Eva!!!! Again?? You must be dying, you NEVER miss rehearsal. What’s going on???
January 17th
*missed call from Mia*
Mia
Girl, it’s noon. There’s no way you’re still too tired to answer. Call me back!! I want details on your dinner with Jules!!
January 19th
Mia
Okay… why aren’t you answering? Are you mad at me?
January 21st
*missed call from Mia*
*missed call from Mia*
Mia
Eva, oh my god, are you missing??
*missed call from Mia*
Text me if you need help!! I’m getting worried here…
January 23rd
Mia
Just talked to Elsie… she said you’re not coming for a while???
*missed call from Mia*
UH… WHAT?!?!?! Call me ASAP
Water splashedin the bathtub as Elsie poured a cup down my back, rinsing the frothy shampoo. My arms hung limply by my side, my skin a mixture of purple and blue from the bruise that spread like a sunbeam through my shoulder.
But I felt nothing.
Elsie hummed to herself as she continued to rinse me, squeezing a dollop of conditioner and smoothing it onto the ends of my hair. She’d been staying with us for almost two weeks. Jules had called her in to help me because he knew I would be uncomfortable with him helping me bathe—both from the “being naked in front of your brother” aspect and because every time he saw my wound, he would cry and apologize profusely until I walked away. And at first, I couldn’t get my stitches wet so I couldn’t do it myself. Now, my arm was so sore I couldn’t lift it very much, so Elsie remained like a doting sister.
Jules probably knew that if I wasn’t forced to get out of bed by her, I probably wouldn’t have.
He’d gotten frustrated when I continued not speaking to him, so Elsie was his form of reinforcement. She was the one who came into my dark room and forced me to eat. She was the one who helped me get dressed and bathed, the one who brushed my hair as she reassured me that Madame Germaine hadn’t given away my role despite how unconvinced I was that it was true.
“You should have been Juliet,” I whispered, my voice raw from almost two weeks without use.
“I’m glad I wasn’t,” Elsie lilted. A strawberry blonde curl twisted down her face, and she blew it away with a huff. “I think it’s about time to hang up my ballet shoes.”
I leaned against the side of the tub and raised my eyebrows in an expression that said,Really?
She nodded. “I think I’ve been ready to say goodbye to it for a while. I’ve already told Madame Germaine that this is my last show. So I’m glad you’re Juliet. I get to see that the Company is being left in very capable hands.”
I cleared my throat, trying to push down the shock I felt. The Company had been Elsie’s entire life for eleven years. She was seventeen when she auditioned and was accepted, working her way up the ranks within a few years. Elsie had been the company’s principal for almost eight years now, having been cast when she was only twenty.
