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“Sooo, you seriously know how to waltz? Dude, that's so cool.”
Eugene, the one who almost passed out on his way to the camp due to some kind allergic reaction, easily slung an arm around him. Jesse was slightly appalled since they had only briefly talked a few times total, but allowed it anyway.
“I was wondering if you would, like, share your skills with me, bro.”
Jesse didn’t have anything against Eugene, per say, but he didn’t understand what waltzing had anything to do with the fencing camp they were currently partaking in.
“I am here to become better at fencing, not to teach people how to waltz.” Jesse responded, shrugging Eugene’s arm off of him. “Besides, why don’t you ask Seiji, he’s your teammate, not me.”
He made the mistake of looking directly into Eugene’s eyes. His expression reminded Jesse uncannily of a kicked puppy. That look pulled at his heart strings, much as he hated to admit it. Not to mention the fact that Eugene was...not unattractive.
His hair was cut similar to Seiji’s but styled a little bit messier and he had overall friendly features- basically the opposite of Seiji in that regard. Overall, he was definitely a jock-type that could even maybe pass as a football player, and he knew from experience how heavy he was after all. He basically had to carry Eugene to the nursery's office earlier that week with Melodie, and it wasn't an easy task.
“Bro, come on. You know how Seiji is, he’s kind of intimidating. He might murder me if I stepped on his toes. Plus, I already know Seiji, unlike you. And since I can’t fence, I can at least make cool new fencing bros. What better way to become bros than by dancing together?”
Even Eugene seemed to be questioning his own logic by the end of his rant, but it didn’t matter. Jesse had already fallen for it. He did feel bad that Eugene was benched for the whole camp and just had to observe. If Jesse was in that position, he would have felt like the world was ending, yet Eugene didn’t even look too disheartened. If anything, he looked more upset now about waltzing than he had when he learned he had to sit out camp. Jesse sighed.
“Well when you put it that way, I guess I have no choice but to help. I suppose it could be a good post-workout cool down.”
Eugene moved suddenly forward, and before Jesse could react, the other boy hauled him up in a big hug. He lifted Jesse completely off the ground, giving him no choice but to accept it. He couldn’t deny, he was impressed by Eugene’s ability to pick him up as if he weighed nothing.
“Thank you dude! So much! You have no idea how much this means to me, seriously! I will even make you an epic protein shake afterwards! You won’t regret this!” Eugene shouted at him in a voice too loud for their close proximity. Jesse felt a small smile creep onto his face anyway.
Eugene had felt a little guilty dragging Jesse into this, just so he could impress Melodie, but he wasn’t lying about wanting to make new friends. Jesse seemed like a cool dude, it would be two birds with one stone.
They decided to meet in one of the many gyms on campus later that evening, after dinner when all the fencing activities were over for the day. When they arrived, Jesse led them to a room with mirrors on the walls, meant for some kind of dance or exercise class. Eugene was practically humming with excitement. He had never done anything dance related, but it couldn’t be any harder than fencing footwork. He could already imagine how impressed Melodie would be when he swept her off her feet with his amazing waltzing skills.
“Ok dude, what’s first on the agenda?” Eugene grinned at Jesse, who was currently stretching.
“We’ll start with the box step.” Jesse stated as if it was supposed to be obvious. “I will lead and you will follow, since that’s easier.”
He strolled over to Eugene and confidently placed one hand on his back and lifted his other hand, setting their hold position. Eugene placed his remaining hand on Jesse’s shoulder and gave him a questioning look. Jesse didn’t correct him, so it must have been right. He realized then how much height Jesse had over him, not that he minded much.
“Just follow me, when I step forward you step back, and vice versa, we start with the left foot. The box step is a simple three count move. I doubt you will need that much instruction.”
“Wow, thanks for believing in me, dude!” He responded honestly.
Jesse rolled his eyes at him, but Eugene couldn’t tell if he was being playful or serious. Then the blonde began counting as he started the waltz.
“One, two, three. One, two, three.”
Like he had said, the steps were easy: step back with the left, slide to the right, close, back with the right, slide to the left, close. Eugene only stumbled once or twice before the movement became second nature to him.
“Wow! We’re really waltzing! Just like that.” Eugene spoke over Jesse’s counting.
“You realize this is just the basic step, right? No dance partner wants to do this all night, and besides we are literally just dancing in a square right now, we’re not even moving across the dance floor.” Jesse chided. Even though he stopped counting, Eugene found himself still able to follow Jesse’s easy rhythm, in the continuous box pattern.
“Ok, ok. Excuse me, I will check my privilege.” Eugene responded back easily.
Jesse just gave him a confused look before continuing, “Instead of going in a square, I am going to turn so we can dance across the room. Just follow me like before.”
Seems easy enough. He immediately tripped into Jesse, not following through the turn. Whelp . He instinctively grabbed on to keep himself from falling, wrapping his arms around the taller boy.
“Oops my bad! Can we try that again, but slower?” He smiled sheepishly at Jesse, but internally he had a sinking feeling. He felt himself losing confidence. How in the world was he supposed to lead Melodie if he couldn’t make it through a single turn when he was following?
Jesse was so busy trying to conceal his blushing, he almost missed the kicked puppy look that flashed on Eugene’s face again. On one hand he was relieved because that meant Eugene probably wouldn’t notice his red face, but on the other hand that look turned something inside him inexplicably cold.
“No, that was, uh, ‘my bad’. I didn’t give you enough warning.” Jesse corrected reluctantly.
Eugene brightened immediately. “Ok, well let’s try again, teach.” He chirped with a grin.
“Please never call me that again.” Jesse deadpanned. He carefully moved Eugene’s arms back into hold position.
“Ok let’s start again. We’ll do 2 sets of box steps then turn, and so on and so forth.”
“Roger that”
They start back again, Jesse continuing to count out loud.
“One, two, three. One, two, three. Turn. One, two, three. One, two, three. Turn.”
It was going a lot smoother this time, Eugene only minorly stumbling after him on the turns. Jesse had to admit he was a pretty fast learner. They continued this pattern until their turns went effortlessly. Jesse tried not to stare too much at Eugene’s face as they went on, but it was hard not to. His face was scrunched up in concentration, nose crinkled and eyebrows drawn together. It looked a bit silly, but bizarrely endearing.
“Alright, let’s try this to music, and this time you’re not allowed to look at your feet. Only look at me- that’s how it would go in an actual dance” He quickly added to the end.
“Ok, real music, I can do that. Easy money. I got this.” Eugene muttered.
“Are you trying to convince me or yourself?” Jesse questioned.
Eugene responded back by giving an awkward chuckle and rubbing the back of his neck. Jesse rolled his eyes and cued the music.
“I decided to go with a classic,” he added.
Eugene’s eyes immediately lit up. “Can You Feel the Love Tonight?? I didn’t strike you as a Lion King kind of dude.”
Jesse huffed “It’s just a good song to waltz to. Let’s count the beat together before we start and then no more counting, just dancing.”
They returned to their hold position and counted the beat together for a few measures before Jesse began to lead Eugene around the classroom. This time they maintained eye contact, Eugene fixing him with a big, friendly smile. Jesse felt his own lips turn up slightly at the sight. He was actually having fun with this much to his own surprise. As the song came to a close, Eugene broke hold to spin Jesse, which made him dizzy enough, before he dipped him to the sounds of Pumbaa and Timon dramatically crying.
“So how’d I do, teach? A+ right?” Eugene said, sending the blonde his killer smile as he brought him upright once more.
“Where did you learn that move?” Jesse asked instead.
“Well actually I have a little sister and she use to love it when I spun her around and dipped her at family parties. She’s kind of going through an edgy phase right now, so I haven’t done it in a while. I am glad I still got the moves,” he added a wink at the end.
“I guess you’re not too bad for a novice.” Jesse managed to get out. He could feel the heat in his face rising once more. He felt like he was still spinning. Eugene hadn’t moved his hands from Jesse’s back.
“Thank you so much! I know I will definitely sweep Melodie off her feet with this!” Something heavy dropped in Jesse’s stomach.
“Hopefully she won’t mind leading though…” Eugene continued. “Anyway, what flavor protein drink do you want? I have vanilla and strawberry.”
He took his hands away, and left cold imprints of them on Jesse’s skin. Jesse immediately missed them, and fought the urge to grab them and put them back. Why would he feel sad? He knew this was part of a ploy, he had seen them giving each other mushy looks at lunch. But it made him feel sick when he thought about Eugene dancing with Melodie instead of him- almost the same feeling he got when he saw Nicholas and Seiji together.
“Dude?? Earth to Jesse? Vanilla or strawberry?”
“Oh, umm, vanilla I guess.”
It was the night of the dance, Eugene had been so ready to show off his dance moves, only to get ditched. He couldn’t believe it. He knew the blade was important, but important enough to drop like a hot potato? Here he was thinking he might actually get his first kiss tonight. Now he was sitting on a bench off to the side of the dance floor, feeling sorry for himself while his teammates partied without him.
“May I have this dance?”
Eugene looked up, halfway hoping to see Melodie, that she had changed her mind. Instead he was faced with Jesse. He couldn’t say it was a face he minded though.
“Sure!”
Well, he did have a thing for blondes.