dancing with our hands tied | conrad fisher

thirteen

It was the next morning after Conrad and I kissed. No one knew about it, and neither of us knew how to go about telling people. Then again, it was just a kiss. It wasn't like we were dating or anything. I told Susannah about Conrad being my escort to the ball, and she was beyond ecstatic. My mom was too. She claimed that she knew we'd end up going together.

Everyone went through their rounds of waking Conrad up so that he could come to Ms. Covington's dance practice, but it didn't work. He was sound asleep. Susannah was even thinking about pouring an entire pitcher of water on him. I told her that she didn't have to, I'd go by myself. Belly didn't ask Cam yet, so she was going to be alone at practice too. I would be her partner.

"We look like idiots standing here alone," Belly said, embarrassed. "It was either both of us alone, or just you," I stated.

Steven and Shayla made up, and Belly quickly apologized to Shayla for everything that she exposed. We stayed and talked to the couple and Nicole. Everyone was dreading this class. "Ms. Covington's a real pain," Gigi whispered.

"You guys need an escort for the real thing. Paige's gonna have an aneurysm if you wait too long," Nicole said.

"Conrad's actually Sadie's escort," Belly blurted out. I slapped her arm. "Yeah, but Belly still needs one like asap," I changed the subject.

Once the music started, we all started doing the simple box step. Belly used to dance a lot when she was younger, and Conrad and I were usually her dance partners. So Belly and I knew some moves very briefly. It was going smoothly, until we had to speed up, and Belly accidentally stepped on my foot.

"Hey, ladies. Mind if I have this dance?" Jeremiah came in at the perfect time.

"She's all yours," I backed away from Belly. "And Paige is gonna kill you if she sees you like that," I whispered to Jeremiah. He got Steven to take off his jacket and lend to him.

"Hey, I'm sorry I'm late," Conrad approached me. "I'd want to be late too," I replied, hopefully making him feel a little less guilty.

Conrad was a much better partner than Belly. Susannah taught him a lot of dances, so it made dance practice more bearable. "Alright, everyone knows you're a natural dancer," I joked. He slowed down his steps to match mine.

Jeremiah hijacked the dance practice and changed the music, making it a lot more fun than it was. I took a quick glance at Ms. Covington, she looked pissed, but she wasn't gonna do anything, only Paige would.

"C'mon, loosen up," I made Conrad dance much more informally than what he was used to. All the deb girls and escorts immediately stopped waltzing and joined Jeremiah in dancing. We couldn't even finish the song before Paige came back and turned off the Alexa. She basically kicked Jeremiah out, and we had to go back to practicing.

"I can't wait to get out of here," Conrad bent down to my ear to whisper to me. "Same. I think I'm gonna go insane if I have to do this any longer," I joked.

After Ms. Covington's practice, Conrad drove Belly and I home, but he couldn't stay since he was gonna go sailing with Cleveland. I want to properly meet Cleveland. From what Conrad's told me about him, he seems really sweet. He's like a father figure to him. Their dynamic sounded so pure.

"Sadie?" Susannah called, while coming downstairs. "Yeah," I replied.

"Since you're free, could you sit for your portrait?" She asked. "Of course," I looked outside to see that she already had all of her painting stuff ready. I'm really impatient, so I hate sitting for portraits. But it's Susannah, how can I say no to her.

"Have you talked to Millie lately? You should invite her back soon!" Susannah made conversation.

"Yeah, she's spending the whole summer traveling. She went to the west coast already, and now she's going to Europe and Asia. Her parents said that this is her early graduation prep so that she can do other stuff next summer," I replied.

Like Taylor, Millie has visited Cousins before. The longest she's stayed was only like a week. The first time she visited was a lot more calm than Taylor's first visit. She found a summer fling that she talked to until Thanksgiving, but then, they just suddenly stopped speaking.

"Do you have any idea why Conrad was so happy and giddy this morning? Your mom came up to me and thought that he was acting really strange," she asked.

"I wish I knew. He seemed normal at practice today, but that might just be Ms. Covington bringing down his mood," I joked. I seriously had no clue why he was so happy this morning. I'd wanna see him in his giddy mood though. I just know that I would make fun of him. While Susannah was painting, we continued to talk to help pass time.

When Steven got home, it looked like something was bothering him. He got a drink from the fridge and went straight to his room. Even back at home, he wouldn't go upstairs right away unless he was pissed off or on the verge of crying.

Last time, he stormed off like that at the beach house was when he nearly got into a fight over me. Some guy made me trip on the beach when we were twelve, making me bleed. The guy tried to somehow turn around and blame me. The next day, Conrad, Jeremiah, and I planned a mock trial to see who was guilty. Belly played the guy that tripped me, I was the judge, and Conrad and Jeremiah were lawyers. It made Steven feel a little better.

I went upstairs and knocked on his door to see if he wanted to talk about it. "Come in."

"What's up," I sat at his desk.

"I got promoted to work in the private poker room, and those guys are insane, man. They were blatantly being rude and racist and didn't even blink an eye. It's like they didn't comprehend that me and the other guy were there," Steven ranted.

"Don't even acknowledge those guys. If they won't even remember you the next day, then you shouldn't get so worked up over them. They think that just because they're rich, they're invincible. Plus, if you're getting bank, then try to stick with it."

"Do you have to deal with this whenever you're working?" He asked. The entirety of the school year, I worked as a hostess and occasionally a waitress. One of the reasons why I worked during the school year was so that I didn't have to work in the summer.

"Yeah, all the time. And it's not just rude customers, it's creepy men that constantly cat call me and say weird things too. It's really uncomfortable, but overtime, I realized that these people are always going to exist. And it's not worth it to confront them about it, taking time away from work. Plus, my boss has never done anything about it either," I replied.

"What the fuck. I hate that that happens. It's like we can never escape it. And on top of that, you have to deal with gross people. You and my coworker practically said the same thing too. Thanks," he responded.

"If any other old fuckers mess with you, I will seriously stand up to them," I said.

"Okay, that's going a bit extreme," Steven jokingly rolled his eyes.

I think I talked about him and Shayla a little too much, because he started attacking me with all the pillows in his room. He also threatened to pour his collection of water bottles in his room on me. I quickly left his room before it turned into a murder scene.