Give Me Something New

-chapter 5

Seth was going to ask a rather beautiful lady to dance with him, but she was taken by a gentleman before he could walk up and introduce himself. Just as he planned to sit out on the first dance, Louis twirled around and grabbed his hand and they started dancing.

The steps were one he hadn't learned in his long life of aristocracy, yet there was a certain messy but beautiful rhythm about it. There were no correct steps or wrong steps, no worrying about whether you were stepping on others' feet, and nothing about who was the female or the male, either. The music to the dance was fast and surely unacceptable outside this circle.

"What is this?" Seth questioned, mid-dance. He was catching up to the rhythm, though. Louis just laughed and twirled along, as fast and light as he was on his feet, curls of his rich blond hair falling into his eyes at times and he jerked his head to flick it away.

"This is called fun." His eyes were smiling then. The first dance was finished. Everyone regrouped and thankfully, Seth knew this dance and Louis stayed with him. He saw, out of the corner of his eye, that Lucas was dancing with a beautiful girl with red, flaming hair, but she was taller than Amy Crown. Just for a split-second, he thought she had green skin. Louis noticed how Seth's eyes were trailing away. "Who are you looking at?"

"Lucas." Seth whispered. He noticed that his new friend liked to gossip a lot. "Who is that lady?"

"Oh." Louis seemed mildly surprised, "Her name is Vita. Vita Shadowmoss. They have been going out for a while now, actually."

"Ah." Seth said, then out of nowhere he decided to add, "Just for a moment there I thought she was green or something. I think my eyes are dead."

Louis's smile didn't waver, but amidst the steps Seth somehow felt that something was wrong. He stared, just a fraction too long. Louis leaned in mysteriously.

"Want me to tell you a secret?" The blond said. The second dance was finished; it was resting time for catching up their breaths. Seth knew the steps all too well to make it too much of a work-out. The two of them moved to the outward ring of the circle. Seth sat down in a chair and caught a drink on a passing servant.

At least someone has got servants, Seth thought. Still, there weren't plenty of them around. Some drink trays were just lying around on small tables and people were getting the drinks themselves, and getting them for their friends.

"Sure." He sipped on the drink, keeping his cool.

"She is green." Louis whispered. It was a bit loud, but noises of chatting and talking and laughing covered up just about everything. "Now, you have to believe me because I showed you my powder collection."

Seth nodded slightly and tried to talk under his breath. "Yeah, I don't believe in much of what I know any more."

Louis nodded as if it was obvious. "It does that to people sometimes."

What's the "it"? What does that mean?

He didn't ask. The third round of dancing was soon taking place and Louis flied off- metaphorically, because his world hadn't gone quite mad just yet- with Silk. Seth was honestly considering sitting out now. What other crazy things there would be around here that would make him seem normal and left-out and unworthy-of-dancing-with?

Seth remained sitting when the fast music started. He trained his eyes on Vaita, who was still dancing with Lucas. They seemed completely full of each other and still couldn't get enough. Her skin seemed normal but there was something just there underneath, like if he just looked away a little, quickly enough, it seemed a pastel green colour, like inverted somehow.