They took the bus back to Lee’s house. He wasn’t allowed to drive his dad’s car to school. He was only allowed to drive his mom’s SUV when he needed to pick up his little sister at the daycare or otherwise it was the bus, or the bike, or the foot.
When they arrived at his house which was literally 5 minutes away from hers, she was amazed. His house was huge, it was a mansion.
“My dad’s an architect,” he explained looking at Hazel’s bewilderment.
“Wow … this is so cool … I mean … I’ve never been to a house this big before, Theo’s house is big with a pool and everything but … do you have an elevator? Or a bunker?” she looked up to the ceiling that seemed far out of reach of her eyesight.
“How many people live here? Do you have a butler or a house manager? This looks like where Bruce Wayne would live,” she chuckled.
Lee just smiled with his hands in his pocket.
“I’m sorry, I must sound like a peasant just arriving in Hollywood or something,” she laughed at herself.
“That’s okay … it’s a big house … my dad likes it that way, it’s just the 5 of us and we have employees living here too … it gets really quiet sometimes, I’d prefer a small house if you ask me … something homier … are you hungry?”
She was still looking around at the rooms from where she stood, she nodded, “Uhm … hmm … famished … all that screaming and yelling … ”
“Great … let’s have lunch then, this way,” he led her to the dining room which was at the back of the house.
The 12 seat dining table was packed with meals. His brother and sister were having lunch and a beautiful blonde woman was with them.
“Hi … you’re home … how was it?” her stepmom came over and gave him a kiss and a hug.
“It was good … this is Hazel, my friend from school.”
“Hellooo … nice to meet you, Hazel, do you want to have lunch with us? Come sit, you’re just in time,” she offered her a seat next to Lee’s little sister.
“Hi, nice to meet you too … you have a lovely home, Mrs. Owens.”
“Aaw thank you, Lee’s friends are always welcome here, he rarely brings any friends home … sometimes his dancers’ friends to practice in the dance room but never from school.”
His stepmom was really nice, far from the stepmom image that she reads in fairy tales. Mrs. Owens was very welcoming, loving, and motherly towards Lee and her children. She asked her basic questions of what most mothers would ask, and then she excused herself because she had to go to her clinic.
She runs her own clinic, Josephine Owens was an orthodontist and a very successful one too. She leaves her kids to the nannies whenever Lee was home or dropped little Sophie at the daycare when she really had to and comes back late in the evening. That’s why Lee usually stays home to watch them.
It was the most extravagant lunch she ever had at a friend’s house. From appetizer to dessert, it was European food she can’t even pronounce. Sophie was absolutely adorable, she was blonde like her mom with round blue eyes and she speaks in French and English all jumbled up.
After lunch, Lee asked her if she wanted to take a tour around the house, which she did. So he took her on a tour, they have a pool at the back which he sometimes swims in with his brother, all kinds of rooms in the house that has its own purpose. His family was obviously rich and made her wonder if he had already thought of where he was going for college.
Harvard or Oxford, although his mom wanted him to go to Sorbonne so they can move to Paris. But he said he hadn’t decided anything yet. He would love to pursue his passion for dancing which was not his dad’s priority, but he can work out the schedule just like he always has.
“I started dancing after my mom died … it helps me a lot with the grief … dancing was like a calling for me, it healed me, took me places I’ve never been inside of me … do you know what I mean?” he explained when entering his dance room.
She nodded, “I know what you mean … it shows too, you seemed like you’re in another place when you dance … it’s a wonderful thing to have at such a young age.”
He shrugged, and break out into a dance move in front of the mirror wall. “Do you want to try?”
She was surprised, “Me? Oh my … I have two left feet,” she laughed, “The only dance I ever tried to imitate was Harry Styles’ dances on stage … which was just random movement.”
He laughed softly, “That’s alright, that’s dancing too … basically, dancing is just losing yourself to the music, come on let’s try it.” He didn’t wait for her response, he walked over to the corner of the room to put on some music. Switched the light on, the room was similar to the dance studio they went to on Saturday, just a lot smaller.
He was searching for something in his stereo, “Okay … I only have BTS songs on my playlist, I hope you don’t mind … do you want to put some Harry Styles from your phone? or One Direction? We can dance to One Direction.”
“Oh … no … that’s okay, we’ll just use your playlist … I kinda like BTS too,” at least she was starting to like them because of Lee.
“We’ll just do something slow first.”
“Oh, yes, slow … please, I can’t do what you do … that’s just not me,” she laughed nervously.
He put on a slow tune, and walked over to her side. He looked so pumped that she was willing to give it a try. “Okay … dancing is just like music, we count by 8 or a double 4, one two three four … five six seven eight.” He did eight slow steps of movement which already looked really hard for Hazel.
She giggled, she really wanted to try. “Can you repeat that again?”
He patiently did the steps again, and again, and again as she stiffly trying to imitate him. She could hardly do it, and she was sure it was the easiest steps anyone could try.
After the 5th try she was getting better, and he looked really happy. There’s still hope. Then he showed her the next 8 moves. She laughed, knowing that she could hardly remember the first 8 and now the second 8, which means she will have to repeat the whole steps from the beginning after that.
She pushed on.
“One two three four … five six seven eight,” there’s a turn on this one.
She did it.
“Oh, you did it, okay … again, one more time and then from the start.”
They stood side by side facing the mirror and he leads her step by step again from the start from the reflection in the mirror.
She tried, she really did, and then she messed up on the sixth count of the first set of eight. She burst into laughter and put her arms around him. “I’m so sorry … I’m just really bad at this.”
“You’re fine … it’s just a start … you can do it,” he held her arms and stood behind her. “I’ll lead you.”
She could feel his breath on her neck. Their eyes met in the mirror. He slid one hand to her waist and the other holding her arm up. Suddenly the room went quiet, the music was loud. She could make up a phrase from the song, “You are the cause of my Euphoria.” That was the only thing she could hear other than the sound of her heart throbbing.
He led her step by step. Her body tensed, and he felt it. “Don’t be nervous, dancing is losing yourself to the music … let it go … if you think about it too much, you’ll mess up.”
His gentle voice in her ear, he was leading her in doing something he does best. She could feel herself blushing. She felt his warmth on her back. She did it, she followed his lead correctly, then he twirled her around to face him.
They were standing really close, she felt like she was floating right at that moment they were looking at each other. She had never experienced something like that before, she felt a million things at once that she never felt before.
“That’s not so bad, right?” he said.
She felt relieved that he had said something to break the tension. “It was bad,” she laughed. “You’re just too nice to tell me the truth.”
It made him laugh too, “I’ve seen worse, trust me.”
Then she realized he was still holding her hand, “Do you want to go to a Harry Styles concert with me?”
She finally had the chance to ask him.
He looked surprised.
“It’s in Goldstone on spring break … I have an extra ticket I thought you would …”
“I’d love to,” he cuts her off.
“It’s gonna be a trip, Jan, Kyle, my brother … there’ll be eight of us if you’re coming too, we’ll have to spend a night there.”
His face lit up, “Sounds like a great trip, I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
“Great! I can’t wait for it … I’ve never been to his concert before, this is my first.”
“Neither have I … do you want to go to my room? We’ll hang out there and talk about Harry Styles?” he asked.
She laughed, “Sure.”
He turned off the music and the lights and took her to his room still holding her hand.