Rêveries

Chapter 76.

But he ended fourth in Australia, meaning there was no Instagram post from that. Well, not that would be smooth anyway. Joris had gotten really nice photos of Charles and I together, but I didn't want to drop a photo like that all of a sudden, even though people know one hundred percent that we're dating by now. Except for some of the people who are positive it's some stunt to make people like me better, or whatever their theories are.

But after Australia it was time for Evie and I to really focus on dancing. We had decided to start dancing together as a duo when the actual point-scoring season started. So we wanted to be prepared by entering a bunch of smaller contests. Meaning we were spending a lot of time at the dance studio letting our ideas out and working with them. We made choreography after choreography from scratch to really make it original and suited for us. Hour upon hour of working on it, and I could come back home and not feel mentally exhausted, because Evie is one to fill you with energy instead of drain you from it.

While the boys were racing in Bahrain and in China, Evie and I managed to attend three smaller competitions, two in France and one in Italy. We won the Italy contest and came second in the French competitions. But they were podiums and we used the opportunity to really see what parts we needed to work on if we wanted to win. Winning in street style, jazz and commercial jazz is slightly harder than Latin, meaning we have to work hard to get to the podiums and high scores.

Pascale stayed in the apartment some, and I would go stay a few nights at the house so she wouldn't be alone when Arthur wasn't home. Him and Lorenzo were preparing for the FRECA season and weren't home that much, but when they were I made sure to spend time with them too. The more time went on, I realized that I will see them less and less. Seeing Arthur isn't as obvious anymore and Charles and Arthur seeing each other is far less obvious than I've thought. I forget their schedules don't really correlate.

Evie and I still hadn't gotten a coach. We didn't have any sponsors. We didn't have a team, we were just the two of us. I hadn't realized it had made us look like maybe we're not as serious about this, but the truth was that I had gotten too comfortable for a team. I wanted to dance and love it, like I did with Evie. Giving everything until you can barely breath, get your feelings out through movements and performing a kind of art with your body, and then at the end when I could turn to Evie and see that she loved it just as much just made me happier than ever. I didn't want a team to ruin it with strict time tables and opinions I don't agree with.

After a competition I stay away from social media. Well, I normally stay away from social media, but even more so after a competition. I know people will share their opinions and critique no matter if they know anything about dancing or not. But Evie goes on to read it after every single competition, trying to find things we missed in the studio so that she can work on it in front of the mirror. I've told her to leave it alone but she just won't.

One day when we came into the smaller studio, Evie's demeanor was careful, almost careful. She was quiet, thoughtful, and she put her bag down and immediately came up to me as a kid asking their parents for permission to do something. She kept picking at her nails and I waited for her to start talking.

"C, I just looked through some comments last night," She started and before I had the chance to sigh and roll my eyes, because she knows I don't like that she does that, she kept going. "Some people think we look a bit... unorganized."

"Okay," I nodded, "We'll work on that for next time, I'll ask Felice to watch us again," I replied to ease her mind, but she sighed and looked like she wanted to continue. I sat down to put my dance shoes on, and she sat down next to me.

"Maybe we need a coach... or you know... just someone to help us and make us more organized overall," She said, and I kept quiet for a moment. Evie and I are a team and I can't make these decisions completely by myself. If she wants a coach and I don't then either one of us needs to convince the other or we need to reach a compromise.