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Thirteen

December, 1990

I had interviewed at the dance studio that Marshall told me about, and they ended up calling me the next day wanting to hire me. It was absolutely fucking crazy, and I couldn't believe how easy it all seemed? After the interview when they asked me if I had any questions, I of course instantly asked about the Juilliard thing. That just seemed way too good to be true. They had told me that essentially it was a program that they ran, and if I was willing to sign a contract with them stating that after I had been sent to Juilliard that I would come back as a full time choreographer for their sister company for two years, then they would absolutely send me. 

They told me that their sister company gets contracted out to do the choreography for movies, music videos, and those types of things which actually sounded really cool. I had never in my life even thought of doing something like that. I never knew what I really wanted to do with dance, but I always knew that I loved it and that was enough for me to stick with it. It all seemed like everything in my life was perfectly falling into place, and I was just so thankful. 

Even though I had been hired, my official start date wasn't until January. So I decided to pick up as many shifts as I could at the club for this last month, and then that way I could have a bunch of money saved up so I could start slowly cutting my shifts, and just focus all my attention on the studio. I know I could work both if I really wanted, and I'd probably always stay at the club to a certain degree until I go to Juilliard, if I ever do, but I was just so nervous about my energy levels. It's a lot of work dancing for eight hours straight during the day, and then dancing another eight hours straight at night. Plus, that would leave almost no time for my family, or friends, or Marshall. So, I just really wanted to be mindful about not spreading myself too thin if I could help it. 

Today was actually Christmas day, so me, Marshall, DeShaun, and Nate were all going over to my moms house for the day. Of course normally, Marshall and Nate would just be at Debbies, but she was off on another one of her benders so we had actually been taking care of Nate for the last few days. We had no idea when she would be back, so we were just keeping him until whenever she called and said she was home. I know it really made Marshall mad watching Nate go through that, and having to deal with his mom be out of the house for sometimes weeks on end, but there was nothing any of us could do which is what I think upset Marshall the most. Nate's four now, he's about to start becoming aware of what the hell is going on, and I just know it's going to be so upsetting watching it if nothing can be done. 

All three of us had decided to just walk over to my moms, since it would be helpful to get some of Nate's energy out. Now, I didn't have a lot of experience with kids outside of when I was teaching, but I swear Nate was the most high energy kid maybe ever. He could run around for hours, and he loved going outside. It was fun though, he was such a happy kid so that made everything just so much better. 

As we were walking, Nate kept wanting us to swing him. We had done it maybe twice in the last few days, but he loved it so much every time were walking now he's begging us to do it again. So we both just grabbed one of his little hands, and would swing him, in my opinion, far too high. But Nate loved it, and Marshall thought it was so funny watching him scream and laugh, so I just shoved my anxiety to the side and let them have fun. 

As soon as we walked into my moms house, she immediately came up to us, picked Nate up, and engulfed Marshall in a giant hug. I swear she loves him more than she loves me. 

"Ma! Hello! Your pride and joy is also here! Standing right in front of you!" I waved at her as she released Marshall, still with Nate in her arms.