Lead & Follow

Fouetté

Part 1: Lead

Seventh Movement, Fouetté

Fouetté

fouet·té

/fo͞oəˈtā/

noun: BALLET

a pirouette performed with a circular whipping movement of the raised leg to the side.

a quick shift of direction of the upper body, performed with one leg extended.

🤍🖤

Elizabeth whips her head around in shock at your declaration, "You're dating the new neighbor? Already?"

You peer at her through gaps in your outstretched fingers, and feel mortified to have let such sensitive information slip so easily. 

Mom places a hand to her heart in attempts to brace herself against the news–how foolishly she's presumed this day to never come, at least not in this manner.

Ma is similarly speechless as she eyes you, her youngest charge, her babychild already caught up in such grown up affairs.

She feels bittersweet as she observes the smitten expression which peeks out from behind a pair of trembling hands, and the flush which casts you in a rosy light.

" Dating !" she echoes, and she exchanges a meaningful glance with her loving wife. They'll have to rethink their stance on the betting pool they have going with the Holdens–and whether your future is quite as green as they once expected.

"He asked if tonight was a date, and if I'd be interested in any more," you reveal with haste, and you struggle to catch the breath which tonight's events have stolen. 

"He's here one night, and that Baxter kid is already making moves–retroactively, and sideways," your elder sister huffs as she crosses her arms in front of her chest. 

"A couple of days," you correct defensively. "And I've known him longer than that, anyway!"

"Since when?" Mom interrogates, and she tries and fails to recall a time in which his name had bore relevance before.

"At the Summer Soiree ," you inform them, and the thought of the Cypress, and the boy you associate so heavily with the place, reminds you of a phantom sensation on your lips. You can still taste the bitter notes of a dark roast and feel the pillow-soft press of his mouth on your's. "W-When I went with Cove. Remember?"

Truth be told, the reaction of your family and friends to this sudden development is a mixed bag. When you later compare your immediate family's response to the likes of your cousin, Lee, and your friend group, (Terri, Randi, and Cove), you feel it the most neutral of the bunch.

In the days leading up to your next romantic encounter with the B Man, you will divulge the change in your relationship to Lee. 

You'll call her up on the phone, and she'll commend you for both your gumption and your swift execution.

At some point, you'll clue in Terri and Miranda in the group chat you keep separate from Cove. It's the place where you discuss this sort of thing–school crushes, and celebrities you're taken with, in a way that spares the verdant male's squeamish feelings.

For better or worse, Cove Holden is not one for amorous discussions. You'd found that out the hard way when you'd failed to make a date of your first formal outing, or sent him into a panicked frenzy when you'd feigned kissing him on a R.V. trip between your families.