“I don’t know,” I say with a shrug. “If there was an opportunity here…I guess living in Paris for a while could be nice.”
I can feel Audrey’s gaze on me, but I don’t look at her. I still want to get an offer from ABT. But I want more time with Louis.
“Speaking of your boyfriend,” Lucy says quietly. I still shoot her annoyed look, but she ignores it. “You should call him. We all have the morning off tomorrow, right?”
“Yeah,” I say, looking at Audrey to check, in case she wanted to do our own rehearsal. But, to be honest, we’re reaching the point where we’re all practiced out.
“So call him,” Lucy says. “Tell him we want to party.”
“On a Monday night?” Audrey asks, slightly shocked.
“Why not?” Lucy answers. “Please, Mia,” she says to me. “Ask him to find us something fun to do tonight. We all deserve it.”
I sigh and glance at Audrey. I expect her to double down and complain about this absolutely terrible idea, but instead, I read a little excitement tinted with envy in her eyes. We’ve all worked so hard. We’re ready. And if we want to have one last night of fun in Paris, Louis is definitely the right person to call.
AS IT HAPPENS, one of Louis’s friends from high school is having a party at his house tonight. Rapha?l has just come back from his summer vacation, but his parents are still out of town.
“I wasn’t going to go, because I wanted to hang out with you,” Louis says on the phone after he explains all this.
I beam as the three girls stare at me, waiting.
Our fittings over and done with, we’re now having lunch in the cafeteria. Yes, even Audrey. Like I said, she’s really living on the wild side these days.
“But if you girls want to go out tonight,” Louis adds, “I’m sure my friend would be more than happy to have you.”
“Count us in,” I say.
After we hang up, I give the girls the what’s what: a house party just north of the Marais, lots of handsome French guys. And Louis’s friend is apparently an aspiring DJ with great taste in music. I can practically see Lucy’s and Anouk’s mouths water. Audrey plays it cool, but she doesn’t miss a word of what I say.
After rehearsal, Audrey and I rush back to get changed. Louis told Rapha?l he’d help set up, so I’m heading over with the girls. Lucy and Anouk are already dressed and ready to go, their own rehearsal having finished an hour before ours.
“Hi,” I say when the door to the apartment on the fifth floor opens and a young guy greets us with a bright, “Bienvenue!” Welcome!
“I’m Louis’s…，” I start, then catch myself. I have no idea what he’s told his friends about me, or if he’s even said anything. “Louis invited…”
“You’re Mia,” Rapha?l says with a warm smile.
Lucy and Anouk giggle behind me as we step inside the apartment. The ceilings are extra high, with a large sculptural pendant hanging in the mostly sparse living room. The focal point of the room is the fireplace, painted black and filled with unlit candles. It’s modern, oh so cool, and nothing like suburban Westchester.
On the way over here, Lucy piled on the questions about Louis—how did I meet him, again? Have we talked about the future?—but I managed to get away with vague answers. A simple glance at Audrey told me she’d kept my secret, but, as our time in Paris comes to an end, I’m less concerned about people finding out about us.
Swan Lake is in just three days. I’ve been on my best behavior at school, I’ve done well at every rehearsal, and Monsieur Dabrowski hasn’t said anything else to me—about Louis, anyway. Maybe Louis was right, and his dad’s outburst had less to do with me and more to do with him. Maybe he wanted to scare me a little after I missed that step at the showcase. It worked.
“Louis has cool friends,” Anouk whispers in my ear after I introduce them all, and we take in the room of well-dressed people our age. The girls wear an assortment of short skirts and flat sandals either in fun colors or metallics, while the guys are mostly in slim-fit jeans and shirts. There’s no one from school here. Louis doesn’t spend all of his life with ballerinas after all.
It turns out that French teen parties are very similar to the American ones. There are no red plastic party cups or kegs, and the baguettes and cheese platter are a dead giveaway, but everything else is pretty much the same: loud music, people dancing everywhere, and groups gathering in the tightest corner of the kitchen or in the hallway. Anouk and Lucy mingle with others on the dance floor, and even Audrey seems at ease. In fact, she’s talking to a guy on the other side of the room.