“You know you met him before.”
Gloria and Ellie had just made it back to the dorm from Ellie’s
reading.
“Met who?”
“Con. Excuse me, Peter. You met him when we were in middle
school.”
“Okay, first off why are we talking about my TA instead of talking
about how great your reading went? And second off, really?”
Ellie laughed. “Yes, I know, I am brilliant, and I held them
all spellbound with my storytelling gift.”
“You think you’re joking, but it’s true. I watched them all
listen to you. There were some flat out ‘I hate this bitch’ jealousy on faces
tonight!”
“Or maybe it was just anger at having to listen to someone
else read when they wanted to?”
“Nah, pure jealous spite and some fear that when they get
the chance to read next it won’t be nearly as good. There are rewrites
happening all over campus right now. You did that.”
Ellie smiled, “It was pretty great to actually share my work
with people who don’t have to love me, and not be booed out of the room.”
“I don’t have to love you. I get to love you.”
“Aww, sweet. Now back to Co...Peter.”
Gloria rolled her eyes, “Fine, you aren’t going to drop it
so, when did I meet him?”
“Do you remember when we went to Missy’s dance practice for
her debutante ball?”
“Oh god, I’d forgotten about that. What a weird thing.”
“She didn’t think it was weird, she loved it. I am just glad
Mom told me I didn’t have to do it. It was more something her mom pushed more
than our dad.”
“I remember. I remember when your mom explained to me what
it was and asked what I thought. I didn’t have the understanding as to why it
bothered me, but I remember telling her it seemed sort of icky.”
“Yeah, she told me I had to never say that out loud to Missy
or her mom. But it is sort of icky.”
“Yeah, here is my 16-year-old, she’s ready for breeding.
Take a look.”
“Right? Just icky. But not to Missy. Missy loved it all. She
loved the dance practice; she loved learning how to do that big dip curtsy
thing. She loved gossiping with her friends over the boys that were set up to
be escorts. And…”
“That’s where Peter comes in!”
“Yep. He was like the prize fish that year. The boy you
wanted to escort you to the floor after you were presented. They all got to
dance with him in practice a little but only one of them would get to dance
with him on the big day.”
“Holy shit, I remember now. We were shameless in judging all
of the girls and the potential escorts. We both agreed that that one other boy
was much better looking. Who was he?”
“That was George Franklin. He was adorable, really good
style, much better dancer than any of the others. He came out two years later
to absolutely nobody’s surprise. You know he started My Big Gay Prom.”
“That was him?”
“Yep. He wanted everyone to have the chance to relive prom,
and debutante balls, and cotillions, and just parties, being able to go with
who they wanted to go with. He was just on the list of 30 under 30. Not just
for his party planning business but all of his activism. Pretty amazing
really.”
“I’d say we had very good taste.”
“For sure. But that day you met Peter. Yay, I said it right
that time! You even danced with him much to Missy’s dismay.”
“I don’t remember dancing.”
Ellie shook her head; how could Gloria forget the best part.
“Mrs. Elbersworth wanted to show the young ladies what she meant about holding
frame and didn’t want to single any one of them out to embarrass. She didn’t
have the same worries about you. But then you held your frame perfectly.”
“My space, your space.”
“Exactly! See? You remember!”
“I do. Sort of. I had kind of blanked it out. I thought she
had picked me because I was as tall as the older girls.”
“That’s what she said, but I heard her later saying that she
thought you wouldn’t have any idea how to dance so she could use you as a bad
example and then pull in one of the other girls to show the correct way to hold
themselves. But you did it right from the start. Then told her you learned it
from watching Dirty Dancing!”
“Your mother loved that movie.”
“She did. She still does. I’m not sure why she thought a
movie where someone almost dies from a botched abortion was appropriate for us
at that age, but…”
“Because it wasn’t until we were in high school that we got
that part. We just knew she was in trouble and sick. Sort of glazed over the
rest.”
“But you got to dance with Peter before Missy did. I don’t
think she ever forgave you for that.”
“Missy didn’t like me because she thought I was a bad
influence on you. She wanted you to look up to her and want to be just like
her. Instead, you had trashy poor friends. Her words, don’t argue with me.”
“At least she seems to be growing up a little bit now.
College helped. A little. Stop lifting your eyebrows, they are going to give
you forehead wrinkles!”
The girls both laughed. It was something Missy used to warn
them about. Don’t move your eyebrows so much, it will give you wrinkles! Since Gloria
seemed to go between eyebrows pulled down into a scowl or arched up in disbelief,
she figured she was just bound to wrinkle so why worry about it?
It never made sense to Gloria how different Missy’s mother
and Ellie’s mother were. Ellie’s father had married both of them, they should
have been at least a little alike. Though Ellie would point out that there was
a reason why Missy’s mom and their dad got divorced. Which Gloria did
understand but still, they were so different it was hard to imagine why they
had gotten married in the first place.
“So now you know you’ve actually danced with your TA that
you keep having late meetings with. I’d say we are well on to a meet cute.”
“I don’t have late meetings with him, our meetings sometimes
run late. And I’m not sure if ‘dance teacher tries to embarrass 12-year-old’ is
really a meet cute.”
“I guess we’ll see.”
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