Excuse my French

vingt-deux. joie de vivre

"So my parents are going to be home at around six, so you can't, like, do anything funny," I said to Luc, who was leaning oh-so-comfortably on my couch. (I knew I'd told him to "make himself at home" the moment he stepped in my front door, but I really didn't ask him to put his feet all over my living room cushions. He was probably just trying to piss me off, as I could see from the cocky glint in his eye, and as sad as it was, he was succeeding.)

Luc stretched his arms behind his head. "Don't worry about it," he said, eyes twinkling. "They really don't have to worry about that because I am a totally respectable and intelligent young man who"—he broke off to think about his next words for a second—"uh, with whom they can trust their daughter."

I rolled my eyes and pushed his legs onto the ground so I could sit down next to him. "Stop trying to impress me."

He grabbed Madame Bovary from the coffee table and waved it in my face. "Well, am I?"

"No," I said flatly, and I grabbed my book from him. "Don't you have your own copy?"

"That would take all the fun out of it." Luc leaned back against the couch and watched me with calm eyes. "You're my weekly amusement. I wouldn't want to get rid of it."

"Shut the fuck up." I opened the book to my owl bookmark, which was where we'd left off. We'd gotten pretty far, actually. We weren't too far from the ending (in fact, we were on Chapitre 3 of Partie 3)...and now that I thought about it, I was going to miss all of this...whatever than I had with Luc.

He totally didn't have to know about my sentiments in that regard.

"Fine, avoid answering me." Luc elbowed me and took back my book. Rude. "You know I'm gonna read anyway."

Luc was in a really playful mood today. He didn't even bother to sneak in any supposedly innocent kisses on my cheek—oh no, he was trying to piss me off the best he could. I really wanted to call Lila or something and complain to her (and try to get her to shut her brother up), but she'd reject me.

And tell me to fight my own battles.

The Mercier siblings were like that—fiercely independent. They especially liked to apply that concept of independence to other people. That was very annoying, to say the least.

I'd get absolutely no backup from Olivia, who was usually trying to write a paper of some sorts these days. Besides, she was still trying to come to terms with the idea of Luc and me. I didn't need to press her. But I did happen to get very close to finding out whom she was meeting in the library all these times...

"We're going to get started," Luc announced loudly (which was annoying since he was sitting right next to me), "so you better get your head out of the gutter."

"Fuckin' shit, just get on with it," I snapped, elbowing him (as revenge for that elbow that he gave me a couple moments ago—he probably forgot about it). Yeah, he'd definitely succeeded in using up all of my patience. I felt very satisfied as I watched him wince and curse loudly, rubbing his side. "You deserved it, you asshole."

"Someone's grumpy today," he muttered under his breath.

I turned my eyes on him, outraged. "My mood only got worse the moment you drove into my front yard! You are such a pain in the ass."

He poked his side again and cursed. "Your elbows are so sharp."

"Read the damn book."

Luc finally complied, not without much complaining. Stiffly, I settled back in my seat, putting my forearm next to his body gingerly. But, ugh, fuck it. My neck was feeling very stiff—the intense chem test I'd taken probably had a lot to do with it. So I slowly leaned my head against Luc's shoulder, closing my eyes.