—” before Mrs. Holmes could finish, Leighton watched Moet burst into a frantic, heartbreakingly desperate plea for forgiveness.

            “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, it won’t happen again. Please forgive me. I didn’t mean to, I swear.” The poor girl was nearly sobbing by the end. Leighton felt a well of pity in his stomach at her desperation and his body moved closer to subconsciously comfort her with an arm around the shoulder or a stroke of the back, he didn’t know.

Before he could actually physically contact her, Mrs. Holmes replied in a dangerous, frightening voice, “Do you know how much you embarrassed me?” The pale girl immediately quit her blubbering and froze in terror. “You are my daughter for Christ’s sake, I am the fucking dance instructor and my own daughter couldn’t perform a simple triple fouette without falling over herself!” The older woman’s voice was low for the most part but rose quite high at the end. Leighton was beside himself. He’d never heard of a grown adult speaking that way to their own child. Never. It made him clench his fists in anger.

“I’m sorry,” Moet whispered in the broken voice of a little girl that just tugged at Leighton’s heart strings. Right when he was about to speak up, Mrs. Holmes gave him an ample opportunity to do so.

“‘I’m sorry, Mother. I’m sorry.’ That’s all you ever say and it means total shit, Moet. Shit. If you keep dancing like this, we’ll be sure to place last in the Spring. Why don’t we just ask your friend, Leighton, is it? Go on, tell her how she danced tonight. Don’t hold anything back.” Moet’s head was bent down on purpose; she was trying to have her hair fall over her face to disguise the fact that glistening trails of tears were making their way down her cheeks. However, her sniffles of misery were easily heard throughout the car. She could tolerate it if her mother said such horrible things to her, she always did, but she would simply not be able to bear it if Leighton treated her the same. His opinion mattered more to her than anyone’s. Except Dakota. Nobody’s opinions mattered to her more than Dakota’s.

“I thought she danced beautifully.” Leighton announced in a matter-of-fact tone. The pale-haired girl lifted her head to him in disbelief. A stunned silence spread throughout the car this time.

Moet’s mother simply turned her eyes back onto the road and said in a very quiet voice, “Very well then.”

Moet mouthed a “thank you” to Leighton. The gray-eyed boy shrugged at her like it was no big deal, but he could easily tell that Moet never had anyone stand up for her before. That thought made him feel so horrible that he couldn’t stop thinking about it for the rest of the twenty minutes of the car ride back home.

“Good night, Leighton.” Father bid the boy. Sometimes, she swore that he was like a ghost. Never speaking, never engaging, just always a presence in the room… an empty space filler.

“Good night,” Leighton politely replied back and waved. Right before he turned around to walk to the house next to the Holmes’s, he felt a gentle tug on his hand. Turning around, he discovered that it was Moet.

“I just wanted to say thank you, again…”

“No problem.”

Moet shuffled her feet a bit before making a drastic decision. In one sudden movement, she wrapped her arms around Leighton’s waist and refused to let go until she felt his arms wrap around her waist in response. And after a while, they did. Releasing each other, Moet blushed and mumbled an apology and ran off into the house while the boy next door looked on with a slight smile on his face.