Two weeks later Rue and Jules made up.
I didn't ask what happened. Rue didn't say. Jules was just back, and the two of them were good again, or good enough. That was the whole story as far as I needed it.
It was the week before winter formal. So naturally, another party.
* * *
Basement spot. Older cousin, no questions, enough people to fill every corner. I grabbed a drink and found a wall.
Cassie and Maddy had been going since before they got there. You could tell. Not messy, just in that zone where everything feels a little easier than usual. They were dancing together and at first it was just dancing and then Cassie did something with her hips and her hands went above her head and she looked over her shoulder at nobody in particular and the whole thing changed.
Maddy watched her for maybe two seconds.
Then Maddy smiled.
That Maddy smile, the one that meant she was about to do something and she already knew she was going to win. She stepped in close and matched Cassie move for move and then went a little further, rolled her body slow, hands sliding down her own waist, and Cassie laughed and pushed her and they grabbed each other and kept going. Back and forth like that. Cassie would do something and Maddy would one-up it and Cassie would laugh and come right back. They were having the best time. That was the thing. They weren't performing for the room. They were performing for each other, and the room just got to watch.
I was the only guy anywhere near them.
I did not move. I did not speak. I held my cup and I watched and I was very grateful for gods mercy.
Then I caught Kat off to the side. Phone out. Horizontal. Steady.
I made a mental note.
* * *
Next morning I found them separately and asked the same thing.
"That video from last night. I want to use it for a music video."
Maddy raised an eyebrow. "What song?"
"One I haven't made yet."
She looked at me for a second like she was deciding something. Then: "Send it to me when it's done."
Cassie didn't even hesitate. "Yeah obviously, send it."
I texted Kat.
Me: send me that video from last night
Kat: which one lol
Me: you know which one
Kat: lmaoo ok but u owe me
Forty minutes later it was in my camera roll. Forty-seven seconds. I watched it once, locked my phone, and started working.
* * *
Three days straight.
I needed the beat to feel like they looked. Something slow and heavy on the bottom, the kind that gets into you before you decide to let it. I worked it until it was right, then laid the vocals down the morning of the formal. Three takes. Used the second one. Mixed it, synced it to the video, watched it back once.
Done.
* * *
They were all at Kat's getting ready. I wasn't going to formal. I texted Rue I was coming through.
Rue: why
Me: i made something
Rue: ok weirdo come
I walked in and the place was loud. Dresses on every surface, two curling irons plugged in, someone's playlist going. Jules was doing Lexi's hair. Kat was on her phone on the couch. Rue was floating around in a bathrobe eating a granola bar like she lived there, which at this point she basically did.
Maddy was already fully dressed, leaning against the wall looking like she always looks. Like she already knows how tonight ends and it goes her way. She had a cup in her hand and she was just watching everything, that half-smile she does.
Cassie was at the mirror still working on her hair. She had on this dress, deep neckline, fit like it was made for her. She saw me in the mirror when I walked in, gave me a look, went back to what she was doing.
"Okay what is it," Rue said.
"Get everybody in the same room."
She yelled. People moved. It worked.
* * *
Kat on the arm of the couch. Lexi on the ottoman. Jules standing near the kitchen. Maddy still against the wall. Cassie had turned from the mirror and crossed her arms, waiting. Rue next to me with her granola bar.
I hit play.
Somebody come get her, she's dancin' like a stripper
Somebody come get her, she's dancin' like a stripper
Somebody come tip her, she's dancin' like a stripper
Somebody come get her, she's feelin' all the liquor
The beat dropped and right on time there they were on the screen. Cassie and Maddy. That basement. Cassie's hands up, head back, hips rolling. Maddy right there with her, smiling, body moving slow.
Maddy pushed off the wall.
She walked over, took my phone right out of my hand, and watched it up close. Didn't say anything for a second. Just watched herself on the screen while the beat ran.
I'm a pothead, true enough
At your ex's crib and you're boo'd up
Take it slow baby, we in no rush
"Oh my God," Lexi said.
Cassie made a sound that wasn't quite a laugh. Her hand came up over her mouth and she was staring at the phone in Maddy's hand.
Believe me, I'm out here, you see me, in action
Catchin' round blunts like a hot potato
And you dancin' on the table, gushin' like volcano
"Jordan," Rue said, quiet, trying not to laugh.
"I know."
Jules had her hand over her mouth too but she was fully smiling behind it.
Kat was watching over Maddy's shoulder now, tilting her head at her own camera work. "Okay the angle is really good."
"Kat you literally recorded us," Cassie said.
'And I did a great job.'
Somebody come get her, she's dancin' like a stripper
Somebody come get her, she's dancin' like a stripper
Somebody come tip her, she's dancin' like a stripper
Somebody come get her, she's feelin' all the liquor
Maddy looked up from the phone. Looked right at me.
"You made this beat."
"Yeah."
"This whole song."
"Three days."
She looked back at the screen for one more second. Then she turned to the room and said it flat and final: "This goes crazy."
"Thank you," I said.
"I want credit when it blows up."
"You're in the video."
"Verbal credit. Say my name."
You got girls in here? I'm recruitin'
I've been sippin' on Patrón and wine
I'm just tryna have a good fuckin' time
Cassie had walked over now. She was standing next to Maddy looking at the screen, her arms still crossed, bottom lip between her teeth. Then she looked at me.
"You were just standing there watching us the whole time."
"I mean. Yeah."
She uncrossed her arms. "Post it."
"Already planning on it."
Baby girl, if you fuckin' with me then we gettin' bands
How you movin', you deserve a couple racks
Maddy handed me my phone back and then without making a big thing of it she just started moving. Right there in the middle of Kat's living room. Not a full performance, just her body doing what it does when a beat is good enough. Slow and easy, one hand on her hip, the other holding her cup out to the side.
She looked at Cassie.
Cassie looked back at her.
Then Cassie laughed and started dancing too. They just picked up where they left off the night before, just the two of them, in a living room now instead of a basement, dresses on instead of whatever they wore to the party, and it didn't matter. They were doing their thing. Laughing, hyping each other up, Maddy doing a little dip and Cassie losing it.
Lexi was smiling watching them. Jules too. Rue looked at me and shook her head like she couldn't believe I existed.
Somebody come get her, she's dancin' like a stripper
Somebody come get her, she's dancin' like a stripper
Somebody come tip her, she's dancin' like a stripper
Somebody come get her, she's feelin' all the liquor
Song ended.
Maddy reached past me and hit replay.
Nobody stopped her.
END OF CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Song Come get her Rae Sremmurd