Ballet Shoes

IV

The charity show next week is fast approaching and now all over the media since Estelle agreed that Ben would do a live interview for them. This boy can't catch a fucking break!

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Third Person's P.O.V.

Ben covered his face with his hands and groaned. He was having second thoughts about doing this interview. Yes, doing this would clear up a lot of things surrounding his current predicament as well as answer many of the public's questions. It would also attract more people not only to donate to the charities each participant is representing but get more people to watch the show in general. All of that is truly great but, Ben isn't exactly ready to answer all possible questions.

There would be the common questions like, "How long have you been doing ballet?" and "What are your plans with ballet going forward?" Those are easy enough to answer but what about the rest? Who knows how personal the questions will get? Then there's the issue with this being livestreamed.

Everyone who's watching will hear Ben's answers almost immediately as he says them. He won't have the time to think of a clever way around a question that he doesn't want to answer or one that makes him uncomfortable. People would notice his evasion of it and take to speculating about it on the internet and extranet. Ultimately making everything worse.

"Hey," Estelle said interrupting Ben's thoughts, "you'll be fine Twinkle Toes."

"I hope you're right," Ben replied, "and you don't need to call me by my stage name while we're here. It's not like my secret is a secret anymore."

"I know but-"

"Alright!" a cheerful voice rang out in the room, cutting Estelle off, "We're on in three minutes."

Ben recognized that voice. It was Misses Winters. Or just Caroline as she prefers. She's the one who runs this charity dance show. This would be her twentieth year hosting the event but the first with this much publicity given the situation.

"Thanks for taking the time to do this Mr. Tennyson," Caroline said, sitting in the chair across from Ben.

"No problem," the brunette replied nervously, "And just Ben is fine."

Caroline nodded in understanding and with that, the livestream began.

"Good day you wonderful people out there!" Caroline beamed as she looked into the camera focused on her, "These last couple days have been hectic as I'm sure everyone is well aware. If you're somehow out of the loop, I'll quickly fill you in."

"Here we go," Ben thought, slightly curling into himself in the chair.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Estelle gesturing at him. She was most likely telling him to sit up while also wishing him good luck. Ben internally sighed and sat up. Giving Estelle a quick, yet unsure, thumbs up before Caroline addressed him.

"Care to greet the viewers Ben?"

Ben waved at the camera and flashed one of his signature smiles. This one didn't quite reach his eyes due to his nervousness.

"So," Caroline began, clasping her hands together in excitement, "we're going to begin with some generic questions. When did you start practicing ballet?"

"I started when I was eleven," Ben answered.

"I see," Caroline said, "Why'd you start ballet or rather, what got you into this fine art form?"

"I don't remember who it was," Ben started, "but I saw them dancing on pointe and it peaked my interest. A few weeks of begging my parents later and here we are."