Total pages in book: 166
Estimated words: 157273 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 786(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 157273 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 786(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
I rolled my eyes and quickly peeled the fruit.
“What are you reading, Allie?” Anne asked. “Anything good?”
“Looks like Candace is engaged.” I smiled and turned my phone around so they could see the picture of the brunette showing off her ring. Anne looked over her shoulder, then spun back around like the car wouldn’t pull into the driveway if she wasn’t personally watching.
“Look at you on social media again, and good for Candace!” Kenna nodded. “Jillian’s great, and she’s wonderfully talented too. I stopped by her new gallery last month and the place was packed.”
“An artist? Huh. I always figured Candace would marry another dancer,” Anne said.
“That’s your mother talking,” Kenna chided before looking my way. “Some people like having lives outside the studio, having a partner who can help them anchor their life outside ballet so they survive life after ballet.”
“Don’t start.” I scrolled with my right hand and snacked on the banana.
“She has a point. You know what they say,” Anne muttered. “A dancer dies twice.” Once when they retire, the second when they expire. “I like that you’re breaking your no-dancer rule, Allie, and I love getting to see your smile again.”
“But?” I took another bite and opened the Seconds app.
She folded her arms across the back of the couch, and rested her chin on her hands. “I can’t help that I’m protective of you, and I know you said Hudson was there the night at Giselle, and that goes a long way to climbing out of the hole he dug when we were kids, but—”
“But you’ve never entirely trusted him.” It was nothing I hadn’t heard before. I logged in to a new, anonymous Seconds profile, then checked out the RousseauSisters4 page and stared. The account had gained another two hundred thousand more followers since I’d come to Haven Cove in May, and forty thousand in the last two days. Hopefully the video was slowing down.
“People make shitty decisions before their frontal lobe develops,” Kenna interrupted, saving me the trouble. “He couldn’t handle seeing Allie hurt and dipped out for basic. That makes him an immature dick at eighteen, not irredeemable. It’s not like he caused the accident or something.” She looked up from her tablet. “He didn’t, did he? There wasn’t some second set of tires or something?”
“No, that was all Lina. Never could obey a damned speed limit.” Anne sighed. “Or any rule, for that matter.”
“It was just us out there,” I confirmed. “That much I remember.” I searched RousseauSisters4 and clicked on the first video, turning the volume down so the others wouldn’t hear. It started as the video Eva had secretly taken of me explaining why I wasn’t comfortable with grand jetés—or any leaps yet—through the edits she’d made of my embarrassing errors during our weekend, and then WestCoastPointe stitched it, adding their commentary as they walked through the halls of a ballet company in California. Thanks to the subtitles, I kept my humiliation to myself.
“So let’s break down the latest MBC drama. Do I think Alessandra knew she was being recorded? I doubt it. But that doesn’t change the fact that she’s clearly still in the early stages of rehab, and from what I’m hearing at MBC, she flat-out lied to everyone at their gala about being ready to return for the fall, which brings up some major ethics issues, in my opinion.”
The banana lost its flavor. That wasn’t true. I never lied.
The creator’s face twisted in disgust. “Look, it’s not like MBC wasn’t going to hold a spot for her if she told them she’s taking longer to heal—she’s Alessandra Rousseau—but lying to her company about her injuries when they developed their entire fall program around her is just . . . It lacks integrity, you know? No respectable company is going to touch her after this. Look, I’ve said it before, she’s as pretentious and haughty as they come, but she used to be one of the greats, and I’m disappointed. She’s supposed to be an idol. Let me know what you think in the comments.”
I never asked to be. Despite the immediate nausea, I chewed the banana because I needed the fuel, then attempted to reach expert-level masochist and tapped the comments.
PenchePrincess: Damn. Bet she never thought she’d get caught.
AdrienneAdage14: This is why you should have to rehab at your company if on contract.
WestCoastPointe: AdrienneAdage14 Totally agree.
AraThomas9164: They should be able to sue her for fraud
Dulcinea4ever: She’s disgusting and I hope they don’t renew her contract
OnPointe34: Why isn’t anyone talking about the fact that they replaced her with her sister? Can’t MBC stand on its own without a Roussseau?
Pardonmypasse: OnPointe34 Doubt it. The whole place would crumble without that $$$
Tutucutex20: I stopped supporting her forever ago.
ReeseOnToe: I think her sister did a really shitty thing by posting that video.