Baby Fat

fifty-two

"It was good, probably one of your bests," Mark Wilde says to Bradley with a smile. "I loved that you had two people start back to back in exact unison before they ended up facing each other in simultaneous and loose canon."

Bradley practically preens in Mark's praise. "Thank you."

"But," Mark says with a hand on his chin, "there wasn't enough emotion in the steps. The dancers can only do so much. The concept is actually one of the better concepts I've seen for a dance, yet the moves themselves are lacking." Mark must've noticed the frown on Bradley's face because he says, "Here, let me show you."

Mark tells the dancers and the person at the speakers to start from the first verse two. The music starts and the dancers begin to dance.

Thirty seconds in, Mark says, "See look. You decided that Dancer A would do a pirouette and then stand still until the chorus of the song, while Dancer B does a triple pirouette. If you had decided that Dancer A do a triple pirouette on beat five and then Dancer B do a double pirouette on beat six, it would've transitioned into the chorus a lot smoother."

Bradley nods his head. He makes a note on his notebook. "Do you have anymore examples?"

Mark hums. The dancers have sat down to drink some water. Bradley looks down at his watch, realizing that it's already four pm. He's been here for five hours working with these poor dancers to get this dance right before Mark showed up.

"I think that the bridge is the strongest part of the whole dance. If I interpreted everything right, I think that the whole point of the dance is that two people are falling out of unison. They start back to back completely in sync because they don't need to see each other to know that they're both in sync. But, they end up going in circles and circles, falling out of sync. By the end, the two are distraught because they both know that it all fell apart."

There's a moment of silence as Bradley searches for a response. Most of his meetings with Mark don't include an analysis of any of his dances. He wishes that Mark hadn't been so spot on. So, instead of saying anything, Bradley just stumbles over his words.

Mark continues, not really looking at Bradley. "I wish I had thought of it first."

Bradley's actually speechless. Not a peep leaves his mouth. "Oh--uhm..."

"I'm just saying, Bradley, you are very talented," Mark praises. He pats Bradley's shoulder.

"Coming from you, Mark, that means so much. Really. Thank you." Bradley's blushing like crazy, but he figures that looking like a tomato is a lot better than not being able to say anything at all.

Mark smiles. "Bradley, I'll admit, when you mother told me that you hadn't spent your whole life dancing, I thought she was crazy. I mean, it's hard for someone who's danced their whole life to create anything close to what you just did."

"Wow" is all that leaves Bradley's mouth. He seriously doesn't know what to say.

"But, Cassandra has never let me down. Our first session together, I knew that you were going to do good. You should show her this. I think she would be proud."

Bradley shakes his head no immediately. "You don't know my mother very well, do you?"

Mark laughs. "I've known Cassandra practically my whole life. She was the beta for all my dances, until your father came along and stole her from me."

"I'm just not so sure that she would like this one. She likes the classic ballet pieces a lot more."

"Do you have any plans for the future?"

Bradley shrugs his shoulders. "I will probably go to college and study choreography. Maybe University of Arizona. I know auditions are required, but my whole family has connections."

Mark raises his eyebrows. "You don't look to excited about any of that."

"I'm not sure if that's even what I want to do, if I'm being honest. I know it's my junior year and I'm supposed to know at least where I want to go to college, but I don't."

"Listen, Bradley, you have so much life ahead of you. I know that your parents, especially Cassandra, are everyone's worst critics. They've probably planned your life to a tee, but that doesn't mean you want it." Mark glances at his phone. "I've already spent months thinking about my child's future and what it's going to look like. Your parents just want what's best for you."

Bradley bites the inside of his cheek. "What if what's best for me isn't what they want for me."

"Parents always seem to do that, right? They push their children so hard because they think that's what's going to be good for them. Especially dancers. They know how fierce the dance world is. Cassandra spent years of her life working her body so hard to be the thinnest, the most flexible, whatever it may be. Yet, she still had to retire early. She just wants you, all of you, to succeed, which in her mind is in the dance world."

"I didn't kn--"

"I think that most people see Cassandra as this highly praised dancer. I think they forget what she had to do to herself to get their."

Bradley's about to respond when Mark's cellphone rings. Mark excuses himself from the room and Bradley is left with the dancers and the person at the speaker.

"From the bridge," Bradley says to the dancers who nod obediently.

The music begins and they start to dance. Bradley observes them as though they hadn't spent hours before watching it. The more he watches the more he notices all the things that could be better.

"Stop, stop." He waves his hands in the air to get their attention. They stop dancing and look at them expectantly. "You guys did fucking amazing today. You brought the whole thing to life. Thank you so much. You guys can go. We've been here for hours."

Both dancers thank Bradley for allowing them to be apart of it. They change into sneakers and grab their bags. They exit the room, followed by the speaker person.

Bradley packs up his stuff into his backpack. Right as he's about to leave, Mark Wilde reenters the room.

"I saw the dancers leaving," Mark says with a smile. "You did amazing today. Keep it up, if that's what you want."

Bradley wishes he had an answer. He wished he knew what he wanted out of life. He wish he could just figure it out. The only true answer is that he wants his mother to be proud of him. He wants everyone to be proud of him like Mark Wilde was.

"That's what I want." Bradley promises with a smile. He's just not sure if his smile was as convincing as he hoped.

__________

☒ - unedited

Questions of the chapter: This chapter was important because of what the dance symbolizes. What do you think the dance symbolizes and why did Bradley choose to choreograph it?

Please tell me if you see any mistakes, I'm the queen of typos.

Predict stuff?

Life update:
- my AP exam is in less than two weeks lol i love procrastination
- next update: next weekk

Notes:
- next chapter is a big one, you're in for a doozy

Thank you.

— dreamfloats